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Trinity laptop buyers beware... you NEED dual channel memory.

post #1 of 12
7/22/12 at 8:30am
Thread Starter 
Thought I would share my discovery with the rest of the community here.

If you're planning on getting a trinity-based laptop, you will need dual channel memory or your framerates will be cut in half. A friend of mine gave me a 2nd 4GB DDR3 1600mhz stick the other day to bring my new Trinity laptop up to 8GB ram. When I installed it and ran a 3DMark06, my framerates went from being great to abysmal.

Basically, the GPU NEEDS as much memory bandwidth as you can throw at it, or you have to get a system with a dedicated GPU. A trinity laptop that uses only the integrated GPU must have dual-channel memory to work properly. There's no way around it.
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post #2 of 12
7/22/12 at 8:43am
Install any two similar sticks(compatible) in a dual-channel configuration and they become "dual-channel memory".

Never have understood why that term was used, marketing perhaps?
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post #3 of 12
7/22/12 at 8:46am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bavarianblessed View Post

Install any two similar sticks(compatible) in a dual-channel configuration and they become "dual-channel memory".
Never have understood why that term was used, marketing perhaps?

Correct. However, the problem you get is even if two sticks are considered "similar" they may not sync and become dual-channel, thus you are just left single-channel.

The stick I got was similar in specs, but apparently the 4GB stick I had and the one I got were different enough that it did not become dual channel.

It's not all marketing. The sticks have to be virtually identical to work in dual channel.
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post #4 of 12
7/22/12 at 8:46am
  • Malcolm
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Wait, so you went from one 4GB SODIMM to two 4GB SODIMMs for 8GB total, right?

Unless I'm mistaken, the single SODIMM would've been running in single-channel mode, and then after you added the second module, it should've went to dual-channel.

Or did you mean, "framerates went from being abysmal to great." tongue.gif

Edit: Aaaand, ninja'd.
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post #5 of 12
7/22/12 at 8:50am
this isnt new news. llano works best with dual channel 1600mhz+ ram, so why would trinity be any different?
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post #6 of 12
7/22/12 at 8:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Pistol View Post

Correct. However, the problem you get is even if two sticks are considered "similar" they may not sync and become dual-channel, thus you are just left single-channel.
The stick I got was similar in specs, but apparently the 4GB stick I had and the one I got were different enough that it did not become dual channel.
It's not all marketing. The sticks have to be virtually identical to work in dual channel.

They should have defaulted to JEDEC standards in which case you experienced a configuration limitation of the chipset/motherboard. Either way installing in a dual-channel configuration IS dual-channel mode.
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post #7 of 12
7/22/12 at 9:02am
The SPD of the 2 sticks were probably different enought for the BIOS to set it at default setting. A quick modification to RAM timing/channel in BIOS should have done the trick. But laptop's BIOSes don't like to giveup their evil power on the machine and might not have that kind of setting at all biggrin.gif
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post #8 of 12
7/22/12 at 9:09am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Malcolm View Post

Wait, so you went from one 4GB SODIMM to two 4GB SODIMMs for 8GB total, right?
Unless I'm mistaken, the single SODIMM would've been running in single-channel mode, and then after you added the second module, it should've went to dual-channel.
Or did you mean, "framerates went from being abysmal to great." tongue.gif

No. I meant framerates went from being great to abysmal.

The laptop in stock config is 4GB + 2GB for a total of 6GB 1600mhz RAM. Both sticks are apparently "similar" so it runs in dual channel mode, even though the sticks are different sizes (CPU-Z confirms this). 3DMark06 gets roughly 7800 points in this configuration.

Last night, I took out the 2GB stick and added in a 4GB 1600mhz stick so now it was 4GB + 4GB for a total of 8GB RAM. When I did this, the system reverted to single-channel mode because apparently the sticks are not a match for each other. 3DMark06 got roughly 4800 points in this configuration. The framerate was quite literally cut in half.

I meant exactly what I said. In trinity's case, more ram is only better if the speed is the same, and if the laptop is not running in dual-channel mode, don't even bother.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bavarianblessed View Post

They should have defaulted to JEDEC standards in which case you experienced a configuration limitation of the chipset/motherboard. Either way installing in a dual-channel configuration IS dual-channel mode.

Correct, but 2 sticks of ram with "similar" specs does not mean it will default to dual-channel mode. That was the issue I experienced.


Also, it's an HP laptop, so the BIOS is locked. I cannot tweak the settings of each stick.
Edited by Mad Pistol - 7/22/12 at 9:12am
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post #9 of 12
7/22/12 at 9:14am
Typically each channel in dual channel needs to have equal amounts of of memory. Unless Trinity and other laptop-based systems run different, it should have only been single channel with 4 Gb in one channel and 2 Gb in the other.
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post #10 of 12
7/22/12 at 9:21am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OCScrub View Post

Typically each channel in dual channel needs to have equal amounts of of memory. Unless Trinity and other laptop-based systems run different, it should have only been single channel with 4 Gb in one channel and 2 Gb in the other.

Yea, I thought so too...




Alas, we were wrong.
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