Dual Channel questions

My Acer 5102 has 1 stick of 512MB Ram but CPU-Z recognizes it as in Dual Channel. is that possible? i thought you needed two sticks for Dual channel?

Also if i bye 1GB of RAM will it interact in Dual Channel mode with the 512MB?

 

maybe it's merely telling you that your MB is dual channel capable?

in any case, some newer MBs will operate in dual channel even with a 1+512 config (older MBs required matching size sticks).

 

Thanks i always thought CPU Z reports dual channel in real time and not capability, so i think my mobo does support it with 1 stick.

 

let me clarify... i'm not saying that's what's happening, just maybe that's what happening, i don't know.

however, it is not possible to run 1 stick of ram and get dual channel benefits. i was pointing out that older MBs needed matching sticks (1 and 1 or 512 and 512, etc.) to run in dual channel; however, newer MBs can take advantage of dual channel functionality even with mismatched pairs (1 and 512, etc.)

in any case, the actual benefit of dual channel is somewhat negligable so i wouldn't worry too much about it