I’m not saying that it’s a particularly good idea, but on laptops it’s often what you have to work with. The 4GB stick is often soldered in, would you rather put in a 4GB stick to match it? I also personally experienced owning a PC with 3x2GB because the fourth one broke, though that was a long time ago.
Comment on IO Interactive have fixed the crazy PC specifications for 007 First Light
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 2 days agoIssuing a single stick is worse, you lose the dual memory capacity. They are meant to be used in pairs. And at the speed of the worst stick as well.
Computers aren’t designed or meant to operated that way, so it will never be a requirement.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 days ago
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 2 days ago
And I’m explaining why they won’t ever use 12gb as a specification. Because they are designed and optimized with dual channel ram in mind.
It doesn’t matter that’s it’s possible, you can use a single stick of 32gb, even though no one would recommend it over 2x16gbs.
rowdy@piefed.social 2 days ago
Not completely accurate. Most modern systems support asynchronous dual channel. Providing dual channel operation up to the smaller RAM capacity with the remaining RAM running in single-channel. Also “computers aren’t designed or meant to be operated that way” is a fabrication - they operate just fine, just with reduced performance. In RAM starved situations it’s still better to have single-channel than nothing at all.