dual channel mode and CPU-Z

CPU-Z is telling me something I was not expecting, and now I am stumped.

I am running a motherboard that supports DDR400 dual channel mode. I bought two identical DDR400 PC3200 sticks (256MB each), in fact they were a Corsair kit for dual channel mode support.

When I boot up the initial bios screen recognizes the memory (512MB total) and says "Dual Channel Mode Enabled".

So that looks great so far.


However, when I use CPU-Z it is confusing me. On the memory tab, Channel # is just grayed out with no value, and Performance Mode says disabled.

I was expecting Channel # to say 2 or Dual, and I was expecting the Performance mode to say something to reflect I was running in dual mode too I guess.

Help! My system performance definitely improved with this new memory, but I was running DDR266 on a single 512MB stick prior to this upgrade, so I would expect a big improvement even if I was not in dual channel mode.

I just want a way to CONFIDENTLY know I am really utilizing the dual channel mode of my DDR400 sticks. I thought CPU-Z would do that for me, but it is leaving me even less confident than I was before I ran it.

Thanks!

First off, make sure that you put the RAM into the right slots.
On my Abit AI7 (and I am sure all other 865/875 chipset motherboards), you need to put one stick in the first RAM slot, and the other into the 3rd RAM slot.

The performance mode is the intel PAT, which I have not been able to turn on for some reason as my system will not boot with it on, even with my OCZ EL Gold PC3700, but my memory scores are so high that I don't really care at this point.

-Chris

Well, it is 865G based, but it only has 2 DIMM sockets since it is a very small form factor board ( its a small "shuttle style" box and form factor ). The specs of the board say it supports dual channel mode, and there are only 2 slots on the board, so I can't really screw that one up!

The memory I am using is a Corsair kit of 2 256MB DIMMS (512MB total) intended for dual channel use, so that seems okay too.

This Intel PAT thing sounds interesting and I have been reading a bit more about it. What is not clear to me is whether this is something you have to actually "turn on" some way, or if the system/board just automatically does it if you have the correct hardware/configuration to do so. Advice?

I have a similar situation in that my system has been performing very well since I upgraded from PC2100 DDR266 to PC3200 DDR400. So, it isn't really a performance thing, its just the piece of mind and that question in the back of my head asking "should it be even BETTER" ? Especially if I am not actually running in dual channel mode when I think I am.

Thanks,
U.J.

Well, there is one easy way to test it, heh.

run a memory speed test, such as Sandra2004 or aida32 and see the results you get.
When I went from a single stick to this OCZ dual chan kit, the numbers more than doubled.

-Chris