Triple Channel Memory VS Dual Channel

[mhalstern]

I have a choice to make.

I have 1600 MHZ DDR3 Ram.

I purchased 8 Gigs (2x4) but if I use all modules, the system will use it as Dual Channel. If I only use 3 modules, the system will treat it as triple channel.

For Chess, is 6 gig of Triple Chanel Ram better than 8 gig of dual channel Ram?

Thanks

[Dirt]

I doubt it makes much difference.

I guess you are probably interested in performance during long analysis, or you wouldn't have a use for all that memory. If your engine requires a hash table to be a power of two you might be able to use a four GB table even with only six GB of RAM, and if so then unless you have another effective use for the extra memory (bitbases?) the six GB setup might be a few percent faster.

[M ANSARI]

I think the amount of memory is really not important unless you have an Octa or more and want to play engine games using a lot of memory per engine. DDR 3 and DDR 2 perform about the same for chess. One thing to note regarding more than 3GB of memory is that a 32 bit operating system will not take advantage of it. So if you plan to get 4GB or 6GB and want that memory to count then you should have a 64bit OS.

[mhalstern]

Thanks for the replies.

I will be using Windows 7 64 bit on an overclocked I7-920.

[jwes]

Thanks for the replies.

I will be using Windows 7 64 bit on an overclocked I7-920.

Why don't you try it both ways and let us know what difference it makes?