Major drop in Cinebench rating after moving to Dual Channel on Acer Nitro 5
Major drop in Cinebench rating after moving to Dual Channel on Acer Nitro 5
It turned out Intel Turbo Boost was affecting my Single Channel score because fans were running at full speed. I realize why reviews often have an off track view of Turbo Boost. With a secondary 8GB RAM setup now, my results dropped noticeably. My laptop specs are attached below. From 2102 points to 1306 is definitely worth noting. Mhm... I haven’t used CPU-Z for comparison yet. It would be a hassle to reopen the machine again. Edited September 24, 2020 by freexavier
It seems there might be variations in the timing settings for each RAM stick. This could significantly impact performance, so it's usually recommended to use matching memory pairs.
Typically, all operations operate at the lowest shared speeds when mixing various timing or frequency settings.
It seems they’re operating at 2933 C21, which is acceptable. Are you certain no other programs were active during the second run? Or perhaps the device wasn’t connected, or it was using a different power setting?
Cinebench typically isn't heavily affected by RAM speed, so this isn't likely the main issue. Both components appear compatible with the same JEDEC standards, which also suggests it's probably not the problem. Connect your laptop, charge the battery fully, and let Windows idle while Task Manager is open. Avoid any other processes during testing. Use a tool like hwinfo64 to monitor CPU clocks. Be prepared to adjust window sizes. If results don't improve significantly, replace the RAM and retest. Keep checking clocks throughout the run. You may notice a slight drop in score due to software activity.
Now that you mentioned the power options, I realized my fans were running at maximum speed while I was playing. I had shut them down before and left them on for a bit during idle, then switched them off and put in new RAM. After restarting, they went back to auto mode. It turned out the Turbo Boost was malfunctioning. I managed to achieve the same result again! Thanks for pointing that out. Luckily it was just a minor adjustment feature.