Dual Channel RAM?

[Stingy49]

Hey guys, I was wondering if dual channel memory operates faster or has a higher bandwith when it's on seperate channels? So say I had two sticks of ram, if my mobo has slots A0,B0,A1,B1 if I put the sticks in A0 and B0 would it be better than A0 and A1? Are there other factors? Am I missing something? I'm not having performance problems or anything I just wanted to know.

Thanks,

Stingy49

 

[Aurus_OC]

Your motherboard's memory slots are colour coded for a reason. always put your ram in slots of the same colour, because otherwise they won't operate in dual channel. I don't know exactly how dual channel works but I know it's faster than single channel

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[Stingy49]

I know that you're supposed to do that, but I actually wanted to know why or what the difference between dual channel and single channel is (I know there is more bandwith I just wanted to know why) and say your mobo had slots A0 and A1 one color and the other slots another color why wouldnt you put the ram in slots A0 and B0 anyways? Because wouldn't that mean that it is in dual channel mode? But if you followed the color coding and put it in A0 and A1 it would only be in single channel mode?

Thanks for answering but like I said I'm not having any problems I just want to learn more about it.

 

[Aurus_OC]

If two RAM slots of the same colour are right next to each other that just means that the motherboard manufacturer has wired those two to be able to run in dual channel. Like I said before I don't know how (apart from the bandwidth) it's faster, so I hope some expert is going to pop in this thread and enlighten us all.

 

[pursuinginsanity]

It doubles the potential bandwidth.. because it's two channels instead of one? Honestly there -isn't- a more complicated version of the answer. You've already explained it to yourself.

Dual channel utilizes two 64 bit memory interfaces instead of one, i.e. it's 128 bit. Triple channel utilizes 3 64 bit interfaces instead of one, i.e. 192 bit.

 

[mezmir]

stick'em in one color and dont fill all the slots and you'll get the most out of it. 6gb is the sweet spot. I read some reviews on it. your processor usualy starts to botte neck and lose efficiency if you fill all the slots.

 

[tinytomlogan]

stick'em in one color and dont fill all the slots and you'll get the most out of it. 6gb is the sweet spot. I read some reviews on it. your processor usualy starts to botte neck and lose efficiency if you fill all the slots.

No it does not bottle neck AARRRGGGGHHHHH noobs and the word bottleneck should be banned.

 

[Ya93sin]

i guessed that dual channel ram runs a bit like raid on a HDD-same access times, but near double the amount of data you can transfer at any given time.similarly, triple channel near triples the potential amount of data flow.

i doubt that many programs are going to actually require the entire bandwidth capability though.

still, its a guess, haven't found a great explanation anywhere

 

[Stryker64]

When you fill all the RAM slots you don't bottleneck your CPU, but you can potentially limit the overclock, since you double your chances of having an underpar RAM stick, but if you get quality RAM you'll overcome that problem.

Also the reason why 6GB is referred to as a sweet spot is bang for your buck. When running games they will never use up all 6GB so it's pointless to get any higher for gaming. Although in the future you may need more RAM.

EDIT: The reason why you make it dual channel is it allows the memory controller to communicate between both of RAM at the same time so it should double the speed. Also if you don't but the memory sticks to run in dual channel and split them, your might not be able to boot your OS