2x16 vs 4x8 RAM

[funn3r]

Hi,

i have simple question, is really that much difference between 2 sticks of 16 GB or 4 sticks of 8GB ?

I read that 2 sticks has better overclocking potential, but how much is that difference 5% or more ?

I would probably buy 2 sticks of 16 GB, but they are out of stock in every big eShop in my country.

But i found one eShop is restocking 2 x 8 GB sticks, should i take them or just wait till 2 x 16 GB will be restocked

too.

 

It is BL2K8G36C16U4B vs BL2K16G36C16U4B

 

Thank you.

[phongle123]

Hi, I can answer these questions for you. 

 

Is really that much difference between 2 sticks of 16 GB or 4 sticks of 8GB?

>>You just want to obtain dual channel or quad channel depending on your motherboard. There is no difference aside from being able to have a higher capacity. For example, if your mother has 4 RAM slots. Buying 2x16GB will allow you to fit in 2 more RAM slots if you ever need to expand later.

 

I read that 2 sticks has better overclocking potential, but how much is that difference 5% or more ?

>>The higher the RAM capacity the harder it is to overclock past its rated speed. Rated speed would be the speed advertised for the RAM. For example, Corsair Vengenace 3200Mhz 2x16. 3200Mhz is the rated speed.

 

I would probably buy 2 sticks of 16 GB, but they are out of stock in every big eShop in my country.

>>As stated in the first answer, it's nice to have available RAM slots in case you want to expand your capacity.

 

But i found one eShop is restocking 2 x 8 GB sticks, should i take them or just wait till 2 x 16 GB will be restocked too.

>>You can mix and match RAM capacities. However, the RAM speed will match the lowest rated RAM speed that you have. For example you have 2x 3200Mhz and 2x 2400Mhz. Your RAM speed will be at 2400Mhz or however high your 2400Mhz RAM can overclock too. This is because all of your RAM must be at the same speed.

[funn3r]

10 minutes ago, phongle123 said:

Hi, I can answer these questions for you. 

 

Is really that much difference between 2 sticks of 16 GB or 4 sticks of 8GB?

>>You just want to obtain dual channel or quad channel depending on your motherboard. There is no difference aside from being able to have a higher capacity. For example, if your mother has 4 RAM slots. Buying 2x16GB will allow you to fit in 2 more RAM slots if you ever need to expand later.

 

I read that 2 sticks has better overclocking potential, but how much is that difference 5% or more ?

>>The higher the RAM capacity the harder it is to overclock past its rated speed. Rated speed would be the speed advertised for the RAM. For example, Corsair Vengenace 3200Mhz 2x16. 3200Mhz is the rated speed.

 

I would probably buy 2 sticks of 16 GB, but they are out of stock in every big eShop in my country.

>>As stated in the first answer, it's nice to have available RAM slots in case you want to expand your capacity.

 

But i found one eShop is restocking 2 x 8 GB sticks, should i take them or just wait till 2 x 16 GB will be restocked too.

>>You can mix and match RAM capacities. However, the RAM speed will match the lowest rated RAM speed that you have. For example you have 2x 3200Mhz and 2x 2400Mhz. Your RAM speed will be at 2400Mhz or however high your 2400Mhz RAM can overclock too. This is because all of your RAM must be at the same speed.

Expandability is not case here, 32 GB is plenty for me. Is there any major downside for having 4 x 16 or 2 x 16 except future expanability ?

[phongle123]

4 minutes ago, funn3r said:

Expandability is not case here, 32 GB is plenty for me. Is there any major downside for having 4 x 16 or 2 x 16 except future expanability ?

No, there is not. As long as you are able to pick the Speed that you want then there is no downside. 

What I was talking about with lower capacity RAM being able to clock higher is for this reason. If you look at 4000Mhz and  higher RAMs you will see 8GB sticks. 

However, 16GB sticks of DDR4 RAM can be found at 3600Mhz and lower. So if 3600Mhz and lower is something you are looking for then 16GB RAMs are fine for your use case.

[funn3r]

1 minute ago, phongle123 said:

No, there is not. As long as you are able to pick the Speed that you want then there is no downside. 

What I was talking about with lower capacity RAM being able to clock higher is for this reason. If you look at 4000Mhz and  higher RAMs you will see 8GB sticks. 

However, 16GB sticks of DDR4 RAM can be found at 3600Mhz and lower. So if 3600Mhz and lower is something you are looking for then 16GB RAMs are fine for your use case.

I shared part numbers BL2K8G36C16U4B vs BL2K16G36C16U4B they have same specs only size of stick differs.

[phongle123]

32 minutes ago, funn3r said:

I shared part numbers BL2K8G36C16U4B vs BL2K16G36C16U4B they have same specs only size of stick differs.

I can tell from the 36 and 16 that it is 3600Mhz at CL16. Which is why I said if 3600mhz is what you need then it is fine.

 

I tried to give as much detail as possible rather than saying yes or no so you can have the information to make the decision yourself. Ultimately, it is up to you.

[funn3r]

1 hour ago, phongle123 said:

I can tell from the 36 and 16 that it is 3600Mhz at CL16. Which is why I said if 3600mhz is what you need then it is fine.

 

I tried to give as much detail as possible rather than saying yes or no so you can have the information to make the decision yourself. Ultimately, it is up to you.

Okay, thank you ordered 2x BL2K8G36C16U4B

[ewitte]

The only downsize is the potential to not even hit rated speeds.

[funn3r]

40 minutes ago, ewitte said:

The only downsize is the potential to not even hit rated speeds.

So with 4 same DIMMs which are rated 3600Mhz CL 16 i can't hit those numbers ?

[Mister Woof]

Depending on motherboard topology and your individual CPU's integrated memory controller, it may be easier to get higher frequency (even if just to get dated speeds) with 2 slots occupied vs 4 slots.

 

Also, depending on the individual memory chips configuration (single vs dual rank) there may be a benefit to having all four slots occupied even at the same frequency.

 

Ultimately, these differences are minimal and you should go with less slots filled because it's easier on the memory controller and gives you room to expand.

 

Or fill em all for looks. It's what I did.

[funn3r]

1 hour ago, Mister Woof said:

Depending on motherboard topology and your individual CPU's integrated memory controller, it may be easier to get higher frequency (even if just to get dated speeds) with 2 slots occupied vs 4 slots.

 

Also, depending on the individual memory chips configuration (single vs dual rank) there may be a benefit to having all four slots occupied even at the same frequency.

 

Ultimately, these differences are minimal and you should go with less slots filled because it's easier on the memory controller and gives you room to expand.

 

Or fill em all for looks. It's what I did.

B550 Tomahawk and probably Ryzen 5900X

[mrdoubtfull]

10 minutes ago, funn3r said:

B550 Tomahawk and probably Ryzen 5900X

You shouldn't have a problem hitting XMP but overclocking can be more challenging with 4 sticks vs two.. 

 

I'm running 4x8gb trident z rgb 3200c14 b die and I'm not getting as good of an overclock as I would get if I only ran two sticks.. I'm honestly not sure if 2x16gb sticks would effect it or not but I still think it would be easier than 4x8gb..

 

I would just get the 4x8gb, I'm sure you'll be fine.. Just use the Ryzen RAM calculator and you'll be fine. I used that for my 4x8gb set and "SAFE" settings worked just fine, "Fast" did not lol. You can also play with the sub timings more to squeeze out a little more performance.. 

[BTGbullseye]

23 hours ago, phongle123 said:

Hi, I can answer these questions for you. 

 

Is really that much difference between 2 sticks of 16 GB or 4 sticks of 8GB?

>>You just want to obtain dual channel or quad channel depending on your motherboard. There is no difference aside from being able to have a higher capacity. For example, if your mother has 4 RAM slots. Buying 2x16GB will allow you to fit in 2 more RAM slots if you ever need to expand later.

 

I read that 2 sticks has better overclocking potential, but how much is that difference 5% or more ?

>>The higher the RAM capacity the harder it is to overclock past its rated speed. Rated speed would be the speed advertised for the RAM. For example, Corsair Vengenace 3200Mhz 2x16. 3200Mhz is the rated speed.

 

I would probably buy 2 sticks of 16 GB, but they are out of stock in every big eShop in my country.

>>As stated in the first answer, it's nice to have available RAM slots in case you want to expand your capacity.

 

But i found one eShop is restocking 2 x 8 GB sticks, should i take them or just wait till 2 x 16 GB will be restocked too.

>>You can mix and match RAM capacities. However, the RAM speed will match the lowest rated RAM speed that you have. For example you have 2x 3200Mhz and 2x 2400Mhz. Your RAM speed will be at 2400Mhz or however high your 2400Mhz RAM can overclock too. This is because all of your RAM must be at the same speed.

Also, 4x8GB in a dual channel system makes it act like dual rank RAM, which does increase performance by about 3-5% at the same speeds and timings. It also limits overclocking ability, so if a 2x16GB config can't overclock to provide at least 5% improvement, then a 4x8GB config running at stock is likely to be better.

 

Bear in mind that all this is talking about 2-3FPS differences in games that run above 120FPS normally, and any system impact will be totally unnoticeable outside of RAM benchmarks. (though 4x8GB is generally twice as hot as 2x16GB, but it's practically irrelevant in actual use)

[BTGbullseye]

14 hours ago, mrdoubtfull said:

I would just get the 4x8gb, I'm sure you'll be fine.. Just use the Ryzen RAM calculator and you'll be fine. I used that for my 4x8gb set and "SAFE" settings worked just fine, "Fast" did not lol. You can also play with the sub timings more to squeeze out a little more performance.. 

Interestingly enough, the SAFE settings drops my RAM below the performance of the XMP settings out of the box, and it's stable with those settings. Always test the XMP first, and then decide if having a <1% performance difference is worth the time it takes to tweak your RAM settings.

[mrdoubtfull]

4 hours ago, BTGbullseye said:

Interestingly enough, the SAFE settings drops my RAM below the performance of the XMP settings out of the box, and it's stable with those settings. Always test the XMP first, and then decide if having a <1% performance difference is worth the time it takes to tweak your RAM settings.

It bumps mine up quite a bit.. Guess it just depends on the RAM but either way, gotta test everything lol. 

[funn3r]

8 hours ago, BTGbullseye said:

Also, 4x8GB in a dual channel system makes it act like dual rank RAM, which does increase performance by about 3-5% at the same speeds and timings. It also limits overclocking ability, so if a 2x16GB config can't overclock to provide at least 5% improvement, then a 4x8GB config running at stock is likely to be better.

 

Bear in mind that all this is talking about 2-3FPS differences in games that run above 120FPS normally, and any system impact will be totally unnoticeable outside of RAM benchmarks. (though 4x8GB is generally twice as hot as 2x16GB, but it's practically irrelevant in actual use)

I did some research and i found it also depends on motherboard memory topology T vs Daisy chain, for T is better 4 sticks and for Daisy chain 2 sticks.

I also found some more informations in specifications at msi.com for my motherboard.

There is 

• 1DPC 1R max speed 5100 MHZ
• 1DPC 2R max speed 3866 MHZ
• 2DPC 1R max speed 4000 MHZ
• 2DPC 2R max speed 3600 MHZ

Which means if i use single rank stick with 3600 Mhz and CL 16 i should be fine, because four of them will be meeting 2 dimms per channel single rank -> 4000 Mhz