12GB triple channel or 16GB dual channel?

dmosier

Honorable
Aug 26, 2012
4
0
10,510
I currently have 6GB of RAM (3x2gb sticks) on my GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R and I need to upgrade it to make better use of my Adobe CS 5.5 software. I am also using Win7 Ultimate 64bit.

The info on my motherboard says it is capable of running dual and triple channel DDR3 memory and I was wondering if the advantages of running 12 gigs in triple channel is outweighed by running 16 gigs in dual channel.

I am inclined to think the efficiency of 3 channel 12GB would be better than the 16GB in dual but I wanted to confirm this with people with more knowledge before I pull the trigger on it.

Thank you,
Damon
 

dmosier

Honorable
Aug 26, 2012
4
0
10,510
Well, my motherboard can handle up to 16GB and Adobe After Effects requires a lot of RAM to do playback with all the effects layers. I just wasn't sure if the extra 4 gigs of memory in dual channel would actually give better performance than a slightly lower amount of memory in three channels. 12 will work just fine, but I wanted to maximize the performance of my computer.

So just to be clear, am I to take it that you are, indeed, saying 16 gigs in dual channel is still better than 12 in three channel?