4GB to 6GB? Slower?

[360bhp]

Started recently editing HD videos, so added another stick of 2GB DDR2 to my system to make it 6GB. Ran a test in Futuremark 3Dmark03.. Seems to score less than when it did it with 4GB!! When it had 4GB scored 52888. Now it scores 52702.

System is:

CPU: Q6600 - OC'd @ 3.0GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte P35-S3G
RAM: 6GB OCZ XTC Gold PC6400
Storage: 250GB + 500GB Samsung F1's
Graphics card(s): Nvidia GTX285 1GB DDR3
PSU: Corsair 450w VX
OS: Vista x64

Mobo has:

4 x 1.8V DDR2 DIMM sockets supporting up to 8 GB of system memory
Dual channel memory architecture

Memory installed in system..

Total Physical Memory 6.00 GB
Free Physical Memory 4.45 GB
Total Pagefile Memory 12.21 GB
Free Pagefile Memory 10.41 GB

Memory slot
Installed Enabled Size 2.00 GB
Form Factor DIMM
Frequency 800.0 MHz
Slot A0 [Bank0/1]
Manufacturer
Type
Type Details -
Enabled Size 2.00 GB
Total Bit Width 64 b
Data Bit Width 64 b

Memory slot
Installed Enabled Size 2.00 GB
Form Factor DIMM
Frequency 800.0 MHz
Slot A1 [Bank2/3]
Manufacturer
Type
Type Details -
Enabled Size 2.00 GB
Total Bit Width 64 b
Data Bit Width 64 b

Memory slot
Installed Enabled Size 2.00 GB
Form Factor DIMM
Frequency 800.0 MHz
Slot A2 [Bank4/5]
Manufacturer
Type
Type Details -
Enabled Size 2.00 GB
Total Bit Width 64 b
Data Bit Width 64 b

Memory slot
Installed Enabled Size 0 B
Form Factor DIMM
Frequency 0.0 Hz
Slot A3 [Bank6/7]
Manufacturer
Type
Type Details -
Enabled Size 0 B
Total Bit Width 0 b
Data Bit Width 0 b

Any idea why it would put my 3Dmark score lower? Do I need to add more voltage to the memory or?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Q6600 uses a dual channel memory controller. With three DIMMs the RAM is running in single channel.

[Rob_B]

..so just buy another 2GB, you know you want to

[360bhp]

Cheers for the help... Ordered another 2GB stick. Hopefully that sorts it!

Is there anyway to check wether it's in dual channel or single channel mode now? Or is it guaranteed to be in single channel mode if there are only 3 sticks?

Also, when I do get 8GB.. Any tips/tricks to speed up the system?

[kalniel]

Cheers for the help... Ordered another 2GB stick. Hopefully that sorts it!

Is there anyway to check wether it's in dual channel or single channel mode now? Or is it guaranteed to be in single channel mode if there are only 3 sticks?

Also, when I do get 8GB.. Any tips/tricks to speed up the system?

Three isn't divisible by two, so yes, it's definitely running in single channel mode.

Once you've got 8GB, to speed it up you need to determine the bottleneck, then take measures to address that. I find CPU is the most important thing for video editing, so have a good look at eeking every last drop out of that.

If you do a lot of loading/saving videos you might want to speed up your storage, but in my experience it won't affect the actual editing or encoding speeds much, it's more sanity on load ups etc.