dual channel mobo

[Bigsexy]

trying to work out this dual channel stuff. on a dual channel mobo do you have to use dual channel ddr i.e two sticks of ram or can you just use one stick of ddr ram(single or dual channel).

or am i up the sh** completely and that dual channel only refers to using to stick togeather as a virtual one stick ddr

cheers for you help

[Tiggerz]

two sticks, same kind, brand, batch (best).. Ideal to buy the kits.

[Ragnor]

Yes, you can use 1 stick in a dual channel capable mobo fine, but it won't be running in dual channel mode ie: you roughly get half as much memory bandwidth as running two sticks.

So ideally if you have a dual channel board you want two identical sticks of ram for it , to reach it's potential.

Howver you don't have to and can run with one stick aka single channel just fine.

[Solid Snake]

So ideally if you have a dual channel board you want two identical sticks of ram for it , to reach it's potential. I am sure that this only really applies to Intel users at the moment. This is because the P4's need a lot more memory bandwidth than the AMD counter parts. At the moment, AMD's use about the same amount as the single channel can provide, where as the P4's can use more. Thus getting dual channeling memory for an AMD system is currently a waste of money.

Correct me if I am wrong.

[Ragnor]

That's pretty much correct, on an nforce2 board you're only looking at a 2%-5% performance gain. You're better off spending the cost of getting a 2nd stick on the cpu or video.

However if you're getting 512mb of ram you might aswell consider getting 2x 256mb rather then 1x 512mb for the small performance gain.

With a Intel canterwood or springdale board it seems definately worthwhile to go for the 2x sticks rather then one.

[Melchiah]

The sticks of memory don't need to be exactly the same, same size is generally enough. Ideally you want them both to be the same speed so you aren't underclocking one of them. Different brand doesn't matter (Despite what the people trying to sell kits will tell you).

[Tiggerz]

They have to be the same. The 865 and 875 mch will check and switch to single channel mode if they are not directly compatible with each other.

[H2gO]

I agree with Mr Tiggerz
865 and 875 based mobo's are touche with the RAM they eat
let alone the brand you offer them

In short : ensure they're compatible if going duel channel

intel based 865 and 875 boards will reward you in performance gained in duel mode

:D

[Method]

Basically for best preformance get a dual channel pack or two identical sticks. Its much more easy and cost around the same as buying 2 normal sticks anyway..

[Artifice]

However...
if you are running ram asychronously to the fsb speed. Then amd users can benefit from dual channel.
say you are running your fsb @ 166 mhz and your ram at 66%xFSB, then you would get some dual channel mode boost. it may not be the full 34% difference between running the ram at 100%and 66%. But it will be quite considerable. so if its your dodgy ram thats holding back your overclock on your nice shiney new dual channel MOBO. then running it asynch at a lwer setting may let you get more out of it. Course your probably better off just running it at a lower fsb setting @ 100% ram ratio. who cares about OMGThisCPUisThe ****s brag factor. N.B. you can use that to test just how far your cpu will go without seriously straining the ram. Or you could just buy some corsair which semms to like running at whatever you set it to.

[Melchiah]

My comment above was regarding AMD boards, they aren't quite so picky as the intel chipsets.

[swiftynz]

Here are some benchmarks I ran a while ago. It is defintaly best with an AMD cpu to keep the FSB synchronous and as high as possible, but you can benefit from running dual channel ram and a higher fsb as you can see from the graphs.
I really need another stick of PC3200 to do some more testing, and I should have chosen a cpu speed that could be obtainted on different fsb speeds but oh well.