Does my 2nd memory stick work?

geokilla

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2006
2,012
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I bought a second stick of Kingston ValueRAM a month ago. After I installed the RAM, I ran 3DMar06, but I didn't see any improvements in terms of performance. The computer reads that I'm running dual channel and that I have a total of 1GB RAM. I know the first stick works but is there a way to determine if the 2nd stick works or not?

I know you can use memtest but i have a faint idea of how it works. Any help is appreciated.
 

stevty2889

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2003
7,036
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3dmark is not a good test for ram, it is a graphics card test, and barely uses any ram at all..memetest is easy, you just boot up to it and let it run, if you are using 2 sticks, and it says your in dual channel..it must be working, otherwise it wouldnt see the stick or the dual channel. In memory intesive games you should see improvement(less lag, as the hard drive won't need to be accessed as much, photoshop is also memory intensive. If memory wasnt' the bottleneck for the program(such as 3dmark) you aren't going to see a noticable improvement in that program.
 

Fike

Senior member
Oct 2, 2001
388
0
0
download a tool like sisoft Sandra to benchmark your memory in windows. Download the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD). It is a bootable ISO image that you can burn to disc and use for all kinds of tools like Memtest 86+.
 

geokilla

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2006
2,012
3
81
What if I just use CPU-Z to verify that I'm running in dual-channel mode. Would that mean my 2nd stick works? It would ease me the trouble of running Memtest.

Would Orthos be a good alternative to Memtest as well?