I have 2 RAM slots on my laptop. 1st slot already has a 4gb single-channel RAM. I want to put another 4gb RAM stick in 2nd slot. So if I put dual-channel RAM stick in 2nd slot, will it be worth the price over a single-channel RAM stick (in terms of performance)?
Also If I put Dual channel 4gb sticks in BOTH slots, will it improve system performance?
2 Answers
If you put RAM of same size (2+2,4+4,8+8 etc.) in both slots then it will start to work in dual channel mode. That will increase the performance.
RAMs are not marked as dual channel. However lower latency RAMs are better.
If you put uneven size like 4+8, then even tho you have more memory the RAM performance will be lower. It also depends on what type of application you are using to notice the performance. Daily word processing and browsing do not need dual/triple channel performance.
There is no such thing as a "dual channel RAM stick". You may be thinking about "ranks" of a DIMM, which is not the same thing.
If your CPU supports two RAM channels (virtually all do), yes, filling up both RAM slots will double your memory bandwidth. How much performance benefit you get from this will depend on your exact workload.
