Dual Channel memory under OS X

[broken]

Ok, currently running one stick of DDR400 in single channel mode (512 meg stick), and wondering what performance difference I might see if I go to dual channel mode?

 

I know OS X likes ram, but say one 512 in single channel mode versus 2x256's in dual channel. Or a single 1 gig stick versus 2x512's in dual channel.

 

 

Anyone done any benchmarks?

[Danman]

loads faster, I put my ram in the wrong slots for dual mode and when I swapped them over there WAS a noticable difference

[jbjonas]

I doubt there is any difference between the performance of Dual Channel RAM on x86 hardware between Windows and OS X. It is much faster though... My Dual Channel PC3200 (400 MHz) can alternate between sticks of RAM, so it basically interacts at 800MHz with the system bus (which in my case also runs at 800 MHz)

[cyrana]

You can't tell dual channel unless you run a benchmark. Any thing you notice is most likely placebo. It will be faster in things which really stress the bus, but I doubt that means any 'normal' stuff will feel better.

 

My Pentium-D system doesn't really feel any slower if I move the DIMMs around in the slots so it is 2GB of single instead of 2GB of dual channel. But, my benchmarks look better in dual channel mode.

 

I do recommend running 1GB+ in OS X though.