2x512MB RAM vs. 1,5G RAM, big difference?

Hello everyone,

I´m buying a notebook with 2x512MB DDR2 533mhz, but since I´ll be gaming a bit and photoshopping every now and then 1G of RAM doesn´t seem like much. On top of this my graphics card ATi MR x1300 (256MB shared) will "borrow" some memory.

I´ve been thinking about upgrading the other 512MB stick with a 1G stick to get 1,5G RAM(getting two 1G sticks seems like a waste since I´ll have to throw away both 512MB sticks)...

I´ve read another posts about this and I know I will lose the benefit of dual channel if my RAM sticks do not match, so my question is: how big of a loss is this?

What do I basically lose if I get 512MB and 1G sticks?

Any help would be appreciated

ps. I´ll be getting:
Acer Aspire 5112WLMi 15,4"
AMD Turion 64x2 TL-50
ATi MR X1300 128MB (256MB shared)
2x512MB DDR2 533mhz
100GB SATA 5400rpm
and so on

 

Trust me, I think I speak for everyone when I say,

1gig Dual Channel >>> 1.5gig

Really, 1gig of RAM is plenty to do anything.

 

Umm....no you dont. Dual channel doesnt offer that great of a difference, especially on laptops. 1.5GB of RAM will be a much larger impact on performance.

You are right about 1 thing though. 1GB is more than enough for most normal users. Most users dont even notice the speed differences in XP when you start going above 1GB.

For opening several large photoshop files at once though, I'd go with 1.5GB. And if you're gaming, ALWAYS get as much RAM as posible

I'm not sure about the chipset in that Acer, but the Intel i915 chipset and everything newer allows dual channel mode to run even on mismatched pairs of RAM. Maybe your chipset will be the same?

 

After reading a couple of comparisons on a couple of review sites and forums, inc this one, the consensus seems to be dual channel offers 3% or thereabouts difference. It is always better to have more ram when running more memory intensive apps like design, photshop and games

I've seen examples of FPS boost with adding an extra 512mb on top of 1gb with memory hogging games like BF2 (presuming adequate GPU in first place). Simple google search and you'll see the test results

That's just saying with more than just running XP with minor graphic/game use

 

get the 1gb stick. Later down the road you can get the other and have 2gb.

First off dual channel, in my experience, does nil to performance. Im not saying it does nothing, just that it has never made a difference in any of my systems. Second gaming requires more then 1gb. Nowadays 1gb is the new 512mb, or the minimum standard. Sure I have gotten around with 1gb for a few months, but in some cases (heavy gaming or multitasking) it was painful due to the low amount of ram causing thrashing. Now 2gb is the ideal today, 1.5 will play ram intensive games like BF2 without any thrashing and will more then enough for the casual multitasker.

 

Thank you all for your replies

I´ll replace the other 512MB stick with a 1G stick to get that slight performance boost. Just like I suspected and liquidxit2 confirmed for gaming nowadays 1G RAM is more like the minimum requirement rather than recommended(though I realize I wont be doing much of "heavy" gaming with x1300).

And even if I wouldn´t notice a big difference, at least upgrading to 2G in the future will seem like a smaller investment

I´ll also ask the notebook seller if the chipset will allow dual channel mode to run with mismatched RAMs, thanks TwilightVampire for pointing out that possibility.

Thanks again guys

 

Actually, you notice a big difference with dual-channel when usign video-editing tools. For example rendering videos and mastering DVDs, etc.

If that's not what you're doing, I think dual-channel won't make any difference at all.