OMG - 8GB is faster than 4GB

[dugdiamond]

okay peeps - i have just written a little program to test my assumptions.

basically - a winform will appear in the centre of my screen after all startup services and bootable apps have initialised and started.

i will video the boot up sequence twice... once with 4GB and again with 8GB

if i am correct, the videos will be proof enough

bbl

 

[JezEngland]

GL

I've got 2GB Ridgeback Mushkins and I think the 4GB stick have a higher latency

ye it's 7-9-8-24 compared to mine are 6-8-6-24 so maby 4 x 2GB is better than 2 x 4 GB

 

[hmmblah]

I don't think so because I think each channel is colour coded and on my H55 and P55 board the 1st 2 memory sticks must go into slot 2 and 4 wich both are the same colour so to use the other channel wich I think is the other colour we need 2 more sticks

Or they aren't the same colour?

EDIT: I did read that 2 x 4GB sticks is better than 4 x 2GB sticks and I've just found this at a Forum:

Blue and white are different. Blue is going to be designated for dual channel performance. To put it extremely simple: Two slots but it sees it as one stick. Example: Instead of two 2GB sticks it treats it as one 4GB stick. You get a significant performance gains from it.

For this to work you are going to need 2 sticks of identical (Same brand, speed, voltages and latency) RAM that is dual channel rated. The white slots are there for extra RAM.

The white slots are for extra RAM. But be aware if you fill all four slots it won't work like dual channel. So if you are wanting dual channel performance, you will want to buy two sticks of high capacity (like 1GB or 2GB) low latency (Latency is the amount of time it takes to access info to and from the RAM to the Northbridge/CPU) RAM.

Source: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080214041946AAe65vg

Anyone design motherboards, anyone. . . .

That quote is just plain wrong. Look in your motherboard manual at the memory configuration section. It will tell you how you need to install the sticks to get different configurations. Some motherboards require a specific slot when you use one stick. It will also let you know how you need to install the sticks for dual channel mode with 2 sticks and dual channel mode with 4 sticks.

Dual channel or triple channel is not the same thing as memory channels on the board themselves (A/B on P55, A/B/C on X58).

Also, the memory doesn't determine if it's dual channel or not. There really is no such thing as dual channel memory. The controller determines if the configuration will be dual channel or not. It's like that SLI certified memory, just a gimmick. Sure, it's best to purchase memory with the same specs, that's really all dual channel optimized memory is, matching sets.

okay peeps - i have just written a little program to test my assumptions.

basically - a winform will appear in the centre of my screen after all startup services and bootable apps have initialised and started.

i will video the boot up sequence twice... once with 4GB and again with 8GB

if i am correct, the videos will be proof enough

bbl

Awesome! This will be helpful for people. Those who run similar programs as you will be able to see the benefit then.

 

[JezEngland]

OK. It is slot 2&4 for 2 DIMMs and it says that'll run as dual channel

What does this mean, it's from the manual:

Due to Intel CPU spec definition, X.M.P. DIMMs and DDR3-1600 are supported for one DIMM per channel only.

that tells me my other 2 sticks are useless. They're Redline Ridgeback 1600mhz.

When I saw an improvement was when I upgraded from 2 Crucial stick to 4 on my old H55 board.

Then I got 4 Mushkins and havent played much with 2.

 

[hmmblah]

OK. It is slot 2&4 for 2 DIMMs and it says that'll run as dual channel

What does this mean, it's from the manual:

Due to Intel CPU spec definition, X.M.P. DIMMs and DDR3-1600 are supported for one DIMM per channel only.

that tells me my other 2 sticks are useless. They're Redline Ridgeback 1600mhz.

When I saw an improvement was when I upgraded from 2 Crucial stick to 4 on my old board.

Then I got 4 Mushkins and havent played much with 2.

Supported and working are two different things. It's like when they say SandyBridge only supports 1333MHz memory. We know you can run 1600MHz memory with it though as well as 2133.

What board do you have? I'm not sure if that line means when you use XMP (set it manually anyway) or 1600 that it automatically disables a feature, or if it means that it is "use at your own risk. If it doesn't work you are on your own."

 

[JezEngland]

ASUS Maximus 3 Formula

I've email'd Mushkin about this

Thanks

 

[dugdiamond]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrDaSNssxtY[/media]

done on my nokia N95 (again)

sorry for the bad quality - but you get the idea

 

[JezEngland]

Good stuff

Have you configured the MSConfig BOOT setup, it has a memory amount and CPU core amount option?

I don't configure, my PC is a BASIC boot Win7 HP with SSD and BOOT's very fast, I probably should leave it.

 

[SieB]

But I only have 4gb RAM and a mechanical HDD and I Boot in 30 odd seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTp-CBLSUw0

 

[dugdiamond]

i haven't touched a thing since the rig was overclocked

all i did was, pull two sticks out, video the boot, put them back in, and video it again.

it was a PITA, cos i almost had to dismantle all my cabling to get at the RAM - lol

all back now

 

[dugdiamond]

But I only have 4gb RAM and a mechanical HDD and I Boot in 30 odd seconds.

ahh maybe - but that looks like TinyXP (or similar) - you cannot fool me - lol

my boots were full win7: all services enabled, and all autorun apps on.

the whole idea was to give joe-public an idea of the difference, NOT us overclockers or fast Custom-OS users

 

[SieB]

ahh maybe - but that looks like TinyXP (or similar) - you cannot fool me - lol

my boots were full win7: all services enabled, and all autorun apps on.

the whole idea was to give joe-public an idea of the difference, NOT us overclockers or fast Custom-OS users

It's Windows 7

I don't know why the load screen looks like XP it only started happening when I started using my HDTV after my monitor died, but i promise you it is windows 7.

 

[dugdiamond]

hmm - you need SP1 installed

and the old boot screen is from vista - weird

ANYWAY - let us not get off-topic here

my 8GB boot was faster than my 4GB boot

(not by much - 7.3secs - but i noticed it)

 

[ThunderFlash]

4gb here on Windows 7 64 bit and all services etc running too and using 2 WD 1TB drives in RAID 0, not as fast as an SSD but not too shabby. I use photoshop and 8gb comes into it's own there when using large files with lots of layers but this PC just has 4gb.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[Ya93sin]

How many programs do you have running at boot? :S

You shaved c. 7% off of your original boot time, which is pretty noticeable imo

I used to boot up in about 45secs on a netbook (Full Home Premium x64 though) in about 45secs, now it takes about 200

In my personal opinion, I think the amount of RAM, past say 4GB for Windows, makes no significant difference (at boot) whatsoever if you aren't launching any additional programs at launch.

And there is always that nice msconfig trick to force the PC to use all your RAM at boot

 

[dugdiamond]

i have NOD32 business edition

on boot, it checks for updates and scans my system files before letting me do anything

i like to play safe

 

[Ya93sin]

Well that explains it haha

 

[JezEngland]

Supported and working are two different things. It's like when they say SandyBridge only supports 1333MHz memory. We know you can run 1600MHz memory with it though as well as 2133.

What board do you have? I'm not sure if that line means when you use XMP (set it manually anyway) or 1600 that it automatically disables a feature, or if it means that it is "use at your own risk. If it doesn't work you are on your own."

Good info hmm

Mushkin staff replied including this info:

Most mobo manuals have the same disclaimer.

As soon as you fill all the slots with performance memory all bets are off, with all slots filled the only guaranty is that the memory will run at JEDEC specs. For DDR3 that would be 9-9-9-24 @ DDR3-1333 1.5V

&

2 sticks are supported at DDR3-1600(or above) and the XMP profile will only work with 2 sticks as well.

If you install 4 sticks, there is no guaranty that the XMP will work

 

[dugdiamond]

my mobo (msi 870a power edition) only supports upto 1600 DDR3

i have 2000 on it - the reason why is: when overclocking i will always have extra headroom on my RAM without killing it

 

[daniSAUR]

are you at caerleon? on what app? do you need any need?

I'm at Glamorgan, the Cardiff campus.