RAM Question

[Ignorant]

I currently have a P4 2.8 GHz desktop with 512 MB of Ram. It can have up to 2 GB of ram installed in it. When I have a few poker applications open I notice a small slowdown in my machine.

Will adding another 512 MB stick speed up my computer at all where it would be noticeably different?

[jjshabado]

[ QUOTE ]
I currently have a P4 2.8 GHz desktop with 512 MB of Ram. It can have up to 2 GB of ram installed in it. When I have a few poker applications open I notice a small slowdown in my machine.

Will adding another 512 MB stick speed up my computer at all where it would be noticeably different?

[/ QUOTE ]

Very likely, yes.

[Dementia]

ya but i'd just get rid of the 512 stick and buy a 1GB stick. one stick runs faster than two.

[jjshabado]

[ QUOTE ]
ya but i'd just get rid of the 512 stick and buy a 1GB stick. one stick runs faster than two.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've never felt the small performance gain you can get from using 1 stick over 2 was worth the price. Or for that matter worth running 1GB over 1.5GB.

[ispiked]

I've never heard that one stick will run faster than two sticks (if they total the same amount). I thought the main advantage of buying bigger sticks was the ability to upgrade later to larger amounts; e.g. instead of getting 2 512MB sticks when you buy a PC you get 1 1GB stick and buy another 1GB stick later (whereas if you wanted to upgrade to 2GB with 2 512GB sticks, you'd need to trash the two 512MB sticks).

[pvn]

[ QUOTE ]
ya but i'd just get rid of the 512 stick and buy a 1GB stick. one stick runs faster than two.

[/ QUOTE ]

Where does this idea come from? If you have a dual-channel-capable motherboard, then two matching sticks will be faster than one.

[BiPolar_Nut]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
ya but i'd just get rid of the 512 stick and buy a 1GB stick. one stick runs faster than two.

[/ QUOTE ]

Where does this idea come from? If you have a dual-channel-capable motherboard, then two matching sticks will be faster than one.

[/ QUOTE ]

This idea comes from Pre-DDR (notably 70ns and 60ns 72 pin SIMS) days and was true then. The opposite is the case today. You miss taking advantage of the Dual Data Rate using only one stick (as pvn stated).