RAM question

[Stone]

Hi,

I have some nvidia chipset mobo, with 2*256 memory.

There is 3 places for memory on the mobo. One is colored diferently from the ohter two.

I recall that there is some advantage to have only 2 memory things, that are of some special type.

Maybe it was some kind of dual channel or somthing like that, I guess its generall knowlage, but I have not studied memory for a while.

Now some suggest that I should upgrade from 512 - 1 GB, that it would probobly make my PC faster ?

So, will my PC be faster if I buy one 512MB or do I have to take out the two 256 and buy two 512?

Or maybe I just buy one 256MB

I wonder if the performance increase is marginall, with having the "dual channel" thing. (if that is the correct term to begin with)

[Schutt]

Can you by chance find out what brand and type your motherboard is?

It usually flashes up on boot screen or is readably somewhere on your motherboard.

Also all kind of tools can tell it... sisoft sandra for example.

[whels]

ur MB probably has duel channel mem option 1st n 3rd slot. if u put 2 mem sticks , 1 in ech slot, it will run slightly faster.

and unless ur running win98,   especially if ur running Win XP
it needs more ram then 512, other wise it will run slower.

i have 1 gig mem, with win XP loaded, and AH2 running. i have about 200 meg mem free.

Originally posted by Stone
Hi,

I have some nvidia chipset mobo, with 2*256 memory.

There is 3 places for memory on the mobo. One is colored diferently from the ohter two.

I recall that there is some advantage to have only 2 memory things, that are of some special type.

Maybe it was some kind of dual channel or somthing like that, I guess its generall knowlage, but I have not studied memory for a while.

Now some suggest that I should upgrade from 512 - 1 GB, that it would probobly make my PC faster ?

So, will my PC be faster if I buy one 512MB or do I have to take out the two 256 and buy two 512?

Or maybe I just buy one 256MB

I wonder if the performance increase is marginall, with having the "dual channel" thing. (if that is the correct term to begin with)

[Stone]

Originally posted by Schutt
Can you by chance find out what brand and type your motherboard is?

It usually flashes up on boot screen or is readably somewhere on your motherboard.

Also all kind of tools can tell it... sisoft sandra for example.

Thanks guys,

I posted from work, and could not remeber what the MOBO was called. But now Im at home, so I can see the MOBO manual. It is a :
K7N2 Delta series with NVIDIA nForce 2 chipset.

It says in the manual :
"Please note that the system supports 128-bit dual channel DDR when you install DDR modules on DIMM1 and DIMM3, or DIMM2 and DIMM3."

So I guess if I put a third DIMM into the last free spot, I aint gona have no 128-bit dual channel DDR.

But I have no idea what that means. If it means 5+ frame rate drop in game, I can not afford it.

Or if my PC will actrually get SLOWER after the memory upgrade with 3 DIMM, I dont want it either...

Well I guess I could first buy one 512MB and then if the PC feels slower, I buy a second 512MB and give the 2*256MB to some one else.

[Schutt]

The manual makes it sound like you will loose dual channle mode with three sticks. Makes it a bit slower than with dual channle but i doubt that is noticeable in ah.

Still i dont understand why you should loose the dual channle mode.

[buzkill]

my last board was a k7n2 delta (good bang for the buck btw) and the best setup i had was 2x512 ddr400. still never found out why it would lose dual channel with 3, but 1 gig should do you just fine. what cpu you have? mine was xp3200+ and it performed almost as good as my 3000+ 64bit.

[Stone]

I have a XP2800 prosessor. I do get 75 frames if I use 512 textures, and thats prety good I think

[SkyGnome]

Losing dual channel is no big deal for Athlon XP boards.  You can tell in memory benchmarks, but in real software the difference is usually low single-digit percents - if it's noticeable at all.

[buzkill]

don't know for myself....tried a 3rd one and my machine wouldn't start....acted like i overclocked it way too far...had to reset my j10 and j11 jumpers to get it back:rolleyes: