2 gb RAM in single channel better than 1gb in dual channel?

[poohbear]

Hey all,

been reading that 2gb of RAM is the way to go for most new games, so im thinking of adding 1gb to my current 2x512mb setup, but i'll lose dual channel in the process (2x512mb & 1x1gb). I'll still get to keep 1T since only 3 dimms are filled (1t is gone when 4dimms are full yea?), but is 2 gb w/ no dual channel better than 1gb in dual channel performance wise? I recall dual channel was a 5% MAX performance increase, so the 2gb in single channel sould be much better yea?(assuming the timings are the same) thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

[SynthDude2001]

If you actually need/will use more than 1GB of RAM (which is not hard at all to do these days), then 2GB in single channel will definitely be better than the 1GB in dual. I would tend to think that dual channel makes (a little) more of a performance difference than 1T/2T, so you could add another 2x512MB to keep dual channel (while losing 1T of course). Especially if you buy the second 2x512MB used like I did, that'll likely be the cheaper path.

(For what it's worth I'm running the same motherboard as you, with 4x512 in DC at 2T and I'm quite happy with my setup.)

 

[poohbear]

hey synthdude, did u lose anything on your overclock w/ 4dimms full? also, did you hafta loosen your timings w/ 4 full?(aside from 1t) yea if 2x512 is the cheaper route and my ram timings & overclock are'nt effected, then i might do that.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: poohbear
hey synthdude, did u lose anything on your overclock w/ 4dimms full? also, did you hafta loosen your timings w/ 4 full?(aside from 1t) yea if 2x512 is the cheaper route and my ram timings & overclock are'nt effected, then i might do that.

Yes, I had to loosen my memory timings, but I was expecting that since my first gig was 2-2-2-5 stuff and the second was 2.5-3-3-7 Value RAM. If the new RAM you buy has the same or similar specs to what you already have, that won't be an issue. I just wanted a cheap upgrade to 2GB, and for $55 I can't complain.

No change on the CPU overclock (2.7GHz here without issues for the past few months). I did have to drop my RAM divider also since the new (used) stuff wasn't completely stable at much over 200MHz. But in limited video encoding tests I ran, I still got higher speeds at 2.7GHz CPU/180MHz RAM than I did at 2.6GHz CPU/216MHz RAM. So IMO the memory speed thing is mostly a non-issue, unless you're running it at something ridiculously low like 100MHz or something.

 

[poohbear]

thanks dude. i'll go for whichever's cheapest then. hopefully i can find 2x512mb @ similar timings (CAS is the most important albeit we're still talking only 1-2% performance diff lol). cheers.

btw, does the athlon64 setup actually benefit from dual channel? i recall the athlon xps never benefited at all from em, it just looked and sounded good.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: poohbear
btw, does the athlon64 setup actually benefit from dual channel? i recall the athlon xps never benefited at all from em, it just looked and sounded good.

Not a whole lot, and I don't remember specific numbers, but enough that I think it's worthwhile to try to keep dual channel.