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Single Channel vs Dual Channel Memory Performance in 1505

post #1 of 9
6/5/06 at 12:51pm
Thread Starter 
Hi guys, I just ordered a 1505 with the stock 512 MB ram. I am considering and upgrade of either 1 GB of ram to bring it to 1.5 GB Single Channel or 2x 1 GB and removing the 512 stick to bring it to 2 GB Dual Channel. I know the performance difference between 1.5 and 2 GB isn't that great, but is the Dual Channel performance increase worth the extra expense? Also is it worth it to go with 667 Mhz Ram instead of 533? Thanks

I plan to used the laptop for web surfing, typical office work, video/movie watching, and light gaming (more HL2 and less Oblivion)

Specs
E1505
1.66 Ghz Dual Core
512 MB DDR2 PC4200
x1300 128 MB vid card
60 gb 5400 rpm hard drive
xp media center edition
9 cell 85whr battery
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post #2 of 9
6/5/06 at 1:07pm
I would say go for 1.5G.

dual chanel isn't very useful for your application.
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post #3 of 9
6/5/06 at 1:34pm
I wondered about memory speed issues myself, so I ran some tests on my 1505 with 3DMARK05. Granted, its a graphics benchmark, but since my X1400 uses some shared system memory for graphics I figured it was a reasonable test.

Here are the 3DMARK05 scores I got:

1848 with a single 512MB 533MHz DIMM
1852 with a single 1024MB 667MHz DIMM
1859 with two 512MB 533MHz DIMMs
1864 with two 1024MB 667MHz DIMMs

Going from half a gig of slower memory to 2 gigs of faster dual channel yielded a speed increase of less than 1%. Not a noticable difference.
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post #4 of 9
6/5/06 at 1:46pm
prosaic, can u run some mem benches, like sandra or whatever?
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post #5 of 9
6/5/06 at 2:30pm
I've never bothered to run pure memory tests like that. Makes more sense to me to test the whole system at once. Besides, I'd have to swipe the 667 MHz memory from my wife's machine again when she wasn't looking.
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post #6 of 9
6/5/06 at 5:50pm
Thread Starter 
I'm suprised going fron a half gig to one gig produced so few results, especially considering the major speed boost in XP that i've noticed when upgrading two of my computers from 512 to 1.5 gb.
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post #7 of 9
6/5/06 at 6:11pm
xp and gfx games are two different animals. im not surprised at all. gfx is much more video card oriented
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post #8 of 9
6/5/06 at 7:26pm
I'm buying 2GB PC-5300 to replace my 1GB PC-4200 today; I'll run it through a memory benchmark and post back when I have some data.
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post #9 of 9
6/6/06 at 1:59am
Save your dough... it's pretty underwhelming.
Code:
Everest Home v2.20 (note: Everest warns it doesn't know this chipset)

                  Read        Write      Latency
1GB PC2-4200   4075MB/sec   1384MB/sec    97.9ns
2GB PC2-5300   3986MB/sec   1360MB/sec   101.9ns

SiSoft Sandra 2007

                     iSSE2 Buffered               Mem/Cache
                Integer      Floating   Latency   Combined
1GB PC2-4200   3605MB/sec   3612MB/sec   115ns      11900
2GB PC2-5300   3653MB/sec   3648MB/sec   119ns      12120
So my recommedation would be to buy the 667MHz memory only if it's a very small additional cost over the 533MHz. I've seen references to shared 3D being able to make better use of the extra bandwidth, and perhaps that's true; but the FSB is clearly the limiting factor here.
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