Windows 10: Single vs dual channel RAM in a laptop

I have a new Dell Vostro 5590 i7 10510U laptop with 8GB DDR4 RAM 2666 Mhz and a NVidia MX250 GPU with 2GB. Win10 Pro. NVMe SSD.

The RAM is running in single channel currently. There is an available RAM slot that can be used to increase RAM. If I add another 8GB “stick’’ of DDR4 2666 MHz RAM (to total 16GB), I presume the RAM will then run in dual channel. Will this make the laptop faster overall?

Not because the laptop is slow, but I want to get the most out of it.

:)

 

What is Better Dual or Single Channel Memory?

Dual channel is always better then single.

RAM Performance Benchmark: Single-Channel vs. Dual-Channel - Does It Matter? | Gamers Nexus - Gaming PC Builds Hardware Benchmarks

Dual-channel vs. Single-channel, does it matter? - The NUC Blog

What's your memory assessment speed? - Windows 7 Help Forums

As others have said, it`s all in your head, the only way to prove it is to run winsat mem with 1 stick in single channel then 2 sticks in dual channel.

As far as booting from a usb stick, you have to choose it in the one time boot menu (not the bios) unless you go into the bios and list usb as the first boot option (you do not want to do that)

My settings

1) DVD drive
2) Boot drive
3) Disable
4) Disable

etc
etc
etc

Any time you want to deviate just use the boot menu, as mentioned


For example, If you want to boot into a Linux distro on a flash drive, just follow the above rule.

 

Faulty Memory RAMs in Dual Channel but no errors in Single Channel

Hey everyone,

I've got a situation with my old rig I couldn't make sense of.

Asus p7p55d pro
Intel i7 870 2.93Ghz
2 x 2GB OCZ DDR3 1600Mhz CAS 7-7-7 Dual Channel
Nvidia GT 1030

Lately my PC has been unstable and crashed twice over the last 24 hours which never happened in the past.
It happened while I was (legally) downloading large files using Utorrent.

1st crash: PC frozen on a dark screen
2nd crash: frozen screen in Utorrent with red artefacts located in the upper left of the screen.

May or may not be related but 2 days ago while watching a video I've noticed artefacts in the video.

At this point I was thinking my new Nvidia GT1030 was faulty. I ran a 3D OCCT test and it didn't return any error or artefacts on the screen. I also monitored the GPU temp as often artefacts are caused by the GPU overheating but the GPU wouldn't go above 55 degrees Celsius.

I then ran a memtest with by 2 RAMs in and bingo heaps of errors as illustrated below





Then to determine which RAM was faulty I removed 1 DIMM and ran the test. 0 Errors, ok must be the other DIMM which is faulty. I swap the DIMMS and run the test and it returns 0 errors





How do you explain that I get errors when the 2 DIMMS are in but when used in a single channel they are working fine?

Thanks

 

Dual Channel and Flex mode

I would like to know how dual channel and flex mode works. I think I do but need some clarifications please.

I have 1x 4gb DDR3 and 1x 8gb DDR3 totally 12gb. So, CPUID says they are running in dual channel mode.

My questions are as following:

Q1) 1x 4gb + 0.5x 8gb are running in dual channel; and remaining 4gb is running in flex mode. Is that correct?

Q2) If I consume over 8gb of ram then what happens?

a) 4+4 gb will be running in dual channel, and remaining 4gb running in single channel mode? Or,

b) the entire 12gb will be running in single channel mode?

Q3. Any difference whether I place my ram back or front? For example, 8gb in slot 1 and 4gb in slot 2; or reverse 4gb in front and 8gb in slot 2?

Thanks