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Parallel Processing, Part 2: RAM and HDD

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Test Results: Single, Dual, Quad Hard Drives

3D Game Benchmarks

There is a noticeable difference between a slow hard drive and fast setups when you load a new game level: the process is completed much faster with a 10,000 RPM Western Digital Raptor, or even a RAID 0 setup. However, our results were difficult to reproduce with adequate accuracy. The waiting time is almost equally short with either two or four hard drives in a RAID 0 array, and as expected, the 3D performance benchmarks don’t show much of a difference.

7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • perzy 08 August 2008 15:11
    This is a great article!
    Reply
  • 16 September 2008 04:40
    (Firt of all: Excuse my poor English... )
    mmm yours memory tests don't convince me. You should run, for example, Winrar AND Lame IN PARALLEL/SIMULTANEOUS (i.e multitasking), otherwise, caches don't are flushed (and it's when dual channel really is important). Note that it's not a superflous situation; under normal use a system commonly have several huge memory applications run concurrently (word, browser whith a lot of tabs open, anti-virus, etc. )
    el_bot
    Reply
  • hellwig 22 November 2008 02:33
    I doubt anyone from Tom's will see this comment on such an old article, but it would have been interesting to see Single-vs.-Dual channel memory using an AMD processor. Since Tom's like Intel, the new Core i7's would also be beneficial. The point is, the article acknowledges the Core 2's have a tremendous amount of L2 cache to combat FSB (and consequently Memory) latencies. How is the comparison with an AMD or nwe Core i7 where there is NO FSB and the L2 Cache is significantly reduce? I would imagine this is where dual/tripple-channel shows is mustard. I hope we see a single vs. dual vs. triple channel comparison soon.
    Reply
  • meodowla 15 September 2009 16:27
    Won't it be different when using a AMD processor with Memory Controller inside CPU.
    Reply
  • junghm69 24 March 2011 11:48
    My Windows Experience Index 3D gaming graphics score goes up from 3.8 to 5.1 when I switch from dual channel to single channel. This makes absolutely no sense. I thought dual channel was supposed to be better than single channel. Can anyone explain this?

    I seriously doubt that this score is accurate. I am using the built in graphics controller on the motherboard which is an AMD 760G chipset (ATI HD 3000 or 3200 I think). I've used Radeon HD 5450 video cards on similar systems and they give me a score of 5.4. How can a built in graphics controller give me a 5.1?

    AMD Athlon II X3 435 Rana (2.9 ghz)
    Asus M4A78LT-M motherboard
    4 GB G.Skill DDR3-1333 (2x2GB) F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT CL9-9-9-24 1.5V
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
    Reply
  • 24 April 2011 07:57
    junghm69
    because if you used 2 different memory chips both will run at the speed of the lowest memory chip when you activate dual channel in your motherboard
    Reply
  • Caramac 08 November 2015 16:05
    That earlier article on Processors doesn't work, so I'll add this:
    Intel HyperThreading - leading to the "H T" on the 'Intel Inside' sticker of computers with that 875p chipset and a single core Pentium 4 processor.
    It equals simulated dual core tech.
    Some Core processors also have HT.
    http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/340555-28-intel-hyperthreading-helpful
    Reply