RAM qauntity over configuration?

[Impetux]

Previously I had 2 sticks of 256 PC3200 in dual channel mode on my P4P800.

I ordered 2 sticks of 512 to slot in there and unfortuantely one of the sticks was bad. I put in the one stick of 512 along with the other 2 and obviously I can't run in dual channel mode.

Synthetic bench marks show a slight decrease in scorew ~80ish points on 3Dmark03, but game play seems to be improved in a few games that had slight stutters before.

So my question would be, would it really be worth getting the second stick RMA'd and returned? Would would the additional performance be that much of a huge increase running in dual channel that I'd really want to get the second stick returned instead of just refunded?

Thanks in advance

 

[newParadigm]

What mother board do you have?

My DFI LP NFII allows me to run Dual CHannel with three sticks of memory, as long as both channels have an equal amount of ram.

This should apply to all NfiI Mobos.

In your case you would put 2x256 sticks on one chanel and the 512 stick on the other.

Hope this helps

 

[Impetux]

I've got the P4P800 I checked at boot up and it will only run in single channel mode. I've currently got the sticks aligned as:
256-512-256-empty.

 

[newParadigm]

Can't help ya much there, as I don't deal with Intel much,

Oh well.