-
Larc stood up at show-n-tell, in ,
and said:

On Thu, 4 Sep 2003 06:06:40 -0500, Strontium pondered exceedingly,
then took quill in hand and carefully composed...

What you are referring to are actually Bank A, slot 0...Bank A,
slot 1 and Bank B, slot 0...Bank B, slot 1. For dual channel
operation, you populate either Bank A0 and Bank B0 or Bank A1 and
Bank B1, with identical DIMMS (each bank consists of two channels,
ie slots, 0 and 1). If you populate Bank A0 and Bank A1, with
identical DIMMS, your memory is in single channel mode. However,
it's still running at it's stated speed. I've been wondering about
the difference, performance-wise, between the two modes. And, have
not seen any difference personally. I would imagine it would have
something to do with multitasking applications. But, I've yet to
read any articles. Might do that, later today.

I've not had much luck finding anything that completely explains the
differences between using 1GB of RAM in one channel vs 512MB in each
channel. Which is better and why? I can't help thinking you'd need
to double your RAM to get the full benefit of hyperthreading.

When you learn the answer, please come back and educate us!

From what I have gleened, I'm thinking the whole 'dual mode' vs. 'single
mode' is a lot like AGP 4X vs AGP 8X. It's a bandwidth issue. While the
speed of the memory does not change, the transfer rate between the CPU and
the memory increases going to dual channel mode. I could be wrong. But, I
think that's the gist of it. I've been googling, around, and have not
really found anything either on it but hype.

I started out with 512MB DDR400, running in dual mode on my new
board/processor. For gaming reasons (very memory hungry games), I upped to
1GB. However, I did the initial 512 with 2x256. So, I was torn.... Do I
spend another $200+???? (as money is a bit tight, atm). Or, do I buy 2x256
more at $100 and suffer any degredation in performance (by populating all 4
channels). Instead, I decided on this: Got 1x512, stuck it in first
channel, first bank (first physical memory that is used by winblows). As
soon as I do some other things (9800pro, 21'' Samsung hehe) I can just get
another 1x512 and then have 1.5GB running in dual mode. Right now, all is
running in single, as apparently you can't mix modes (can't have the 1x512
running in single mode, whilst the 2x256 are in dual..it all defaults to
single channel).

But, as I said, I cannot see any difference between the two modes. And, I
have some pretty memory hungry games (postal2, SWG, etc...). I tried both
single and dual, with the 2x256. I could not discern any difference. Maybe
they aren't demanding enough (the games)? I don't know. But, I do know
that going up to a Gig took care of the major lag I had in the system after
exiting such memory hungry games. I had, even, tweaked around with the
pagefile to force winblows to use physical memory before taking the plunge
to a Gig of memory...no joy. Seems the sheer increase in physical memory
did the trick.

Now, back onto the topic I think this is a bit like the 4x vs 8x
thing... I doubt there is anything (that us endusers use) that would even
max out the bandwidth of single channel mode (much like AGP 4x).... that's
my current thinking, anyway. Subject to change.




Larc



§§§ - Please raise temperature of mail to reply by e-mail - §§§

--
Strontium

"It's no surprise, to me. I am my own worst enemy. `Cause every
now, and then, I kick the livin' **** `outta me." - Lit