I see no increase in speed from adding 1G ram

[Dr Klovernutz]

I have a dell 4600
P4 2.6
512MB dual channel DDR ram
I just added (in dual channel ) 1 Gig RAM
I put the 2 new 512 sticks in the primary slots and moved the 2 old 256 sticks into the secondary slots
i restarted the computer and a screen came up saying to chose device manager or to just start.
i just started and checked properties in my computer and 1.5G ram is showing and i ram the tool cpu-z wich informed me i am in dual channel mode.
HOwever i don't really notice any inproved speed. did i do something wrong?
is there a way i can check the speed.
I was hoping to decrease the time needed when i encode DVDs however i ran DVDshrink and saw no increase in speed.......

did i do someting wrong?

[geno888]

I'm not an expert on these things, but maybe memory chips must be of the same dimensions for dual channel to work correctly.

I mean 4 x 512 MB, and not 2 x 512 + 2 x 256.

Anyway, probably the only way to see any change is a benchmarck software.

[Chewy]

Actually you can drastically slow a computer that way and crash the heck out
of shrink or an intensive game.

DUAL CHANNEL MEANS MATCHED STICKS(2)
it's not dual dual channel 2 sets of matched sticks that don't match
do the spd tables match exactly in cpu-z

[Chewy]

pull the 2 small sticks out and test

[drfsupercenter]

I have similar problems with mine, a Dimension 2350. It comes with 256 MB, and I recently added 512 onto that. Still slow I got CPU-Z, and it shows 768 megs of memory, but this is what makes me mad: I went to www.dell.com and went to where you can buy memory. It said to get PC2100 and 266 MHz. I did. It is running at 133 MHz with a max speed of 133. I called Dell, and they said that my PC came with 266, but I pulled the memory out and it says PC133 on it. I argued, but no luck. Any suggestions? I realise that it limits the computer to 133 MHz speed having the 256 in there, but even with the 256 pulled out and the system restarted, CPU-Z still shows 133 MHz max speed.

[Dr Klovernutz]

dual channel is a matched pair
the pairs don't need to match each other

is there some application i can run to test memory speed?
i ram memtest with no errors

what do i use to test

[nwg]

Shrink benefits from faster CPU rather than RAM. I would suggest 1GB as a minimum now anyway. I still use a Athlon XP 2000 and it is really slow sometimes (currently compressing at just 705kb/s using Sharp AEC at 75%). I use 512MB PC2100 DDR RAM

RAM benefits when video editing is done such as taking bits out of video and putting it back together.

I aim to get another computer soon and will want at least a P4 3.2ghz or a AMD 64 3200.

[Chewy]

@dfr

sdram was 66, 100 & 133
ddr sdram(doubled) 133x2, 166x2, 200x2
they use different slots 168/182? who cares
mem bus may be 133, but it's doubled to 266
I have some 250 doubled to 500(fastttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!)

[Dr Klovernutz]

in cpu-z, SPD tables match where applicable
obviously manufacturer and size differ from slots 1-3 to slots 2-4

[Dr Klovernutz]

i have 800 FSB
alll sticks are 400mhz

does anyone have a benchmark i may compare against?

currently i am deep analysising a DVD in dvdshrink while surfing 'net
it is at 46% and is continually increasing its speed currently its up to 8.4MB/sec

is this good?

[Chewy]

in cpu-z, SPD tables match where applicable
obviously manufacturer and size differ from slots 1-3 to slots 2-4

you are still missing the point, for dual channel to optimize we need 2 or 4
exactly matching sticks, and those sticks will be running at the right cas settings, matcing bios with spd.

I have shrunk a 2hr 20 min movie at 70% in 8 minutes with my best setup.
Only 512 megs of ram. very fast ram

[Dr Klovernutz]

in slots 1 and 3 i have matching sticks 512mb 400
in slots 2 and 4 i have matching sticks 256mb 400

[Dr Klovernutz]

Available Memory 71.60 %
Page File Size 512.89Mb
Available Page File 363.8 %
Virtual Memory 2047.8Mb
Available Virtual Memory 97.99 %
Memory Slot 1 [CHANNEL A DIMM 0] 512Mb
Memory Slot 2 [CHANNEL B DIMM 0] 512Mb
Memory Slot 3 [CHANNEL A DIMM 1] 256Mb
Memory Slot 4 [CHANNEL B DIMM 1] 256Mb

[nwg]

I have shrunk a 2hr 20 min movie at 70% in 8 minutes with my best setup.
Only 512 megs of ram. very fast ram

Was that with AEC and Deep Analysis?

I am out of touch with RAM speeds. What is yours?

[Chewy]

pull the 256 meg sticks, they aren't doing you any good
and quite possibly are slowing the system down, and who in the heck ever told you the pairs don't have to match spd's, some kid at compusa?
Wookies pull arms out for far less. They hide when they see me coming now.
Never yet found one that knew what a media code was