3 gigs vs 2 gigs?

[janusx]

Hi, I have the following
Intel Q6600
Nvidia 8800gts 320
MSI p6n Premium Mobo

And my question is whether or not to use my 2 gigs, or 3. I have 2 gigs of patriot 800mhz ram, and then i have 2 512mb sticks of slower ram. The max I can overclock the slower ram to is 720mhz that's stable, so with all the ram in dual channels I have 3 gigs @ 720mhz. Do you guys think it would be more beneficial for me to run the ram at like 2 gigs @ 900+?


Also, i would like to add in there that vista gives my rating for memory speed 5.1 suprisingly, and also in CPU-Z says under memory "Channels # Single". Does that mean it's not running in dual channel mode? The sticks are in the right slots for it according to the manual.

 

[geofelt]

Is your 2gb a single stick? If so, you will be single channel. If it is two 1gb sticks, you want 1.5gb in each channel to get dual channel operation. In any case the ram will operate at the speed of the lowest speed stick.

I do not see that as a problem. Ram speed is relatively unimportant to a C2D cpu. Having 3gb is much better. Saving only a few demand page faults will give you much more performance than faster ram or dual channel.

 

[janusx]

the 2 gigs is 2 separate sticks 1 gig each.

 

[geofelt]

If cpu-z says you are single channel, then you likely have them in the wrong slots. Sometimes the motherboard documentation is wrong. Color coding of slots can be different on different mobos. You want 1.5gb on each channel.

 

[janusx]

Yeah, your right, now it's showing DUAL once i switched them. MSI i've noticed makes alot of mistakes on their manuals and website. Well thanks alot man, I'll continue using the 3gigs in dual channel then. Good enough for me