How much faster is dual channel?

[haris262]

I am building a budget gaming PC and have been wondering whether, for my ram, I should use one 8 GB stick instead of two 4 GB sticks. I know I will be losing dual channel but at least I will have lots of upgradability for the future which means a lot to me, and is also almost 20 euros cheaper (~20 dollars). Is losing dual channel going to affect me noticeably? What is your opinion on this switch?

Thanks for your input!

 

[DeathRabit]

2x time faster
On some games is very noticeable.
What CPU you have ?

 

[giantbucket]

around 7% if I recall correctly.
definitely NOT twice as fast.

 

[USAFRet]

2x time faster

No, it's not 2x faster.

A few percent, but not 2x.

 

[Saberus]

Unless you're driving your system hard, the difference will be almost unnoticeable. If you are driving your system hard, the difference is insignificant. Saving a 20 now while leaving yourself open to a quick upgrade without leftovers would be worth it on a budget machine.

 

[giantbucket]

hmm, if you only have two slots, then I'd say buy just one stick even if it's a bit more expensive. if you have four slots, then buy whatever is cheaper. basically, just avoid painting yourself into a corner.

 

[Tradesman1]

Really need to know mobo and CPU, but on Intel it can be up to 10-15%, AMD is less generally maybe up to 10%. Just did an article on the difference between AMD and Intel here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dram-benchmark-fluctuations,4080.html

 

[brispuss]

I am building a budget gaming PC and have been wondering whether, for my ram, I should use one 8 GB stick instead of two 4 GB sticks. I know I will be losing dual channel but at least I will have lots of upgradability for the future which means a lot to me, and is also almost 20 euros cheaper (~20 dollars). Is losing dual channel going to affect me noticeably? What is your opinion on this switch?

Thanks for your input!

All else being equal, dual channel will provide up to around 15 % improvement in performance for those programs that make heavy use of system memory. This applies mainly to applications such as graphics, CAD etc.

But for those programs that don't use system memory much (relative to above programs), then there is very little, if any, noticeable improvement in performance while using dual channel. This applies particularly to games where CPU and video card memory is utilized more than system memory.

Generally, it is preferable to use dual channel mode as it will maximize available memory bandwidth and maximize performance as far as possible using the system memory.