Two RAMs VS One

[Pouria]

Hi,

Without dual channel which one is better:

2x512 MBs of RAM

1x1024 MBs of RAM

Thanks

[-pops-]

In the event of failure 2 x 512 will be better than 1 x 1024 - meaning if one stick of 512 RAM fails, all is not lost, whereas if your single 1024 stick fails, you are without any RAM until you can buy another stick.

[Pouria]

Yes, but i mean

which one is better[ mybe a little bit ] for the performance.

[r4may]

Operational performance should not be any different as long as the two sticks are identical

[djohn]

Performance will be slightly better with 1 stick of 1Gb ram as opposed to 2 sticks of 512Kb. This is simply because it will be faster to pass data to and from 1 stick instead of 2. pops makes a good point though in saying that if 1 of the 512k packs in, you still have 1 stick to work with. :)

Also think of your future requirements, will you be upgrading your ram again in the near future or happy to stay with 1Gb? Depending on the rest of your system specs, especially the motherboard, will you be upgrading to the new "Vista" operating system when it is released? If you think you will, then go for the 1x1Gb stick for now then another 1Gb stick later. [Make sure of getting a stick with the same timings]. Vista will need 2Gb of ram to run smoothly if you intend to have more than 2 or 3 applications open at the same time plus those that are running in the background.

[Scarecrow Man]

Dual Channel BLOWS single channel out of the water. If you can, upgrade to daul. I have 1024 in my computer, single channel, and a friend has 512 of dual channel, and his computer can handle much more than mine..

mine: p4, 1024mb ram, intel chipset

his: amd duron 800, 512 dual channel, via chipset

Crucial has good RAM info.

[CurlyWhirly]

Dual Channel BLOWS single channel out of the water

I am a bit surprised at that statement as I thought that there wasn't much difference between single channel and dual channel like in the case where AGPx8 graphics cards don't give twice the performance over AGPx4 and, perhaps, offers only a 5-10% speed increase?

[Pouria]

Thanks to all.

I think I learn some things...SO,

This is a new question that I have in some years...

Performance of AMD VS intel.

Maybe I need to change all of my system but

About AMD & intel ,Now I know that AMD CPUs have point

of processing 64bit instructions & can also work with 32bit's.

But intel CPUs usually are better for L2 CACHE size & some specifications

like Hyper-Threading & etc.

Sometimes I hear some bad news from AMD processors like this:

One of my friends asserts that his [ AMD Athlon 3000+ 64bit socket 939 ]

cannot work with a pci mix card of MATROX company.He also told me

that some other pci cards like Hi-Share [for sharing a case with some terminals]

cannot work with some AMD processors.

1) IS THIS TRUE THAT SOME HARWARES HAVE DISCRIMINATION FOR CPU?

2) ACCORDING TO 1800 Mhz FREQUENCY OF AMD 3000+ DOES IT BETTER THAN

INTEL 3000 Mhz WITH 2 MB OF L2 CACHE & HT?

& Finally a professional GAMER prefers for AMD or intel?

I think my first question is more important to me.

Thanks in advance.

[djohn]

Yes, dual channel is much faster than single but Pouria said in his/her opening post "Not Dual Channel" so I left that out. Also, if your thinking of going that route, then it will be wise to think about a dual core CPU, not 2 separate CPU's, but a single dual core CPU, much better for multitasking, but probably not as fast as a single core high spec CPU for games.

I'm not certain of the correct answer to your other questions Pouria, so I will leave that for one of our other members to explain your best options. :)

[Scarecrow Man]

Dual Channel BLOWS single channel out of the water

I am a bit surprised at that statement as I thought that there wasn't much difference between single channel and dual channel like in the case where AGPx8 graphics cards don't give twice the performance over AGPx4 and, perhaps, offers only a 5-10% speed increase?

You are correct. The speed is not nesesarilly 2x the performance, but it is quite considerably faster.

If you are not able to upgrade to dual channel, just do what you can.

The fact is, RAM is quite a considerable upgrade for the cost. After about 512 (maybe 1GB on new machines) the upgrade is incremental, instead of exponential. For example: a new machine with 256 compared to the exact machine with 512 the difference is almost 2x. The same two machines with 512 and 1024, the difference may only be 1 1/4. and 1024 compared to 2048, .5% increase...

These are not actual facts, just what I have noticed through experience.

As for 4x vs 8x AGP.... 8x is faster but no where near 2x as fast, like RAM the upgrade can be noticed, but is not exponential, whereas 2x to 8x is.