Dual-channel RAM, Reforged, SC2 and other RTS games.

[Evilhog]

So, I've read on other forums that dual-channel RAM is pretty much standard these days and I'm missing much with my PC only having a single stick. It's also running at 1333 Mhz (DDR3), while my CPU and mobo support frequency up to 1600 Mhz, so I'm thinking about upgrading from 1x8GB to 2x8Gb.

I'm still confused with all the information I've read on the topic, and I can't convince myself to buy a rather expensive piece of hardware that will get my PC only slight (if any) performance boost in a few games I play.

Reforged already runs well enough on my current build (Core i7 3770 3,90 Ghz, 1 Tb HDD, 480 Gb SSD, GTX 970 4Gb), only getting FPS drops in some cutscenes. Should I stick to my old single-channel memory, then?

StarCraft 2, on the other hand, has never been a well-optimized game, and has been reported to run like crap on much newer and more powerful machines than mine. I'd go for it if upgrading RAM could at least stabilize this game's performance.

 

[Amigoltu]

It's not as much "dual channel", as much the amount that matters. 8 gb RAM may be enough for now, but it's basically bare minimum. Typically, various games and other software these days fare better with at least 16 gb RAM.

Tho talking about the channels...

You can read about it here:
Single Channel vs. Dual Channel vs. Quad Channel Memory
Dual Ram vs Single Ram? - Quora

TL;DR:
Dual (and quad) channel doesn't change the amount of memory, but may increase the speed of operation. For example - 2x sticks of 4gb vs 1x stick of 8 gb. The amount is the same, but in the two-stick config, the two sticks are accessed simultaneously, thus making the system faster.
(At least, that's in theory)

Some benchmarks:

Though generally, it seems like a wiser choice to get two sticks instead of one.

IMPORTANT:
To utilize dual-channel function, you must put the RAM sticks in appropriate places (usually spaced apart, like below):

Hidden

Also, make sure the two RAM sticks have the same frequency. In fact, it's better if they are the same models.

 

[Evilhog]

Thanks, I'm aware of the matching slots and frequency quirks.
I've already found a pair of 8-gig sticks for my computer, but the purchase will have to wait until Christmas.

As for benchmarks, I saw some charts showing slightly better load time and performance of Shogun 2 running on a system with dual-channel RAM, but we're talking about minor gain.
RAM Performance Benchmark: Single-Channel vs. Dual-Channel - Does It Matter?

 

[Dr Super Good]

I'm still confused with all the information I've read on the topic, and I can't convince myself to buy a rather expensive piece of hardware that will get my PC only slight (if any) performance boost in a few games I play.

Given the age of DDR3 and the processor it might be worth finding a second hand stick cheap from somewhere and throwing it in for a few percentage performance boost. Just be careful that the memory is compatible (not ECC). Sadly most of the dirt cheap stuff is DDR3 ECC from retired servers that will not work in consumer motherboards for consumer processors.

StarCraft 2, on the other hand, has never been a well-optimized game, and has been reported to run like crap on much newer and more powerful machines than mine. I'd go for it if upgrading RAM could at least stabilize this game's performance.

StarCraft II is pretty optimized. Your CPU should have no issue getting good frame rates even in more excessive custom maps. Only late in its life did StarCraft II start to have performance issues on my considerably slower Core i7 920 and that was largely due to the move to 64bit (something newer CPUs handle better). Modern processors such as 9/10 then intel and Zen2/3 easily hit >100 FPS in most situations.

StarCraft II would show a larger boost in performance from moving to dual channel memory and running at 1600 MHz than Warcraft III since it is traditionally quite memory performance bottlenecked. As a guess anywhere from 10% to 15% more frame rate, especially with tightened RAM timings.

That said there is no need to guess. You can install and play much of StarCraft II for free including the arcade, some coop commanders and I think the entire Wings of Liberty campaign. You will need to purchase one of the other campaigns if you want to use the editor to make custom maps.