Why/How 6GB RAM?

[Barty1884]

Random question but my laptop came from the manufacturer with 6GB RAM.

Based on my limited knowledge, 2x RAM should be the same where possible, and 3GB sticks don't exist?

I'm assuming my laptop is then 1x4GB and 1x2GB - would this be correct?
Why would it ship from a manufacturer like this, when all accepted standards call for 2x2GB or 1x4GB?

Anyway, probably an easy answer, but I've often wondered.

 

[USAFRet]

Why would it ship from a manufacturer like this, when all accepted standards call for 2x2GB or 1x4GB?

Advertising. Bigger numbers = more sales.
Doesn't have to make sense.

 

[rhysiam]

Usually because the base model is 4GB (almost certainly 1 4GB DIMM because it's cheaper that way).

Then you pay a little more to add an additional 2GB DIMM (for 6GB RAM), or a little more again to add a 4GB DIMM (for 8GB RAM).

Whoever specced out your laptop decide to pay the little extra for 6GB but didn't want to jump to the cost of 8GB.

You do lose dual channel RAM with that setup as configured, so it is slower which is why it's less common. However, that's not actually as big a deal as many think. There are a few workloads that scale really well with faster RAM, but they're few and far between. Intel memory controllers are really solid and for the vast majority of workloads they're plenty fast enough in single channel mode.

 

[Barty1884]

I'm just waiting on my 8GB (2x4GB) getting delivered to upgrade, but always wondered. Thanks for the quick responses!

 

[iamacow]

My guess is if your laptop came with 6gb of ram, than 2 is on the motherboard with a 4gb stick on the side. 3gb sticks do not exist.

or they are dumb and have 2 slots, one with 2gb and 1 with 4gb.

 

[Swordkd]

Could it possibly be 8gb's of Ram, but 2gb's of that is dedicated to the Gpu?

 

[Barty1884]

No, it's definitely 6GB RAM, can upgrade to 8GB

 

[iamacow]

you can either open up the laptop and find out. or use CPUz and find out how many slots and stick size you got.

 

[Barty1884]

Used CPUz.....it was a 4GB and 2GB split, same manufacturer/spec etc. Weird