Does dual channel memory make a difference with Socket 939?

[Ketchup]

I have an A64 Newcastle 3200 right now, but I am thinking of going 939. The chip is great (stable up to 2.55 GHz so far) but the motherboard is not. I bought an Epox 8KD3Aj and the CPU voltage is out of control. At the stock setting it sometimes boots fine and sometimes boots at 1.3- 1.4 volts! When you do raise the voltage enough to get it to read 1.55 in the bios, it only reads 1.5 in windows. And it fluctuates by about .05 volts while in windows.

Anyway, I am thinking about sending the board back to newegg, selling the processor, and getting a Socket 939 rig. My question is, do you need to run 2 sticks of ram to make this board perform? Usually, memory overclocks better when only using one stick, which is what I would like to do. Will I lose much performance by doing this?

 

[Squally Leonharty]

You'll probably see a 5 - 10% improvement. The 939 Athlon64 chips have an ondie memory controller which runs at CPU speed, so there won't be much difference with dual channel. An Intel CPU will benefit more from it. Still, it is a nice addition to have.

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: Squally Leonharty
You'll probably see a 5 - 10% improvement. The 939 Athlon64 chips have an ondie memory controller which runs at CPU speed, so there won't be much difference with dual channel. An Intel CPU will benefit more from it. Still, it is a nice addition to have.

Thanks for the quick reply. When you say 5-10%, what are you basing that on? Sandra memory scores? Framerates? Some numbers would be great.

 

[NoHeat]

In terms of comparing a socket 754 to a 939 (single vs dual) your really not going to see much more than 3-5% diff. Amd's are not lacking in memory bandwidth, (on die memory controler) to the difference is almost nothing. As for two sticks of ram, you need at least 2 to inable dual channel.

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: NoHeat
In terms of comparing a socket 754 to a 939 (single vs dual) your really not going to see much more than 3-5% diff. Amd's are not lacking in memory bandwidth, (on die memory controler) to the difference is almost nothing. As for two sticks of ram, you need at least 2 to inable dual channel.

The Socket 939 dual-channel controller makes up for about 200 MHz. This is why a 3200 is 2.2 GHz when it's a Newcastle and 2 GHz when it's a winchester. I can get my NC to 2.5 GHz, Winchesters are hitting about 2.7!. Hopefully you can see just how fast the new Winchester can be. I guess I shouldn't be too worried about running dual channel memory since most of the speed is simply from the dual channel controller in the chip and the fact that it probably won't take advantage of all that bandwidth anyway.

Thanks for the input guys. You have been very helpful.

So, does anyone want a 3200 Newcastle that will do 2.5 GHz at 1.6 volts (or less)?

 

[Lithan]

No you wont lose much performance. It will be slightly noticable in benches (especially mem bandwidth) but nothing to get in a tissy over. And your board is fubared. My 8kda3j is fine on vcore. Only thing I notice is that with the most recent bios it undervolts just a hair, and overvolts by about .05-.075 under load.

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: Lithan
No you wont lose much performance. It will be slightly noticable in benches (especially mem bandwidth) but nothing to get in a tissy over. And your board is fubared. My 8kda3j is fine on vcore. Only thing I notice is that with the most recent bios it undervolts just a hair, and overvolts by about .05-.075 under load.

You are probably lucky and have a version 2 board. Mine is a version 1, apparently Newegg is selling both, and version 1 is a POS.

 

[Lithan]

rev 2.2

I only wish It'd let me run pc2700 1:1