What is "dual-channel DDR"?

[Francois Ouellette]

From: "Jason Shein" <jason-xgs8i/e9EeWTtA8H5PvdGCwD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org>
> What it means is that there are 2 memory controllers on the board, one for
> each DDR strip.
>
> Often ( as it is on my main pc )
>
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=K7N2_Delta-ILSR&class=mb
> you have the option of installing in single or dual channel mode.
>
> I have 2x512 DDR400. If I install both sticks in the purple slots ( see
link )
> I am running in single channel mode. If I install in the 1st purple slot
and
> the green slot I am running in dual channel mode.
>
> Now that I am thinking of it, maybe I should benchmark this sometime to
see
> what the real performance difference is, if any. From what I have seen on
the
> gamer forum postings, running in single channel often yields better
results
> for overclocking, but in theory dual channel should be faster overall.

This somehow emulates a bit what "memory interleaving" does on big iron
machines, which tries to
spread memory usage instead of always using the same area by starting at one
end and filling up as required.

With lots of activity that uses lots of memory it make a difference compared
to single-channel, but if you only use your
machine as a "single user" especially on Windoze I doubt there will be any
real advantage...

However on a Linux box running services and many other things like database
software there
might be a noticeable difference since Linux tries to fill the memory before
doing any swapping.

  François Ouellette
<fouellet-cpI+UMyWUv9BDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>


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