Dual channel ram question.

Twista

Diamond Member
Jun 19, 2003
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My new motherboard doesnt have the option to turn off/on Dual ram. It senses if there is ram in the "2" current dual slots. I, however have 3 sticks of ram which none were made for dual, but when i boot up it says "Dual channel Mode Enabled" and it runs in dual. Also, Cpu-z states it as running dual (screenshot) Well is it really running in Dual channel mode or is it reading something wrong. From what i know you must buy the ram sticks that come together.

My ram was not brought in dual kits.
Example: Kingston ValueRAM Dual Kits 184 Pin 512MB(256MBx2) DDR PC-3200
 

Slick5150

Diamond Member
Nov 10, 2001
8,760
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And then? (there's no question in your post)

But RAM doesn't need to be set to dual channel mode , the motherboard either can run it, or it can't (if the RAM isn't the right kind)
 

johnjkr1

Platinum Member
Jan 10, 2003
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First of all, sticks aren't "made" for dual channel. You can pair up whatever sticks you want of the same size. They can be from different manuf also. I'm not quite sure how you can run dual channel with three sticks of ram, is that your question?
 

Twista

Diamond Member
Jun 19, 2003
9,646
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Originally posted by: johnjkr1
First of all, sticks aren't "made" for dual channel. You can pair up whatever sticks you want of the same size. They can be from different manuf also. I'm not quite sure how you can run dual channel with three sticks of ram, is that your question?

Yep. Someone said told me that "only the 2 sticks are running in dual and the other is just running"
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
30,699
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You have an nForce2 board, right? The "dual-DDR" setup is not quite what people tend to think it is.

Common notion: oh, it's memory running in a RAID0 fashion, and therefore the amounts need to be the same. True for Intel's dual-channel chipsets, yes.

nForce2 has a crossbar memory controller, according to the best info I've been able to find. Both memory controllers can access all of the memory in all of the slots, and they don't use them in RAID0 style (splitting the data across multiple modules), they use them like a Windows installation would use two swapfiles on two independent hard drives... it can read and write to both of them independently. Using the Windows swapfile analogy, does Windows lose the ability to swap to both independent hard drives if one drive is twice the capacity of the other? No it doesn't, does it. :)

Bottom line: it's normal to have nForce2 running both memory controllers with three memory modules. I've read a darned lot of mobo owners' manuals that state that's the case, and I've had three nF2 boards (8RDA+, AN35N Ultra and A7N8X Deluxe) with three modules running in dual-DDR mode. So don't let it prey on your mind, go have some fun with it :)
 

Twista

Diamond Member
Jun 19, 2003
9,646
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Originally posted by: mechBgon
You have an nForce2 board, right? The "dual-DDR" setup is not quite what people tend to think it is.

Common notion: oh, it's memory running in a RAID0 fashion, and therefore the amounts need to be the same. True for Intel's dual-channel chipsets, yes.

nForce2 has a crossbar memory controller, according to the best info I've been able to find. Both memory controllers can access all of the memory in all of the slots, and they don't use them in RAID0 style (splitting the data across multiple modules), they use them like a Windows installation would use two swapfiles on two independent hard drives... it can read and write to both of them independently. Using the Windows swapfile analogy, does Windows lose the ability to swap to both independent hard drives if one drive is twice the capacity of the other? No it doesn't, does it. :)

Bottom line: it's normal to have nForce2 running both memory controllers with three memory modules. I've read a darned lot of mobo owners' manuals that state that's the case, and I've had three nF2 boards (8RDA+, AN35N Ultra and A7N8X Deluxe) with three modules running in dual-DDR mode. So don't let it prey on your mind, go have some fun with it :)


woah, let me catch up and than i go have some fun. LoL.


[fake edit to catch up: Sounds good.]
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
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Originally posted by: johnjkr1
First of all, sticks aren't "made" for dual channel. You can pair up whatever sticks you want of the same size. They can be from different manuf also. I'm not quite sure how you can run dual channel with three sticks of ram, is that your question?

They needn't even be the same size - my secondary system runs a stick of 512MB and one of 256MB, and it does dual channel.