3x 2Gb in dual channel?

Shane

Shane

Super Moderator
Staff member
Guys,

Will 3x 2gb sticks work in Dual channel mode?

Im talking about Pc6400 DDR2 800Mhz (OCZ)

My mobo has 4 memory slots, currently using 2x 2gb in dual channel.

tks
 
It will sort of. It should run in asymetric mode.

Do you actually need 6GB for anything? Adding 2x1GB would still give you dual channel but if you are expecting another 2GB at some point in the future it doesn't make sense to use modules you'll have to replace.
 
Since you brought this up. I have seen computers with 9gb (1366) so I assume 3x2 + 3x1 memory sticks. Does this work properly and will it cause any issues?
 
I dont think you can actually. you have 4 RAM slots right? and you normally put the RAM in the 1 and 3 or, 2 and 4 slot.

If you add one more stick to it, it wont have another stick to pair with. I'm not sure on this though, it could work.
 
Well i shoved it in,and Cromwell was right...asymetric mode but still DUAL CHANNEL!....so im going to test if it slows the system down or not
 
Cromewell said:
1366 is a triple channel socket ;)
Click to expand...

Yes... right now I have 6 ports, 3 are filled with 2 gig cards. What if I fill the other 3 ports with 1 gig cards? Will this hurt the performance if they are the same speed? Basically can the computer handle and figure it out, use it properly?
 
Gabe63 said:
Yes... right now I have 6 ports, 3 are filled with 2 gig cards. What if I fill the other 3 ports with 1 gig cards? Will this hurt the performance if they are the same speed? Basically can the computer handle and figure it out, use it properly?
Click to expand...

if they are the same speed, it won't affect performance of your current memory.

Say you now have 3x2GB 1600MHz memory
You buy 3x1GB 1600MHz and put it in, you would have 9GB 1600MHz memory in triple channel
so better performance because you have more memory at the same speed

If you have 3x2GB 1600MHz memory
You buy 3x1GB 1333MHz memory, you would have 9GB 1333MHz memory, because the 1600MHz would have to underclock itself to the lowest memory there, which is 1333MHz.
so most probably better performance because of more memory, but not as much as having the same speed memory, and possibly lower performance, even though there is more memory

Your computer can work out different capacities of memory and work out what to do with it, but it can only handle a single speed of memory, which is why it drops the speed of the faster one, it isn't going to try and overclock memory for you after all is it ;)
 
Gabe63 said:
Yes... right now I have 6 ports, 3 are filled with 2 gig cards. What if I fill the other 3 ports with 1 gig cards? Will this hurt the performance if they are the same speed? Basically can the computer handle and figure it out, use it properly?
Click to expand...

It should work but I had a lot of crashes after putting in another 2gb of ram that had different timings and speed. If you have problems with stability or crashing, just set the ram specs manually in the bios. That should solve any problems that come from using different sticks of ram.
 
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