Does dual channel instead of single channel make a big difference?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
WildCard999

WildCard999

Titan
Moderator
Jul 18, 2014
21,771
1,935
93,640
I've been looking at gaming benchmarks that are a couple of years old as I couldn't find anything newer and it seems that with some games actually run better in single channel.
https://www.hardwaresecrets.com/does-dual-channel-memory-make-difference-in-gaming-performance/

The reason I was looking into this was because I've seen a few budget builds where really the only motherboards that would fit into the budget where MATX and only had two slots. Also in some cases a single 8gb stick was cheaper. Plus it's a lot easier for someone to just add in another 8gb instead of having to sell there 2x4gb kit and then get a 2x8gb kit.
 
Solution
boju
Back in the day the era of Lga 775/1366, GPUs didn't have large amounts of vram. With GPUs and games today, 8GB ram has become a bottleneck. Differences between single and dual channel isn't so much of a concern as it is with capacity.

These days, systems with 4GB+ cards and 8GB ram are finding increased drive activity due to pagefile usage. The OS uses 1.5GB~2GB, that doesn't leave much when considering vram data + other game related stuff that passes back and forth into ram. Pagefile is the next buffer and it will happen and when it does you get stutters. More so in big games that constantly move data around.

16GB is the sweet spot...for now. 2x 8GB or 1x 16GB, difference between single and dual id imagine be marginal or at best...
Sort by date Sort by votes
D

Deleted member 217926

Guest
Depends on the system. Ryzen is obviously more memory dependent than modern Intel architectures.

Back in the LGA 775 era Tom's did some testing that showed a 5-7% overall gain going from single to dual channel. I'd think it would be even more today especially in light of stuff like this.

https://www.overclock.net/forum/18051-memory/1570219-skylake-6700k-memory-tests-speed-vs-latency.html

I'd love to see a real test from somebody with all of the newer architectures included. It seems like I've seen something newer than that old Tom's testing somewhere but I can't ever find it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
boju

boju

Titan
Ambassador
Jul 7, 2008
20,680
2,212
85,890
Back in the day the era of Lga 775/1366, GPUs didn't have large amounts of vram. With GPUs and games today, 8GB ram has become a bottleneck. Differences between single and dual channel isn't so much of a concern as it is with capacity.

These days, systems with 4GB+ cards and 8GB ram are finding increased drive activity due to pagefile usage. The OS uses 1.5GB~2GB, that doesn't leave much when considering vram data + other game related stuff that passes back and forth into ram. Pagefile is the next buffer and it will happen and when it does you get stutters. More so in big games that constantly move data around.

16GB is the sweet spot...for now. 2x 8GB or 1x 16GB, difference between single and dual id imagine be marginal or at best help minimum frame rates somewhat.

I agree, there should be benchies done and imo include storage performances where capacity can matter.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom