3gb RAM question

i just ordered a t500 a week back and just noticed that my 3gb ram is in 1x 2gb 1x 1gb form. Will that be a performance issue because of the lack of a dual channel set up? or am i just worrying about nothing?

42X6342 SBB 2GBPC3-8500 1067MHZMEM
42X6341 SBB 1GBPC3-8500 1067MHZMEM

The proc is a 2.4ghz c2d if it matters any.

 

Your worrying about nothing. If you have uneven RAM it will run on Intel Flex Mode. It makes the first common size of each channel run on dual channel and leave the rest on a single channel. EG if you have 2 + 1 GB sticks, the first 1gb of each stick will run on dual channel.

Difference between dual channel and single channel is around 5% higher in benchmarks which is next to nothing noticable in actual use.

Running single channel is a big worry when transferring files because its like a single lane road for the CPU, instead of 2

 

Somewhat related...

So if i'm using a 512MB stick and a 2GB stick, only 512MB of each stick will be dual channel? What happens to the other 1.5GB on the 2GB?

 

Thanks for the quick and accurate response. I appreciate the help.

 

Assuming you have an intel chipset that supports flex mode, the left over 1.5gb will run on single channel.

 

I have an AMD processor...so i probably don't have an intel chipset?

 

Yes,but Im pretty sure AMD has a similar technology.

 

AMDs do not support Asymmetric Dual Channel.

And Dual Channel or Single Channel, one won't notice the difference except in synthetic benchmarks. Primary purpose of RAM is to avoid the use of the HDD for cache by the system. If it does that fine - memory frequency, bandwidth, timings, etc. mean nothing. The slowest memory, with the highest Cas Latency is still gonna be 1000x faster than a HDD.