Dual Channel DDR Question

I have 3 sticks of PC2700 256MB for a total of 768MB. Now, my question is, am I using Dual Channel High Performance when I have all 3 sticks in? It says it's enabled when I boot. But I'm not sure if it's just detecting it or actually using it. Or am I better off taking one stick out and leaving 2? Also, jsut to be absolutely sure, is there a benchmark for RAM?

afaik, dual DDR can only be used with either 2 or 4 sticks of RAM...

with the IC7 (abit) u must insert 2 the same sticks into dimm1 and 3 for dual DDR, but for DUAL DDR with 4 sticks , i must simply fill it all with same ram, so you have either got 2 sticks of dual DDR and one solo..

or u havent got dual ddr at all...

you would have 512MB of your ram in dual channel and the last 256 in single channel. Dual channel works on 2 or 4 sticks like the guy above me said, your mianboard has 2 memory channels, so 2 would be in the same channel and another would be in the other, understand? if you had 4 sticks, 2 would be in each channel offering 100% even dual channel, same goes with 2 sticks, one in each channel.

and indeed, to know which sticks run dual channel, consult your mobo's manual

Ok, so out of my 3 sticks, 2 of them are in dual channel mode and one is in single mode. Correct? See I was wondering like, say I have PC3200...2 sticks of it.....and one PC2700....I'd assume they would all run at PC2700. But the speed of the dual channel and the single channel are different. Because you have 2 memory channels, so 2 sticks run dual channel without the 3rd single channel stick bringing it down. THat make sense?

ehm, afaik, as long as u have the PC3200 in dual mode, that will perform good..

but the single mode PC2700, dunno if it brings down overall performance..... though its a safe bet to say it does..

I was saying if i had PC3200.....i have all PC2700. Basically I was asking if the single channel would affect the dual channel.

dont think so.......

btw: sorry 'bout misreading

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Jognt > You have buautiful avatar

XunknownX > Yours is nice too

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actually guys, you can run dual channel with 3 sticks of ram.
it's probably different with intel boards (since you have 4 dimm slots), but with nforce2 (3 dimm slots), having all 3 filled keeps dual channel.

well, i know for sure, 100%, that it's like that with my nf7-s, i don't see why it wouldn't be with his msi board.

basically, slot1 and 2 are combined for one channel, and slot 3 are combined for the 2nd channel. 100% you can keep dual channel with the 3 slots combined.

however, you should keep the sizes the same. unfortunately, you bought 3 sticks of 256mb, so i have no real experience if that will cause a performance hit, but i know what most people is get 2x256mb for now, and put them in slot 1 and 3 or slot 2 and 3 in dual channel. then when they want to upgrade to 1gb, they buy a 512mb stick, and then move the 2x256mb sticks into slot 1 and 2 and then the 512mb into the 3rd slot, and maintain dual channel. so you have 512mb in the first channel and 512mb in the second channel. i'm pretty sure you can run dual channel with different memory sizes, (ie. a 512 "stick" and a 256stick) but i have no idea if there is a performance hit or something, so i'm not sure what it'll be like if you have 3 256mb sticks.

what you should do if you can is sell that 256mb stick, and then buy a 512mb stick. you'll have a nice gig of ram, and should run dual channel as well (again, i'm not 100% sure about your board, but i don't see why it would be any different than my nf7-s)

edit for clarification

ah indeed, totally forgot about checking how many dimm slots the MSI K7N2G-L had... well indeed 3. ....

so he could indeed run all in dual DDR


edit: Klenot, thanks, and i know thats why i use it at all 10 forums i am registered

10 Forums? I couldn't keep up with 4 forums. I just use this one. And yes, Jack Sparrow rules.

OT/ 10 forums
1: TTR
2: my TTR clan
3: this forum
4: my MMORPG alliance forum
5: SF forum
6: other TTr clan forum
7: second alliance forum for the MMORPG
8: GTA3 forums
9: RO forums (mod for UT2k3/4 ggreat!, better than CS*10, oh wait, wot isnt better than CS )
oh, not 10, 9

jognt, all nforce2 boards have 3 dimm slots, except for one, i think the gigabyte nforce2 ultra 400 board has 4 (the one with ide raid as well), but afaik, that's the only one.