BIOS = AMI F3g UM I just installed a RAM upgrade into my computer 2 x 8GB matched pair of sticks. In my computer manual it says that if you have installed a matched pair of memory sticks then it is possible to turn on what the manual calls 'Dual Channel Memory Mode' inside the BIOS (doing so increases the performance of the RAM). I have had a look inside the BIOS but there is absolutely no entry/setting there labeled 'Dual Channel Mode'. Does anyone know what the setting is that I am looking for in this BIOS and what I should set it to to enable dual channel mode?
In newer MB, dual channel is activated automatically, no need to set anything in bios. Usually ram sticks need to be inserted on same color dimms(eg dimm0+dimm1 or dimm0+2). Whats the MainBoard Brand and model?
The motherboard is 'Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2 DVI (Rev. 1.0)'. There are only two DIMM sockets on the board - now populated with matching pair of RAM sticks (as mentioned). The computer itself is new, just bought it at the beginning of this month.
Use CPU-Z and it will say in the memory section to see this dual channel mode is working or not. Cheers, wizardbios
Hi Wizard, This is what I get from CPU-Z: View attachment 36573 As you can see in the 'General' area there seem to be two items that relate to dual channel memory mode. The first of those two is 'Channel #' which in the information box is shown to be 'Dual'. The second though is 'DC Mode' (which I take to mean 'Dual Channel Mode') and that item is greyed out. So I'm left not understanding what 'greyed out' means. Any ideas?
The attachment is broken in this forum for me, unable to open it. says contact admin. Change again and use a screen capture using a print screen key and edit in your graphics program and upload on one of your favorite host file so we can see it. Cheers, wizardbios
Sorry about that. When I first uploaded the file to MDL I did test the link and it was working fine. Maybe someone blocked it off for some reason shortly after I uploaded it. According to suggestion made I uploaded the image file to Sendspace - but then found out that I haven't made enough posts in the MDL forum to be able to include links in my posts, so now I'm stuck with that. Anyone wanting to respond to this would be just as well to download CPU-Z (you can get it as a portable, so it won't install anything to your system), run it, and then compare what I've said with what you see on the CPU-Z interface. (In CPU-Z you would need to look at the 'Memory' tab to see what I've described in my previous post above.)
Just to clear up this thread and answer my own original post, in case the information will of use to others in the future, the following turned out to be the case. I contacted AMI (the BIOS company) and asked them for clarification on what this BIOS did with respect to Dual Channel Memory Mode (DCMM). AMI answered back saying that I was not a customer of theirs and they were in no position to answer my question. They said that AMI (and presumably all BIOS original creators) actually sold BIOS licenses to motherboard manufacturers and that those motherboard manufacturers would then modify the BIOS to suit their own motherboards. On this basis AMI wouldn't necessarily have any idea of the changes made by the motherboard manufacturers. So, lesson one for me, if you run into this type of problem then the best place to ask is the motherboard manufacturer. Okay. My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-H16M-DS2 DVI (Rev. 1.0) so I contacted Gigabyte regarding the DCMM issue. They responded that the BIOS for this motherboard would automatically detect if memory installed was suitable for running in DCMM and if it was the BIOS would activate DCMM automatically. (Bizarrely they also implied that this information was made clear in the motherboard manual - which I had read several times. I wrote back to them pointing out that in no way was it clear from the motherboard manual - but in the end they seemed to stick to their guns on that one and implied that it was clear. Point of fact, it isn't clear and I have a suspicion that whoever wrote the manual wasn't a native speaker of English and their idea of what is clearly stated, and what isn't, stems from ignorance of how English works. I also asked several friends to read the manual and what it had to say about DCMM. Did the manual clearly state that DCMM would be enabled automatically? Every one of them said that the manual seemed to be implying that to enable DCMM the user had to do so manually (though the manual didn't state how that was to be done). So really many people disagreed with Gigabyte's claim on clarity.) So, lesson two for me was don't trust that what is written in the motherboard manual as being accurate information - the motherboard manual writer my not be a native English speaker and what they regard as clearly stated in English might be far from the truth. Lastly, with respect to how one checks for if DCMM is enabled, or not, on this motherboard for the memory you have installed I, again, asked Gigabyte. They said that I should check that by running CPU-Z - if it showed the item Memory (tab) > Channel # > Dual then the memory should be running in DCMM. I wrote back to them asking how I check this in the BIOS. They wrote back saying that there was no way of checking that in the BIOS for this motherboard. I wrote back pointing out that there should be a way of checking in the BIOS. (They didn't respond to that.) So all in all, what I learnt from this is that if you have this kind of problem it is best in the first instance to contact the motherboard manufacturer. Hope the above is of help to someone in the future. Many thanks to the people that took the time and trouble to respond to this thread - much appreciated.