Dual Channel Ram Configuring.

[Teh_Spambot]

Hi. I have a pentium 4 2.6 ghz processor with a P4P8X motherboard (Asus I believe).

It has 4 slots for ram, and I have 4 pieces of PC3200 ram. Two are 256 mb PC3200 by Kingston, and 2 are 512 mb PC3200 by a different manufacturer.

How should I set up the ram to get dual channel status?

The slots are labelled A1, A2, B1 and B2.

A1 and A2 are beside each other, and B1 beside A2 and B2.

Basically, they look like this

A1 A2 B1 B2

So which ram should I put in each slot to get dual channel? I was thinking A1 with B1, and A2 with B2, but I do not know much about dual channel.

I have two other questions, so I figure Ill ask em here.

Does everybody have about a 5 second pause of a black screen before BF2 starts? I have had it now for months, but cannot remember if it was that way initially, when I first got the game a year ago.... did a patch induce it?

Also, my system is a Pentium 4 2.6 ghz hyperthreaded, with 1500 mb PC3200 ram and a 6600 GT OC by BFG.

What settings should I be able to run BF2 on, at what FPS? 40 and over is very good for me.
Just wondering if somebody had a similar computer, what they run it at.

And out of curiosity, roughly what AMD processor is my 2.6 P4 hyperthreaded equivalent to? A kind of tech savvy friend thought that mine was roughly on par with a AMD 3200.

[<DV8>mrbucket]

Re: Dual Channel Ram Configuring.

Hi. I have a pentium 4 2.6 ghz processor with a P4P8X motherboard (Asus I believe).

It has 4 slots for ram, and I have 4 pieces of PC3200 ram. Two are 256 mb PC3200 by Kingston, and 2 are 512 mb PC3200 by a different manufacturer.

How should I set up the ram to get dual channel status?

The slots are labelled A1, A2, B1 and B2.

A1 and A2 are beside each other, and B1 beside A2 and B2.

Basically, they look like this

A1 A2 B1 B2

So which ram should I put in each slot to get dual channel? I was thinking A1 with B1, and A2 with B2, but I do not know much about dual channel.

I have two other questions, so I figure Ill ask em here.

Does everybody have about a 5 second pause of a black screen before BF2 starts? I have had it now for months, but cannot remember if it was that way initially, when I first got the game a year ago.... did a patch induce it?

Also, my system is a Pentium 4 2.6 ghz hyperthreaded, with 1500 mb PC3200 ram and a 6600 GT OC by BFG.

What settings should I be able to run BF2 on, at what FPS? 40 and over is very good for me.
Just wondering if somebody had a similar computer, what they run it at.

And out of curiosity, roughly what AMD processor is my 2.6 P4 hyperthreaded equivalent to? A kind of tech savvy friend thought that mine was roughly on par with a AMD 3200.

Howdy, your dual channel should run like this: 512-256-512-256.

About the pause, 5 sec. is a long time. When was the last time you did a full re-install of BF2? It maybe your program loading from hard drive and it is badly fragmented, also could be a ram issue. Make sure the ram is running at PC3200. You could try just the 512's to see if it makes a difference. Sometimes mixing different manufacturers are not good because the timings on the ram is different, it could default to a slower speed.

You should be able to run med/high settings with shadows off at a pretty decent frame rate.

Your P4 2.6 is equivalent to a Athlon 2600+, although if it is a Northwood core, it will do slightly better at games. It is a good chip regardless, I have one in my ex-wifes rig. I was able to overclock it to 3.3 before it became to unstable to use. So I left it at 3.1 to be on the safe side.

[Heavy552 AWG]

Re: Dual Channel Ram Configuring.

To run dual channel you must use pairs of the same size.

My P4P-800E Deluxe has color coded RAM slots so that I know to run pairs.

I use 4x 512 Kingston Hyper X matched sets.

[<DV8>mrbucket]

Re: Dual Channel Ram Configuring.

To run dual channel you must use pairs of the same size.

My P4P-800E Deluxe has color coded RAM slots so that I know to run pairs.

I use 4x 512 Kingston Hyper X matched sets.

Not true, you need the same amount of ram on each channel to use dual channel. (If this is what you meant, I'm sorry.) The "A" channel will have 768, as will the "B" channel. You cannot use on the "A" channel both 512's and then on the "B" channel the 256's, that will not work well, if at all.

[Teh_Spambot]

Re: Dual Channel Ram Configuring.

Wait, so do I have the 256s running with each other and the 512s running with each other, or mix it, with a 256 running with a 512 in both cases?

I think you mean I should run 256 and a 512 in both cases, so total for each is 768 correct?

Only problem is, I am not sure on which 2 slots dual channel with each other.... is it A1 and A2 dual channel, or A1 and B1?

I think that this will make it simpler, a picture ish thing. Its the same as the one on the inside of my case.

A1 A2 B1 B2

It would be clear if you could say "put one 256 in A1, and one 512 in A2 for proper configuration" etc.

Thanks for the help, although I got a little confused :)

And no shadows? But isnt shadows a lot of the experience? I tried with high and liked how people were lit up by the gun flashes at close range.

And isnt the 6600GT with 3.0 support a good card for running shadows?

[<DV8>mrbucket]

Re: Dual Channel Ram Configuring.

Wait, so do I have the 256s running with each other and the 512s running with each other, or mix it, with a 256 running with a 512 in both cases?

I think that this will make it simpler, a picture ish thing.

A1 A2 B1 B3

So which should i put the 256 and the 512 into? And should the 512s be joined together and 256s joined together, or mixed sizes?

Thanks for the help, although I got a little confused :)

And no shadows? But isnt shadows a lot of the experience? I tried with high and liked how people were lit up by the gun flashes at close range.

And isnt the 6600GT with 3.0 support a good card for running shadows?

Whoa, alot there, lol. If you have 4 slots, 2 different colors, a 512 and 256 should be in like color.

Shadows will bring your frames down and also make it hard to see into corners and hiding spots. SM3 only affects certain things like surfaces (Like metal and liquid) and ambient light. Shadows may appear smoother on surfaces but it has no affect on the light provided. Shadows do provide a nice experience, but they will kill you at the same time. Also drop your light to low.

[Heavy552 AWG]

Re: Dual Channel Ram Configuring.



As you can see here from this photo of my computer build in 2004, there is one 512 module in each a light blue slot. You cannot see it from this angle (Only one I have) but there is a pair of unused black slot for the other two sockets. Eventually I purchased two more 512's in the same season of 2005 from newegg.

Reading the above posts, am I to understand that I could using the 2004 build example put a 512 in one blue slot and a 256 in the other blue slot with the computer seeing 768 in single channel? I would have to add another 768 in the other colored slots to create a dual channel?

Regarding lighting and detail, I keep shadows and eye candy to low or off. None of that matters when you are under fire in a alley or in the air.

My next build will be just 4 gigs of RAM with the necessary adjustments to resolve windows problems in either 32 or 64 bit.

[Teh_Spambot]

Re: Dual Channel Ram Configuring.

Thanks for the help!

But heavy, your picture kind of confirms what i thought before, about slots 1 and 3 dual channel, and slots 2 and 4.

The order I currently have em in is 256-512-256-512, is that right?

Ive been wondering about shadows for a while, especially after getting shot by people I genuinely cannot see in the dark areas of Ghost town and sometimes even Mashtuur and other maps.

I run it on a large projector screen (HD o course) and the picture and surround sound are excellent, but the blacks seem a bit too dark.... unfortunately, I have no reference exactly how black ghost town should be, only having played BF2 on a friends computer once, who had different settings (everything to high).

[Heavy552 AWG]

Re: Dual Channel Ram Configuring.

Well, your computer should pass POST with the count of RAM availible and indicate to you if you are running Dual channel linear mode with the correct count...

Let's see 768 x 2 = 1536 give or take a little.

The next thing you probably will hear is to go to 2 gig of RAM. It seems to be the one best thing to do for BF2.

[Teh_Spambot]

Re: Dual Channel Ram Configuring.

POST....Im assuming thats the thingy that says how much ram it sees, and what kind of graphics card you have?

Yeah I hear about 2 gigs a lot, but with 4 slots maxed out it means a lot of money, so I probably wont bother, unless theres a HUGE increase with this 512 mb addition, which there wasnt with the last (which was 512-1024)