Upgrading to Dual Channel?

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Sapphire Medal

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Aug 8, 2015
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I recently bought a new gaming laptop that comes with a single Ripjaws 16Gb stick. I've heard that having dual channel memory can actually boost your performance by about 7% or higher.

I'm thinking of adding a 4Gb stick of the same brand and specs for about $30. Would this be worth it?

(By the way, keep in mind that this gaming laptop has an i7-6700HQ which will only support RAM speeds of 2133MHz since that is all it will recognize. Although the 16Gb stick is 2400MHz, it's running @ 2133MHz.)

Current 16 Gb Stick: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017UC3UFC
4 Gb Stick for dual-channel upgrade: https://www.amazon.com/G-SKILL-Ripjaws
 
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Multipack
It isn't that SODIMM can run differently, because a) it's the motherboard that does thr running and b) all modern RAM will run asymmetrically, but similar to Intel's FLEX system, it will only run as dual channel up to the capacity of the smallest chip, and be a kind of faux dual channel setup, providing your board/chipset plays well and you have a sufficient IMC on your CPU, which with a sixth-gen i7 you will, even if it's a gimped one.

The extra RAM will result in better latency but it may also result in BSOD overload. For $30 it's probably worth a try ;)
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Multipack

Multipack

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Sep 5, 2016
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For gaming you aren't going to get a 7% boost. For general system latency you may see a slight difference, but for games you wont see any, especially if mismatching the RAM chips, but they should run ok, although it probably wont be dual channel http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/000005657.html

"Rules to enable dual-channel mode
To achieve dual-channel mode, the following conditions must be met:

Same memory size. Examples: 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB.
Matched DIMM configuration in each channel
Matched in symmetrical memory slots

Configurations that do not match the above conditions revert to single-channel mode. The following conditions do not need to be met:

Same brand
Same timing specifications
Same speed (MHz)"
 
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Sapphire Medal

Sapphire Medal

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Aug 8, 2015
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Although this is true for DIMM RAM (Desktop), SODIMM can run Asymmetric Dual Channel with mismatching capacities. It won't be as impactful as symmetric dual-channel, but it's an improvement to single-channel.

Honestly I just went ahead and bought the stick. It's $30 and in the event it doesn't want to run dual, I'll just return it.
 
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Multipack

Multipack

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Sep 5, 2016
4,283
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9,960
It isn't that SODIMM can run differently, because a) it's the motherboard that does thr running and b) all modern RAM will run asymmetrically, but similar to Intel's FLEX system, it will only run as dual channel up to the capacity of the smallest chip, and be a kind of faux dual channel setup, providing your board/chipset plays well and you have a sufficient IMC on your CPU, which with a sixth-gen i7 you will, even if it's a gimped one.

The extra RAM will result in better latency but it may also result in BSOD overload. For $30 it's probably worth a try ;)
 
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