Why are people running configurations with 3gb of ram now?

I

imzjustplayin

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jan 24, 2006
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While you do lose your ram to the system if you choose to go to 4GB and run a 32bit OS, woudln't one be better off running 2X2GB than these 3GB memory configurations? (2X512MB+2X1GB) or 3X1gb? Don't these people realize they're losing dual channel when they do this?
 
XP allows somewhere around 3.75GB of RAM, that's including your video card's RAM. 3GB of system memory plus your video memory comes very close to this limit. That's all I can think of.
 
I think he means, why are people not running 2 or 4 ram modules and instead running 3x1GB which means they can not use dual channel.
 
Why are people using over 2GB for anything than servers?

I thought 2GB is MORE THAN enough, but if it isnt, sometime tell me.

When it comes quad-core time, and I make an almost complete upgrade, I don't want my RAM to be slacking.
 
ShiningHolden said:
Why are people using over 2GB for anything than servers?

I thought 2GB is MORE THAN enough, but if it isnt, sometime tell me.

When it comes quad-core time, and I make an almost complete upgrade, I don't want my RAM to be slacking.
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Cause they're tools and decided to use vista?
 
ShiningHolden said:
Why are people using over 2GB for anything than servers?

I thought 2GB is MORE THAN enough, but if it isnt, sometime tell me.

When it comes quad-core time, and I make an almost complete upgrade, I don't want my RAM to be slacking.
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No I wouldnt say MORE than enough but yea enough. What I mean is I wouldnt have less than 2 gigs these days. A couple years ago 1 gig was plenty.


PS.. I game a little
 
2GB is plenty. Id say currently, anything over that is a waste. I know some people will argue otherwise, but their minimal improvement is not worth the extra price. Seeing as how 32bit systems are limited to 3gb, and I personally would never run an odd amount of memory like 3gb, might as well stay at 2gb. :p
 
I upped to 4 gigs because RAM is dirt cheap right now. No I didn't need it, but I will eventually, and as i don't plan on doing another build for quite some time, I might as well get it while it's cheap. It's not like it's hurting anything to have the extra ram... some people in this thread seem sore in the ass that anyone would dare use more than 2 gigs.
 
ShiningHolden said:
Why are people using over 2GB for anything than servers?

I thought 2GB is MORE THAN enough, but if it isnt, sometime tell me.

When it comes quad-core time, and I make an almost complete upgrade, I don't want my RAM to be slacking.
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It is pretty sad, but I have seen "supremecommander.exe" assigned >2.2GB of RAM all by itself according to Task Manager during a game. I run Vista, so the OS takes up more than XP would and that means my 3GB setup is pretty much perfect. I use 2x512MB and 2x1GB modules, since I was interested in maintaining "dual channel" benefits.

Games are not going to start using less RAM as time goes on.

If you don't game, >2GB RAM doesn't help out. Also, certainly most games wouldn't use >2GB of RAM. Eventually, but not yet.
 
SupCom is EXTREMELY raw power hungry, cpu clock speed wise...Ive never had supcom use more than 1.5gb , that was on a 3vs3 huge map
 
TigerLord said:
SupCom is EXTREMELY raw power hungry, cpu clock speed wise...Ive never had supcom use more than 1.5gb , that was on a 3vs3 huge map
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I see >1.7GB pretty often on 1 vs 3 with 750 unit caps on the Earth Conquest downloadable 81X81 map against Sorian and Supreme AI computer opponents. The >2.2GB I recall specifically during a 2 vs 4 LAN game where I hosted for me and my roommate against Sorian and Supreme AIs on the Earth Conquest map w/ 750 unit caps. That RAM amount was after a few hours of play, however.
 
because dual channel doesn't offer a huge advantage in games. also, if you run 4 identical modules you will have dual channel. i have 2gb now, plan on getting another 2x1 set when the time comes.
 
LawGiver said:
because dual channel doesn't offer a huge advantage in games. also, if you run 4 identical modules you will have dual channel. i have 2gb now, plan on getting another 2x1 set when the time comes.
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You aren't in dual channel if you use 3 modules however or if they're not matched such as 2X1GB+2X512
 
imzjustplayin said:
You aren't in dual channel if you use 3 modules however or if they're not matched such as 2X1GB+2X512
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Not with only 3 modules (unless you're on an NF2 or was it NF3?). But with 2x1GB and 2X512MB you will get dual channel operation as long as you have one 1GB and one 512MB stick in each channel.
 
ryan_975 said:
Not with only 3 modules (unless you're on an NF2 or was it NF3?). But with 2x1GB and 2X512MB you will get dual channel operation as long as you have one 1GB and one 512MB stick in each channel.
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Once again no. If you're on an NF2/NF3 you will NOT get dual channel unless you stick with 2 modules that are matched, while there are 3 slots, you cannot use all 3 and still have dual channel.

I was under the impression that you need to have matched pairs in order to have dual channel to work, even if that means 4 of the same modules. I know you can mix and match ss and ds modules but that'd kill performance.
 
imzjustplayin said:
Once again no. If you're on an NF2/NF3 you will NOT get dual channel unless you stick with 2 modules that are matched, while there are 3 slots, you cannot use all 3 and still have dual channel.

I was under the impression that you need to have matched pairs in order to have dual channel to work, even if that means 4 of the same modules. I know you can mix and match ss and ds modules but that'd kill performance.
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My system ran in dual channel just fine when I had in configured with 2x1GB and 2x512MB. I've since sold the 2x1GB off though.

and s quick seach would have shown you that the NF2 is in fact capable of running dual channel with three modules. http://www.nforcershq.com/article623.html
 
ryan_975 said:
My system ran in dual channel just fine when I had in configured with 2x1GB and 2x512MB. I've since sold the 2x1GB off though.

and s quick seach would have shown you that the NF2 is in fact capable of running dual channel with three modules. http://www.nforcershq.com/article623.html
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Oh, never knew that. Yeah so I guess you have to use a memory module that is the sum of the two memory modules that are in dual channel. So if you have 2X512MB then you'd need a 1GB to occupy the 3rd slot. I'm currently testing out 2X1GB+2X512MB in my rig to see how it goes, can't imagine it being too pretty.
 
LawGiver said:
duh! and thats what I said. not too bright are you?
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actually it turns out you CAN run run dual channel with 2X1GB and 2X512MB in the same system. Still don't know about the 3rd module thing for NF2+NF3 boards but I could test it. When I tried the 2X512MB+2X1GB on my system it worked but the MB/s for the memory dropped by 1000MB/s for memtest86.
 
I've seen older Dell P4 systems and K7 system report that they were running in dual channel mode when configured with 3 sticks of memory. Anyways, given the price of 2GB memory sticks I don't see why people would want to cry over a missing 0.75GB of memory from 4GB. For People like me who don't like to reboot or close off applications, we often see memory usages approaching 3GB. Hell, I've seen Firefox take up over a gig of memory by itself. With openoffice, the GIMP and few other apps another gig is easily chewed up. That leaves the final gig for the important stuff, gaming.:rolleyes:
 
For gaming you don't really need more then 2Gb RAM right now but there are some people who use their rigs for things other than gaming. People who render pictures and artwork will benefit from more RAM. Some cant afford more than one PC so they opt to get a rig that goes 4Gb or more and they use it for work (rendering) and play (gaming).

For those that choose 3Gb I'd say it's like mentioned above. They are trying to not go over the limitations of the XP O/S
 
XP (32 bit) supports 4GB of memory. However, your video card is part of that memory. Therefore if you have a 0.5GB card, you can only access 3.5GB of RAM.
 
I ran dual channel in my nForce2 with 3 slots

2x256
1x512

Dual channel worked perfectly wtf tool
 
Well for me, my gigabyte p25-ds3r + winxp just doesnt like 4 gig ram. Tried everything but still it boots up after the windows xp screen flashes..

Tried installing vista and all was okay but then only prob is that i feel and my 3dmark score's confirms that running 4 gig mem was making my system slower... Now i'm back to winxp + 3 gig of mushkin value rams and boy its fast hehehehe
 
Trepidati0n said:
XP (32 bit) supports 4GB of memory. However, your video card is part of that memory. Therefore if you have a 0.5GB card, you can only access 3.5GB of RAM.
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The situation is a lot worse than that. First of all, if you have 32 bit Vista, you don't get any more than 3.12 gigs of RAM no matter what hardware you have. See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/929605 .

Also, there are people with two video cards and lots of hard drives and such who are reporting having 2.5 gigs of RAM (instead of 4), or even less.
 
kent said:
I ran dual channel in my nForce2 with 3 slots

2x256
1x512

Dual channel worked perfectly wtf tool
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by definition, it couldn't have been running dual channel because you would have needed 4 RAM slots and 4 sticks of memory. You could have run 2x256 and 2x512 together, but not 2x256 and 1x512 and have it be dual channel. If you filled all three RAM slots, it would have defaulted to single channel.
 
kirbyrj said:
by definition, it couldn't have been running dual channel because you would have needed 4 RAM slots and 4 sticks of memory. You could have run 2x256 and 2x512 together, but not 2x256 and 1x512 and have it be dual channel. If you filled all three RAM slots, it would have defaulted to single channel.
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This has already been discussed and a link provided. The NF2 chipset has two memory conrollers on it. The first one is tied to the single slot by itself, the other to the two slots together. The only requirement for dual channel on a NF2 system is that both channels be populated with the same amount of RAM. So 2x256MB in one channel and 1x512MB would meet that requirement.
 
ryan_975 said:
This has already been discussed and a link provided. The NF2 chipset has two memory conrollers on it. The first one is tied to the single slot by itself, the other to the two slots together. The only requirement for dual channel on a NF2 system is that both channels be populated with the same amount of RAM. So 2x256MB in one channel and 1x512MB would meet that requirement.
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oops...during this time period, I had a P4 with the 865 chipset :eek:, and AFAIK, three sticks didn't work in a dual channel config. But essentially, as long as your 2xXXX were exactly half of the 1xXXX you were fine as long as the channels had the same amount of memory. You know...now that I think about it, I do remember hearing this somewhere along the line as I always thought it was strange NF2 boards came with 3 memory slots for dual channel operation.
 
I currently have 3GB, 2 x1G + 2 x 512MB, both dual channel and running perfect.
 
Slozz said:
I currently have 3GB, 2 x1G + 2 x 512MB, both dual channel and running perfect.
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I'm thinking I might end up doing the same to max out my XP rig. 2x512mb shouldn't be that expensive at this point...especially with 2x1GB kits going for $80.
 
imzjustplayin said:
Once again no. If you're on an NF2/NF3 you will NOT get dual channel unless you stick with 2 modules that are matched, while there are 3 slots, you cannot use all 3 and still have dual channel.

I was under the impression that you need to have matched pairs in order to have dual channel to work, even if that means 4 of the same modules. I know you can mix and match ss and ds modules but that'd kill performance.
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You sir are wrong, Nforce 2 run ram in Dual channel even with 3 module installed. I know it because, I have one and it has 3 modules installed.

1x 1GB in slot 1 and 2x512 in 2 and 3 = Dual channel fool... (But only on Nforce 2 boards)
 
I never had much luck with NF3 boards. It seemed like once the memory controller moved on die, 3 dimms suddenly didn't work so well.
 
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