Hardware Does 6 (4+2) GB of RAM make sense ?

[N_Molson]

Hello, :tiphat:

I have (had) 4 GB of RAM DDR3 1066, split in 2 chips, each installed on one of the 2 motherboard slots. I'm running on Win 7.

After a couple of years of random BSODs, I got fed up with that and removed the RAM chip which I was suspecting. So now I have a stable system, but which 2 GB of RAM only. I definitively feel the difference, especially when loading / copying big files.

So now I have to buy a new chip to replace the faulty one, but I wonder if I should get a 2 GB one or a 4 GB one. In this second case, I would have the working 2 GB chip + the new 4 GB chip, for a total of 6 GB of RAM. 6 is not a power of 2, is this important ?

Also the 2 GB chip that works is DDR3 1066. My MB supports DDR3 1333+, so I suspect the system would run better with a single 4 GB DDR3 1333 chip, rather than with 2 GB DDR3 1066 + 4 GB DDR3 1333 (the system will use the lowest frequency, right ?). I rule out the idea of buying two 2 x 4 GB DDR3 1333 RAM chips, I'm not going to invest that much money in an obsolete technology and just want to fix the issue I have.

So, any thoughts on this ? :hmm:

 

[Urwumpe]

You should really edit the title, because there you have MB, instead of GB.

I don't recommand having two different RAMs on the same channel. The differences are today smaller than on older boards, but you still feel a loss of performance.

 

[N_Molson]

You should really edit the title, because there you have MB, instead of GB.

Done. A rememberance from my teenage years, when my computer really had 4 MB of RAM. Seems ridiculous nowadays !

OK, so I'll go for a 4 GB DDR3 1333 chip and just remove the 2 GB one. Makes sense to me.

 

[Urwumpe]

Done. A rememberance from my teenage years, when my computer really had 4 MB of RAM. Seems ridiculous nowadays !

I know... it is really a strange experience, that even a tiny SoC already has more RAM than my first PC (which started with 8 MB and was later quickly expanded to 32 MB). Even a Raspberry Pi has today already 512 MB RAM....

OK, so I'll go for a 4 GB DDR3 1333 chip and just remove the 2 GB one. Makes sense to me.

You know - you can NEVER have too much RAM today. :lol:

 

[Fabri91]

That said, you can still try to run your system with both of them. Worst case scenario is it won't boot, at which point you'll remove a stick and be set.

The way dual channel works with sticks of dissimilar size (like your 2GB+4GB case) is that the system should map 2GB of your 4GB stick for dual channel use, with the remaining 2GB used in single channel mode.

Even if this fails and the full 6GB run in single channel mode, the performance hit might not even be noticeable.

Absolutely no harm in trying.

EDIT: and here I am staring at our old (sadly not working) Commodore 64 with 64KB of RAM from my desktop with 12GB. Mindboggling.

 

[N_Molson]

You know - you can NEVER have too much RAM today.

True. But I prefer to save money to get a full new config later, as my MB is limited to DDR3. I'll need that for the Orbiter 2015 release with its dozens of GB of hi-res textures and heightmaps

Absolutely no harm in trying.

Also true. :yes:

EDIT: and here I am staring at our old (sadly not working) Commodore 64 with 64KB of RAM from my desktop with 12GB. Mindboggling.

At my parent's home, a genuine Amstrad CPC 6128+ is sitting in a corridor corner. There are some spider webs around it, but it still works as if it was brand new !

 

[orb]

I would have the working 2 GB chip + the new 4 GB chip, for a total of 6 GB of RAM. 6 is not a power of 2, is this important ?

Keeping the power of 2 isn't important. I have exactly 6 GiB in my desktop, but it's set as 2 x 1GiB (from 2007) + 2 x 2 GiB (added in 2010), each of the pair on their own channel.

 

[Fabri91]

Same, 2*2GB + 2*4GB, with each channel having 2+4GB, for a total of 12GB. No problem even with overclock settings active.

 

[asbjos]

Why buy RAM when you can download for free? http://downloadmoreram.com/

 

[N_Molson]

What's the trick ?

 

[SolarLiner]

What's the trick ?

I've heard that is even genuine, but I completely fail at seeing how I can "download" RAM.
So yeah, explanation please !

 

[Fabri91]

It's a recurring gag (the site, that is). It's just a progress bar that slowly fills, and at the end the website displays a witty dialog box.

It mocks all those sites with apparently miracolous PC cleaning software, but is in fact safe.

 

[jroly]

Same, 2*2GB + 2*4GB, with each channel having 2+4GB, for a total of 12GB. No problem even with overclock settings active.

It doesn't matter, but for performance, if you have two memory sticks that are the same size and running at the same speed, the motherboard can use memory interleaving which increases performance by 10%.

Still it is better to have more memory than less memory but faster.

I have 16GB

 

[N_Molson]

Ordered a G.Skill 4 GB DDR3 PC10600 1333 Mhz 9-9-9-24 RAM chip, for 37.50€ + 2.50€ of delivery (well, I have to fetch it at the company local warehouse).

Should get it in 48 hours, we'll see !

 

[Loru]

Win7 32 bit or 64 bit? Keep in mind that 32 bit systems cannot handle more than 3.5 GB anyway.

 

[N_Molson]

Win7 64 bits.

Got the new chip, the system now correctly displays 6 GB of RAM, nice ! :thumbup: