Ram rabbit hole

[Computersarethebest]

Hello everyone this is my first post and I’m going down the ram rabbit hole. I have 2x4gig sticks made by mushkin right now in my computer and I want to go from 8gigs to 16gigs. 
now i know all about the matching sticks as much as possible and I have, I’m going with crucial 2x4gig sticks. Both ddr3 both 1600 the timing is different but to my knowledge they’ll preformed as good as the weakest set. 
 

now I found this video which is messing me up a little bit https://youtu.be/GThdz0kPBms. He’s saying that if my ram is recognized as dual in my pc putting more sticks in won’t give me any benefits? I’m having a hard time understanding his video. 
 

if I add another two stick of ram to my motherboard will I get a performance gain? Thanks everyone for the reply’s 

[Quackers101]

Dual channel is mostly for performance and using both channels.

Adding more rams beyond that would likely just get more RAM, so if some titles or software need more RAM you might see an increase in that aspect.

Else if you are not on RYZEN on a newer platform, this wouldn't matter too much so long you get your RAM to work fine with those 2 sets of RAM stick types.

 

As seen here:

 

[Computersarethebest]

Thank you very much for the reply, now I’m a little confused about ranks in ram, if I have two sticks which are dual rank (which I have installed right now) if my new sticks come in either dual or single does that mean I have too many ranks on my ram and it’s stressing out a certain part of my pc? (I forget what the part is called)

 

if I have 4 sticks of ram should they all be single ranks because I have 4 spots to put ram in on my motherboard? 

[Computersarethebest]

I just found out my mobo needs dual rank so hopefully what I ordered is dual rank.

 

how do I know if my new ram is ok with my old ram? People say there might be problems but as long as the pc boots up and the system recognized the ram everything is fine?

[Quackers101]

6 hours ago, Computersarethebest said:

I just found out my mobo needs dual rank so hopefully what I ordered is dual rank.

 

how do I know if my new ram is ok with my old ram? People say there might be problems but as long as the pc boots up and the system recognized the ram everything is fine?

You don't "need" dual rank or quad rank (quad being more server related).

RAM could work fine, and you mostly wont see dual rank on lower GB ram sticks, up to 16 GB and more you would see it more. If you found out that your MOBO and CPU would benefit from it then that is one thing, but just think of it this way. Each channel like dual channel, might be able to use up to 2 ranks per channel, so 4 ranks total (lets say these are the controllers on the ram), so if you put int 4 x single rank sticks, you would likely use up all that. While having 2 ranks on a single memory could give it a boost or if it helps to OC, but nothing you would need to worry about. Most you would get is by using up all the lanes for your CPU with that max of ranks, more rank than max would also cause an issue with performance?

 

I'm unsure if they use more ranks also due to DDR, so you will have a better time with this in DDR4 and DDR5. (maybe more ranks used on DDR5 too?)

That uses more RAM GB and has a higher speed in general, were DDR4 will also benefit you than having a system going on DDR3 (unless its a laptop)

[Computersarethebest]

How do I find out what my max ranks would be?

[Tristerin]

Ranks are RAM density.  Single Rank is (basically) single sided PCB RAM.  Dual Rank is (basically) both sides of the PCB has memory chips.  Not always true, the appearance - but most of the time it comes into play is more dense memory sticks - I.E. 16gb sticks.  I havent dabbled in DDR3 stuff in a long while, but Im highly doubting 4gb modules are Dual Rank anyhow.  

 

Dual CHANNEL and Quad CHANNEL are different then the above completely.  This is the way the CPU communicates with the RAM - and in your case Quad Channel is NOT possible (its not supported by the mobo or CPU) and is on HEDT CPU's/motherboards and server - there is even higher than quad channel.  

 

Im not sure if Thaiphoon reads DDR3 but its a free program that analyzes your ram and tells you all about it.

[Computersarethebest]

I’ve been using the cpu-z program to get as much info as I can. I think I’m going to buy 2x8gig dual rank sticks. Hyper x makes some with the max speed that my mobo will accept which is 1866. 
 

now I’m not sure if I should buy it used or brand new, I have the ability to get them half off used but a little nervous. 

[Quackers101]

1 hour ago, Computersarethebest said:

How do I find out what my max ranks would be?

4 might be the max for most, but a little unsure. But would think since there are 4 slots. So either 2 sticks with 2 rank (2x2R) or 4 sticks with 1 rank.

This and speed is something that has been more noticable with ryzen GPUs? (DDR4?) so you should be fine.

 

Not sure about used RAM either, but anyways your idea is mostly on what you want. Unless you want a full system upgrade to higher speed memory and DDR4 or in the future for DDR5.

[Computersarethebest]

I’m trying not to completely buy a new pc I put in a 1tb ssd and want to double my ram but I’ve honestly lost 3 days reading about ram  

 

does anything happen if I install 4 dual rank sticks? 

[Quackers101]

9 minutes ago, Computersarethebest said:

I’m trying not to completely buy a new pc I put in a 1tb ssd and want to double my ram but I’ve honestly lost 3 days reading about ram  

 

does anything happen if I install 4 dual rank sticks? 

maybe get worse performance as it might not be able to use all and maybe just trying to use 2 sticks at a time anyways? not sure, but you are likely not going to go over that with what you suggested and was going to use. Yeah, computer stuff can be a pain. to different tech and a bunch else to things like screens/panels/clarity etc.

 

But If you thought about that type of ram you said you wanted to buy, you shouldn't think too much about it, so long they will work together although if one is slower, you might have to default to that speed or something they can match.

 

Also in short, by adding the same type and with the same amount of GB, you should be able to gain something from it.