Ram - Single or Double channel

[jonwm]

Morning

I've always ran Double channel RAM in my PC's but in my Laptop its single speed, i'm running a Intel Core I5 with 8GB single RAM, I was going to double to 16GB but wandering if I'm better sticking to 8GB but go Duel.

First world problems and all that but its not used for gaming, occasional picture or video work (light)

Thanks for any input

[MickC]

Not sure what you mean.

If you have 2 SODIMM slots in the laptop, and put another 8GB SODIMM in the empty slot, then it will be 16GB dual channel (assuming the laptop supports it, which it should). If you remove the existing DIM and put a 16GB one in, then it will be single channel, but why would you do that unless there is just one slot, in which case the laptop can only do single channel anyway. Lots of assumptions there....

[jonwm]

Sorry,

Yes duel slots with only one occupied, i did a system checker and it said my ram was Single? maybe its that my PC has 2 slots occupied that it states duel.

Apologies for the novice question i thought ram was ram...

[deckster]

The real-world difference between matched pairs and single sticks is unmeasurable. So personally I'd go for the cheapest option that gives you the amount of memory you think you need.

[MickC]

jonwm said:

Sorry,

Yes duel slots with only one occupied, i did a system checker and it said my ram was Single? maybe its that my PC has 2 slots occupied that it states duel.

Apologies for the novice question i thought ram was ram...

yes RAM is RAM . To have dual channel RAM you need 1 RAM stick in each of the dual channel capable slots. If you currently only have one slot occupied, it can only use that one channel and you only have single channel RAM as your system checker says. Add another stick (of the same size) in the other slot, and your system becomes dual channel.

There are other bits to think about, as someone above said having matched RAM modules helps performance with dual channel (otherwise it would have to run/wait on the slowest channel) and using unequal sized sticks in a dual channel capable motherboard will have other results (most probably resulting in effectively single channel mode), but to be honest unless you are really bothered about performance it does not matter. 16GB of single channel or sub optimal dual channel will outperform 8GB of RAM however the lower amount is configured in most real world situations.

[FourWheelDrift]

Wether you use single channel or dual channel the difference is small and in in both cases each can be better than the other and in others exactly the same. You really won't notice any difference if you went to 2x 4gb dual channel RAM compared with 1x 8gb single channel RAM, it won't turbo charge things.

Gamers Nexus did a big benchmark - https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/1349-ram-how-du...

[HRL]

Only time you’d really notice big differences are on gaming PC’s and laptops.

You can gain quite a few FPS using dual channels, especially if it’s running higher clock speeds too.

If you’re only surfing the web or using Office then the cheapest will suffice.

[jonwm]

Thanks for all the input guys.

I can get another identical 8gb for free of a lad at work so sill just put that in.