3gb RAM Dual-Channel?

Well as i have vista 32-bit, i know it cant support the full 4gb RAM.

So if i had 1 1gb module and 1 2gb module, both running at the same speed (PC-5300 667mhz).. will they support dual channel or not?

 

No, the modules need to be the same capacity, but 3GB > 2GB dual channel.

 

Have a read of this thread.

I attach my test results for SiSoftware Sandra's memory bandwidth benchmark for 4 RAM configurations: 1 x 1GB, 2 x 1GB, 1 x 2GB and 3GB (1 + 2GB).

You will see that the bandwidth for 3GB is less than 10% down on 2 x 1GB. All modules were 667MHz with the same timings.

This was measured with the Intel 965 chipset but earlier measures with the Intel 945chipset showed the same relative difference but a bit slower overall.

John

 

No they don't, asynchronous dual channel works with mismatched pairs. It's not as good as synchronous dual channel (which we know of in matched pairs) but it's still dual channel non the less.

 

3% diff between 3GB (1GB+2GB) & 2GB (2X1GB)
10% diff between 2GB (1X2GB) & 2GB (2X1GB)

This is one 2GB stick (ignore that says 2X1GB)
last line look at bandwidth it is single channel

Logical/Chipset 1 Memory Banks
Bank 0 : 1GB DDR2-SDRAM 5.0-5-5-15 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR1
Bank 1 : 1GB DDR2-SDRAM 5.0-5-5-15 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR1
Shared Memory : 8MB
Channels : 1
Memory Bus Speed : 4x 333MHz (1332MHz data rate)
Width : 64-bit
Performance Acceleration Technology : No
Memory Controller in Processor : No
Maximum Memory Bus Bandwidth : 10656MB/s (estimated)

This is 3GB (1GB+2GB) Ignore the way the computer sees it, is only 2 sticks
look at the last line maximum bandwidth, this is dual channel running w/3GB

Logical/Chipset 1 Memory Banks
Bank 0 : 512MB DDR2-SDRAM 5.0-5-5-15 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR1
Bank 1 : 512MB DDR2-SDRAM 5.0-5-5-15 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR1
Bank 4 : 1GB DDR2-SDRAM 5.0-5-5-15 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR1
Bank 5 : 1GB DDR2-SDRAM 5.0-5-5-15 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) CR1
Shared Memory : 8MB
Channels : 2
Memory Bus Speed : 4x 333MHz (1332MHz data rate)
Width : 64-bit
Performance Acceleration Technology : No
Memory Controller in Processor : No
Maximum Memory Bus Bandwidth : 21312MB/s (estimated)

These are Johns benchmarks

AMD works different the diff between single and dual channel about 30% not the 10% Intel shows.

3GB does run in dual channel, tell all your friends!

 

is it worth getting 3gb then (from my 2gb dualchannel)?

 

How is your computer running? Is it slow? Some people swear by 3GB, but if your system does not need to go to page file much w/2GB then 3GB is not going to speed things up. If it doesn't need the extra it will not help.

 

If you "need" the ram, then yes, it will be better, if you dont, it wont hurt, but you might be better off spending that money somewhere else, very few people actually need more than 2 gigs right now,as for the bandwidth concerns, even fewer people would notice a real world difference between synch and asynch dual channel.

 

I have ordered Intel 1.5 GHz wih 2 GB RAM (DDR II @ 667 MHz, Dual Channel). As a compensation from DELL, I'm getting 1 GB RAM extra, ie, making it 3GB (1x1GB + 1x2GB, instead of 2x1GB). Now with 3GB instead of 2GB with 1.5 GHz Core2Duo, will I get a performance boost?

Thank you!

 

You are unlikely to see any boost in benchmark tests but, in reality, the extra RAM will make operation feel a bit smoother though either/or/and reduced use of the swap file and Vista's pre-fetch.

John

 

For those applications that need more than 2GB but not more than 3GB you will see a very large performance increase. Your RAM bandwidth is about 4000MB/s your HDD bandwidth is likely 40MB to 60MB/s. Most the time 3GB and 2GB will work about the same.

 

First of all, thank you guys for such quick replies! You are really helpful.

I won't run any benchmarks etc. I am not a super power user. At max, I will use these applications at once - uTorrent, Winamp, Windows Live Messenger and Opera. Sometimes, one or two more things (like WMP or MS Word or sometimes Photoshop 7 for basic image editing features like crop/image resize). And the only game I play is EA Sports FIFA series (FIFA 08 soon).

Which applications that might be???? I use all these applications I mentioned above on my old PC (2.4 GHz with 533 FSB, 512 MB DDR RAM @ 266Mhz, shared graphics memory) at the same time, with ease. Now I have 1.5 GHz Core2Due, 8600MGT and 3 GB DDR II RAM. I think my new machine would handle these applications I mentioned above with Windows Vista, easily?

I have a few more questions, related to this, instead of making a new thread, I am posting them here. Please take in account I am a novice in these things, so if possible, make your answers simple. And please don't make fun of me if the questions are noobish by your standards.

1) Which processor is better? 2.4 GHz with 533 MHz FSB and 512 KB L2 Cache or 1.5 GHz Core2Duo with 667MHz FSB and 2MB L2 Cache?
2) How much GHz would 1.5 GHz C2D give if it were made a single core processor hypthetically? About 2.0-2.2 GHz?
3) Will having 256MB 8600M GT in my laptop help me outside the games/super high video encoding, ie, in general? If yes, then in which area? Performance????

I have some other such questions as well, but I will ask them later!

Thank you!

 

1) 1.5 is sooo much faster
2) I would say hard to compare but more like a 3Ghz or above (in multi tasking even more)
3) No really mostly gaming

From what you had to where you are going it is like kids playing soccer to World Cup! Enjoy I think it will blow you away you might want to tie it down it is that fast.

 

Thank you powerpack, you're so helpful! Is 1.5 GHz C2D reallly almost equal to 3.0 GHz single core (like the name suggests)????

Here are some other questions!

1) Will I be able to play High-Definition movies?? I know DELL Inspiron 1720 does not have an HDMI port, but what I mean is, if I download/copy from DVDs (my monthly PC magazine gives me one or two hi-def traliers from Apple.com per month, plus my friends download football games in high-def so I can copy from them) and play them, will the playback stutter?? Is 8600M GT HDCP compatible??

2) If I chose to buy a 2.2+ GHz C2D later this year, can I remove the one in my machine (T5250) and replace it? What would it do to the warranty? Also, if the performance of my machine is, let's say, 100 units, with 1.5GHz C2D, how much would it be with 2.2 GHz C2D????

Thank you once again

 

You can not just add the 2 cores together, I do still feel it is comparable to some P4 3Ghz and even better in multithreaded apps or multi tasking but don't think of it as adding the 2 cores to get 3Ghz that is not correct.

1)You will have no problem playing high def (720i) on your computer my integrated graphics card can so you will have no problem. Your screen native resolution is what will stop you from running 1080i not CPU or GPU so you may be able to on external monitor.
2) I think you can (almost certain just don't want confirm right now) but I want to offer some words of caution. It will void warranty, it will be expensive, if any thing goes wrong you could damage your computer. And most importantly with everything you mentioned I do not see a real world benifit of doing it. I don't think most people do things that would stress your CPU. Don't upgrade in a year not cost effective. In 3 years sell this one and buy a faster more powerful one.

 

Ok, thank you powerpack!