Nforce duel channel achievable with 2 normal sticks of 3200+ ram?

[amsties]

iv just been down to my local computer retailer and ordered a Abit nf7-s 2.0, Barton 2500 and 2 sticks of geil 3500 ram. he told me that duel channel on nforce boards need duel channel ram like corsair twinx ram at pc3200+ speeds. is this true? will i be able to achieve duel channel with 2 sticks of normal geil 3500s. has anyone ran at duel with 2 normal 3200+ ram? also anyone run geil 3500s? if so how are they. any trouble overclocking??

[breez]

Bull****.

[deeppow]

Breez is being kind!!!

I would minimize my business with anyone that tried to pass that cra* off on me. They aren't out to help you, only maximize their sells. :mad:

Don't know where you live but there are a number of excellent on-line sellers to us in the US. :cool:

By the way, 2 "normal" sticks should work fine.

[BadThad]

There's no difference. It's killin me seeing people label ram as "dual channel".

I have an nForce2 mobo running two plain, old vanilla Micron PC2100 DDR @ 302MHz in dual channel mode. Do you think dual channel DDR mobos were even around when this ancient ram was manufactured? NOT, lol. Of couse, I guess I could slap on some "Enhanced Dual Channel" stickers to it and sell it for a premium, hahahahaha.

[drshivas]

Agreed. You are either being lied to or that person is misinformed. IMO, if you get the chance, correct them.

[Buhammot]

I am runnin 2x512 PC3200 Geil sticks @333mhz, for the 1:1 ratio. But it has a small performance gain on my nforce2 board.

by the way, what is IMO?

[Jay23]

Originally posted by Buhammot
I am runnin 2x512 PC3200 Geil sticks @333mhz, for the 1:1 ratio. But it has a small performance gain on my nforce2 board.

by the way, what is IMO?

IMO = In my opinion

How much of a perfomance gain is there with dual channel? I hear/read alot about it but never see how much performance is increased

[deeppow]

Originally posted by Jay23
How much of a perfomance gain is there with dual channel? I hear/read alot about it but never see how much performance is increased

Here (http://home.earthlink.net/~deeppow/OC_Guide/Sync_Async_performance_comparison.htm) is a comparison using Prime95 benchmark as the testing utility.

[Mustanley]

Here is some testing I did using Sandra and 3dmark2001se.
This is with the Barton/A7N8X Deluxe machine listed in my sig, including 2 GeIL PC3500 dimms.

210x12 dual channel) Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 3186,3031
3Dmark2001 - 19454

210x12 single channel) Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 3107,2875
3Dmark2001 - 19345

200x12 dual channel) Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 3070,2926
3Dmark2001 - 19140

200x12 singlel channel) Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 2946,2737
3Dmark2001 - 18764

[Gautam]

Normally, dual channel will give you from 4%-9% if you're lucky. I wouldn't think that gains would be easily visible in Prime95, since its more processor intensive than anything else, right? In your results, though, you can see that in some places, dual channel appears to have more of an advantage than others, specifically at 180mhz. Its in some situations that dual channel efficiency tends to skyrocket; from what I know, its most pronounced above the 230mhz range.

[deeppow]

Originally posted by Gautam
Normally, dual channel will give you from 4%-9% if you're lucky. I wouldn't think that gains would be easily visible in Prime95, since its more processor intensive than anything else, right?

No, it is a combo of cpu and memory and is more closely related to applications than is Sandra for example (that doesn't say that Sandra isn't useful but that I rather have a more integrate performance).

The numbers are there and you see a differences. Calculate the percentages, as you approach a fsb of 200 they are the same you quote. The results came from samples of 10 runs for each fsb and are statistically different with good confidence levels. You do see a clear difference.

Dual channel has much bigger advantages for Intel systems than AMD. The Intel cpu can make use of the bandwidth. The AMD cpu is fsb limited (known for several years) and as the fsb increases this bottleneck is clearly shown as the SC results approach the DC results where the DC bandwidth is of decreasing value to the cpu.

[james.miller]

as others have told you, it is complete rubbish. I'm running 227mhz dc with standard twinmos pc3200 with no problems whatsoever.

[deeppow]

Originally posted by james.miller
as others have told you, it is complete rubbish. I'm running 227mhz dc with standard twinmos pc3200 with no problems whatsoever.

Absolutely correct!

Buy it the cheapest way you can (separate sticks if needed). Mushkin is the only brand that I've seen that sells a dual pack at twice the cost of 1 stick. That comment isn't meant to say you should buy Mushkin, there are a number of good brands around.

I bought my ram at different times. You would like the same type and rated ram (mine is) but even that might not be necessary (you'll be limited by the "slowest" stick).

:cool:

[Fast420A]

I'm running 2 PC2100 sticks right now, both just happen to be the same chip, Elixer, but I bought them at different times. One is single sided and the other is dual sided and they show up at startup running in dual channel mode. The over pricing is because they SAY that the dual channel kits are a matched pair usually.