Am I running on dual channel?

Imz Deodex

Honorable
Oct 15, 2014
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Hello. I have mixed ram... both are from Kingston but the other one is 8gb Kingston hyper x 1600mhz ddr3 (10-10-10-30) while the other is from Kingston an ordinary 4gb ram also at 1600 MHz but with (11-11-11-30) anyway I installed both on the dual channel slots and tweaked the timing of the 4gb to match my 8gb at (10-10-10-30)

my motherboard is msi z77mag45. This is what cpu z is showing:

https://s29.postimg.org/dyabryd0n/ram.jpg
 
Solution
The 4GB stick is in the channel. There is a matching amount of memory available in the 8GB stick in the same channel, so the first 4GB of memory in that 8GB stick can be addressed for dual channel. The remaining amount has no match in the same channel and goes unpaired.

So you do have 8GB of memory running in dual channel, plus an additional 4GB running in single channel mode. But it is not the 4GB memory stick that is running in single channel, half the 8GB stick is.

The board is capable of dual channel when the slots are populated with matching ram.
Honestly, there is really not that much difference in performance between dual and single channel access. You would probably only notice it in benchmarks.

 

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
This is actually something CPU-Z doesn't account for.

I assume 1x4GB and 1x8GB installed in matching channels? In which case you actually have 4GB running in dual channel with the first 4GB of the 8GB stick. The remainder is running in single channel mode.

You can also achieve dual channel with configs like 2x4GB + 1x8GB (It treats the pair as a single 8GB stick)
 

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
The 4GB stick is in the channel. There is a matching amount of memory available in the 8GB stick in the same channel, so the first 4GB of memory in that 8GB stick can be addressed for dual channel. The remaining amount has no match in the same channel and goes unpaired.

So you do have 8GB of memory running in dual channel, plus an additional 4GB running in single channel mode. But it is not the 4GB memory stick that is running in single channel, half the 8GB stick is.
 
Solution