Question RE: Dual Channel Ram

[coremortality]

I'm running an Abit NF7-S right now with Kingston ValueRAM 512MB(256MBx2) DDR PC-3200 using a dual channel set up (Banks 1 & 3). I'm looking at buying another stick to put into Bank 2 and i was curious if it had to be another 256mb stick from Kingston or if i could use one of their 512 etc.

-Eric

 

[otispunkmeyer]

erm not sure if it'll run dual channle then

think for dual channle on the athlon platform is pretty much limited to using just 2 dimms ie 1 and 3
altho there are a few boards like gigabyte which provide 4 dimms to use then u can have 1and3 and 2 and 4

if u only got 3 dimms then whats dimm number 2 gonna run in dual channle with?

if u want more memory and dual channle u gonna have to buy 2x512 sticks im affraid

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
erm not sure if it'll run dual channle then

think for dual channle on the athlon platform is pretty much limited to using just 2 dimms ie 1 and 3
altho there are a few boards like gigabyte which provide 4 dimms to use then u can have 1and3 and 2 and 4

if u only got 3 dimms then whats dimm number 2 gonna run in dual channle with?

if u want more memory and dual channle u gonna have to buy 2x512 sticks im affraid

<bzzzzt> Sorry, try again.

You can run an 'unbalanced' dual-channel config with 3 DIMMs on most Athlon motherboards. Instead of having 256MB on each channel, you would have 256MB on one channel and 256MB + <whatever's in the third slot> on the second. Of course, the performance gains (which are already pretty minimal) will not be as good, but it does work. I wouldn't worry too much about it -- the only thing I've ever seen it make a noticeable impact on is 3DMark01 scores (which are hugely sensitive to memory timings and bandwidth).

 

[coremortality]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

<bzzzzt> Sorry, try again.

You can run an 'unbalanced' dual-channel config with 3 DIMMs on most Athlon motherboards. Instead of having 256MB on each channel, you would have 256MB on one channel and 256MB + <whatever's in the third slot> on the second. Of course, the performance gains (which are already pretty minimal) will not be as good, but it does work. I wouldn't worry too much about it -- the only thing I've ever seen it make a noticeable impact on is 3DMark01 scores (which are hugely sensitive to memory timings and bandwidth).

Thats what I had thought I just wanted to confirm, thanks!

 

[Koudelka]

I'm just curious, but would there be any performance difference if you were running dual channel with 4 sticks of 256, or 2 sticks of 512?

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
erm not sure if it'll run dual channle then

think for dual channle on the athlon platform is pretty much limited to using just 2 dimms ie 1 and 3
altho there are a few boards like gigabyte which provide 4 dimms to use then u can have 1and3 and 2 and 4

if u only got 3 dimms then whats dimm number 2 gonna run in dual channle with?

if u want more memory and dual channle u gonna have to buy 2x512 sticks im affraid

<bzzzzt> Sorry, try again.

You can run an 'unbalanced' dual-channel config with 3 DIMMs on most Athlon motherboards. Instead of having 256MB on each channel, you would have 256MB on one channel and 256MB + <whatever's in the third slot> on the second. Of course, the performance gains (which are already pretty minimal) will not be as good, but it does work. I wouldn't worry too much about it -- the only thing I've ever seen it make a noticeable impact on is 3DMark01 scores (which are hugely sensitive to memory timings and bandwidth).

haha im such an a$$ thanks for putting me straight matthias99

 

[Matthias99]

I'm just curious, but would there be any performance difference if you were running dual channel with 4 sticks of 256, or 2 sticks of 512?

In theory (in terms of bandwidth), no. However, a) AthlonXP motherboards generally only have 3 RAM slots, and b) there are speed restrictions on the Pentium4 platform when running more than two DIMMs in dual channel -- unless you have single-sided DIMMs, you are limited to DDR333 (I think). AT's memory articles go into this in far more detail.