Does single channel memory make a difference in performance?

[kazmac]

Hi everyone,

After watching Lisa Gade's review, I am now considering the Asus ProArt Studiobook Pro.

These only have single channel RAM though, and I've read some negative rumblings about single channel RAM in my research. I am not a tinkerer.

I would be using for the usual web surfing, Office, working with Corel Painter and a Wacom tablet, maybe video conversion, and eventually Serif's Affinity software. Will know next week if I will buy one then.

Thanks!

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

Comparable systems with dual channel RAM will perform slightly faster (around 10-15%) than with single channel RAM for CPU intensive applications. This does not have to be a disadvantage per se, because graphical intensive applications tend to lean more on the video card.

The Asus ProArt StudioBook Pro has a NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 Max-Q graphics card (which is very capable) and also a i7-9750H or Intel Xeon E-2276M CPU. This machine is more than capable for graphical intensive applications (as Lisa thinks also). As said, for most graphical applications the video card has to do more of the heavy lifting than the CPU anyways. But even with single channel RAM this computer is quite fast.

IMO, the Asus ProArt Studiobook Pro is fast enough for what you want. Single instead of dual channel RAM would not be a deal breaker for me with this machine.

EDIT:
See my next answer #4 below.

 

[kazmac]

Comparable systems with dual channel RAM will perform slightly faster (around 10-15%) than with single channel RAM for CPU intensive applications. This does not have to be a disadvantage per se, because graphical intensive applications tend to lean more on the video card.

The Asus ProArt StudioBook Pro has a NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 Max-Q graphics card (which is very capable) and also a i7-9750H or Intel Xeon E-2276M CPU. This machine is more than capable for graphical intensive applications (as Lisa thinks also). As said, for most graphical applications the video card has to do more of the heavy lifting than the CPU anyways. But even with single channel RAM this computer is quite fast.

IMO, the Asus ProArt Studiobook Pro is fast enough for what you want. Single or dual channel RAM would not be a deal breaker for me with this machine.

Thank you very much Andy.

This helps a lot.

🙂

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

Thank you very much Andy.

This helps a lot.

🙂

After my answer I got a strange feeling . I could not imagine that such a powerful workstation/laptop had single channel RAM.

During my answer I only had seen part of Lisa's video. Now I have seen the whole video. The Asus ProArt Studiobook Pro has 2 RAM slots. This indicates to me that it has dual channel RAM.
Also on the official site of Asus I don't see any indication that it has single channel RAM.

https://www.asus.com/search/results.aspx?SearchKey=studiobook pro 17

I don't know what model (memory and/or cpu) of this laptop you want to buy, but normally they fill the 2 RAM slots (for example 2 x 8 GB) and the dual channel mode will be used automatically. Only if only one RAM slot is filled single channel mode is used, but that is not normal practice.

I am not sure how you came to the conclusion that this machine only has single channel RAM? Even if you are not a tinkerer and Asus would only fill one RAM-slot (which is not likely), putting in more RAM or filling the 2 RAM slots is a breeze . But as I said, I don't think that is necessary.

 

[kazmac]

Hi Andy

Thank you. I apologize if I wasn't clear about this, I know there are two RAM slots in these Studiobooks.

Specs on B&H site made think they are only using 1 RAM module / 1 channel.

i7 model specs

ecc RAM specs

EDIT: Yes, B&H confirmed both models of the Studiobook only ship with one RAM module.

I do remember hearing that Asus and possibly MSI have used only 1 RAM module and leave the other slot empty. That's great for tinkerers. Lisa received her loaner model from a place that offers RAM upgrades. B&H offers them too.

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

Hi Andy

Thank you. I apologize if I wasn't clear about this, I know there are two RAM slots in these Studiobooks.

Specs on B&H site made think they are only using 1 RAM chip / 1 channel.

i7 model specs

ecc RAM specs

I will ask B&H about it, but I do remember hearing that Asus and possibly MSI have used only 1 RAM chip and leave the other slot empty.

Ah. Now I understand.
If that is the case, no problem at all. You can leave it as is. But if you want to expand RAM later you can easily do that (not much tinkering involved or maybe you know someone who can do that for you).

 

[kazmac]

@AndyMacAndMic Thank you again.

 

[dukebound85]

After my answer I got a strange feeling . I could not imagine that such a powerful workstation/laptop had single channel RAM.

During my answer I only had seen part of Lisa's video. Now I have seen the whole video. The Asus ProArt Studiobook Pro has 2 RAM slots. This indicates to me that it has dual channel RAM.
Also on the official site of Asus I don't see any indication that it has single channel RAM.

https://www.asus.com/search/results.aspx?SearchKey=studiobook pro 17

I don't know what model (memory and/or cpu) of this laptop you want to buy, but normally they fill the 2 RAM slots (for example 2 x 8 GB) and the dual channel mode will be used automatically. Only if only one RAM slot is filled single channel mode is used, but that is not normal practice.

I am not sure how you came to the conclusion that this machine only has single channel RAM? Even if you are not a tinkerer and Asus would only fill one RAM-slot (which is not likely), putting in more RAM or filling the 2 RAM slots is a breeze . But as I said, I don't think that is necessary.

in response to the bolded, if the ram is mismatched, ie not the same size, it will run single channel as well

 

[Queen6]

TBH I doubt you'd see much difference with your intended usage, maybe video conversion. Dual channel plays a bigger part with heavyweight professional apps and games.

I've 32Gb dual channel RAM in this ASUS, equally I've rerolled it as a portable workstation, I do from time to time game on it. Real world benefit is that I can be lazy, leave all my productivity apps & browser open and drop into a game without any penalty. Personally stepping up to 32Gb in a notebook was a revalation, these days the I rarely see less than 20Gb RAM usage, equally I'm using the notebook in a desktop role.

Don't buy into the hype, buy the experience. Pick up the model you want, if you want to go to duel channel RAM later, just run HWinfo64 and order the exact same RAM as is installed.

As for FPS gamers, you want duel channel, period 👍

Q-6