Confused about duel channel

[NanoWarrior]

Im very confused about duel channel. I am told that it doubles bandwidth, but what bandwidth? The only bandwidth I can think of is the FSB rate of ram. For example, ram that is 400mhz fast doubled by duel channel would be 800mhz ram....this is the only bandwidth I can think of. AM I wrong?

 

[The Merlin]

Come one people it's not that hard to understand This is like 10th bloody thread this week about DC

Effectively yes, they work together and in theory you could say that 2x DDR400 would be 800mhz, BUT it doesn't actually make them go faster They just work together and more efficiently

 

[DarkAngel]

As I understand it: if you have 2 512Mb DDR400 Modules and you dont run them in dual channel mode, you have 1Gb of DDR400 Memory.
However if you run the same 2 512Mb DDR400 Modules and you do run them in dual channel mode then you still have 1Gb DDR400 Memory, but it will be faster and more efficient, as each module has its own memory controller to itself, unlike non dual channel DDR motherboads which would have to make do with one memory controller which would obviousley be a bottleneck.

 

[becroydon]

a text book description of dual channel ddr is that data can be transferred on a falling edge (0) and a rising edge (1), so effectively the hertz rate is doubled

 

[NanoWarrior]

I THINK I FINALLY GET IT

When you have duel channel active ram and they are 400mhz, each module wont double to 800 mhz but will stay at 400mhz. But since they have a channel for each module, now they both can send data on there own channel therefore each module is still sending data at 400 mhz but together they are sending 800mhz worth of data. Am I right?

RAM#1 ---------channel 1
400mhz traveling at 400mhz

with there own channels they together act like 800mhz

RAM#2 ---------channel 2
400mhz traveling at 400mhz

 

[DarkAngel]

Yes in effect. Just run your RAM in dual channel and be happy.

 

[DarkAngel]

Also, you can use this tool to check how fast your RAM is really going

 

[Apokalipse]

in simple terms.... it's just faster