RAM-Expansion: 3x8GB vs 2x8GB + 2x4GB

[Han-Z]

Hello guys!

 

I am thinking about getting a little bit more RAM. This is my current System:

 

Ryzen 5 3600

MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC

2x8GBs Corsair LPX 3200

RTX 2060 Super

1TB Samsung 970 Evo

 

Right now I have massive frame drops in COD Warzone and I have a very high RAM usage while playing. I have a lot of stuff running in the background so I am guessing that its fair to assume that thats the source of my problems.

 

The question I am having is whether I should get 2x4GBs or 1x 8GBs? I dont feel like it is becoming necessary to have 32GBs anytime soon (Like for the next 3 years or so at least) so I dont really consider it at the moment.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Hans

[Haro]

4 minutes ago, Han-Z said:

I should get 2x4GBs or 1x 8GBs?

If you mean 2 x 4 with an already existing 1x8 stick then this is single channel 

If you already have a 1x8 get another 1x8 for dual channel 

Make sure they have the same cas latency and preferably the same speeds as the imc will run all sticks at the same speed as the slowest stick

[Han-Z]

I am already running 2x8, I am going for 24 GBs

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

Both are obviously not ideal. I Ran 4GBx2 + 8GBx2 DDR3 a while back and it worked fine. Had to put the slower RAM in the primary slot so that those timings were used, so that's a consideration.

 

Having 3x8GB sticks will mean that only 16GB of your RAM will operate in dual channel, while the remaining 8GB will run single channel.

 

Basically it comes down to this:

If you intend to upgrade to 32GB in the near future, get 1x8GB and make sure it matches what you already have.

 

If you don't intend to upgrade to 32GB, then get 2x4GB and try to get something that matches what you have as closely as possible.

[porina]

9 minutes ago, Han-Z said:

The question I am having is whether I should get 2x4GBs or 1x 8GBs? I dont feel like it is becoming necessary to have 32GBs anytime soon (Like for the next 3 years or so at least) so I dont really consider it at the moment.

I'd go 2x4 given this choice. Keep the dual channel working and balanced so no potential performance loss. In 3 years, you might be looking at getting a DDR5 system anyway so would be starting again.

[Haro]

3 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Having 3x8GB sticks will mean that only 16GB of your RAM will operate in dual channel, while the remaining 8GB will run single channel

True if the imc can handle it 

Alot of the times the imc will get confused and run all of them at single channel 

[boggy77]

i'm surprised 16gb aren't enough for gaming. are you sure you're getting over 90% ram utilisation? if not, you might want to troubleshoot what else might cause the frame drops.

i'd either stick to 2x8 or go to 4x8. the other options you're considering are not ideal and will make your system slower overall.

[porina]

2 minutes ago, boggy77 said:

i'd either stick to 2x8 or go to 4x8. the other options you're considering are not ideal and will make your system slower overall.

In terms of paper max bandwidth, 2x8, 4x8 and 2x8+2x4 will be no different from each other.

 

In practice, DPC/rank could start to have an effect. In that case, assuming single rank modules, it would probably go 4x8 > 2x8+2x4 > 2x8 (assuming modules are all same speed/timing/rank and the system doesn't have any speed limitations running 4 modules compared to 2). This difference is only likely to be detectable at all in highly ram sensitive applications. I have not seen credible evidence that meaningfully applies to gaming.

[TrigrH]

if you have 16gb ram isnt the issue 

[Han-Z]

So I was monitoring my System with Afterburner and RAM-Usage was over 15.5 GB in Warzone (While using Discord and having some other programs open), so I am fairly certain that its a RAM-related issue. Since I only have FPS-Drops when I play for a few hours, I am going to monitor the RAM-usage the next time I have a longer session. I read on another forum, that Warzone (or Modern Warfare entirely) is really bad at cleaning its cache, so that might be the reason why it is only happening after playing for a while.

 

I think I am going to test both 4x8GB and 2x4GB to see if that makes a noticable difference in my system. Thanks for your advice everyone and I am going to give an update when I managed to test everything!