RAM Dual channel 2 gig?

[Heywould3]

does all 4 sticks of ram have to match for dual channel to work? i have 2 matching sticks now for a total of 1 gig running in dual channel. i have one extra stick of 512 sitting on shelf was gonna get another matching stick to add it to computer for a total of 2 gigs. 4 x 512. (i just loaded Vista) anyone have two sets of ram and have it running in dual channel?

Screw it i just ordered another stick. it was only 35 bux the mem is Crucial Ballistix BTW. i think i have kingston in there now. but i dont remember.

either way ill have 2 gigs, i just wonder if it will work in dual channel

EDIT: i just noticed that CC has the kingston ram on sale. 24 per 512 so another gig would only be 48 and i just ordered the other stuff. darn

[aedipuss]

dual channel works with matching pairs. normally there are color coded slots that they need to go in. so all four don't have to match only the pairs.

[Heywould3]

ya think 1.5 gig single channel will work better in Vista than 1 gig dual channel? anyone?

[budz]

better to run 2gb in dual channel for vista. just my 2 cents!

[Krispy Kritter]

Most motherboards run 4 sticks of memory slower than they would an equivalent amount of RAM on 2 sticks (ie: 2x1gb vs 4x512).

[Heywould3]

1gig 2x512 in dual channel seems to be to little and slow in vista. im wondering if for the time being until i decide on more ram. if 3x512 would run better even though it will only be single channel it will be more. idealy 2x1gig in dual channel is best. but is 3x512-1.5gig single better than 2x512-1 gig in dual? guess ill have to test it out.

[redwudz]

I would test it out, but I suspect it might end up running slower with a odd number of RAM modules. You can run CPU-Z and get a general idea how it's doing. http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php They also have PerfMonitor on their site which might give you better performance data.

[ofbarea]

Dual channel will be disabled with 3 RAM sticks, but probably that will be faster than swapping that you may face with just 1 GB of RAM.

[Heywould3]

something else i noticed with vista. it looks like it shares ram with your video card. i have a 256 ddr3 8600GT card but i remember looking around and seeing something that said it had 512 256 dedicated and 256 shared. my resolution is only set to 1366x768 so i dont need all that memory. i do have the areo desk enabled though. i think thats nuts if vista takes your ram for video etc with out asking first at least.

[mats.hogberg]

Went from dual chnl 512 (2*256) to single chnl 1.5 GB (2*256 + 1024) on my XP box - Made all the difference in the world. My supplier (which I trust) hinted at 10-15% performance drop with single channel, compared to dual.

/Mats

[Heywould3]

with XP going from 512 to 1gig or better would make night and day difference. i did the same thing. im wondering if vista would act as XP does. XP is good with 512 but likes 1gig. vista works with 1 gig but would it be as noticable to go to 1.5 or 2 gigs. as it was in XP? so if i get a 10-15% drop going to single channel would that be made up by adding more ram to vista. basicly wonder what % increase i would see going from 1gig to 2gigs if its more than 15% then its obviously worth it.

more ram cant hurt and for what i do im sure i wouldnt see any drop in speed going from dual to single channel. i just do minor encodes here there and minor gaming but the games i do play need a serious machine.. and H264 watching. i dont think speed of the ram would make enough difference. i think amount of ram would make more difference then speed for me up to a point.

I came to this conclusion after reading other posts and thinking of what i really need it for,

[Krispy Kritter]

I would expect moving from 1GB to 2GB would have more impact than loosing Dual Channel mode. From the testing I've seen, Dual Channel performance is only noticable in benchmarking, not everyday use.