Question DDR5 being dual channel?!

[Order 66]

I’ve known that DDR5 was dual channel, but I was wondering if you could use a single stick of DDR5 and be fine in gaming performance. I know you shouldn’t, but I’m just wondering what would happen if you did.

 

[Lutfij]

You've answered your own question, you'll be fine but you're leaving performance on the table.

What platform are you dealing with? Pleas don't say specs in my sig(we ask users to pass on their specs in the thread's body) as sig space specs can and will change over time rendering this thread and any possible suggestions moot to the person in the same boat as you're in now.

FYI, Ryzen platforms love high frequency, dual channel setups to get the best out of that platform.

 

[Eximo]

It actually works fairly well with current games. DDR5 is 2x32bit per stick while DDR4 and earlier is 1x64bit per stick. Since the effective speed is so much higher and it does act as two memory banks per stick.

But that is today. As this level of bandwidth becomes expected by developers over time it will become a problem not to have the full setup. DDR5 typical speeds will also increase.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Dual channel for DDR4 was a big boost. Specially on AM4 It could give a boost of 10-25% and more depending on the game.