1gb in dual channel vs 1.5 gb

[felixk]

So up until now I had 1gb of pny ddr 400 (pc3200) (2 x 512 mb). The other week my computer started crashing and after running memtest i discovered that one of the sticks was bad. I called pny since the sticks have a lifetime warranty but you need the original receipt which I do not have.

So I went to circuit city and picked up 2 512 sticks of kingston pc3200, 400 mhz for $50.

Here is my question:

Will a notice a significant boost in performance having 1.5 gb or Ram over 1 gb in dual channel?

I have an AMD sempron 2500+ and a geforce fx5900 xt.

I do not overclock, mainly use my computer for music, some light photoshopping, and gaming (but nothing too heavy, right now I am still playing Rome:Total War).


This system is obviously a couple years old and I plan to upgrade probably at the end of this year, but i would like to beef up my ram in the meanwhile.

Thanks for your help.

 

[NaDa]

I would go with 1.5gigs in single channel.

Dual channel helps in some cases. Things do load faster but that's about it.
I have seen very little games that can benefit from dual channel. It's usualt a 5-10% difference in games I would say.

It's best to try both and see what you like more. Try some benchmarking in games or just use a fraps and see if your fps drops significantly.