Laptop with integrated graphics- upgrade for dual channel or hybrid?

Hello,

Im a bit confused on upgrading my memory on an Asus Q501LA laptop.

Installed it has 4gb soldered to the board, and a 2gb stick in the available slot making 6gb total.

From what I used to understand, the memory would need to be in matching pairs of the same size to run in dual channel mode.

When I run a program like CPU-Z though its a bit difficult getting straight info on the two sticks of ram in my system. It makes it seem like its running in dual channel mode, but since theyre mismatched sizes Im not sure if thats correct or not. I have heard something about a new hybrid mode for newer boards that allow mismatched sizes to run in dual channel, so in my current case it would be the 2gb stick plus the first 2gb of the 4gb soldered into the board that is running in dual channel, and the extra 2gb is running in single channel?

For an upgrade, would I be better off getting an 8gb stick for the free slot, or should I get a 4gb stick so it matches the soldered stick on the board? Does hybrid dual channel run at the same speed as true dual channel? I heard that since I have integrated graphics, true dual channel will make a bigger difference for me since I mostly want it to perform better in games rather than multitasking a lot of stuff.

 

Go for 8GB stick. You'll get 8GB working in dual channel and extra 4GB working in single channel.

 

Mismatched DIMMs will run in asymmetric dual-channel mode as you have said. You won't see a performance difference between replacing the 2GB DIMM with a 4GB DIMM or an 8GB DIMM.

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-011965.htm#flex

 

Much appreciated thank you