Integrated GPU, do RAM capacities need to match?

[saras]

Long story short, got a laptop with a single 8gig stick of ram soldered in and one free bay. No discrete GPU, just an HD620.

 

Now I want both more ram and slightly more speed, which going dual channel vs single is probably going to do. Now then, the question is this, for dual channel to work, does the ram distribution have to be symmetric? Do I need to match an 8 gig stick to the soldered in 8 gig stick to get the full HD620 speed?

 

I have now ordered a 16 gig stick that'll total my system to 24 gigs. My question is, does this basically permanently reduce the speed of the HD620 to single channel speeds, because the capacities don't match?

[BTGbullseye]

13 hours ago, saras said:

Long story short, got a laptop with a single 8gig stick of ram soldered in and one free bay. No discrete GPU, just an HD620.

 

Now I want both more ram and slightly more speed, which going dual channel vs single is probably going to do. Now then, the question is this, for dual channel to work, does the ram distribution have to be symmetric? Do I need to match an 8 gig stick to the soldered in 8 gig stick to get the full HD620 speed?

 

I have now ordered a 16 gig stick that'll total my system to 24 gigs. My question is, does this basically permanently reduce the speed of the HD620 to single channel speeds, because the capacities don't match?

Different quantities and speeds will produce asymmetric dual channel. (that's equivalent speed to single-channel, but you get to keep the differing capacity) If you want dual channel with a performance improvement, you need the RAM to be the same capacity, speed, and timings as the soldered stick.