1600 Ganged, or 1333 Unganged??

Reithan

United States360 Posts

September 05 2011 23:51 GMT

Ok, so I spent the majority of today trying to figure out why I can't get my full amount of RAM to show up on my computer while set to 1600 (Which it's rated for) on Unganged dual channel mode.

Turns out it's because I have an AMD Phenom II Quad Core Black Edition CPU, and it doesn't support dual channel unganged mode above 1333.

So, the question is, which is better:

4Gb 1600 Dual Channel Ganged Mode

or

4Gb 1333 Dual Channel Unganged Mode

(I'm leaving off 2Gb 1600 Single Channel Unganged Mode...because that's just BAD)

PandaBlunt

United States292 Posts

September 05 2011 23:58 GMT

From what I've read at http://www.overclock.net/amd-memory/324052-ganged-vs-unganged-mode.html you'd probably see better performance out of 1600 Dual Ganged mode. But play around with both and let us know :3

Boblhead

United States2577 Posts

September 06 2011 00:07 GMT

You will see little performance if any increase in the ram, 1333 to 2100 there will be a big difference, but 300mhz is nothing.

What does your motherboard recommend? If your motherboard specifies ddr3 1333 then buy the ddr3 1333? If your motherboard recommends it then get it.

Nancial

197 Posts

September 06 2011 00:17 GMT

wtf is this ganged mode ;]]] smth AMD specific ?

ulan-bat

China403 Posts

September 06 2011 00:45 GMT

Generally, ganged is better when running single thread applications, unganged for multi-threaded.

However, see this : http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/cpu/amd-phenom-x4-9850-ganged-unganged-p1.html

You're far better off going with Ganged 1600mhz. It's a 20% increase in speed (not performance per se) vs the 1% improvement seen with unganged (even in multi-threaded apps).

Reithan

United States360 Posts

September 06 2011 00:50 GMT

@Ulan-bat & PandaBlunt Yeah, the ganged mode seems a bit slicker so far.

@Bobhead re-read the OP, I already have the RAM, I'm just messing with settings. Also, as noted in the OP, this issue has nothing to do with the MB, it's a limitation of AMD processors right now.

@Nancial Ganged mode is running each bank of your DIMMs as if they were 1 DIMM, the channels are combined from 2x64bit to form 1 128bit channel, both of the processor's 2 memory manager chips cooperate to manage that 1 128bit channel. Unganged lets each DIMM be used separately, the processor's 2 manager chips each control 1 channel, allowing you to do 2 simultaneous operations, such as reading and writing simultaneously. And no, It's not AMD-specific.