Question

Which will work more efficiently single channeling or dual channeling? Explain why?

Answer 1

First of all we need to know on what all things does the chanelling depends. Generally it depends upon the number of RAM(Random access Memory) sticks you have installed that is for one ram stick it will be single channeled for 2 sticks it will be dual channeled for 2 sticks and so on. Another point is that it doesn't completely depends upon the RAM sticks, in some cases it depends upon on what CPU you're using or to be more precise which company's CPU you're using. For example if you're using AMD's CPU then you can't use all 4 RAM slots for channeling, you will get only dual channels but yes you can have benefit of using 4 RAM channels that is extra RAM.

Single channeling V/S Dual Channeling

Essentially, having more memory channels implies that you can have more bandwidth and having a higher bandwidth implies you can have faster data transfer and lot better performance. The idea here is that the two or more low capacity RAM sticks will provide you better performance.

You can visualise this by a real world example that a single- lane road will be more difficult to move on instead of a multi-lane highway that could handle increased traffic with greater and better efficiency.Same is the case with channeling if you're using multiple channels then it will give you exponentially high performance than a single channeling.

But, there is always some difference in theory and practical so if you are asking for gaming then it always depends on the game and you may or may not feel the difference in single or multi-channel , but yeah one thing is for sure that multi-chanelling will definitely increase the performance of CPU.

Comparing money-wise, I would recommend you to go for multi-channels here also because 4x4GB chips are cheaper than installing a 16GB chip. Also if one chip stops working, you can always keep your work going but if the single chip gets damaged then you have to wait till you replace it with new one.

There is only one reason to choose the single channeling and that is if you are looking to upgrade your computer in near future ,that is if you currently want 8GB of RAM so you can consider having a single chip of 8Gb so that if in future you want to make it 16GB, you just need to add an another 8GB of chip.

Conclusion:

In the end, I would recommend you to go with multi-channels instead of singular ones as it is better in almost every aspect. There may be marginal difference that you would feel during gaming but that depends upon the game but it's for sure that your performance will be better than single channeled hardware. It will also cost you less and will give that extra boost to your performance, consider having quad-channelling it will be even better than the two.

I'm providing a table for some basic comparisions. Thank-you and All the best.

Property	Single- Channeling	Dual-Channeling
Performance	Low as comapared to dual	High performance than single-channeled
Cost	High	Low
Looks	Looks dull if you have an open CPU	Looks great if you have an open CPU to see all channels filled.
Future	May be good if you're looking for upgradiblity	Good in any case
Durablity	CPU will stop working in case chip dies	If one chip dies other chips can handle and ensure the working.