Memtest confirms faulty memory :(

[pumaz]

I bought 2 x 8GB corsair vengeance LP (Cml8gx3m1a1600c9) just before Christmas from a competitor for my rig (sig)

Recently I installed Crysis 3 beta and this has been giving me random BSOD's after allot of googling and testing I managed to narrow it down to memory. I tested each of the 8GB sticks in slot one with memtest+ the result one stick gives me 1000's of errors and the other none.

I know it's going to take a while to RMA the memory back to corsair in the us and I was really looking forward to gaming on the new Aliens colonial marines, crysis 3 and BF3. Will I see a sizeable performance drop only using one 8GB stick on one channel?

Also considering just buying another stick then selling it once I've received my RMA replacement!

 

[ChocolateStarfishRammer]

Yes and No.

Obviously youve got less RAM. So, yes, insant performance drop.

But, how much of that RAM are you actually using?, lets say windows/apps is using 3gb. That still leaves 5gb for Crysis. Thats still a fair old amount to use! Even for Crysis.

But also, youve then got the speed at which it can read/write. In simple, hypothetical and in a way wrong terms, but how i can explain it.. lets put that speed down to the 1600mhz your running it at. So 2 sticks x 1600 = 3200mhz. So if Crysis needs to write 5gb to RAM it can do it at a speed of 3200mhz.
With only 1 stick.. you can do the math. You have the same space available, but can only write to it at 1600mhz.. half the speed.

Now, In many ways as said, that information is not how it works.. but its an easy way of explaining it.

 

[pumaz]

Got a new stick of ram being delivered tomorrow

Been playing Crysis 3 all night on just the one 8GB stick and tbh I didn't notice any difference! Although if I went to the trouble of benching etc. there would be.

A wicked thought crossed my mind of just returning the faulty stick in the new sticks box as there all from the same competitor but then I'd feel guilty and worry about being caught out!!!