dual channel query

hi
what is dual channel memory? i have 1*512 ram, would it have made any difference if it was 2*256? does dual channel speed things up?
nd if i make total ram upto 1gb, will it give a huge performance gain over 512mb? i hav athlon xp 3000+ nd asus a8-nvm....

 

to know details about dual channel go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-channel
yes it would make a difference if you had 2*256mb rams but only a slight one
i have tried both 2*512 and single 1 gb sticks.but didnt notice any significant increase in performance.in short no huge performance gains.

 

do u want to try or u need exact answer ?
if u want to try then try it yourself or else
go according to ur motherboard ....
if it says that it support dual channel then u should use two memory sticks of same speed with the motherboard .., as u say that u r using AMD then u should go for Dual-channel architecture DDR/DDR2 SDRAM,
and for better result go for Dual-Channel DDR400,

 

how to know which RAM module is dual channel capable or not ?

i am getting a
UMAX DDR DIMM 512MB module with 8 chips (U2S12D30TP-5) in a single side and the other side is empty ...

is that dual channel not?

 

A double sided ram,and a set of ram running in dual channel is 2 diffrent things. It seems that you are confusing them

 

i am not confusing them , for them i had given the reply correctly ,,

but in my second post i wanted to know that how to know if a RAM module is Dual Channel or not?

 

RAM modules are not dual channel, its the way you install them on your mobo that makes it dual channel. Basically, there are 2 channels on your mobo (provided your mobo supports dual channel) throught which data is transfered to and fro the processor and the RAM. If you place 2 RAM sticks on 2 different channels you are increasing data transfer thoroughput by double. One analogy to this is 1 lane road and 2 lane road. 1 lane road is similar to single channel mode where only one line of cars can move at one time. In a 2 lane road, 2 lines of cars can move at the same time therby increasing traffic throughput. On a 2 lane road you will reach your office faster, similarly your PC will speed up when on a dual channel mode.

 

Dual channel memory are designed to use both channels of your motherboard memory controller. Though you can have 1*512 you are not utilizing the true data throughput from the memory controller, for that memory should be installed on both the channels of the motherboard. Usually the chanels are color coded. It usually written on the mobo as well.

About the performance gain, practically speaking you would only notice difference in heavy multitasking or during game level load time.
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All DDR ram support dual channel configuration. You just need to set them up correctly on a dual channel supporting mobos.