A7n8x-x can't enable duel channel mode

  • Thread starter Thread starter MadUnit
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MadUnit

I have been trying for 2 days to find out if I can run my ram in dual
channel mode. I have 3 sticks of ram, one 512 and two 256's. I have
read my user guide cover to cover and can't seem to find how to run
any number of sticks in duel channel mode. Here is what I am working
with

A7N8X-X mobo
Athlon XP 1800
512mb Samsung
256mb Samsung
256 Generic
ATI Radeon 9500 64MB
WD 75gig HD
Win XP Pro sp2

Thanks for any help
 
that board is not capable of running dual channel mode..it says single in
the boot sequence but that is all it can do. I have one of them and an
A7N8X-Deluxe rev 2.0..which is capable.
 
I have been trying for 2 days to find out if I can run my ram in dual
channel mode. I have 3 sticks of ram, one 512 and two 256's. I have
read my user guide cover to cover and can't seem to find how to run
any number of sticks in duel channel mode. Here is what I am working
with

A7N8X-X mobo
Athlon XP 1800
512mb Samsung
256mb Samsung
256 Generic
ATI Radeon 9500 64MB
WD 75gig HD
Win XP Pro sp2

Thanks for any help
Click to expand...

The "A7N8X-X" doesn't support dual channel mode.

Ed
 
strange, perhaps a revised a7n8x-x? Its also odd that I have a7n8x-x
machines - all of which have dual channel support and are using it. They are
all revision B's.
 
I think what it is..is that it reports as Dual Channel during the post...but
the chipset does not actually support..but the performance gain is so
miminal that we are not really out anything...my benchmarks are very similar
between my 8X-X and my 8X-Deluxe
 
Blaedmon said:
strange, perhaps a revised a7n8x-x? Its also odd that I have a7n8x-x
machines - all of which have dual channel support and are using it. They are
all revision B's.
Click to expand...

I have an A7N8X-DLX version 1.04 and I run it in dual channel mode
using the exact same RAM configuration as you have. In fact, when the
boot-up screen picture comes on, it says dual channel as part of the
graphic.

arnie
 
Well guys thanks for your help. I guess its is not possible to run
duel channel mode unless I have on of the phantom boards that does or
at least posts that it does. Are the performance gains really that
minimal? I would think that running in Dual channel mode would have a
big impact. I mean what was all the hype about when DDR came out if it
doesn't do much?......
 
Well guys thanks for your help. I guess its is not possible to run
duel channel mode unless I have on of the phantom boards that does or
at least posts that it does. Are the performance gains really that
minimal? I would think that running in Dual channel mode would have a
big impact. I mean what was all the hype about when DDR came out if it
doesn't do much?......
Click to expand...

Consider the data rates for a moment.

The AthlonXP has a 64bit data bus running at FSB400 in the best case.
A single DDR DIMM has 64bits and can be run at DDR400. In other words,
ignoring the control overhead to talk to the DIMM, the Athlon is
"satisfied" with a single DIMM.

The Pentium4 has a 64bit data bus running at FSB800. It is
balanced by two 64 bit DIMMs running at FSB400, so it does
help to run the Pentium4 in dual channel mode.

The Nforce2 has functions in it called DASP, to try to prefetch
needed data. That also helps the performance of a single channel
system.

In the real world, there isn't that much difference in the
average application (word processing, email, etc). If you
have an application which is memory centric, then you will
see a difference.

I did a test with memtest86 a while back, in which I got the
source and added five lines of code to it, to measure the
memory bus bandwidth at various memory addresses.

http://groups.google.com/[email protected]

In the dual channel part of memory, speed was 1435MB/sec and in
the single channel area it was 916MB/sec. You can download a
copy of memtest86 and test your own memory configuration, and
see whether it is closer to the former number, or the latter.
The bandwidth measurement is in the upper left hand corner of
the memtest86 screen.

My experiment specifically, was to test what happens when a
dual channel board has three identical sticks of memory.
This results in an imbalance between the two channels, in
terms of the total memory on each channel. As a result,
a portion of the memory space runs slower (in single channel
mode), so the memory speed is not a constant through the
entire memory space.

HTH,
Paul
 
and I also had a higher memory bandwidth benchmark prior to installing the
Unified drivers on the 8X-X..so the machine was somewhat faster with the XP
Pro SP1 drivers.
 
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