Can I add 8GB of Ram to my Acer Aspire 5 A515-44-R4M5?

BabyMedley
BabyMedley Member Posts: 1 New User
I am curious about what type of ram (If I can add it) I would use, and if it breaks the warranty.

Answers

  • brummyfan2
    brummyfan2 ACE Posts: 28,078 Trailblazer
    Hi,
    You have 8GB onboard memory and a slot for an upgrade, you can install a DDR4 2666/3200MHz module up to 16GB in the slot but it's better to install a 8GB DDR4 module to utilize the dual channel feature.
    Examples:
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hynix-PC4-21300-DDR4-2666MHz-260-Pin-HMA81GS6CJR8N-VK/dp/B07JP4C1PD
    https://uk.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/acer/aspire-a515-44-r2hp
  • mimocha
    mimocha Member Posts: 4 New User
    Hello @brummyfan2 ,

    I've recently purchased a similar model (Aspire 5 A515-44-R27Y) and planned to upgrade my ram, but my device only has a single ram slot, already populated by a 4GB module. As the entire device has 8GB, the other 4GB is presumably soldered on to the motherboard.

    In this case, if I want to upgrade my ram, I'll have no other choice but to mix ram sizes. Do you happen to know if there will be any compatibility issues with mixing rams on this particular model? I'll be making sure that both the timing and speeds of the upgrade ram is identical to the currently installed. I'm willing to take a performance hit, from dual channel to single channel, if it means I'll get more overall memory.

    Also, do you happen to know if the mixed ram will support flex-mode? (Running part of the ram in dual-channel, and the extra part in single-channel). I've tried looking around for any sources confirming that AMD can run flex-mode, but so far, I've only found vague references to how AMD supports the technology, but no direct links.

    ---------------

    Finally, as a side note, I've checked the Acer website (UK) and they have atleast 4 different versions of this device; 2 Ryzen-5 4500U versions, and 2 Ryzen-7 4700U versions; one black and one silver version for each. I thought they would all have the exact same configurations and upgradability, but apparently not?

    Links and model for reference:
    • Ryzen-7 4700U Silver | NX.HWCEK.001 | (Link) | Aspire 5 A515-44-R27Y
    • Ryzen-5 4500U Silver | NX.HWCEK.002 | (Link) | Aspire 5 A515-44-R87L
    • Ryzen-7 4700U Black | NX.HWBEK.002 | (Link) | Aspire 5 A515-44-R4XH
    • Ryzen-5 4500U Black | NX.HWBEK.003 | (Link) | Aspire 5 A515-44-R19V
  • mimocha
    mimocha Member Posts: 4 New User
    Hello,

    An update to my previous comment. So I ended up going ahead with the RAM upgrade anyway, and it did work. As I mentioned, my model is equipped with a single populated RAM slot, and 4GB soldered on to the motherboard. (Check your model before making any decisions, as they might vary).

    I've replaced the stock 4GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM stick with a 16GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM stick. I've made sure the timings of both sticks are similar. My system now has 20GB DDR4 memory. According to HWinfo, it is running in dual channel, although I suspect this is incorrect. (HWinfo system summary)

    UserBenchmark shows a significant dip in memory performance, and slight drop in CPU performance. 

    Stock Configuration (8GB Ram): (Benchmark Link)
    UserBenchmarks: Game 24%, Desk 111%, Work 77%
    CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 4700U - 87%
    GPU: AMD Radeon Graphics - 14.4%
    SSD: Intel 660p NVMe PCIe M.2 1TB - 264.5%
    RAM: Hynix HMA851S6CJR6N-VK 2x4GB - 77.8%
    MBD: Acer Aspire A515-44

    Upgraded Configuration (4+16GB Ram): (Benchmark Link)
    UserBenchmarks: Game 24%, Desk 110%, Work 86%
    CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 4700U - 85.9%
    GPU: AMD Radeon Graphics - 14.4%
    SSD: Intel 660p NVMe PCIe M.2 1TB - 258.9%
    RAM: Micron 16ATF2G64HZ-2G6J1 Hynix HMA851S6CJR6N-VK 20GB - 44.2%
    MBD: Acer Aspire A515-44

    This is to be expected, as not the entire RAM stick could be ran in dual channel. While this would likely give a worse performance in gaming, my main goal with this purchase is as a workstation, so worse gaming performance doesn't bother me much anyway. But for what it's worth, I was still able to play lighter titles like Stardew Valley and Age of Empires 2 definitive edition, at 1080p at 60fps.

    Hope you find this useful.

  • Reptileskin
    Reptileskin Member Posts: 1 New User
    mimocha said:
    Hello,

    An update to my previous comment. So I ended up going ahead with the RAM upgrade anyway, and it did work. As I mentioned, my model is equipped with a single populated RAM slot, and 4GB soldered on to the motherboard. (Check your model before making any decisions, as they might vary).

    I've replaced the stock 4GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM stick with a 16GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM stick. I've made sure the timings of both sticks are similar. My system now has 20GB DDR4 memory. According to HWinfo, it is running in dual channel, although I suspect this is incorrect. (HWinfo system summary)

    UserBenchmark shows a significant dip in memory performance, and slight drop in CPU performance. 

    Stock Configuration (8GB Ram): (Benchmark Link)
    UserBenchmarks: Game 24%, Desk 111%, Work 77%
    CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 4700U - 87%
    GPU: AMD Radeon Graphics - 14.4%
    SSD: Intel 660p NVMe PCIe M.2 1TB - 264.5%
    RAM: Hynix HMA851S6CJR6N-VK 2x4GB - 77.8%
    MBD: Acer Aspire A515-44

    Upgraded Configuration (4+16GB Ram): (Benchmark Link)
    UserBenchmarks: Game 24%, Desk 110%, Work 86%
    CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 4700U - 85.9%
    GPU: AMD Radeon Graphics - 14.4%
    SSD: Intel 660p NVMe PCIe M.2 1TB - 258.9%
    RAM: Micron 16ATF2G64HZ-2G6J1 Hynix HMA851S6CJR6N-VK 20GB - 44.2%
    MBD: Acer Aspire A515-44

    This is to be expected, as not the entire RAM stick could be ran in dual channel. While this would likely give a worse performance in gaming, my main goal with this purchase is as a workstation, so worse gaming performance doesn't bother me much anyway. But for what it's worth, I was still able to play lighter titles like Stardew Valley and Age of Empires 2 definitive edition, at 1080p at 60fps.

    Hope you find this useful.

    Hi, I ordered a similar laptop (ryzen 4500u) with 4gb soldered and a 4gb upgradable slot. Was wondering is the 16gb upgrade was worth it.
    So I understand that you were the ram sticks were partially running in dual channel ?

    You said you have worse gaming performance ? Benchmarks looks about the same to me but everything else seem to benefit from the upgrade. Am i wrong ?
  • mimocha
    mimocha Member Posts: 4 New User
    Hi @Reptileskin

    For my use case, the upgrade had definitely been worthwhile. I constantly use over 8GB ram for my daily tasks, so I have nothing to complain about. 

    According to the benchmarks
    , the machine has worse performance. But in my daily usage, including my light gaming, I haven't been able to tell the difference. I have been able to game normally, and the machine does not feel slower in anyway. Please note that I have not been playing any graphic intensive titles, so I expect it to perform worse in those cases.

    I believe that my ram sticks are partially running in dual channel, but I have no way of checking that, since HWinfo just says "dual-channel".

    So, yes, for me the upgrade has no down side.



  • lu2000
    lu2000 Member Posts: 1 New User

    A few days ago I upgraded my A515-44-R87L (Ryzen 5 4500U CPU) from 8 to 20 GB RAM. My current RAM config is SK Hynix HMA851S6CJR6N-VK (4GB soldered onto the board) plus Samsung M471A2K43CB1-CTD (16GB SODIMM). Thanks to @mimocha for leading the way.

    In this configuration, the first 8GB of physical RAM might run in dual channel, the remaining 12GB will always be limited to single channel mode. I tried to test this (on Ubuntu 20.04; swap turned off) in the following way: Allocate 18GB RAM (that's close to the maximum possible - the OS occupies just under 2GB) and then measure the time to read the contents of the memory, in blocks of 16MB, that's 1152 measurements. Every read access will be a cache miss so I am really measuring RAM read throughput. I performed this experiment 3 times: once immediately after boot, then again after lightly using the system for an hour, and then a third time after using the system heavily (i.e. thousands of processes created) for several hours. Attached is a plot with the read throughput observed in these three experiments.

    As the yellow dots show, throughput for the first 6GB is 18GB/s, and then drops to 11.3GB/s for the remaining 12GB. This confirms the expectation that the first 8GB (6GB + 2GB occupied the by the OS) run in dual channel mode. On this benchmark it appears that single channel access will result in a performance hit of about 40%, which is probably close the worst case.
    As the green dots show, the picture is largely similar after some light use: there is still a 6GB slab of memory running in dual channel mode. However, it now sits in a different virtual address region. Moreover, there are number of green dots sitting between 18 and 11.3GB/s throughput. This is likely because of the OS virtual address translation, mixing physical pages from the dual and single channel regions within a 16MB virtual address block.
    Finally, the purple markers show that heavy use really mixes up the virtual address mapping (except for the last 3GB, which probably haven't been touched much before). As a result, RAM throughput becomes stochastic; it looks like it mostly varies between 12.5 and 14.5GB/s.

    So, what RAM performance to expect? On the assumption that the OS grabs the first 2GB of physical RAM (as Ubuntu does), 1 in 3 of the remaining pages of RAM runs in dual channel mode. On the basis of this benchmark (dual channel 18GB/s, single channel 11.3GB/s) I would expect an average throughput of about 13GB/s. That's indeed the average throughput I observed across all experiments. (Visually, the average of the purple markers appears higher, but the overall average is pulled down by the last 3GB.) That's about 30% less than the RAM performance the system could have had if the entire RAM was dual channel. Thanks Acer, but a second SODIMM slot would have been nice!

    So why did I do it? I do development work; 8GB RAM really isn't enough. On the other hand, RAM throughput isn't that crucial - even in single channel mode, RAM is still orders of magnitude faster than swapping to SSD.
  • jazziii
    jazziii Member Posts: 2 New User
    edited August 2020
    I'm looking at the A515-44-R2LN. 4700u with 12 gb ram. i need to run monitor over usb c and hdmi. For the 12gb model, is it 8gb soldered (i hope) or 4gb soldered? is the screen matte or glossy? is the memory 3200Mhz (some say 2400?? why?)? Do your models support video out and PD usb-c port ? thx
  • ZKH4N_10
    ZKH4N_10 Member Posts: 1 New User
    Hi,
    You have 8GB onboard memory and a slot for an upgrade, you can install a DDR4 2666/3200MHz module up to 16GB in the slot but it's better to install a 8GB DDR4 module to utilize the dual channel feature.
    Examples:
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hynix-PC4-21300-DDR4-2666MHz-260-Pin-HMA81GS6CJR8N-VK/dp/B07JP4C1PD
    https://uk.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/acer/aspire-a515-44-r2hp
    The link of the site is a laptop that is also a Asus Aspire 5 A515-44: 
    https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9188916 
    What I want to know is does this model have 2 ram slots or one. As I've been searching for a laptop like this for sometime and I really wanna know if it has 2 ram slots. Due to my research I ended up finding laptops with the same specs but they had soldered ram.
  • Frambo
    Frambo Member Posts: 1 New User
    @brummyfan2 - You recommended installing an 8GB module to utilize the dual channel feature... Would a 16GB dual ranked module also provide dual channel functioning? Does the onboard RAM always take priority over the installed RAM? For example, when using an 8GB module, would I be getting dual channel with only the onboard 4GB and 4GB of the installed module, or dual channel from the 8GB module itself?
  • mimocha
    mimocha Member Posts: 4 New User
    @jazziii
    It's very hard to tell if it will be 8 or 4 GB soldered, but my guess will be 4GB soldered + 8GB replaceable, since that makes Acer's manufacturing easier. However, Acer is not known for its consistency when it comes to hardware configuration / naming, so take this with a grain of salt.

    For my model:
    • The screen is matte
    • The RAM is 2666Mhz
    • Video out via USB-C should be available by default, though I have not tried it.
    • PowerDelivery is not supported. I cannot charge the laptop via USB-C, and charging other devices via USB-C is not PD speed.

    @ZKH4N_10
    Again, It's very hard to tell if it will have 1 or 2 ram slots, but my guess is it will be similar to mine, a single ram slot + soldered ram. Acer is not known for its consistency when it comes to hardware configuration / naming, so take that with a grain of salt. I expected my model to have two ram slots, only to be disappointed when I originally opened it up and found one.
  • brummyfan2
    brummyfan2 ACE Posts: 28,078 Trailblazer
    Frambo said:
    @brummyfan2 - You recommended installing an 8GB module to utilize the dual channel feature... Would a 16GB dual ranked module also provide dual channel functioning? Does the onboard RAM always take priority over the installed RAM? For example, when using an 8GB module, would I be getting dual channel with only the onboard 4GB and 4GB of the installed module, or dual channel from the 8GB module itself?
    Hi,
    You have to install same size and same speed memory to utilise dual channel feature, if you mix different size like 4GB and 8GB, it will work but not at dual channel mode.
  • jazziii
    jazziii Member Posts: 2 New User
    edited August 2020
    ZKH4N_10 said:
    Hi,
    You have 8GB onboard memory and a slot for an upgrade, you can install a DDR4 2666/3200MHz module up to 16GB in the slot but it's better to install a 8GB DDR4 module to utilize the dual channel feature.
    Examples:
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hynix-PC4-21300-DDR4-2666MHz-260-Pin-HMA81GS6CJR8N-VK/dp/B07JP4C1PD
    https://uk.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/acer/aspire-a515-44-r2hp
    The link of the site is a laptop that is also a Asus Aspire 5 A515-44: 
    https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9188916 
    What I want to know is does this model have 2 ram slots or one. As I've been searching for a laptop like this for sometime and I really wanna know if it has 2 ram slots. Due to my research I ended up finding laptops with the same specs but they had soldered ram.
    Supposed to have soldered ram + 1 ram slot 

    I was online with "sales" for a while, here's the info i painfully got, still not clear about video out over usb-c, so i need to buy from a retailer i can easily return to. Note that 4800U models announced beginning of year should finally be flowing soon, some lenovo already in Germany and Asia, and have a 30% boost in performance in some categories 16 cores and better graphics vega 8, and should not be much more $$. I may just wait a bit for those models, and also expect 4700 and 4500 to drop in price when 4800 hits. Also considering 4800HS and 4900HS models, even more performance for a couple hundred more, extra video editing capacity and still usable as portable devices (asus rog). 

    device: https://store.acer.com/en-ca/aspire-5-laptop-a515-44-r2ln

    70 minutes agoLeidys C.: Operating System Operating System Windows 10 Home Operating System Architecture 64-bit Processor and Chipset Processor Manufacturer AMD Processor Type AMD Ryzen™ Processor Model 4700U Processor Speed 2 GHz Processor Speed (turbo) 4.10 GHz Processor Core Octa-core (8 Core™) Memory Standard Memory 12 GB Maximum Memory Up to 24 GB Memory Technology DDR4 SDRAM Storage Total Solid State Drive Capacity 512 GB Display and Graphics Screen Size 15.6" Display Screen Type LCD Display Screen Technology ComfyView Screen Mode Full HD Backlight Technology LED Screen Resolution 1920 x 1080 Graphics Controller Manufacturer AMD Graphics Controller Model Radeon™ Graphics Memory Technology DDR4 SDRAM Graphics Memory Accessibility Shared Audio Speakers Yes Number of Speakers 2 Speaker Output Mode Stereo Network and Communication Wireless LAN Yes Wireless LAN Standard IEEE 802.11ac Ethernet Technology Gigabit Ethernet Bluetooth Yes Bluetooth Standard Bluetooth 5.0 Built-in Devices Webcam Yes Webcam Resolution (front) 1280 x 720 webcam Microphone Yes Fingerprint Reader Yes Interfaces/Ports HDMI® Yes USB Yes Number of USB 2.0 Ports 1 Number of USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C Ports Yes Total Number of USB Ports 3 Network (RJ-45) Yes Audio Line Out Yes Headphone Jack Yes Number of HDMI® Ports 1 Input Devices Pointing Device Type TouchPad Keyboard Included Yes Keyboard Backlight Yes Keyboard Type Backlit keyboard Input Method TouchPad Battery Information Number of Cells 3-cell Battery Chemistry Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) Maximum Battery Run Time 10 hours Power Description Maximum Power Supply Wattage 45 W Physical Characteristics Color Pure Silver Height 0.71" (17.95 mm) Height (Front) 0.71" (17.95 mm) Height (Rear) 0.71" (17.95 mm) Width 14.31" (363.40 mm) Depth 9.86" (250.50 mm) Weight (Approximate) 1.80 kg Miscellaneous Package Contents Aspire 5 A515-44-R2LN Notebook; Lithium Ion Battery; AC Adapter Warranty Warranty Limited Warranty agreement applies.

    Edited the thread by modifying the content

  • Junky007
    Junky007 Member Posts: 5 New User
    I also recently purchased the Aspire 5 A515-44-R4M5 which has 8GB Ram, one 4GB DDR4 (2666V) Ram chip soldered into the MB and one open slot with one 4GB DDR4 Ram chip.  I bought a Corsair 16GB DDR4 (2666V) Ram and installed into the single upgrade slot and this laptop would not boot up.  Put the original 4GB DDR4 SK Hynix memory chip back in and the laptop started up immediately.  Did this twice and both times the same result.  So, why would this be?  Corsair CMSX16GX4M1A2666C18.  Alo know as a Corsair Vengeance Ram.  thanks
  • Junky007
    Junky007 Member Posts: 5 New User
    All, FYI, this new Acer Aspire 5, Terrible.  Get something else.  The touch pad is all over the place.  Terrible control.  I have the touch pad setting almost to off (far left setting) and have the sensitivity setting to "Low Sensitivity".  AND, the key board is the worst keyboard I have ever found.  I have been building custom PC's since 1990 (yup, from 2086 on up)and this keyboard is like tapping pudding.  AND, you better have long fingernails to open the cover.  There should have been an indent in the shell on both sides of the cover for grasping to open the cover.
  • dnxb42
    dnxb42 Member Posts: 4 New User
    Hello, All.
    I wanted to have a workstation that I could enhance.
    I owe a Model Name: A515-44, Part Number: NX.HW7EK.001.
    I found this thread and thought I could try to upgrade from 8 GiB (4 GiB soldered + 4 GiB additionally in a slot) to the maximum of 4GiB+32GiB.
    All happen good, now I have 36GiB of RAM, which is essential for my habits.
    This is a small report of the upgrade I made.
    For those, who want to repeat this: make some homework and find a model of your CPU, look at the memory controller limit to check for max addressable memory.
    For Ryzen 7 4700U it is here: https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/amd/ryzen_7/4700u#Memory_controller.
    "This SoC features two memory controllers, each supporting DDR4 or LPDDR4x. This chip supports up to 64 GiB of dual-channel DDR4 memory with data rates of up to 3200 MT/s (51.2 GB/s) or up to 32 GiB of quad-channel LPDDR4x with data rates of up to 4266 MT/s (68.27 GB/s)."
    So I decided to check my luck, took a close look at AIDA64 output, and ordered the same 260-pin 2666 MHz stick with CL19.
    Crucial - DDR4 - 32 GB - SO-DIMM 260-pin - 2666 MHz / PC4-21300 - CL19 - 1.2 V - unbuffered - non-ECC
    The main target for my case was not to get speedy memory but to have the max of a single slot that I could replace.
    You could see how easy is this model for modifications of RAM, M.2, and SATA3 here: https://youtu.be/sG_gSlQklJA?t=6
    There are my own photos and screenshots attached.













  • brummyfan2
    brummyfan2 ACE Posts: 28,078 Trailblazer
    dnxb42 said:
    Hello, All.
    I wanted to have a workstation that I could enhance.
    I owe a Model Name: A515-44, Part Number: NX.HW7EK.001.
    I found this thread and thought I could try to upgrade from 8 GiB (4 GiB soldered + 4 GiB additionally in a slot) to the maximum of 4GiB+32GiB.
    All happen good, now I have 36GiB of RAM, which is essential for my habits.
    This is a small report of the upgrade I made.
    For those, who want to repeat this: make some homework and find a model of your CPU, look at the memory controller limit to check for max addressable memory.
    For Ryzen 7 4700U it is here: https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/amd/ryzen_7/4700u#Memory_controller.
    "This SoC features two memory controllers, each supporting DDR4 or LPDDR4x. This chip supports up to 64 GiB of dual-channel DDR4 memory with data rates of up to 3200 MT/s (51.2 GB/s) or up to 32 GiB of quad-channel LPDDR4x with data rates of up to 4266 MT/s (68.27 GB/s)."
    So I decided to check my luck, took a close look at AIDA64 output, and ordered the same 260-pin 2666 MHz stick with CL19.
    Crucial - DDR4 - 32 GB - SO-DIMM 260-pin - 2666 MHz / PC4-21300 - CL19 - 1.2 V - unbuffered - non-ECC
    The main target for my case was not to get speedy memory but to have the max of a single slot that I could replace.
    You could see how easy is this model for modifications of RAM, M.2, and SATA3 here: https://youtu.be/sG_gSlQklJA?t=6
    There are my own photos and screenshots attached.













    That's a very interesting memory upgrade, thanks for posting this useful information and good luck with your computing, well done 🙏👏👏
  • dnxb42
    dnxb42 Member Posts: 4 New User
    Junky007 said:
    ...
    "AND, the key board is the worst keyboard I have ever found.
    ...
    "AND, you better have long fingernails to open the cover. There should have been an indent in the shell on both sides of the cover for grasping to open the cover."
    Junky007 said:
    "I also recently purchased the Aspire 5 A515-44-R4M5 which has 8GB Ram, one 4GB DDR4 (2666V) Ram chip soldered into the MB and one open slot with one 4GB DDR4 Ram chip. I bought a Corsair 16GB DDR4 (2666V) Ram"
    ...
    "Corsair CMSX16GX4M1A2666C18."
    Actually, I like this type of keyboard, I even bought Logitech K280e for my desktop at home.
    And no, you should not have nails. There is an instrument for this. https://www.google.com/search?q=plastic+triangle+opening+tool+images

    Also, for those who are hesitant about which module to buy and repeat a trick with the 32GiB module:
    I feel this case of Junky007 is about one thing: the new module is leading in pair with a soldered RAM, and soldered RAM is in a "slave" role while working in conjunction with the SO-DIMM module. So don't make a mistake trying to buy "extra quality" SO-DIMM with extreme characteristics that soldered RAM could not "repeat".
    I think Junky007 had his problem because CMSX16GX4M1A2666C18 works at CL18. https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/Categories/Products/Memory/Vengeance-Series-SODIMM/p/CMSX16GX4M1A2666C18#tab-tech-specs
    But soldered RAM was not able to repeat this extra characteristic, and his laptop was not able to get thru POST self-check because soldered RAM started to be faulty because of unsupported timings.
    As you can see from my screenshots, initially I had an 8 GiB of RAM, But AIDA64 does not list soldered RAM as a device in SPD and shows only a 4GiB module.
    So I thought that I must not buy something that outperforms the existing module in DIMM1 because the memory controller would try to run at better speeds which soldered RAM doesn't support.
  • dnxb42
    dnxb42 Member Posts: 4 New User
    edited June 2022
    Test post (am I deleted my post?..) Looks like not. Maybe it is in a moderation. I would check tomorrow.
  • dnxb42
    dnxb42 Member Posts: 4 New User
    Frambo said:
    @brummyfan2 - You recommended installing an 8GB module to utilize the dual channel feature... Would a 16GB dual ranked module also provide dual channel functioning? Does the onboard RAM always take priority over the installed RAM? For example, when using an 8GB module, would I be getting dual channel with only the onboard 4GB and 4GB of the installed module, or dual channel from the 8GB module itself?
    Hi,
    You have to install same size and same speed memory to utilise dual channel feature, if you mix different size like 4GB and 8GB, it will work but not at dual channel mode.
    Hi, brummyfan2.
    Actually, dual channel works for the overlapping size.
    Older PCs, I mean desktops, could show the line about “Dual channel interleaved” in case when you inserted different size modules into slots. If modules are the same size, it said “Dual channel” without “interleaved” word.
    Interleaved means the thing which lu2000 show at his diagram in yellow color dots. The part of memory of SO-DIMM which equals to soldered RAM size would work in dual channel mode, and other part of SO-DIMM would work in single mode.
    This means a model with 8 GiB of soldered RAM would have 16 GiB Dual Channel (8soldered+8from_module) + 24 GiB single channel from 32 GiB SO-DIMM, totalling to 40 GiB.
  • brummyfan2
    brummyfan2 ACE Posts: 28,078 Trailblazer
    dnxb42 said:
    Frambo said:
    @brummyfan2 - You recommended installing an 8GB module to utilize the dual channel feature... Would a 16GB dual ranked module also provide dual channel functioning? Does the onboard RAM always take priority over the installed RAM? For example, when using an 8GB module, would I be getting dual channel with only the onboard 4GB and 4GB of the installed module, or dual channel from the 8GB module itself?
    Hi,
    You have to install same size and same speed memory to utilise dual channel feature, if you mix different size like 4GB and 8GB, it will work but not at dual channel mode.
    Hi, brummyfan2.
    Actually, dual channel works for the overlapping size.
    Older PCs, I mean desktops, could show the line about “Dual channel interleaved” in case when you inserted different size modules into slots. If modules are the same size, it said “Dual channel” without “interleaved” word.
    Interleaved means the thing which lu2000 show at his diagram in yellow color dots. The part of memory of SO-DIMM which equals to soldered RAM size would work in dual channel mode, and other part of SO-DIMM would work in single mode.
    This means a model with 8 GiB of soldered RAM would have 16 GiB Dual Channel (8soldered+8from_module) + 24 GiB single channel from 32 GiB SO-DIMM, totalling to 40 GiB.
    Yes, you are right  :)