6GB RAM in a laptop - WHAT?

stockhausen

stockhausen

stockhausen

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Whilst researching laptops, I noticed that at least one of them comes with 6GB of RAM; not 4Gb or 8GB but 6.

Why on earth would anyone ship a laptop with 6GB RAM? Presumably it is comprised of a 4GB and a 2GB SODIMM - in the name of God why :confused:

Can anyone explain this?
 
I believe in that arrangement (1x2GB, 1x4GB) you can still maintain dual channel - so using 6GB isn't necessarily incurring a memory bandwidth penalty in this case.
 
cmndr_andi said:
I believe in that arrangement (1x2GB, 1x4GB) you can still maintain dual channel - so using 6GB isn't necessarily incurring a memory bandwidth penalty in this case.
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Correct. I'm currently running 2x2gb and 2x1gb in dual channel mode.
 
They are still taking about laptops with two ram sockets!

They may well be right, just can't compare that to a desktop system!
 
andicole0 said:
Could be a triple channel set up with three x 2GB. :)

Andi.
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are there any laptops with triple channel? Ive seen some pretty high end business and consumer laptops in the last few years, and never seen one with more than two slots

(just interested from a technical point of view, not trying to suggest you are wrong or anything :))
 
FrankJH said:
are there any laptops with triple channel? Ive seen some pretty high end business and consumer laptops in the last few years, and never seen one with more than two slots

(just interested from a technical point of view, not trying to suggest you are wrong or anything :))
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There are a few 'portable desktop' systems from clevo (X7200) and its various rebrands. Based on a desktop x58 it uses skt 1366's tri channel. The latest versions uses x79 with sb-e so it gets quad channel.

m3csl2004 said:
AMD systems tend not to run dual channel anyway??
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They do, just some oems cut costs by using a single higher capacity stick of ram than two lower.
 
My macbook unibody im posting from now has 6gb, 4x1 and 2x1gb, as it's the highest ram I can go while maintaining stability, still runs dual channel I think, and is very fast, and I use the extra ram, so why not! lol
 
stockhausen said:
Whilst researching laptops, I noticed that at least one of them comes with 6GB of RAM; not 4Gb or 8GB but 6.

Why on earth would anyone ship a laptop with 6GB RAM? Presumably it is comprised of a 4GB and a 2GB SODIMM - in the name of God why :confused:

Can anyone explain this?
Click to expand...

Anytime a manufacturer chooses to do something that appears questionable to the knowledgeable buyer (note that most people aren't as technically savvy to realise in the first place - this forum is full of techies but the general public is a different can of fish altogether) it's to do with cost. The money saved from the lost 2GB might not seem a lot but when you're a company whose makes tens of thousands of these units for sale the money starts to pile on.

Making money purely on selling computer hardware is quite hard unless you target a niche that offers you the right to charge more.

The 6GB can still be used in dual channel mode albeit what's known as Intel flex memory technology hence asynchronous dual channel. The 4GB will run in dual while the remainder 2GB will run in single. Only once applications start using above the 4GB will you therefore experience a performance degradation.
 
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