Dual VS Quad Channel

[NikK81]

Hi all.

Quick question cause your Performance Test 9 program has me questioning what i've known these past years.

I own an Intel Core i9-7900x on a Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming 9 with 64GB of RAM running at 3200MHz (4x16GB).

Now the funny thing is that at first i had no idea that these new mainboards have different configurations compared to the old X79 ones so i had the RAM configured in Dual Channel mode.

With that i got a Memory Mark score of slightly over 3000 (3098 if i recall correctly).

Yesterday i found out that i had the RAM configured in Dual Channel so i changed it to Quad Channel configuration and to my surprise my Memory Mark score fell to just under 2400.

Is this normal? Quad Channel underperforming compared to Dual Channel?

Thank you.

[David (PassMark)]

No it isn't normal.
Maybe the timings have changed, or XMP got turned off. Or maybe you aren't really in quad channel mode.
Have a look at the individual test scores as well to see which tests were effected.

[NikK81]

Well the sticks got placed in the right positions according to the manual of the mainboard so how can it not be running at quad channel?

Also i checked like a dozen times, XMP is still on, the RAM runs at 3200MHz and has the same timings.

I also run an old version of memtest that i have on CD, all tests cleared so i doubt it's a problem with the modules.

[NikK81]

Ok just checked with CPUZ, the RAM is on Quad mode and at 3200MHz. I also ran MaxMemm2 to double check and my numbers have dropped there as well (for example read was above 11k now its at 8k, write was at over 22k now its at just over 18k).

Is there any chance any Windows 10 Pro settings may have gone beserk?

Thank you.

[David (PassMark)]

Is there any chance any Windows 10 Pro settings may have gone beserk?

Unlikely.
MemTest86 runs outside of Windows and includes some RAM benchmarking options if you wanted to be sure.

I would be more inclined to believe that the motherboard is changing the timings. You need to be careful when looking at the clock speed and timings. As there is data from the RAM SPD chip (which never changes) and there is data about what speed the motherboard has decided to run at (which can change). So you need to be careful to understand data what you are actually looking at.

Having said that, RAM speed doesn't have a huge impact of most PC applications. So don't panic too much.

[NikK81]

So what software can i check to see the REAL timings? CPUZ and MaxMemm2 report the ones they should.

Not a matter of applications, it's a matter of whether or not my board is defective.

[NikK81]

Ok decided to reinstall Windows and now i am getting 3196 points in Passmark....

Still MaxMemm2 i still can't surpass 14.4Gbytes/s

[David (PassMark)]

As mentioned above: Have a look at the individual test scores as well to see which tests were effected.

[NikK81]

As mentioned above: Have a look at the individual test scores as well to see which tests were effected.

Is there any chance that my weak RAM performance is due to the fact that i am running the CPU at default/stock clocks?

Can't compare cause i didn't keep a screenshot of the initial tests (even so right now i am getting more in Passmark, MaxMemm2 however is still weak).

Is there any place where i can see results by people with similar spec systems in Passmark?

[David (PassMark)]

You can download "baseline" files from within the PerformanceTest software. There are about 1.2 million to choose from at the moment.