Is 3 ddr slower than 2?

CoolHands

CoolHands

CoolHands

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My asus k8vse deluxe motherboard has three dimm slots. It came with two 256mb sticks, (from everest report):

Before
Memory Slots:
DRAM Slot #1 256 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
DRAM Slot #2 256 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)

After
Memory Slots:
DRAM Slot #1 1024 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
DRAM Slot #2 256 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
DRAM Slot #3 256 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)

my questions is, I purchased and fitted a 1GB samsung RAM, as you can see, so I now I've got a total of 1.5GB. However, I've think I've read that having too much can actually slow your pc down? Is that right?

if so, how do I know for sure, and does it mean I should remove one of the 256 sticks?

thanks
 
Nah, it should be fine. I doubt it'll slow your PC down at all. The only time it'll slow it down is when you get into 4-6 slots, 8-12GB of RAM, and even then, it's not that it slows it down, it just reduces the maximum overclock you can achieve.

I'd say you'd be fine putting 1GB in each slot for 3GB total, if you wanted to. I wouldn't worry about any slowdown at all.
 
It will be slower bandwidth-wise if the 256MB sticks are running dual-channel. The 1GB stick would change it back to single channel and theoretically half the bandwidth. Realistically though, having the extra RAM will probably benefit you much more than having less, but higher bandwidth RAM.
 
sargatanas said:
It will be slower bandwidth-wise if the 256MB sticks are running dual-channel. The 1GB stick would change it back to single channel and theoretically half the bandwidth. Realistically though, having the extra RAM will probably benefit you much more than having less, but higher bandwidth RAM.
Click to expand...

single channel and dual channel don't really mean much. Dual Channel gives about 5% increase over single channel ram. Same as triple channel. It definitely doesn't triple the performance.

Anyway, you could always swap slot 1 and 3 over so you get the dual channel benefit from the 256MB sticks, if that's a concern.
 
Dual Channel doesn't work that way. Three sticks will NEVER run dual channel. Plus thats why I said theoretically. I think the benefits of dual channel actually went up as hardware got faster but as you are still on DDR1 it won't really be a big deal.
 
willhub said:
Hmmm, for some reason I kept reading 3 ddr as ddr3 :p

My bad/
Click to expand...

i did originally lol

if in dual channel mode it'll have a 1gb module in one and a 256mb in another which could affect performance

benchmark and see the score difference :)

MW
 
sargatanas said:
Dual Channel doesn't work that way. Three sticks will NEVER run dual channel. Plus thats why I said theoretically. I think the benefits of dual channel actually went up as hardware got faster but as you are still on DDR1 it won't really be a big deal.
Click to expand...

Depending on the board, you CAN get dual channel running in two slots and single channel running on the other, provided the two sticks running together are the same. You can also get dual channel throughout all 3 slots by using a stick of RAM in 1 slot that is the same size as the sticks of ram in the other 2 slots together. If the board allows it. AFAIK, it's not possible on intel chipsets. But, there is little benefit to dual or triple channel, so there's no point stressing over it, and 1.5GB in single channel will perform much better than 512MB in dual channel.
 
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The board doesn't support dual channel, however if you check the manual, it will tell you that running three sticks will reduce the mem speed to 333mhz from 400mhz. I'd get rid of what you have and try and get hold of 2x1gb sticks.
 
actually in the meantime, would I be better off removing one of the two 256mb sticks? (to leave me with one 1gb and one 256mb, but keeping the speed up at 400mhz?) :confused:
 
here's cpuz before and after:

before (with original 2 sticks)

cpuz%20memory2a.jpg


after (with all three sticks - i.e. including the extra 1gb stick)

cpuz%20memory_14_04_09.jpg
 
ok well if you're interested here's cpuz with one of the 256mb sticks removed. The speed has gone back up to 200mhz

With one 1gb stick and one 256mb stick:

cpuz%20memory_14_04_09d.JPG
 
D D Danneh said:
Depending on the board, you CAN get dual channel running in two slots and single channel running on the other, provided the two sticks running together are the same. You can also get dual channel throughout all 3 slots by using a stick of RAM in 1 slot that is the same size as the sticks of ram in the other 2 slots together. If the board allows it. AFAIK, it's not possible on intel chipsets. But, there is little benefit to dual or triple channel, so there's no point stressing over it, and 1.5GB in single channel will perform much better than 512MB in dual channel.
Click to expand...

Dual channel doesn't work that way. 3 sticks in dual channel would be called triple channel which is NOT supported by anything using DDR1. To run dual channel sticks must be matched in pairs, which is why they were sold in pairs. 3 sticks would never ever run dual channel.
 
sargatanas said:
Dual channel doesn't work that way. 3 sticks in dual channel would be called triple channel which is NOT supported by anything using DDR1. To run dual channel sticks must be matched in pairs, which is why they were sold in pairs. 3 sticks would never ever run dual channel.
Click to expand...

Just looked it up, and it seems I'm right. Provided the amounts of RAM in each channel are equal, they will run in dual channel (if the MB supports it).

http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-39457-Dual-Channel-with-3-sticks-of-RAM.html

http://www.hardforum.com/archive/index.php/t-710618.html

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=118789

Anyway, seeing as how the motherboard lowers speed to 333MHz with 3 sticks, I would stay with two sticks. Perhaps buy another 1GB stick to run 2GB
 
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