Dual channel memory

[Abstract243]

Hiya so basically I had 4x8 gb in my workstation for awhile now. I've had a stick of ram die leaving me with 3x8 gb sticks until I get it back from the warranty. On one of linus videos I noticed he said if you run dual channel  one dual channel and a single channel it can lower them all to a single channel but not sure if he meant it was a single channel stick that why it lowered them or it was just because it was just one so in the meantime is it worth taking out the 3rd stick in the mean time is basically what i'm asking.

[Guest]

I have absolutely no clue what your system specs are, so my response is going to be generalized.

 

1 stick is single channel. Typically goes in the A1 slot, in the slot closest to the CPU and is the recommended slot per modern motherboards.

2 sticks in use is Dual channel. Typically populating A2 and B2 slots or the 2nd and 4th slot from the Cpu, per most modern motherboards.

3 sticks of Ram populated in any slots will always force single channel. Most motherboards do not have a recommended destination for three sticks of memory.

4 sticks is also dual channel where all slots are populated and then there will be 2 sticks for each channel.

 

That is all.

[RedRamage]

So are you saying that it's been having 3x8 will force single channel and OP would then have 24 GBs all running in one lane vs. if s/he took out one stick and then would have 8GB in lane one and 8GB in lane two?

On a side note: What's better performance-wise: 4x 8GB  in dual channel or 2x 16GB in dual channel?

[Abstract243]

1 minute ago, RedRamage said:

So are you saying that it's been having 3x8 will force single channel and OP would then have 24 GBs all running in one lane vs. if s/he took out one stick and then would have 8GB in lane one and 8GB in lane two?

On a side note: What's better performance-wise: 4x 8GB  in dual channel or 2x 16GB in dual channel?

Exactly what I was just thinking post left me little confused 

[Guest]

Just now, RedRamage said:

So are you saying that it's been having 3x8 will force single channel and OP would then have 24 GBs all running in one lane vs. if s/he took out one stick and then would have 8GB in lane one and 8GB in lane two?

On a side note: What's better performance-wise: 4x 8GB  in dual channel or 2x 16GB in dual channel?

Depends how you measure performance. 

Sometimes single channel performs better sometimes dual channel performs better.

Sometimes 4 sticks is better than 2.

[Abstract243]

Found this video on the topic of dual vs single i'd be a little shocked to see if 16  gb beats 24 gb but as said by ShrimpBrime I guess how depends how you would measure it.

[Dr0y]

also depend of how much ram you need ... if you don't use even 16 gb then I would just prefer be dual channel