G73JH RAM Question

I know that the G73 can only run in dual channel mode, however being that it comes with 6gb of ram ( 2x2x2 ), doesnt that mean its currently running in single channel? Wouldnt I need to add another 2gb stick to get it to run in dual channel mode now?

 

The board only has 3 slots unless they changed it (Im going off G71/72 in my head). They dont support triple channel these days swore i remember something with ddr3 and the newer processors and chipsets.

 

Mine has 8gb of ram, 4slots 2x2x2x2. G37JH-A1

 

Well my bad on that, yay they have 4... weird but finally lol.

The entire point of 6GB of ram was because the predecessors only had 3 slots and 2gb sticks were cheap from the oem sources.

Why 6gb of ram now... other then cheaping out lol. I am trying really hard to remember if a single pairing can run in dual channel or not. I remember something about it but its so fragmented id have to turn to google.

 

Can't you just use HWINFO32 to check what mode your memory is operating in?

 

i would check CPUZ to see but im currently at work and cant till tonight. But I hear even with 2x2x2 setup this laptop runs dual but cant find the answer. I cant understand how it could still run dual channel unless the third bank of memory gets excluded somehow from the dual bandwidth of the first 2 sticks

 

Imageshack - 47778640.jpg

Maybe its different with 6gb version...

 

Same way 2 pairs of dual channel's work. When 4 are running in dual channel they are still seperated. Dual Channel communication for 2 sticks, standard for one.

Googling at the moment, but most answers are for desktops. Apparently nForce 2 over 5 years ago was capable of running dual channel on 2 of 3 sticks while having 3 sticks.

 

So I would need at add in a fourth 2gb stick to get full dual channel I'm assuming

 

You will need 4 sticks of ram to run 2 channels of dual channel. Its hard to say how this board is but of those that support it, some are Slot 1 and Slot 2 = Channel 1 Slot 3 and Slot 4 = Channel 2. Others its Slot 1 + 3 = Channel 1 and Slot 2 + 4 = channel 2.

It is of course always recommended you run in pairs, best performance in 3 versus 4 though is 4 while its argued that 2 sticks performs better than 4. These are all suggestions based on testing by people like us who lose sleep on things. Not by those who aren't trying to get every tiny piece of immeasurable performance out of their system no matter what the cost.

Under those guidelines your either gonna want to obtain one more stick of the exact same ram you have, or replace all 4 sticks. If you dont understand why, then you shouldnt worry about gaining dual channel on the third stick.

 

2 vs 4 sticks is more important for extreme overclocking, since the memory controller is being taxed to hell, howevever all i care about is if im atleast running dual in the first two sticks, since the last 2 gb on the 3rd stick is never used for me during games. But then again i dont know how the system allocates memory across all 3 sticks, looks like to be safe ill add another 2gb stick and shut up lol...and since i dont know which slots need to be allocated for dual, ill just fill them all lol

 

It's dual channel asymmetric mode. The answer is here on page 20-23 http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/320765.pdf

 

2 versus 4 sticks for overclocking just in the respect of less individual ram chips causing trouble as well. Wasn't looking at it in that respect nor where any of the performance tests I have ever seen.

It would actually be interesting to see how the system allocates the ram. More interesting to see how the memory controller handles it as it "could" know that the pair in dual would be better for quicker transfers. Obviously as a conscious decision you would want to send data at low load times rather then peak for data not being randomly accessed or accessed as much.

Question for you as i no longer do alot of gaming nor have i written anything that needed more than a gb of ram. Are you on 32 bit windows or are the games 32 bit or are 64 bit apps not able to allocate more than 4gb of ram? I never upgraded to 8 either so i wouldnt know.


Edit - Allyourgroceries, you so smart i saw u on earlier what took u so long.

 

im on windows 7 64 bit, only 64 bit game i know of that i play is crysis series. However I never saw RAM usage go above 3GB, so i assumed the last stick wouldnt be allocated. Now if its spreading the information across all three sticks, and only 2 of those sticks are running dual channel, i would assume you get some kind of performance hit.

 

From that pdf the literal first and only thing i read was "Trades performance for design flexability" so yeah.

I played the crysis series too!

 

You have to look at the CPU whitepaper to get the memory controller info. It'll only work single channel if one channel bank is populated, if you read that PDF. I'm not sure how the banks work on the G73 exactly, but with 6GB both have at least one stick so they run dual channel.

That's flex memory mode not asymmetric dual channel mode.

 

wow so from what that PDF states, the three sticks of memory are running dual channel across all three sticks? Why do I not believe this lol...the dual channel cant unify 3 sticks

 

Same reason you still cant wrap you head around 4D gaming and the fact that it still lacks the 5th dimension, time.

 

LOL, just in case, ill add another stick. Back in the day on these forums i was known to build insane gaming desktops and tweak them for every last ounce of juice, so excuse the paranoia of losing performance on my lappy lmao

 

Im just not sure why this thing hasnt been max'd yet. Oh yeah the economy j/k. I am actually saving, the energy by not checking how much maxing my 8gb out.

My overclocking has been held back by my ram, which i meant to replace so i could take this thing to the stratosphere. Just for fun.

Edit - wow in like 2 years its dropped 33% still not as cheap as some good 4gb sets.... Call of duty still holds the record for price inflation after the product has become obsolete.

 

None of the laptop chipsets or CPU support triple channel right now.

But for your 3 sticks of ram, I wonder if just checking HWINfo32 could give you the answer.

 

if you ram is holding you back in overclocking at all, or if you want to push further, loosen the ram timings, but be careful doing this dont brick the ram. i forgot what you can use to change timings.

 

Now I'm gonna have to buy another stick, especially since the price is down to 25.99... Newegg.com - Kingston ValueRAM 2GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model KVR1333D3S9/2G

I was hoping not to put any more $$$ into my G73, but I cannot live in Dual channel asymmetrical mode (JK LOL)

 

good find so thats the RAM that comes in all our g73's stock?

 

If your G73 has Kingston 1333 then yes that is the ram you want. At least that's what my research shows.

 

4x4gb ?

Newegg.com - Kingston 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 Laptop Memory Model KVR1333D3S9/4G

i know i know....

 

spdtool didnt seem to work on my ram under xp or vista. I was actually wanting to adjust the voltage a bit, if i fried the chips i wouldnt care as long as the motherboard wasnt damaged. I have had two processors in this notebook both overclocked, ram seemed to be the common denomenator but there is always things on the mobo that can get in the way.

 

I added a 4th stick of ram to my BB model awhile back. I've noticed no difference in anything, it's mostly just for show.

 

Where the heck would you buy those 1333 hynix modules?