[The Bottleneck Effect] Gaming performance with single vs dual-channel memory

In the previous two articles, we showed you how much of a bottleneck is the Core i5-11300H compared to the Core i7-11370H, when either of them is paired with the 90W RTX 3050, and why you should check if your laptop has 1Rx8 memory, instead of 1Rx16 one. In our conquest for better performance, we want to compare single versus dual-channel performance.

This should provide an even higher bandwidth between the CPU and the GPU, which in theory, should lead to probably the best performance you can get from your laptop. Well, this is if we take cooling out of the equation.

You can buy 1Rx8 RAM modules here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

You can buy 1Rx16 RAM modules here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

Contents


Specs Sheet

Testing machinesLaptop 1Laptop 2
ProcessorIntel Core i5-11300H / Intel Core i7-11370HIntel Core i5-11300H / Intel Core i7-11370H
Graphics cardNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 (90W)NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 (90W)
RAM8GB 1Rx8 / 1Rx16 DDR4 3200MHz2x 8GB 1Rx8 / 1Rx16 DDR4 3200MHz
Storage256GB SSD256GB SSD
DisplayFull HD IPS 60HzFull HD IPS 60Hz
OSWindows 10Windows 10

Synthetic benchmarks

Here, we see that neither memory type shows improvement in the Core i7-11370H-equipped machine. However, the biggest difference in the Core i5-11300H laptop, was when you compare 1Rx8 scores versus 1Rx16. Both in single, and dual-channel setup.

GPU Benchmarks3DMark Firestrike (Graphics score)3DMark Timespy (Graphics score)3DMark Wildlife UnlimitedUnigine Heaven 4Unigine Superposition
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx161200349232929127172832
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx161202849462944827632829
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx81206850143002327652811
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx81213450103011627872823
GPU Benchmarks3DMark Firestrike (Graphics score)3DMark Timespy (Graphics score)3DMark Wildlife UnlimitedUnigine Heaven 4Unigine Superposition
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx161252951213159229223069
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx161259951703163729953053
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx81254551413171329823045
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx81252951213159229223069

Gaming tests

Then comes gaming. Here we see the true magnitude of the improvement dual-channel memory brings to a system. However, there are titles like Far Cry 5 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which show a big improvement across all graphics settings. Ghost Recon: Wildlands, on the other hand, shows a minor bump in the fps again at all presets. However, the game that showed the biggest bottleneck of the single-channel RAM is Rise of the Tomb Raider. Especially with the low graphics quality, the bandwidth of the system is crucial, as more frames per second need to be rendered onto the display. The difference we monitored was 75% for the Core i5 and 73% for the Core i7.

Far Cry 5Full HD, Normal (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx1658 fps57 fps54 fps
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx1677 fps73 fps66 fps
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx873 fps69 fps64 fps
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx879 fps73 fps67 fps

 

Far Cry 5Full HD, Normal (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx1659 fps57 fps54 fps
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx1678 fps72 fps67 fps
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx873 fps69 fps64 fps
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx880 fps74 fps69 fps

rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016)Full HD, Lowest (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx1681 fps71 fps52 fps
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx16133 fps97 fps52 fps
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx8111 fps91 fps53 fps
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx8142 fps101 fps53 fps

 

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016)Full HD, Lowest (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx1681 fps73 fps52 fps
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx16139 fps100 fps55 fps
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx8119 fps96 fps53 fps
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx8140 fps105 fps55 fps

Shadow of the Tomb RaiderFull HD, Lowest (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx1663 fps54 fps46 fps
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx16100 fps72 fps57 fps
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx883 fps69 fps56 fps
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx8113 fps74 fps61 fps

 

Shadow of the Tomb RaiderFull HD, Lowest (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx1659 fps53 fps47 fps
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx16107 fps75 fps56 fps
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx883 fps70 fps58 fps
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx8120 fps77 fps59 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx1654 fps51 fps45 fps
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx1660 fps55 fps49 fps
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx859 fps55 fps49 fps
Intel Core i5-11300H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx861 fps57 fps49 fps

 

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx1655 fps51 fps46 fps
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx1661 fps57 fps50 fps
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 8GB 1Rx861 fps56 fps50 fps
Intel Core i7-11370H + RTX 3050 (90W) 2x8GB 1Rx862 fps57 fps50 fps

Conclusion

Ultimately, this provides insight on what is the best way to improve the performance of your laptop, regardless of whether you have an AMD or Intel CPU – four, six, or eight cores. Dual-channel memory will provide a worthwhile improvement. However, should you pick your IdeaPad Gaming 3i with a Core i7-11370H and 8GB of single-channel memory, or with a Core i5-11300H bundled with 16GB of dual-channel RAM. Generally, in terms of performance outputs, the latter option would be better. But… you have to keep in mind that very very few modern-day laptops offer the opportunity to swap their processor. This means you are better off going for the Core i7-11370H system, as you will have the option to upgrade your memory in the future. Plus, you will get a slightly higher raw performance, which will be needed if you are going to use this laptop to create content or render 3D objects. And obviously, make sure that the memory you get is of 1Rx8 type.

But after we’ve done these experiments, and spent hours on testing every scenario, one thing was left on the table. What if the manufacturer offers the option to overclock your graphics card in their own software. Ultimately, you can do that through 3rd party apps, but it is a hassle to find the sweet spot of voltage/clock speed. So, in the next article, you will learn if it’s worth overclocking your graphics card through the software provided by the laptop maker.

You can buy 1Rx8 RAM modules here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

You can buy 1Rx16 RAM modules here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

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