Dual Channel vs Shared Channel

Browsing over my laptop (XPS1210) manual today, I noticed that it has shared memory instead of dual memory. I was wondering if there will be any performance bottlenecks with this configuration, and if so, how large? Thanks for the help


EDIT: Forgot to mention that I current use 2X1GB DDR2 667 mhz RAM made (according to Everest) by Hyundai.

 

Dual channel and shared memory are two different things. Dual channel means that the memory controller can read/write from 2 memory modules in parallel making the data rate (bandwidth) almost double.

Shared memory usually refers to sharing system memory with the graphics card, which means a part of the system memory will be reserved for the graphics card to use as video memory.

AFAIK, M1210 utilizes dual channel mem architecture while sharing system ram with the graphics card. With GMA950 its 100% sharing but with Geforce card the sharing is little bit complicated.

 

When I first noticed the thing, that's what I thought. However, when I mentioned it to my computer teacher at school, he said Shared Channel was older and less efficient than Dual Channel. So was he wrong?

 

Oh, I didn't dig deep in to it. I just thought you are talking about the normal shared mem and dual channel. Which page on the manual are you referring to?

 

You obviously asked somebody who knows less than you, dual channel and shared memory are not exclusive, there's no such thing as "shared channel". Shared memory is concept of graphics card using system memory, regardless whether it is in dual or single channel.