Single vs Dual Channel

JMerrick · 01-05-2007, 06:06 AM

Long story short, I've been waiting on replacement RAM for my new system which I bought before XMas, which I was reduced to running with only a single stick because the other stick was dodgy. Today I finally got my new dual channel kit.

From AIDA32 my memory speed in singel channel with PC4200 was about 4100 MB/sec, I thought great, DDR2 nearly gives the actual rated speed.

So I put in the replacement RAM today and did a memory test (confirmed in BIOS bootup it's running in Dual Channel mode) expecting 8000 MB/sec or so, and the speed was a frankly pathetic 5500 MB/sec.

Is there something amiss here? I got nearly that with a single stick in DDR2-667 mode. And WinRAR performs barely better with two sticks DDR2-533 than a single stick of DDR2-667!

On the plus side, this DDR2-533 is amazingly completely stable (so far) at 667 with the same timings.

**specmike** · 01-09-2007, 04:17 PM

Dual channel will give more memory performance than single channel. However, your theoretical vs actual bandwidth will never be 100%. See if AIDA gives an efficiency rating. If it does not, Sisoft Sandra does if you are interested.

01-05-2007, 06:06 AM	#1
JMerrick Registered User Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 356	Single vs Dual Channel Long story short, I've been waiting on replacement RAM for my new system which I bought before XMas, which I was reduced to running with only a single stick because the other stick was dodgy. Today I finally got my new dual channel kit. From AIDA32 my memory speed in singel channel with PC4200 was about 4100 MB/sec, I thought great, DDR2 nearly gives the actual rated speed. So I put in the replacement RAM today and did a memory test (confirmed in BIOS bootup it's running in Dual Channel mode) expecting 8000 MB/sec or so, and the speed was a frankly pathetic 5500 MB/sec. Is there something amiss here? I got nearly that with a single stick in DDR2-667 mode. And WinRAR performs barely better with two sticks DDR2-533 than a single stick of DDR2-667! On the plus side, this DDR2-533 is amazingly completely stable (so far) at 667 with the same timings. __________________ OS Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 3.0 GHz (Conroe) Motherboard ASUS P5B-E RAM 2 GB Kingston DDR2-667 4-4-4-12 Dual Channel Video NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT PCI-E 512 MB Audio SoundMAX HD Audio OS Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 CPU Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz with HT (Northwood) Motherboard ASUS P4P800 Deluxe RAM 1 GB Kingston DDR400 3-3-3-8 Dual Channel Video NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT AGP 256 MB Audio SoundMAX Digital Audio OS Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 CPU Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz (Coppermine) Motherboard ASUS P3V4X RAM 256 MB Kingston PC133 2-2-2-6 Video NVIDIA GeForce2 MX400 AGP 64 MB Audio Creative Sound Blaster Live!
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01-09-2007, 04:17 PM	#2
specmike Yes, Yellowbeard Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Metro Atlanta, GA. Posts: 2,627	Dual channel will give more memory performance than single channel. However, your theoretical vs actual bandwidth will never be 100%. See if AIDA gives an efficiency rating. If it does not, Sisoft Sandra does if you are interested. __________________ CORSAIR TECH SUPPORT
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