Dual-channel vs single-channel 533MHz - Page 2

Here are the results from Sandra:

1gb - single channel:

SiSoftware Sandra

Benchmark Results
Combined Index : 5134 MB/s
Speed Factor : 14.4
2kB Blocks : 19271 MB/s
4kB Blocks : 19919 MB/s
8kB Blocks : 19987 MB/s
16kB Blocks : 20115 MB/s
32kB Blocks : 18823 MB/s
64kB Blocks : 9807 MB/s
128kB Blocks : 9647 MB/s
256kB Blocks : 9660 MB/s
512kB Blocks : 9642 MB/s
1MB Blocks : 9604 MB/s
4MB Blocks : 2275 MB/s
16MB Blocks : 1457 MB/s
64MB Blocks : 1399 MB/s
256MB Blocks : 1407 MB/s
Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.

Logical/Chipset 1 Memory Banks
Bank 0 : 512MB DDR2-SDRAM 5.0-4-4-11 1CMD
Bank 1 : 512MB DDR2-SDRAM 5.0-4-4-11 1CMD
Channels : 1
Speed : 4x 133MHz (532MHz data rate)
Width : 64-bit



1gb dual channel:

SiSoftware Sandra

Benchmark Results
Combined Index : 5319 MB/s
Speed Factor : 13.2
2kB Blocks : 19293 MB/s
4kB Blocks : 19911 MB/s
8kB Blocks : 19983 MB/s
16kB Blocks : 20142 MB/s
32kB Blocks : 18795 MB/s
64kB Blocks : 9832 MB/s
128kB Blocks : 9631 MB/s
256kB Blocks : 9664 MB/s
512kB Blocks : 9629 MB/s
1MB Blocks : 9618 MB/s
4MB Blocks : 2374 MB/s
16MB Blocks : 1574 MB/s
64MB Blocks : 1526 MB/s
256MB Blocks : 1527 MB/s
Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better.

Logical/Chipset 1 Memory Banks
Bank 0 : 256MB DDR2-SDRAM 4.0-4-4-12 1CMD
Bank 1 : 256MB DDR2-SDRAM 4.0-4-4-12 1CMD
Bank 4 : 256MB DDR2-SDRAM 4.0-4-4-12 1CMD
Bank 5 : 256MB DDR2-SDRAM 4.0-4-4-12 1CMD
Channels : 2
Speed : 4x 133MHz (532MHz data rate)
Width : 64-bit


I'm not sure these numbers prove much, the performance difference looks negligible. Are there better memory benchmarks out there?

I could not enable/disable in the BIOS. I had to remove one of my single 1gb DIMMs from my system to test single channel and I installed 2 x 512mb DIMMs from a different system to test dual channel mode.

Just a little tought there. Don't forget that the CPU is not the only thing accessing the memory. Other periferal can access the memory without CPU intervention through DMA (like hardrive, cdrom, graphic card etc). Having the extra bandwidht that dual channel will provide should still help, even on a 533 Mhz FSB.

CPU test alone won't show that