Single channel vs. Dual channel ram

[tomster2300]

When I built my computer years ago I chose the a7n8x-x mobo because it was cheaper and I only had one stick of ram. I didn't even think about using dual channel until it came time to upgrade and I bought 2 x 512. The problem I found was that my board is single channel only (it was the streamlined version of the a7n8x line).

So, my question is this. How much of a performance boost does dual channel give you?

[Panama Red]

Dual Channel isn't worth very much on an nForce2 board. It's about a 3-5% gain on AMD and about 15% on the Intel platforms.

[tomster2300]

So you find an increase on nforce3 & 4 boards?

[Ramax_57]

Originally Posted by tomster2300 So you find an increase on nforce3 & 4 boards?

yes, on intels very much.. the newer nforce 4 boards and newer processors, if you use single channel ram, you are taking a major and noticeable performance hit. not as bad as AMD boards though.

[ric449]

You would see a performance increase if you used a socket 939 AMD processor, but socket 754 doesn't support dual channel and the Athlon XP's never really needed it in the first place.

[grcr99]

Here is a white paper to read:

http://www.kingston.com/newtech/MKF_...whitepaper.pdf

[pam123]

We've got the same motherboard, so no dual channel.
On the other hand what made that board such a bargain was that dual channel XP boards were not beating it!
I still regret my Soltek board (I learned to be a lot more careful) but both were the single channel boards that successfully challenged the dual channel ones.
If you (and your wallet) are ready for the real dual channel boost then it's time for DDR2 and the new AM2 boards with a new cpu.
Not to be too biased if you're in the mood for Intel they have a whole new set of boards and processors coming out as well.