4Gb Dual Channel vs 6Gb

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FlyerDragon

FlyerDragon

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Oct 19, 2013
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Hi everybody,
Almost two years ago, my friends gave me Corsair XMS3 DDR3 3x2GB. I was already thinking to upgrade my computer so I went for it and these are my computer specs:

Intel Core i5-2500K
Asus P8P67 PRO Rev3.1
Corsair XMS3 DDR3 2x2Gb
Ati Sapphire HD 5770
Kingston SSD 64Gb
WesternDigital HD 300Gb
LC Power LC6550 Green Power 550W
LG Flatron W2253V 23'' 1920x1080

At the time I thought that 4Gb were really enough and since my motherboard didn't support Triple-channel (Triple-channel Motherboards were really expensive), I decided to use just 4Gb but in Dual-channel.
Now I'm thinking "Does it actually worth the sacrifice of 2Gb?".
I could either stay with 4Gb in Dual Channel or go for 6Gb sacrificing the Dual channel.
What are your thoughts?

Thanks in advance!
 
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jbseven

jbseven

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Performance-wise it makes little difference whether you use dual or triple channel configuration.

Today's applications and games however can use the extra memory to improve performance. In this case 6GB is marginally better than 4 GB.

8GB in dual channel would certainly be more useful than 4 or 6 gb so that is something to consider.
 
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Quaddro

Quaddro

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with 4gb+2gb configuration, that's will be 2gb + 2gb (from 4gb) will be dual channel, and the rest will run in single channel..

You'll get same capacity in your dual channel speed, and the rest half of the original speed.

Not to shabby..
 
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FlyerDragon

FlyerDragon

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Really? Are you sure that an asymmetrical configuration does not disable dual channel? If some of the memory is slower than the remaining, shouldn't the overall memory adapt to the slower part?
 
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Quaddro

Quaddro

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owh, i'm sorry..i'm a little bit miss understood about your question in the opening post..

If you buy 1 single stick of 4gb memory, and put it as dual channel with your 2gb memory, then this is will run as dual channel like i was explained before.
Because you only have 2 stick of memory on your system.

but,
if you add third memory in the third slot, then yes, it will be run at single channel.

the easiest solution to your problem..
Go buy one more stick of 2gb memory.
So you'll have 4 sticks of 2gb memory (8gb), and not lose dual channel performance.
 
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FlyerDragon

FlyerDragon

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Oct 19, 2013
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I know, that would certainly be the easiest solution, however the sticks I was given are CL7. This makes them pretty rare to find, pretty expensive and they are only sold in sets of 2x2gb, 3x2gb, 4x2gb. By the way, the last one is a problem also for the CL9 version.

Since I'm thinking about graphic card and psu upgrades, I really don't want to spend more on memory, this is why I'm asking which one between those two configuration is better (4gb dual channel vs 6gb).

I use my computer mainly for gaming (i.e. Battlefield 3, League of Legends, Battlefield 4...), maybe this could be helpful to evaluate the configurations.

Thanks again!
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

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Run them in slots 1-2-3, if the mobo supports flex mode, think it does you'll have 4 in dual and 2 in single - all will still run at full freq, if any problem running them can raise DRAM voltage + 0.06 and should stabilize if not will need a bit of MC voltage
 
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FlyerDragon

FlyerDragon

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Oct 19, 2013
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Does my mobo support flex mode? What software do you advice to benchmark memory performances? Since the gain from dual channel is usually <5% I definitely need something to actually see and evaluate the differences
 
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