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16gb ram 3200mhz or 20gb ram 3200mhz

Anthony813
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Go to solution Solved by porina,

2x8 would be best in practically every situation. You get dual channel mode and best performance. The only edge case where 20GB might do better is if you have a workload that needs over 16GB but less than 20GB of ram, but I think for practical purposes that isn't likely to happen. And even if so, I'd go 24 (2x8+2x4) or 32GB (2x16 or 4x8).

Posted
2 minutes ago, Anthony813 said:

Would it be worth it to have a 1x16 and a 1x4 and spend £20 more or just leave it at 2x8 and save the £20?

Just get the 2 sticks of equal size so that they'll actually run well in dual channel...

 

Are you building a whole new PC? if so what's the budget/country?

I edit my posts a lot, Twitter is @LordStreetguru just don't ask PC questions there mostly...
 

Spoiler

 

What is your budget/country for your new PC?

 

what monitor resolution/refresh rate?

 

What games or other software do you need to run?

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Anthony813 said:

Would it be worth it to have a 1x16 and a 1x4

No since you'll ruin your performance doing so, always get matching capacity sticks.

Personal Desktop":

CPU: Intel Core i7 10700K @5ghz |~| Cooling: bq! Dark Rock Pro 4 |~| MOBO: Gigabyte Z490UD ATX|~| RAM: 16gb DDR4 3333mhzCL16 G.Skill Trident Z |~| GPU: RX 6900XT Sapphire Nitro+ |~| PSU: Corsair TX650M 80Plus Gold |~| Boot:  SSD WD Green M.2 2280 240GB |~| Storage: 1x3TB HDD 7200rpm Seagate Barracuda + SanDisk Ultra 3D 1TB |~| Case: Fractal Design Meshify C Mini |~| Display: Toshiba UL7A 4K/60hz |~| OS: Windows 10 Pro.

Luna, the temporary Desktop:

CPU: AMD R9 7950XT  |~| Cooling: bq! Dark Rock 4 Pro |~| MOBO: Gigabyte Aorus Master |~| RAM: 32G Kingston HyperX |~| GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX (Reference) |~| PSU: Corsair HX1000 80+ Platinum |~| Windows Boot Drive: 2x 512GB (1TB total) Plextor SATA SSD (RAID0 volume) |~| Linux Boot Drive: 500GB Kingston A2000 |~| Storage: 4TB WD Black HDD |~| Case: Cooler Master Silencio S600 |~| Display 1 (leftmost): Eizo (unknown model) 1920x1080 IPS @ 60Hz|~| Display 2 (center): BenQ ZOWIE XL2540 1920x1080 TN @ 240Hz |~| Display 3 (rightmost): Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 3840x2160 IPS @ 60Hz 10-bit |~| OS: Windows 10 Pro (games / art) + Linux (distro: NixOS; programming and daily driver)
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2x8 would be best in practically every situation. You get dual channel mode and best performance. The only edge case where 20GB might do better is if you have a workload that needs over 16GB but less than 20GB of ram, but I think for practical purposes that isn't likely to happen. And even if so, I'd go 24 (2x8+2x4) or 32GB (2x16 or 4x8).

Gaming system: R7 7800X3D, Asus ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming Wifi, Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB, Corsair Vengeance 2x 32GB 6000C30, MSI Ventus 3x OC RTX 5070 Ti, MSI MPG A850G, Fractal Design North, Samsung 990 Pro 2TB, Alienware AW3225QF (32" 240 Hz OLED)
Productivity system: i9-7980XE, Asus X299 TUF mark 2, Noctua D15, 64GB ram (mixed), RTX 4070 FE, NZXT E850, GameMax Abyss, Samsung 980 Pro 2TB, iiyama ProLite XU2793QSU-B6 (27" 1440p 100 Hz)
Gaming laptop: Lenovo Legion 5, 5800H, RTX 3070, Kingston DDR4 3200C22 2x16GB 2Rx8, Kingston Fury Renegade 1TB + Crucial P1 1TB SSD, 165 Hz IPS 1080p G-Sync Compatible

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3 hours ago, Streetguru said:

Just get the 2 sticks of equal size so that they'll actually run well in dual channel...

 

Are you building a whole new PC? if so what's the budget/country?

Just upgrading ram, I currently have a 2x4 2666mhz dual channel

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11 minutes ago, Anthony813 said:

Just upgrading ram, I currently have a 2x4 2666mhz dual channel

Probably just replace it and sell the old RAM

I edit my posts a lot, Twitter is @LordStreetguru just don't ask PC questions there mostly...
 

Spoiler

 

What is your budget/country for your new PC?

 

what monitor resolution/refresh rate?

 

What games or other software do you need to run?

 

 

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