Dual Channel question

I have an Asus Crosshair mobo which of course supports dual channel RAM. I also have 32 bit vista, which I hear supports a max of 3ish gigs of RAM. I currently am using 2x 1 gig sticks and I'm wondering if I added 2x 512mb sticks if I'd still be using dual channel mode and if it would still be as fast. I'd then have 2 channels each with 1.5gigs for a total of 3 gigs, which seems like the best way to go. Any thoughts on the matter? Thanks.

breakspirit said:

I have an Asus Crosshair mobo which of course supports dual channel RAM. I also have 32 bit vista, which I hear supports a max of 3ish gigs of RAM. I currently am using 2x 1 gig sticks and I'm wondering if I added 2x 512mb sticks if I'd still be using dual channel mode and if it would still be as fast. I'd then have 2 channels each with 1.5gigs for a total of 3 gigs, which seems like the best way to go. Any thoughts on the matter? Thanks.

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EXACTLY what you'd have depends on exactly what hardware your board has, but consider this:

Your OS is seeing 2 gigs in one bank, and 1 gig in the other. No more. Which means that your #1 bank (your second bank, since they start with bank 0), is not above to be interleaved, at all.

Interleaving is at least as good a benefit to RAM bankdwidth as dual channel.

So yes, your RAM subsystem would benefit from the change you propose, because it would allow the OS to fully interleave memory accesses. (The benefit would be very slight, from the user's perspective, however.)

Adak

Is there a superior way to get 3 gigs of ram? Are we in agreement that 3 gigs of RAM, in the way I described, is the absolute best thing I can do(also better than just staying at 2gigs), short of using vista 64bit?

Are you going to be overclocking? Only downside I see is you may lose some mhz but if that doesn't phase you 3GB will probably be better than 2GB. Provided you are running programs that will take advantage of it.

Well I don't plan to overclock, but I am a really heavy gamer. Games are the absolutely only reason I'd get more RAM. I guess I don't know that I'd need it, just kind of assuming

What games are you playing?

currently things like oblivion on max settings and battlefield2142 maxed also. I'm using an 8800gtx and an athlon 6000, do you guys think getting another gig is a good idea?