Quad channel DDR4 does not help performance at all in real world.

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Annisman*

Annisman*

Golden Member
Aug 20, 2010
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It's RAM dude, I'm pretty sure any kit these days is going to perform at 95%+ as the most expensive dimms (in gaming at least), the only real consideration these days is capactiy.
 
mxnerd

mxnerd

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Jul 6, 2007
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Annisman* said:
It's RAM dude, I'm pretty sure any kit these days is going to perform at 95%+ as the most expensive dimms (in gaming at least), the only real consideration these days is capactiy.
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Not considering capacity, single channel vs dual channel DDR3 does makes big difference
 
VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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mxnerd said:
Not considering capacity, single channel vs dual channel DDR3 does makes big difference
Click to expand...

10% at most? Sure, possibly 50-100% improvement if you're using an IGP, but if you're using discrete, there's not all that much difference between single-channel and dual-channel DDR3 "in the real world". SPEC Stream benchmarks notwithstanding.
 
mxnerd

mxnerd

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Jul 6, 2007
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Well, it's my own experience and distant memory.

Maybe someone else here can provide evidence.
 
mxnerd

mxnerd

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2007
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Sorry, I should say it's my own experience "BUT" distant memory.

I could be very wrong.
 
BFG10K

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,709
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It's always amusing to watch people over-volting RAM and risking instability to go from CL9 to CL7 because "it feels smoother when multitasking". :awe:
 
ElFenix

ElFenix

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Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
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mxnerd said:
Not considering capacity, single channel vs dual channel DDR3 does makes big difference
Click to expand...
Proof? I've only been able to find a few tests that actually tried (a couple if g3258 reviews iirc) and it didn't make much difference.
 
C

CiPHER

Senior member
Mar 5, 2015
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There are memory-intensive applications that can effectively utilise the increased bandwidth. IGP (integrated graphics on your CPU) is one of them, but also more common setups such as a ZFS server would utilise memory bandwidth effectively.

Those benchmarks posted in the review are simple number crunching, and memory performance will not impact those workloads significantly at all. That is nothing new - that was the case back in the early days with DDR1 and DDR2. Nothing new -- walk along...
 
Cerb

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
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mxnerd said:
Quad-channel RAM vs. dual-channel RAM: The shocking truth about their performance
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Shocking: you mean you damaged your RAM by ESD? ():)

I would expect <5% differences in memory-intensive applications, with CPU L3 size, RAM speed, and RAM timings, affecting things far more than added channels; and even then needing to approach 5GHz before those RAM settings made enough of a difference to be worth specifying performance RAM to buy.

I'm surprised at some of the measured differences in the article, TBH, but it goes for quad as often as for-dual, and still only slightly.
 
dave_the_nerd

dave_the_nerd

Lifer
Feb 25, 2011
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Is there really anything that's bottlenecked by memory bandwidth anymore? I remember about ten years ago, SETI@Home scaled pretty linearly with FSB/RAM speeds/latency, up to a point (at least on my Athlon XP rig with a measly 256kB L2 cache) but since then...?

On-CPU cache got bigger, and programmers go out of their way to not have to go muck around in main RAM because it's slow, so... *shrug*
 
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C

CoPhotoGuy

Senior member
Nov 16, 2014
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mxnerd said:
Quad-channel RAM vs. dual-channel RAM: The shocking truth about their performance
Click to expand...

IIRC, when dual-channel RAM first was released it didn't really offer any performance improvement in the real world either. New tech takes time.

The main reason I went with quad-channel in my current setup was so that I can run 64GB of RAM at a decent price point using 8GB sticks.
 
C

CiPHER

Senior member
Mar 5, 2015
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And if ever a high-end CPU with high-end graphics would be introduced, i am pretty sure it would have its own dedicated RAM like HBM. Intel Iris is only childs play what is possible with this kind of technology.
 
Cerb

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
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CiPHER said:
And if ever a high-end CPU with high-end graphics would be introduced, i am pretty sure it would have its own dedicated RAM like HBM. Intel Iris is only childs play what is possible with this kind of technology.
Click to expand...
I would be quite surprised at HBM, but HMC on-package...
 
C

CiPHER

Senior member
Mar 5, 2015
226
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Well i think the real issue is that high-end IGP is somewhat of a contradiction in terms. IGP pretty much means a limited power budget that is shared with the CPU and with current SoC-chips also the chipset. High end pretty much dictates a larger power budget so discrete GPU is the only high-end GPU available for quite some time i am afraid.

Still would like to see better IGP with on-package memory such as Intel Iris. But it is AMD that is in the lead with IGP performance, but i am not aware of any Iris competitor they were planning? That would be one way for AMD to regain market share. Right now... it appears there is only Intel that is still in league.
 
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