dual channel ddr - one stick or two?

[NerdUprising]

if using a dual channel ddr sdram motherboard, is it smarter to use one stick of 512Mb ram, or two sticks of 256?

or is that just a mental, babbling infant question that is painfully obvious and/or stupid?

 

[SkazzyUK]

Faster to use 1 x 512Mb stick, and would be more effective if a later upgrade is required

Skazzy

 

[LeeJend]

How do you get faster with one stick??????????????

Dual channel doubles the memory bandwidth by writing to TWO sticks alternately. One stick is single channel DDR. Half the bandwidth.

You need two sticks to use the dual channel capability. Also, there are reports they need to be the same brand and preferably, Lot, of DIMMs for the dual channel to work properly. So buying at different times is not a good idea.

 

[cs-cky]

it will go faster because once one stick is filled up it tranfers the overflow to the second stick and that takes time.

 

[Geffy]

Dual DDR works by doubling the bandwidth availble to the memory channels, so the data is sloshed to the memory and back faster that with Single Channel or Single Stick implementations.
The Dual Channel DDR requires two of the same size, type and speed of DDR Memory stick, or if one is faster than the other then the faster will slow to the speed of the slower.
Lowest latency: Both memory controllers operate concurrently with each other to hide latencies associated with typical chipsets. For example, controller "A" reads or writes to main memory while controller "B" prepares for the next access, and vice versa.

The reasons for implementing Dual DDR is the raw performance increase you will obtain. Dual DDR has a higher performance rating than the RAMBUS technology which Intel tried with the Pentium 4s. RAMBUS has 4GB/s transfer Rate where as Dual DDR has 5.3GB/s

Hope this helps

 

[Sazar]

Originally posted by Geffy
Dual DDR works by doubling the bandwidth availble to the memory channels, so the data is sloshed to the memory and back faster that with Single Channel or Single Stick implementations.
The Dual Channel DDR requires two of the same size, type and speed of DDR Memory stick, or if one is faster than the other then the faster will slow to the speed of the slower.
Lowest latency: Both memory controllers operate concurrently with each other to hide latencies associated with typical chipsets. For example, controller "A" reads or writes to main memory while controller "B" prepares for the next access, and vice versa.

The reasons for implementing Dual DDR is the raw performance increase you will obtain. Dual DDR has a higher performance rating than the RAMBUS technology which Intel tried with the Pentium 4s. RAMBUS has 4GB/s transfer Rate where as Dual DDR has 5.3GB/s

Hope this helps

I am with this line of thinking and geffy's point will be proved by reviews and technical info about the way dimms work with respect to rimms..

by its very nature to utilise the benefits of DUAL channel ddr... you need TWO clips of memory

 

[NerdUprising]

most excellent, thank you all very much

 

[Geffy]

*bows*

 

[Taurus]

Originally posted by Geffy
RAMBUS has 4GB/s transfer Rate where as Dual DDR has 5.3GB/s

that's if you're using pc2700 in dual-ddr. pc3200 dual-ddr will yield 6.4gb/sec of bandwidth.

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

--------[ AIDA32 (c) 1995-2003 Tamas Miklos ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Version AIDA32 v3.70
Author fiery@aida32.hu
Homepage http://www.aida32.hu
Report Type Quick Report
Computer HOME-1TNCK5DNJI (Athlon 2700+)
Generator Administrator
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)
Date 2003-07-15
Time 16:32


--------[ Memory Read ]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P4-3.00HT Intel D875PBZ i875P Dual PC3200 DDR 4880 MB/s
P4-3.00HT Albatron PX865PE Pro i865PE Dual PC3200 DDR 3980 MB/s
P4-2.40A Iwill P4GB iE7205 Dual PC2100 DDR 3560 MB/s
P4-2.40A Intel D850EMV2 i850E Dual PC1066 RDRAM 3240 MB/s
This Computer MSI K7N2 (MS-6570) nForce2-SPP 2684 MB/s
P4-2.40A Asus P4SDX SiS655 PC2700 DDR SDRAM 2670 MB/s
AthlonXP 2700+ Chaintech 7NJL1 nForce2-SPP Dual PC2700 DDR 2500 MB/s
Athlon64-1.60 VIA Reference K8T800 PC2700 DDR SDRAM 2490 MB/s
AthlonXP 2700+ Asus A7N8X nForce2-SPP Dual PC2700 DDR 2450 MB/s
P4-2.53A Gigabyte GA-8PE667 Ultra i845PE PC2700 DDR SDRAM 2450 MB/s
P4-3.06HT Asus P4PE i845PE PC2700 DDR SDRAM 2400 MB/s
P4-2.40A Asus P4S533-E SiS645DX PC2700 DDR SDRAM 2330 MB/s
AthlonXP 2600+ MSI KT4V KT400 PC2700 DDR SDRAM 2270 MB/s
P4-2.40A Gigabyte GA-8GE667 Pro i845GE Int. PC2700 DDR SDRAM 2240 MB/s
P4-1.30 Dell Dimension 8100 i850 Dual PC600 RDRAM 2040 MB/s
Celeron4-1.70 DFI PE21-EC P4X400 PC2100 DDR SDRAM 2020 MB/s
Celeron4-2.00A Gigabyte GA-8PEMT4 i845PE PC2100 DDR SDRAM 2000 MB/s
P4-2.40A Asus P4S533-E SiS645DX PC2100 DDR SDRAM 1960 MB/s
P4-1.60 Asus P4B266 i845D PC2100 DDR SDRAM 1940 MB/s
P4-1.80A MSI 845E Max i845E PC2100 DDR SDRAM 1940 MB/s
P4-2.00A Shuttle AV40 P4X266 PC2100 DDR SDRAM 1920 MB/s
AthlonXP 2200+ Chaintech 7NJL1 nForce2-SPP PC2100 DDR SDRAM 1900 MB/s
Celeron4-1.70 Asus P4S333-VM SiS650 Ext. PC2100 DDR SDRAM 1870 MB/s
Celeron4-1.80 TriGem Imperial i845GL Int. PC2100 DDR SDRAM 1870 MB/s
AthlonXP 2000+ Epox EP-8KHA+ KT266A PC2100 DDR SDRAM 1850 MB/s
P4-1.70 ASRock PE Pro SiS645 PC2100 DDR SDRAM 1810 MB/s
AthlonXP 1800+ Abit AT7-MAX2 KT400 PC2100 DDR SDRAM 1790 MB/s
AthlonXP 2000+ MSI KT3 Ultra-ARU KT333 PC2100 DDR SDRAM 1770 MB/s
AthlonXP 1800+ ECS K7S5A SiS735 PC2100 DDR SDRAM 1710 MB/s
Athlon-1.20 Abit KG7 AMD760 PC2100 DDR SDRAM 1700 MB/s
Athlon-1.20 Asus A7M266 AMD760 PC2100 DDR SDRAM 1560 MB/s
AthlonXP 1500+ Asus A7V266 KT266 PC2100 DDR SDRAM 1500 MB/s
Celeron4-1.70 ECS P4S5A/DX+ SiS645DX PC133 SDRAM 1040 MB/s
AthlonXP 1700+ AOpen AK73A KT133A PC133 SDRAM 990 MB/s
PIII-866EB Asus CUSL2 i815E Ext. PC133 SDRAM 980 MB/s
P4-1.60 Dell Dimension 4300 i845 PC133 SDRAM 950 MB/s
PIII-866EB ECS P6VAP-A+ ApolloPro133A PC133 SDRAM 840 MB/s
AthlonXP 1700+ PCChips M810LR SiS730S Ext. PC133 SDRAM 740 MB/s
Athlon-600 Asus K7M AMD-750 PC100 SDRAM 730 MB/s
Celeron2-900 MSI 815EP Pro i815EP PC100 SDRAM 710 MB/s
PIII-600B Asus P2B i440BX PC133 SDRAM 670 MB/s
Duron-850 Gigabyte GA-7IXE4 AMD750 PC100 SDRAM 460 MB/s
Celeron-466A IBM 628848U i810 Int. PC66 SDRAM 390 MB/s
PII-266 Intel DK440LX i440LX PC66 SDRAM 350 MB/s
K6-III-450 Asus P5A ALADDiN5 PC100 SDRAM 290 MB/s
K6-2-450 Gigabyte GA-5AX ALADDiN5 PC100 SDRAM 260 MB/s
C3-800 VIA EPIA PLE133 PC133 SDRAM 210 MB/s
PentiumMMX-166 Asus TX97-E i430TX PC66 SDRAM 190 MB/s
K6-266 Asus SP97-V SiS5598 Int. 66 MHz EDO RAM 60 MB/s




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Here is a little idea on some different set up's
*cough* *cough* Yes this computer in the list is mine