Single Channel or Dual Channel?

[SevEre]

Ok i have 1 stick of Crucial DDR2 533 ram. I wanna know if i were to trade this for 2 512MB sticks would it improve performance? So basically which would be faster 1GB stick or 2 512MB sticks?

[BillLeeLee]

2 sticks probably, since Pentium 4s crave the bandwidth dual channel provides.

[SevEre]

Any other opinions? I need to know so i can trade the 1gb stick for 2 512 sticks,

[FunkStar]

As long as the ram your trading it for isnt lower quality then yes i'd definately trade. Your ram speed will go up by like 30% - 40%.

You could of course buy another 1 gig but thats kinda expensive :p

So yes, trade it if your not getting crap quality in return.

[SevEre]

Wow 30-40% thats a lot. Thanks guys i think i made my decision, im gonna trade this one for 2 512 sticks.

[FunkStar]

Just remember thats memory speed and not FPS. Itll load things alot quicker etc but your framerate might only go up by 10% - 15% or so

[SevEre]

Thats fine. :-D

[siegecraft4]

Actually, I would reconsider your decision. You could always purchase another gig somewhere down the road when the price gets even lower. Trading now seems like taking a step backwards.

Find out if your board supports a 2 x 512, 1 x 1 gig dual channel configuration. This is possible on some boards if you use the right slots. If you want more memory performance you could buy another 512 stick now and another 512 later to enable dual channel.

[SevEre]

Actually, I would reconsider your decision. You could always purchase another gig somewhere down the road when the price gets even lower. Trading now seems like taking a step backwards.

Find out if your board supports a 2 x 512, 1 x 1 gig dual channel configuration. This is possible on some boards if you use the right slots. If you want more memory performance you could buy another 512 stick now and another 512 later to enable dual channel.

My first thought was to purchase another 1GB chip, But i really think 2GB of ram is just overkill and a waste of money, If i am wrong in my assumptions please reply.

[BillLeeLee]

2 GB will become desired and then necessary sooner than you think, especially if you're a heavy gamer. The games coming out next year will only push hardware requirements higher, and recommended amounts of RAM will probably leap to 1.5 - 2 GB for many of the advanced games (i.e., games based on Doom 3 engine, Crytech engine, Source engine).

Other applications will always love RAM, like video editing, so if you like to do that stuff extensively, more RAM is good.

Other than that, average desktop user can probably skimp along at 512 MB.

[FunkStar]

2 GB will become desired and then necessary sooner than you think, especially if you're a heavy gamer. The games coming out next year will only push hardware requirements higher, and recommended amounts of RAM will probably leap to 1.5 - 2 GB for many of the advanced games (i.e., games based on Doom 3 engine, Crytech engine, Source engine).

1 gig is only just becoming the desired level for gaming. Not until about 2006 will i reckon 2gig will have any major advantages over 1gig and by then most of us will have done a refresh anyway. 2gig is only neccesary for heavy use of development software like 3dsmax and photoshopping massive files. Its true that more ram is better but the small advantages of such a large amount of ram in games wouldnt outweigh the price factor IMO. Can always just buy another 2x512mb later anyway :)

[Elijah]

Yes I am curious too, I am gonna get a new setup soon and have been reading for a few days and ddr2 seems great but can saya 1 gig stick be used next to a 512 meg stick and use the dual channel capability? I want to start with a 1 gig stick (same price as 2 512's) how does this work. Any where we can find more info?

Or if i get 2 - 512's and add 2 gig sticks later can the 512's do dual channel and then the gigs do dual channel??