Unganged memory ??

Hello to all,
Today I upgraded my system with a used Phenom-II and 4 GB of memory. The seller told me something about if the memory slots were different colors that I had to split the original 4 GB and place them in like colors, I forget the term he used, maybe dual channel. Something about the ability of the memory to be used more efficiently. On my Gigabyte board the memory slots were all the same color. So I just put the 2 new chips in the last two slots. The screen and bios says something about ganged and unganged memory. It appears to be running unganged, either correctly or not. How would I know for sure? This is well beyond my experience level and I wanted to get my machine to run optimum.
Also I noted when running CPU-Z, what seem to be strange readings for the memory.
Could someone be able to decipher the meaning and explain it to me. It doesn't look good to me.



Thanks for any and all assistance!
Glenn

essenbe said:

What you are showing is the memory in slot 1, there is the same info for each slot. The memory tab will tell you what speed your memory is running at and you want it to say Dual Chanel. If you have 2 different speeds of memory, the memory will run at the lowest speed installed. You are always better to have a matched set. But, it can be done with different sticks but is more likely to give problems.

Hello again,
So you are saying that the four columns with the 4 different specs and speeds all relate only to the slot 1 memory stick. I should check each slot and compare. The thing that threw me was it saying 266Mhz and 400Mhz. What is the speed that slot one's memory is running? I will check the rest. I don't understand all the data being presented {:-(!
Thanks again!!
Glenn

OldMX said:

Ganged = 1x128 bit bandwidth
unganged = 2x64 bit bandwidth

Multiple core applications unganged is better
One Core applications ganged is better

Unganged or ganged you are still in duel channel though.

http://www.ilsistemista.net/index.ph...-question.html

Hello OldMX,
Appreciate your knowledge and assistance. I do not understand what you wrote except that unganged is better with my Phenom-II X4. Thanks
Glenn

This is the first suggestion I've seen that setting the system to use single-channel RAM mode (unganged) would give better performance than dual channel.

(I have been using Intel CPUs since Core2 was introduced. The Intel systems I've seen have no BIOS setting to set single channel operation, AFAIK.)

It's possible that the advantages of multiple channel RAM may not be seen outside of synthetic benchmarks. The memory bandwidth test in SiSoft SANDRA (SiSoftware Zone), for example, scales with multi-channel operation.

However, I suggest configuring your RAM to support dual channel operation. (P. 16 of your manual, available here: GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket AM2+ - GA-MA785GM-US2H (rev. 3.3)). Then you can choose which way to operate in the BIOS settings.

bobkn said:

This is the first suggestion I've seen that setting the system to use single-channel RAM mode (unganged) would give better performance than dual channel.

(I have been using Intel CPUs since Core2 was introduced. The Intel systems I've seen have no BIOS setting to set single channel operation, AFAIK.)

It's possible that the advantages of multiple channel RAM may not be seen outside of synthetic benchmarks. The memory bandwidth test in SiSoft SANDRA (SiSoftware Zone), for example, scales with multi-channel operation.

However, I suggest configuring your RAM to support dual channel operation. (P. 16 of your manual, available here: GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket AM2+ - GA-MA785GM-US2H (rev. 3.3)). Then you can choose which way to operate in the BIOS settings.

Hello bobkn,
I had previously understood that dual channel was the better performance and my board supports it. So dual channel is ganged! Different opinions by different member is different!!!
Thanks for you information, I will check it out!
Glenn

Dwarf said:

When using dual-channel memory with an AMD processor, you have the option of running it in Ganged or UnGanged mode, dependant on the processor used. Basically, with AMD processors the memory controller is built-in to the CPU die. For older CPUs, there is only one controller, and you should therefore set the mode as Ganged (meaning that the memory operates as a single unit). Newer CPUs, such as the Phenom line, have two such controllers and you can set the mode as Ganged (where the memory operates as above - in this case, the controller associated with core#0 is responsible) or, for greater performance, as UnGanged (where each memory controller is responsible for a single channel). These options are available through the BIOS.

Hello and thanks Dwarf,
Sorry for being dense, I have found out with bobkn's advice, how to change the memory modules on my specific board for dual channel mode. It is not set up correctly now. Just so I am sure, with the Phemon-II X4 965 chip, I WILL get better performance if I change it to the dual channel/ganged configuration. Thanks
Glenn

glennc said:

essenbe said:

What you are showing is the memory in slot 1, there is the same info for each slot. The memory tab will tell you what speed your memory is running at and you want it to say Dual Chanel. If you have 2 different speeds of memory, the memory will run at the lowest speed installed. You are always better to have a matched set. But, it can be done with different sticks but is more likely to give problems.

Hello again,
So you are saying that the four columns with the 4 different specs and speeds all relate only to the slot 1 memory stick. I should check each slot and compare. The thing that threw me was it saying 266Mhz and 400Mhz. What is the speed that slot one's memory is running? I will check the rest. I don't understand all the data being presented {:-(!
Thanks again!!
Glenn

The 4 different columns show the timings that would be used if you ran that module at that speed/frequency. High end RAM run in an economy or low end motherboard could result in it being run at a lower frequency than its rated for. Mismatched RAM modules can cause it also. The SPD just tells the motherboard what timings to use at the lower frequency.