Test Results: Dual-Channel vs. Single-Channel RAM Platforms - Synthetic 

Let's start with synthetic multi-channel platform tests and then move into real-world stuff. All of these tests were defined, explained, and detailed in their use-case scenarios and methodologies on the previous page. Please read that page before asking questions or making claims about the below tests. It is very well thought-out and probably addresses your question directly.

Euler 3D

We saw a fairly substantial performance difference between single- and dual-channel configurations with Euler 3D. The dual-channel configuration performed approximately 17.7% better than the single-channel configuration. This advantage will carry over in simulation applications, especially when dealing with CFD or similarly heavy-duty computations, simulations, and compilers. Engineers and scientists will theoretically benefit here (see: Signal Integrity, parametric analysis, crosstalk analysis, electromagnetics simulation, etc.).

MaxxMem

MaxxMem measures memory copy, memory read, memory write, memory latency, and memory bandwidth performance. The MemCP, MemRD, and MemWR stats are measured-out in MB/s (bytes, not bits); latency is measured in nanoseconds (ns); bandwidth is measured in GB/s, though I've converted it to MB/s for simplified charts.

We saw substantial performance differences between single- and dual-channel configurations in this testing. Memory copy, read, and write tests were heavily-advantaged with the dual-channel configuration, performing 30.79%, 26.94%, and 14.52% better in each, respectively. The total memory bandwidth also rested 21.3% higher than single-channel -- again, pretty substantial. Latency with dual-channel was consistently higher, perhaps due to additional overhead.

WinRAR File Compression 

With our WinRAR archive benchmark, we saw single-channel take 460s (7m 40s) to compress the 9GB data archive, meanwhile the dual-channel platform performed ~2.87% faster at 447s (7m 27s). This difference could potentially be fairly substantial in specific real-world environments (think: enterprise) where heavy, constant file archival is being performed. Web & db servers are an excellent real-world example where you'd want that 2.87% speed boost.

Handbrake Video Transcoding 

I defined our Handbrake settings in the previous page, so check that if you're curious about what's actually being tested. We saw a consistent 4.4% advantage in the favor of dual-channel platforms while transcoding files with Handbrake. The single-channel platform took 209s (3m 29s) vs. the dual-channel platform's 200s (3m 20s). Extrapolating this to a larger, more complex transcoding task, the impact could be relatively noteworthy. I don't think most users do that level of heavy-duty passes on their video ripping / transcoding, though.

Shogun 2 Benchmark Load Time & FPS

I really didn't expect a lot here, but that's sort of what I set out to illustrate. These tests are totally uninteresting. The load time was about 0.78% faster with dual-channel platforms, but this is well within margin of error. For point of clarity, the results averaged were:

Single-Channel: 51.82, 51.78, 51.98, 51.83.

Dual-Channel: 51.76, 51.45, 50.41, 52.17.

Like I said, easily within normal system fluctuations. I also tested Skyrim's load time with several high-fidelity mods loaded, which should have theoretically hammered RAM and I/O for file retrieval, but saw effectively zero advantage between dual- and single-channel performance.

The FPS results are even less interesting. A 0.21% delta between the channel performance is within margin of error, once again, and can be effectively thought of as 0 noticeable difference.

Cinebench OpenGL Performance

Cinebench, like Shogun, wasn't really added to show a delta as much as it was added to illustrate a point: That multi-channel memory platforms have very little impact on specific tasks, like gaming and some types of live rendering. The delta between single- and dual-channel configurations was 0.25% in favor of single-channel.

Adobe Premiere Encoding Pass

Here's where it gets a bit more interesting. Our single-channel encoding pass results averaged out to around 236s (3m 56s); dual-channel averaged out at 229s (3m 49s), for a delta of about 3.01% in favor of dual-channel memory configs. Not massive, but for people who dedicate tremendous time doing rendering, it could be a big difference. Still, that's only a 2-minute gain per hour of rendering downtime. I often have systems rendering for 20 hours per day during conventions, so that could be upwards of 40 minutes saved, which starts to get significant.

Adobe After Effects Live RAM Preview Framerate Performance

We saw nearly a 6% difference (5.94%) between RAM previews with single- and dual-channel RAM in Adobe After Effects, favoring dual-channel configurations. This starts getting be somewhat noticeable. The average FPS of live playback with the single-channel platform was 14.227; the average FPS of live playback with the dual-channel platform was 15.098. Larger differences might be spotted under some specific test conditions, but it ultimately depends on what you're doing in AE. It certainly wasn't real-time (60FPS), but a single frame per second can feel like a big difference when you're staring at this stuff for days on end.