GA EX58 UD3R memory slots

[croc]

As the topic suggests, I have one of these MB's. I currently have three out of four memory slots populated with DDR3 RAM, running happily in DDR3 mode. If I populate the fourth slot, will it affect my performance?

 

[gkay09]

It might as populating the 4th slot, you would loose the tri-channel config and
populating all the slots also imply that you would have to again reset the memory settings as there might be some instability issues with the speed...

But it depends more on the apps that you are using...
If the apps are more of RAM capacity dependent, then you might not notice much...

But have seen people complaining about slow boot times with all the slots populated that too in Tri-Channel(6 RAM slots)

 

[outlw6669]

That is also my understanding.
Adding the 4th DIMM will drop you down to single channel mode and your bandwidth will tank.

Zip, I am fairly certain having 4 RAM slots on the motherboard instead of 6 was a decision of the motherboard manufacturer not Intel.
It was probably done as a cost saving measure for low tier boards although I am at a loss as to why they would not have just had 3 slots
Possibly they recycled the basic layout from a previous board to save tooling cash??

 

[croc]

It might as populating the 4th slot, you would loose the tri-channel config and
populating all the slots also imply that you would have to again reset the memory settings as there might be some instability issues with the speed...

But it depends more on the apps that you are using...
If the apps are more of RAM capacity dependent, then you might not notice much...

But have seen people complaining about slow boot times with all the slots populated that too in Tri-Channel(6 RAM slots)

Gigabyte's manual is not really clear on this point, and their tech support is almost non-existant... So from what I could get out of all of the above, I think that all four banks go back to DDR2 mode. I could use the extra 2GB for a project coming up, but ACAD just loves DDR3 mode for speed. (OK, My i7 loves it, but you get the meaning)

 

[bilbat]

I would, also, recommend three DIMMs... Methinks the first thing to try is the newest BIOSs; they are supposed to deal with memory troubles extensively; if you have a 1.0, it's F8a:
http://www.mediafire.com/?nrgodznwoyy
if you are lucky enough to have a 1.6, it's FC:
http://www.mediafire.com/?z5z5ngmiqnz

 

[gkay09]

@croc Maybe 3x 4GB sticks could solve your problem...
But for the price of that, you could buy a new board and additional 6GB

 

[croc]

@croc Maybe 3x 4GB sticks could solve your problem...
But for the price of that, you could buy a new board and additional 6GB

I also gave that theory a wee thought, did some pricing.... I don't really remember if I got myself off of the floor or my partner did!

It's not really that important, just some 'pro bono' work for a young, just-out-of-uni architect. But it just got me curious. And gigabyte seems to not have any real answers. Just hoped that someone here had actually tried it.

 

[zeemee1]

I just finished my build using the same board and from my experience using the fourth slot will for sure slow you down noticeably. First thing I noticed was boot time was significantly longer with 4 sticks. I immediately went back to my original config which is 3 x 2gb OCZ and my world is great again. Hope this helped