Channels and RAM. PROBLEM

[Greg_titan]

I'm going to buy a MSI Z97gaming 5, which is supposed to work with dual channel ram. Actually I bought a single 8 gb ram kingston hyperx fury, with the idea of buying another one in the future, when needed, and go for 16gb. But today I learnt that it should be better run the memory in the specified channel for the mobo. I'll use the pc for 3d modeling and gaming. Soo, should I

 

• change the ram for 2 of 4gb
• buy another 8 gb
• or it will not impact performance that much so I can stat like this and upgrading in the future

[WinNut]

1 stick of 8GB RAM will work perfectly fine. Just save the money for another 8GB stick later.

[Greg_titan]

1 stick of 8GB RAM will work perfectly fine. Just save the money for another 8GB stick later.

But from the linus tech quickie video (

) I understood that if you do not run the intended configuration of the ram-channel, you do not get the best performance

[pwn_intended]

1 stick running in single channel mode will work fine. Running 2 sticks in dual channel in theory makes the RAM twice as fast. In practice, you wont really be able to tell the difference.

[Greg_titan]

1 stick running in single channel mode will work fine. Running 2 sticks in dual channel in theory makes the RAM twice as fast. In practice, you wont really be able to tell the difference.

So, if it supposed to be twice as  fast as a single one, why it is not like this in practise?. I mean, is a very huge lie selling it as twice fast when it actually isn´t.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Ram speed doesn't really give a big performance boost in daily usage. 

Maybe in certain programs it would have an impact in performance.

[pwn_intended]

So, if it supposed to be twice as  fast as a single one, why it is not like this in practise?. I mean, is a very huge lie selling it as twice fast when it actually isn´t.

It would make a pretty big difference if you were running integrated graphics for gaming. Otherwise, you MAY notice a little better performance for rendering and things like that, but nothing worth writing home about.

Think of it like buying a Lotus Elyse vs a 911 Turbo, the 911 has a higher top speed, but in everyday use, you're not gonna notice much difference in speed since you never actually get it going anywhere near its top speed.

[Greg_titan]

It would make a pretty big difference if you were running integrated graphics for gaming. Otherwise, you MAY notice a little better performance for rendering and things like that, but nothing worth writing home about.

Think of it like buying a Lotus Elyse vs a 911 Turbo, the 911 has a higher top speed, but in everyday use, you're not gonna notice much difference in speed since you never actually get it going anywhere near its top speed.

Ahhhhh, ok, now it's clear, hahaha.

Another thing, if in the future I want to upgrade my ram, will I have to buy the same kingston hyperx fury 8gb 1866Mhz CL10, or could I buy ANY other one (different brand, speed, cl) of 8gb?

[JustCallMeVlad]

1 stick running in single channel mode will work fine. Running 2 sticks in dual channel in theory makes the RAM twice as fast. In practice, you wont really be able to tell the difference.

 

 

LOL!!!!!!!! Try running something that utilizes memory bandwidth and see if that holds true 

[pwn_intended]

Ahhhhh, ok, now it's clear, hahaha.

Another thing, if in the future I want to upgrade my ram, will I have to buy the same kingston hyperx fury 8gb 1866Mhz CL10, or could I buy ANY other one (different brand, speed, cl) of 8gb?

Any brand should work, speed doesn't have to match either, it will run in dual channel, just the sticks will run at the speed of the lowest speed stick. It is recommended to get matched sticks of RAM, but nowadays it doesn't really matter.

[Hieb]

Ram speed doesn't really give a big performance boost in daily usage. 

Maybe in certain programs it would have an impact in performance.

 

Even in memory bandwidth benchmarks the difference is a lot smaller than you would expect. My guess is processors are limited memory throughput more than the memory speed and # of channels is:

 

from: http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/1349-ram-how-dual-channel-works-vs-single-channel/Page-3

 

Pure memory throughput isn't doubled, and the real-world gains are even smaller. The biggest difference RAM speed makes is in servers.

[Hieb]

Ahhhhh, ok, now it's clear, hahaha.

Another thing, if in the future I want to upgrade my ram, will I have to buy the same kingston hyperx fury 8gb 1866Mhz CL10, or could I buy ANY other one (different brand, speed, cl) of 8gb?

 

It's advisable to pick the same RAM as it has the best odds of compatibility. But these days usually any RAM that is compatible with your motherboard should work with each other. Just know that all RAM has to be running at the same speed, so if you have an 1866MHz and a 1600MHz kit, they will both have to run at 1600MHz. The clock speed and timings have to be the same.