# of mem sticks Vs performance

[araaraara]

Lets say you have 3 identical motherboard with 3 DIMM slots each. Now if you put one stick of "'192mb' PC100 SDRAM" in one slot, two sticks of "'96mb' PC100 SDRAM" in two slots in the second and three sticks of "'196mb' PC100 SDRAM" in the three slots of the third board. All the other parts of the computers would be identical(same vid card, HD, CPU, 196mb of ram total, same OS). Which one would have the best memory performance/bandwidth and overall best performance. I am guessing that it would be the 3 stick system because the the three sticks could be operating at the same time.

[AuraEdge]

Ill give my guess, as I dont know much about memory bus archtechture.
What I think is that it doesnt matter how many banks memory is in. All the memory is addressed and then consolidated into a 'pool' of memory you can use, which is then channeled to the bus. So in that case, 2 sticks of 128MB wont go any slower or faster than 1 stick of 256MB.

Again, only a guess based on observations. Also a Dual channel memory bus would double memory speeds, but just putting more sticks in wont.

[NDD]

NO performance difference that human can notice ...

Best Regards ...

[Richard_Cranium72]

If the BIOS supports it, "memory interleaving" is the RAM equivalent to RAID for Hard Drives.

[Fingers]

Unless I'm reading the question wrong, the 3rd motherboard with 3 modules of 196MB each for at total of 588MB will perform best. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

I'll assume though, that you really meant 3 modules of 64MB each for a total of 196MB, just like the other 2 boards. My guess is that one 192MB module would probably out perform 3 modules of 64MB each, but the difference would be so small, it would be irrelevant.

Crucial FAQ - My computer has 64MB. Can I add 64MB, or do I need just one 128MB module? (http://support.crucial.com/scripts/crucial.exe/solution?11=001018-0006&130=000971882828&14=&2715=&15=&2716=&57=faq&58=&2900=&25=-1)

Crucial FAQ - Does it matter which slots I plug my new module in? (http://support.crucial.com/scripts/crucial.exe/solution?11=001220-0016&130=000977355659&14=&2715=&15=&2716=&57=faq&58=&2900=&25=-1)

[marc666]

you should b able to add 64mb of mem to it even tho at todays prices it might be better to jus go ahead and add the 128 mem instead it wil improve your performance

[Mungla]

What motherboards support memory interleaving? I'm running a CUSL2-C with Mushkin Rev2, although I haven't seen this option in the BIOS, it would be cool to enable.

[Roy]

I think it's a trick question.

Anyone ever seen a 192MB or 196MB memory module?

[Bonehead]

LOL

[araaraara]

It should say 3 sticks of 64mb. I know that 192 and 196 and 96 mb sticks of SRDAM don't exist. That's why they are in quotes.' '

[Richard_Cranium72]

Mungla
I don't know exactly which mobo's support memory interleaving.

Just enter the BIOS and search for it, or if you have the manual perhaps you can locate it there.

DrVette

[1Chris]

I don't know about the 3, but the difference between 1 or 2 sticks of SDRAM (with the same amount total) will be better performance with 2 sticks.
One strip has to read, clear, write. With 2 strips, 1 can read, and the other can write.
I can't speek for everyone, but It can be noticed.

[prexaspes]

Well, minus memory interleaving, my guess would be if they were all micron parts, the difference would not be noticeable, but the closest to the processor bus would probably be fastest.