What you mean is the OP will not get Quad-channel speed benefits with a dual channel system. Yes. But this motherboard won't take more than 4GB per slot according to Asus; so the OP can't buy two 8GB sticks for a dual-channel install to equal the same 16GB. What the OP has bought will work to give a greater amount of RAM if that's what is needed for say video encoding.
Agree with TVeblen.
A four RAM slot, dual channel motherboard has two RAM slots for each channel.
When you have two RAM cards you need to put them in different channels to get the maximum performance.
The new four RAM slot, Quad channel motherboards have four channels.
They all use the same RAM, the number of channels on the motherboard is the only difference.
A lot of people, including me, have run four RAM cards in dual channel systems with no settings adjustments needed and no issues.
If a system won't run with four RAM cards, usually it needs some settings adjustments.
RAM voltage, NB (North Bridge - separate or integrated) voltage, it depends on the luck of the draw of the components and how they work together.
Sometimes the frequencies and timings may need adjusting.
There have been a few motherboards that just refuse to run four RAM cards, but not that many of them.
I just want to clarify that I specifically mean that in a dual-channel system, using 4 sticks of ram increases the load on the bus. This means that it's slower than using 2 sticks in a dual channel. Like you said, it "works" and in the case of the OP, it's necessary.. but if you're looking for performance, 4 sticks in a dual-channel system is not the way to go.
Sorry, but have to disagree.
My OEM dual-channel system RAM performance is just fine with four cards installed.
2x2GB and 2x1GB.
Are you having performance issues with your 6GB?
OEM systems can be harder to get running smoothly, if the RAM isn't matched, due to the limited BIOS.
It's not a huge difference, you may not even really notice it unless you benchmark it (I've only seen one benchmark test this and performance was lower with 4 sticks). But it is a fact that 4 sticks in a dual channel system slow it down a little. The memory controller has to work harder to pull information from each module and it puts more traffic on the bus, creating more latency.
Got my 16 GBs working now and I can't tell a difference on speed... Check my system specs if you want
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