Starting with the Intel 915 chipset DUAL CHANNEL Memory really is faster

Some of this is in Intel's NDA material so I cannot quote it as a source, but I have taken it up with the senior engineer at Sager, and others (including the **cough** DELL website), and this is the result:

Since the Intel 915 Mobile chipset Intel has changed the way the memory is used. When in DUAL CHANNEL Memory mode a new channel is opened up (like opening a 2 lane highway to a 4 lane highway) so that you can read and write at the same time (two going one way and two going the other), and carry twice as many “truck loads” of data. Benchmarking software will measure it as 15-20% more productive. However Benchmarking software only uses about 20% of its testing taxing the memory, so if the application you are using is memory intense you will get even more productivity (around 20 to 30%) out of DUAL CHANNEL Memory.

The “speed” of the memory is still 533MHz or 667MHz, but you can have twice as many trucks moving your data, so it will be considerably faster (maybe not twice as fast because they only have one lane each way to exit, but you still have twice as many trucks in motion)

Now, with the new Mobile Core Duo (and then the newer Core 2 Duo when it comes out) it becomes even more important to use DUAL CHANNEL Memory because each core uses memory, so if you have two cores trying to read or write to a single channel of memory it will slow the whole system down.

The memory only has to match in that it is DDR2, but can be of any size (e.g. 512MB and 1,024MB will work fine together). If you have 533MHz in one stick and 667MHz in the other stick your speed will be limited to 533MHz, but you will still have the extra channel opened.

 

Interesting and good to know! Thanks for posting the information Donald!

 

Yes!! I will be using memory intensity programs! Programs which are inherently limited by memory. How do I find if a system has dual channel memory ?
Does the Asus Z96J have dual channel memory ?

 

Virtually all Core Duo laptops have Dual Channel memory available including the ASUS Z96J. Just be sure to select it on the Configurator.

 

If you already have a notebook and don't know if it is dual channel or not, just download CPU-Z and go to the Memory tab - it will say whether you have single or dual channel:
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php