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Dual-channel vs single-channel 533MHz

post #1 of 27
3/13/05 at 7:00pm
Thread Starter 
I've been ranting about this on a couple threads, so I thought I'd spawn a new thread.

Check out this guy's benchmark results:

http://www.notebookreview.com/forums...TOPIC_ID=13314

Executive summary: single-channel 533MHz DDR2 is faster than dual-channel 533MHz DDR2 on an i6000 with 533MHz FSB. I expected single-channel to be the same, but not FASTER....

So, everybody cancel your orders, and get one stick instead of two
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post #2 of 27
3/13/05 at 7:08pm
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo............. No more canceling and reordering for me.
XPS2 does not have option for single stick anyway.

But, that does not make sence. Something must have been messeed up in his test. Its counter to all the marketing hype of Duel Channel Ram. Its like the whole duel core cpu thing. Engineers cant get much more out of one but if you split the load in theroy you shoudl get some benefit. More test will confirm or deny.
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post #3 of 27
3/13/05 at 7:22pm
Thread Starter 
It makes perfect sense to me. The CPU can only drink from a 533MHz straw. Giving it two straws won't let it drink any faster.
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post #4 of 27
3/13/05 at 7:25pm
The difference was probably due to the different sizes, as the dual channel had 1GB total whereas the single channel test was only 512mb. A better test would have been to keep both sticks in and disable dual channel support (if possible).
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post #5 of 27
3/13/05 at 7:26pm
DAMMIT DELLBERT! where were you a week ago!?
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post #6 of 27
3/13/05 at 7:29pm
Wow, i expected it slightly skewed the other way. Perhaps the overhead that goes in to the dual channel, doesn't get compensated because of the 533 bottleneck. What a shame. Of course it could be a bad test considering they weren't ran one after the other, and the difference wasn't but 100mbps'ish.

Edit: The different total ram size also plays a factor mostlikly too, didn't notice that.
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post #7 of 27
3/13/05 at 7:43pm
He wasn't in dual channel mode in any of his test. All tests had the same bandwidth, as shown below.

Maximum Bus Bandwidth : 4256MB/s (estimated)
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post #8 of 27
3/13/05 at 7:47pm
Thread Starter 
Did you read the first message in his thread? BIOS reported dual-channel when he put in two sticks.

Edit: 4GB/s is the theoretical upper limit, but that assumes you could somehow stream memory with no CPU overhead.
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post #9 of 27
3/13/05 at 8:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dellbert
I've been ranting about this on a couple threads, so I thought I'd spawn a new thread.

Check out this guy's benchmark results:

http://www.notebookreview.com/forums...TOPIC_ID=13314

Executive summary: single-channel 533MHz DDR2 is faster than dual-channel 533MHz DDR2 on an i6000 with 533MHz FSB. I expected single-channel to be the same, but not FASTER....

So, everybody cancel your orders, and get one stick instead of two
Dang, mine's already been shipped. Oh well, you can't get a 2gb stick anyway.

I've been had!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mooslander_from_NotebookReview.com
I also ran Sandra benchmarks on my 1.6GHz/533 Pentium-M, only to find that the results were dissapointing (nearly the exact scores that had previously been posted by 1.6GHz/400 P-M's).
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post #10 of 27
3/13/05 at 8:42pm
I don't think the Inspiron 6000 can do Dual channel !!! Even if you put 2 Sodimms in the machine, it only runs in single channel mode.
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post #11 of 27
3/13/05 at 8:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zamora
I don't think the Inspiron 6000 can do Dual channel !!! Even if you put 2 Sodimms in the machine, it only runs in single channel mode.
The owner's manual indicates it does. Also in the first post of the linked thread he states that the bios was running in dual-channel mode.
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post #12 of 27
3/13/05 at 9:05pm
The Inspiron 6000 can't do Dual Channel, this is a fact. Just check out Dells site for yourself.
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post #13 of 27
3/13/05 at 9:09pm
Thread Starter 
Some people just won't be convinced until we test every Sonoma machine on the planet. They will all give the same results. I'll benchmark my 9300 in single- and dual-channel mode when I get it, assuming nobody beats me to it.
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post #14 of 27
3/13/05 at 9:14pm
The Inspiron 9300 can do dual channel, it says so on Dells site.
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post #15 of 27
3/13/05 at 9:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zamora
The Inspiron 6000 can't do Dual Channel, this is a fact. Just check out Dells site for yourself.
Actually I did already, that is where the owner's manual is found.

Follow the link: http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...0/en/index.htm, click on 'owner's manual'. Go to Chapter 10: Apendix, and look at the information under 'System Information'. You'll see:

System Information
System chip set Intel 915GM or Intel 915PM
Data bus width 64 bits
DRAM bus width Dual channel (2) 64-bit busses
Processor address bus width 32 bits
Flash EPROM 1 MB
Graphics Bus PCI-E X16
PCI bus 32 bits

So yes it does in fact support Dual Channel.
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post #16 of 27
3/13/05 at 9:15pm
Thread Starter 
All Sonoma-based machines should be dual-channel capable. I don't think it's something you can disable.
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post #17 of 27
3/13/05 at 10:13pm
^ Yep, chipset capability... and although it can be BIOS locked at discretion of the manufacturer (similar to the D800 being limited to 266MHz RAM by crippled BIOS for example), there is really no reason to do so IMHO. The benchmark tests suprise me, although the memory 512MB v 1024MB may have had some factor to play in it. Usually DC offers at least a 5%-10% boost over SC memory configurations.

Stu
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post #18 of 27
3/13/05 at 10:18pm
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post #19 of 27
3/13/05 at 10:48pm
Thread Starter 
Hmm, so which Dells, if any, use the 915GMS?

Dell says the i6000 uses 915GM (for integrated graphics) and 915PM (for X300), both of which support dual channel.
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post #20 of 27
3/14/05 at 12:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dellbert
Some people just won't be convinced until we test every Sonoma machine on the planet. They will all give the same results. I'll benchmark my 9300 in single- and dual-channel mode when I get it, assuming nobody beats me to it.
If I have time I will do this tomorrow morning. I can't promise anything but I'll try.
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