Dual Channel DDR and FS Performance.

[jcmissionary]

A quick question for the tech gurus. I recently put a new motherboard in my computer which supports Dual-Channel DDR 400. In order to take advantage of it, do I need to have 2 sticks of ram? Right now, I have 1 stick of 512MB PC2700 RAM. Will I need another one to use Dual-Channel? And what effect, if any, will this have on both my flightsim performance and general computer performance?

Athlon XP 2400+
512 MB PC2700 DDR RAM
Asus A7N8X MoBo w/ Nvidia Nforce2 chipset.
GeForce4 Ti4200 w/ 64 MB DDR RAM
Soundblaster Audigy

http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...9756c8d5f7.jpg

[rustam]

I'm not a real expert... but I don't think you need 2... If You have 2 bays for RAM in your Motherboard, but you dobn't need both to be filled. I think you only need to put your stick into one of the slots and the extrs dlot id for expansion purposes. I am not sure though.

Rustam

[PC509]

Yes, you would need 2 sticks to take advantage of the Dual Channel DDR configuration. You probably won't notice too big of an improvement, probably in the range of 2-5%...

PC
KPDX
System Specs: P4 2.53, Asus P4S533, 512MB PC2100 DDR, ATI Radeon 9100 64 MB, 40 GB 7200 RPM HD, Beantech Igloo 2 Aluminum Case, Mag 19" Monitor, MS Sidewinder Force Feedback.

[NonCon]

Take a look at your motherboard manual to be sure, but for the most part DDR doesn't have to be installed in pairs (unlike RIMM's). While it doesn't hurt to do so, you'll see little benefit. You would see some increase if you were using the on-board video (if you MB has that 'feature').

BTW I have a Giga-byte MB that handles DDR400, but many reviews have found it too unstable and suggest using DDR333 if you run into problems.

KJ

[Captain_Slarty]

yes, you need 2 sticks - equal types.

your existing 512 is ddr 333, it will work with another 333, but you wont get optimum performance, the difference in using 2*400 as opposed to 2*333 is not worth worrying about though..

as for difference in fs ... ?? hard to say, but it 'should' improve things, possibly 3-10% as the greater ram bandwidth will allow the processor to do more, and, in fs, as we know, it is VERY processor dependant.

Joe.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/captain...s/coolskul.gif

System - >
3gig Intel + .. Size DOES matter

[panzerschiffe]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Mar-10-03 AT 03:50PM (EST)[/font][p]WARNING: If you aren't comfortable with overclocking don't bother with the below info:

At DDR333 (using PC2700 RAM) You'd only get the possible performance boost using a processor that uses a 166 MHz FSB, and at DDR400 (PC3200 RAM) you'd need a processor at 200 FSB to get the max performance out of it.

Right now you'd have to overclock the front side bus speed for practically every processor out there to get the most out of dual channel DDR. But as some people have discovered, the current motherboards coming out with Dual DDR are just begging to be overclocked beyond typical specs (most are rated for 100, 133 and 166FSB's). People running systems at 200 FSB (DDR400) are far from uncommon now. Soon there will be CPU's released that are spec'd for this (200 MHz FSB Barton Athlon and 800 MHz FSB Pentium 4).

More memory bandwidth won't do very much for your Flight Simulator FPS, but for multitasking (running FS along with Sqauwkbox, Roger Wilco, FS Nav, or any of the dozens of other software products that people run concurrently with FS) it will definitely make a difference. Allowing your system to run at a higher front side bus will speed it up more than raising the multiplier on the CPU (overclocking mainly involves manipulating the FSB on the motherboard and the multiplier on the CPU to achieve the fastest, stable combination).

-Albaro Villegas

[link:http://www.thescorned.homestead.com/md11.html|Check out my MD-11!] FDX1243 [link:http://www.vfedex.com|Virtual Fedex]

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[1681137]

I agree with Panzer for tech advices and for benefit in multi tasking. Nevertheless, by overclocking front bus on my A7N8X with Athlon 2.2GHz I encountered many stability problems with first bios motherboard release. A bit less with last updates. But it's painfull for less result than upgrading memory or chip or hardrive or optimizing video in my opinion. therfore I returned to secure stability and don't use dual channel at 200 FSB although I have CORSAIR certified DDR333...