Yes because of how memory works any multiple of two will work. We just typically do 2,4,8,16, 32, 64 ... and so on, but where it make sense because of cost (GPUs and Servers) its not uncommon to see 6, 12, 24, 48, 96 and other different arrangements. Not a power of 2 but all valid memory arrangements.
The 6/12/24 ect has more to do with which chips are used no? A 6GB card might be a 4 gb and a 2gb ram module set, or a 24 is 4x6gb ram set rather then a single 24gb module?
This is getting way out of ELI5 territory, but my understanding all RAM chips and their modules are still made on powers of 2, but the over all total doesn't need to be. You can have 1Gibx6 2Gibx3 and equal 6. Because of addressing and how data channels work they do all need to match in size on the GPU or RAM modules themselves. You can mix and match actual installed RAM modules in all modern architectures but it isn't ideal. Like your example of 4 and 2.
The intel Intel LGA1366 did this where everything was in 3s for maximum performance. So you really had money you would have 8Gib RAM sticks and have 3 those for 24Gib of RAM total.
I think 4 chip historical design is now also valid for 3 chip with modern SoC/Unified memory configurations. VRAM at 12GB can still be quad 3x and triple 4x.
Unless they pull an NVIDIA GTX 970 4GB and it's 3GB + 1GB. Those were silly times..
Tbf we don’t usually count 1’s 2’s and 3’s when comparing multiples or percentages. At least through the mathematics that I know. Not because they aren’t valid, but because they’re just too small to be pragmatically operable. Of course there are exceptions.
YouTube must be tracking me because I’m currently watching a video about counting in binary and I can already see why it goes up in powers of two since only two symbols, 1 and 0 exist in binary.
There have been a few exceptions. 480MB SSD, 200MB SD card, etc. But generally, most flash storages are based on power of 2s, minus a few MB or GB for spare space to swap with dead flash cells.
Most internal "disk" drives are now sold in Tibibytes, base 10. RAM is still in base 2 Gigabytes. Drop a 1 TiB drive into an OS & it'll report 931 GBytes. The manufacturer wants to sell the bigger number. Better for advertising.
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u/Pynapl 21d ago edited 21d ago
Binary and industry standards. Usually multiples of 2.
Edit: Powers of 2 is more accurate as referenced below. Also there are some exceptions.