2 sticks is better then 4 sticks?

[lexluthermiester]

2 sticks i have heard is better for stability less issues.... not sure about 4 sticks...

Two will give better speeds. My 5950x on x570 can do 4000 on two but caps at 3400 on four. Every IMC is different but typically max for four is 3200.

This is not correct. This myth was started in the early days of Ryzen when AMD was having RAM issues. It hasn't been a problem for years. Please stop with this completely false nonsense.

 

[eidairaman1]

There is such a thing as triple channel.


Other way around. The 15s are 3000 and the 16s are 3200. So the system toggles down to the slowest.

Yeah in overall bandwidth but cas points it would be on the slowest which 16 is slower than 15, and i have seen ram be that picky about it though. So hit or miss

 

[freeagent]

Triple channel?

Not on AM4..

My old X58 says hai with mixed density, and 3 different kinds of ram for 16GB total

 

[inquisitor1]

I think my idea will work ok. at worse case one pc gets 1 stick of 32gb and the other gets 2x16gb. and will get the other 32gb stick at another time. but I have a feeling its less strict then people believe. and 1x32 + 1x16 will work if the same speeds. I dont mind rating it a bit slower speed

shipping 2x32gb with customs costs more then sending 1x32gb 2 times.

 

[freeagent]

I am not sure if all sticks would be in dual channel with just 3.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

I am not sure if all sticks would be in dual channel with just 3.

Hi! No, that would be single channel. Even on old school boards that had 3 memory slots (sA)

I'm running Ring (cache) at 5.3ghz. Makes slow memory fast. Mem at 3468mhz cl38. Is very dual channel. So loose right now. Hits 60ns aida latency test. PerfromanceMark says 33ns XD.
AMD needs good IF frequency. More is better. Make average memory fast

2 is better for high frequency performance
4 is better for larger amounts with performance sacrifice.

Since DDR (1) 400mt/s.

Ddr4 sweet spot any rig CL 14 at 4000mt/s. With exceptions of amd week IF can't match 1:1 am4 platform is a bummer

Ddr3 sweet spot is 2000mt/s CL6. CL8 is ok, but not as fast. CL10 is good bandwidth 2800mt/s. Had some black dragon that was great at that.

Ddr2 is 1000mt/s CL4/5 big voltage. BH5 being a really good kit, really responded to voltage well.

DdR1 at 500mt/s CL2 is where a great place to be was at. Some systems where cool to run half Cas latency like 2.5CL. Definitely fun tweaking times back then. So many mods out there on those old platforms. Lots of ways to squeeze performance.

Ah well. 2 sticks dual channel for all the above. That's the TLDR here. GL!

 

[Toothless]

This is not correct. This myth was started in the early days of Ryzen when AMD was having RAM issues. It hasn't been a problem for years. Please stop with this completely false nonsense.

I'll go tell my two AM4 boards, my AM5, socket 1700, and every other build that I've done this year to stop the nonsense even when they've proved two dimms gets better speeds. To jail they go!

I'm going to add in before someone takes this the wrong way. 3600 2 vs 4 is going to run within tolerances and show no real day to day difference. I've been talking about max supported speeds.

 

[freeagent]

Oh for sure you get better speeds with 2 dimms. I don't think anyone denied that, but for the same speeds, 4 sticks should be better than 2 on AM4, unless you are dual ranked already.

 

[TumbleGeorge]

not sure when I searched that, and I received "No results found

Because search engine here didn't work with single digits, or parts of speech written with 3 or fewer letters. . Use Google: "2 vs 4 RAM sticks, Techpowerup" or something like this.

 

[Toothless]

Oh for sure you get better speeds with 2 dimms. I don't think anyone denied that, but for the same speeds, 4 sticks should be better than 2 on AM4, unless you are dual ranked already.

If it was quad channel sure.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Oh for sure you get better speeds with 2 dimms. I don't think anyone denied that, but for the same speeds, 4 sticks should be better than 2 on AM4, unless you are dual ranked already.

Same frequency and timings would be the same or similar enough performance. If measured well.

Some applications, maybe 7Zip could be a good example of utilizing 4 dimms instead of 2 dimms, but results are generally marginal.

I mean we aren't talking benchmarking here are we?? It's like saying 3600mt/s isn't much different than 3400mt/s at the same Cas latency. It's only 100mhz, so true, very little to measure.

Edit: Oh, the reason is because you haven't gained channels. You gained only more quantity.

 

[freeagent]

Lol no my point was dual ranked ram at the same speed and timings is quicker than single ranked.

Even on older Intel

For me I am not running 4x8 for the capacity, I am running 4x8 because I was too cheap to spend on 2x16 of tight B-Die

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Lol no my point was dual ranked ram at the same speed and timings is quicker than single ranked.

Even on older Intel

For me I am not running 4x8 for the capacity, I am running 4x8 because I was too cheap to spend on 2x16 of tight B-Die

12100F like 75 bucks new with a single stick of memory would completely annihilate an i7 980X triple channel.

Triple channel performance increase over dual channel in a desktop environment wasn't enough to continue using it up to this date. So triple channel isn't the best. And modern single channel is better and faster. Like no reason to consider keeping systems that old unless love the hobby like us. This is not good for consumer stand point though. Also why I try and encourage platform upgrades. There's no reason to stay on AM4 and talk DDR4 as it will slowly become less and less modern common place purchase and sales. I mean I'm selling a 300$ motherboard, even if brand new clean, no one would pay $200 for that. It's too old now. But will run a 5950X......

4dimms is fine. 3600mhz ddr4 is fine. There's not enough performance uplift to squander money on high frequency memory. Wanna play Triple A games, bigger GPU first. This is why Pre-Builds sell well. Decent GPU, but the PSU might burn the house down tomorrow. Take your gambles right? haha.

 

[inquisitor1]

Lol no my point was dual ranked ram at the same speed and timings is quicker than single ranked.

Even on older Intel

For me I am not running 4x8 for the capacity, I am running 4x8 because I was too cheap to spend on 2x16 of tight B-Die

thats how it usually is. did you start with 2x8 then add another 2x8?

 

[freeagent]

thats how it usually is. did you start with 2x8 then add another 2x8?

Yeah I started with my Royals, because it was a treat to myself lol.. but then I saw Steve's video about 4x8 on Ryzen.. but to me I should have already known that from running fast and tight on LGA1155, since I was running 4x2GB.

So I bought a pair of Black and Whites, same speed and timings, 3200C14. But the Royals are a way better bin, and it kind of sucks to run them so slow with the Black and Whites. But that is what you get for being cheap lol.. I still paid the same as I would have with 2X16.

Edit:

My Royals will do 3200 12-12-12 at 1.45v iirc.. the B+W will not even with way higher voltage lol..

 

[inquisitor1]

got to tell you. when I was married to a travel agent we traveled the world. we did a trip to canada, even though we lived in the us for 21 years. there was no contest between all the countries we went to. canada was the most magical. it was christmas time. it was so beautiful. we did ottawa, then montreal, then quebec (le château frontenac) then drove back to toronto back home. it was the most memorable. really nice people. not dismissing other amazing countries but you always a trip that touches your heart

 

[Noci]

got to tell you. when I was married to a travel agent we traveled the world. we did a trip to canada, even though we lived in the us for 21 years. there was no contest between all the countries we went to. canada was the most magical. it was christmas time. it was so beautiful. we did ottawa, then montreal, then quebec (le château frontenac) then drove back to toronto back home. it was the most memorable. really nice people. not dismissing other amazing countries but you always a trip that touches your heart

It's got nothing to do with RAM, just memories and a trip down memory lane; a little over fourty years ago I was working on ocean going tankers and we had to deliver some cargo is Sarnia (must have been in spring or summer time).

We came in from the North Atlantic through the Gulf of St. Lawerence, up St. Lawrence river then a stop for bunkering in Montreal (wow the nightlife there after two weeks on sea ).
After that going further south up the river, crossing lake Ontario and through the Welland canal (halfway it you could even hear the Niagara falls in the far distance ) to lake Erie and up Detroit river through lake St. Claire up to Sarnia.
I had a lot of shifts as helmsman during that trip and must say the scenery was epic, never seen anything like that before. Although I saw most of the sceneries only from the waterside, the Panama canal, Alaskan Sounds, Norwegian Fjords score high on my list too.

Another ohh moment I clearly remember was driving back home from Italy, passing Switzerland in autumn. All these colors on the mountains, amazing
But like you say, there's not contest between countries it's all around us, the breathtaking beauty of nature. Maybe small or overwhelming big, you just have to be open minded.

Having been around the globe a couple of times (but not even nearly close to everywhere), from experience I can tell you can meet nice people all around. Unfortunately the opposite is also true, but like me you have a nice memory on Canada.

 

[AlB80]

how much difference is there in % between 2 vs 4 sticks?

1. Less modules/ranks per channel makes CPU can handle higher frequencies.
You can check memory section at https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/B550 Steel Legend/index.asp#Specification to figure out JEDEC specs for Vermeer.
2. More modules/ranks/banks per channel makes CPU can handle more memory requests simultaneously. It's important thing for random access. Bank count is a sore point for DDR4.
I recommend
2Mx1Rx16 (16-bit chips have only 8 banks -> 8 banks per channel) - only for testing sequential speed at record frequencies. I don't recommend. No. Forget.
2Mx1Rx8 (8-bit chips have 16 banks -> 16 banks per channel) - I don't recommend. Most modules are single ranked, but avoid them.
2Mx2Rx8 (2 ranks -> 32 banks per channel) seems like compromise between frequencies and banks. Frequencies are important for iGPU, and sequential speed tests.
4Mx2Rx8 (2 modules -> 64 banks per channel) for maximum performance in heavy multi-threaded environment. Even if JEDEC limited it to 2666, there is no better option.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I'll go tell my two AM4 boards, my AM5, socket 1700, and every other build that I've done this year to stop the nonsense even when they've proved two dimms gets better speeds.

You do that. I've built thousands of AM4 systems since release and have upgraded several hundred of them with additional RAM kits. Not since 2017/2018 have there been any issues and a simple BIOS update was all it took to fix them.

 

[Taraquin]

This is not correct. This myth was started in the early days of Ryzen when AMD was having RAM issues. It hasn't been a problem for years. Please stop with this completely false nonsense.

In certain cases it can be a board issue. Daisy chain boards have 2 strong 2 dimm slots, no 2 and 4. No 1 and 3 are usually weaker. With newest agesas etc many can run all 4 slots at 3600+. I had a Asus B450-board which could only do 3333 if I used slot 1 and 3, but 3733 was fine it I only used slot 2 and 4. Other boards with 4 slots can do 3800 on all without issues. If you have a T-top-board like many B350 and some B450 boards were you have a better chance of getting 4 sticks to high speed.

I stick with 2dimm boards myself. They are much easier to work with if I overclock ram. If you just run xmp most boards work fine even with 4 sticks at semi high speed Example:
Gigabyte B550m S2H 2dimm which I have in my secondary setup:

1. Support for DDR4 5100(O.C.) / 4800(O.C.) / 4600(O.C.) / 4400(O.C.) / 4266(O.C.) / 4133(O.C.) / 4000(O.C.) / 3866(O.C.) / 3733(O.C.) / 3600(O.C.) / 3466(O.C) / 3400(O.C.) / 3200 / 2933 / 2667 / 2400 / 2133 MHz memory modules

Vs the very similar B550m DS3H which has 4 dimm:

1. Support for DDR4 4733(O.C.) / 4600(O.C.) / 4400(O.C.) / 4266(O.C.) / 4133(O.C.) / 4000(O.C.) / 3866(O.C.) / 3733(O.C.) / 3600(O.C.) / 3466(O.C) / 3400(O.C.) / 3200 / 2933 / 2667 / 2400 / 2133 MHz memory modules

 

[lexluthermiester]

In certain cases it can be a board issue.

Agreed, this can be true. I was speaking more towards the general rule rather than specific situations. However, in my experience such a situation is uncommon and usually easily resolved with minor adjustments to BIOS settings.

 

[RootinTootinPootin]

SR or DR? how's your IMC quality, a turd of a chip will be a pain in the ass to play with also pair it with the wrong board and your into haywire. I did ran 4x8GB (SR) sticks at one point, and 2x16GB (DR) sticks as well, for AM4 pretty much nothing much of a difference a normal user would notice (Specially with a very nice IMC/Silicon), TLDR, it boils down to your IMC, if its a very capable one, 4 sticks (DR) should still be a tamable setup, it will only be a toll on the IMC if its a bad silicon.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Déjà vu all over again.

(70) 4x16 or just bite the bullet and get 2x32? | TechPowerUp Forums

 

[phanbuey]

This is something TPU could do a review on w/ DDR5, this is a super common question, not alot of data out there.

 

[freeagent]

I know of a guy running 4 sticks of DDR5 but at slower speeds.

But this thread here is about AM4 and DDR4.