8G Triple Channel vs. 10g what to do??

I have a gigabyte x58a ud3r motherboard. I previously had two 2g sticks of ocz triple channel ram running dual channel. I bought 3 more 2g sticks. Is it better to run 8g in triple channel or throw the extra stick in there for a total of 10g? In the motherboard manual it said it can only run triple channel in 4 or 6 sticks not 5. Hope this makes sense. Any input appreciated.

What is your peak RAM usage?

If it is under 8, then I'd go with triple channel and 8 gigs.

If you at times use all 8, then you might appreciate running 10 gigs in dual channel because 2 gigs of dual channel is certainly preferable to banging on a page file.

But it's a rare and intensive situation that would use 8 gigs. I have no idea if you are in such a situation.

I suspect that if you ran all 10 gigs in dual channel and never used more than 8, you'd never notice the lack of triple channel.

So it likely wouldn't matter in the real world.


Whoa--I see your user name it Protoolsuser. If you use Protools, the audio app, then maybe you do use all of 8 or 10 gigs. Never used it and don't know how much RAM it likes.

ignatzatsonic said:

What is your peak RAM usage?

If it is under 8, then I'd go with triple channel and 8 gigs.

If you at times use all 8, then you might appreciate running 10 gigs in dual channel because 2 gigs of dual channel is certainly preferable to banging on a page file.

But it's a rare and intensive situation that would use 8 gigs. I have no idea if you are in such a situation.

I suspect that if you ran all 10 gigs in dual channel and never used more than 8, you'd never notice the lack of triple channel.

So it likely wouldn't matter in the real world.




Whoa--I see your user name it Protoolsuser. If you use Protools, the audio app, then maybe you do use all of 8 or 10 gigs. Never used it and don't know how much RAM it likes.

I see what you are saying, in everyday use there is no way i would touch the 8g. Protools is a memory intensive program and at peak usage i might get near 8g but probably not top it...I guess I will run it at 8g and see how the performance is...to be honest i don't really understand the difference between triple and dual channel so ya know it is just how it runs to me and i will say the 4g vs 8g is quite an improvement!

You should be able to log your RAM usage while you are pounding on ProTools to get an idea of how much RAM it might use in certain situations.

And then make a judgment. If you are above 8 gigs 10% of the time, maybe you put in the 9th and 10th gig of RAM.

If you are above 8 gigs 1% of the time, maybe you don't.

But really, you'd have to do some pretty sophisticated tests to determine the best path, since the difference between dual and triple channel isn't much as I understand it.

Ask other ProTools gurus?