Motherboard says Dual channel.. Can I use Quad? I want max amount of FPS.

[New rig]

My build is:

-AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (16-Core) 4.9 GHz Turbo

-ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Formula (Wi-Fi) (AMD X570 Chipset) (Up to 3x PCI-E Devices)

-Asus ROG Strix RTX 3090

 

Question: I’m stuck on the RAM. I want to do 32gb but the motherboard is a “dual channel” I want to get the most out of this gaming PC. Do I/Can I:

-(4x8gb)

or

-(2x16gb)

I have done a lot of research and have found mix info. Can someone please recommend a good RAM configuration for me. Budget doesn’t matter.

 

thank you for taking the time to read.

[Tristerin]

Your CPU, and MOBO do not support Quad.  Answer is a hard no.

 

Requires HEDT, Server hardware (basically)

 

Id go with 2x16, most compatible - as you add dimms you add more problems with Ryzen imho.  Especially if you OC

[WereCatf]

2 minutes ago, New rig said:

but the motherboard is a “dual channel”

Dual-channel is not the same thing as the number of RAM-slots your mobo has. Yes, you can put RAM in all four slots, it'll still run in a dual-channel mode.

[Hyrogenes]

This motherboard only supports up to dual channel so 2x16 is the best idea in order to get max speed and max expandability for the future

[NutronSe7en]

you can have up to 4 sticks in there but quad channel is different

[AnirbanG007]

6 minutes ago, New rig said:

My build is:

-AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (16-Core) 4.9 GHz Turbo

-ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Formula (Wi-Fi) (AMD X570 Chipset) (Up to 3x PCI-E Devices)

-Asus ROG Strix RTX 3090

 

Question: I’m stuck on the RAM. I want to do 32gb but the motherboard is a “dual channel” I want to get the most out of this gaming PC. Do I/Can I:

-(4x8gb)

or

-(2x16gb)

I have done a lot of research and have found mix info. Can someone please recommend a good RAM configuration for me. Budget doesn’t matter.

 

thank you for taking the time to read.

Your board has 4 dimm slots. Use dual channel memory, that'd be the best, that is what is supported anyway. 

In a nutshell, go with 2, 16 gigs of RAM. You could use something like a 3600 MHz CL 18 RAM or better.

[CommanderAlex]

Most consumer platforms (such as the one you plan on using) will only feature dual channel memory configurations. HEDT (high-End Desktop) and server grade platforms will offer quad channel memory configurations. 

 

Going with a 2x16 will be good for you now as you can always fill in another 2x16 kit in the future to populate all 4 DIMMs on your motherboard. 

[New rig]

THANK YOU, for everyone that has replied.

 

-I do understand that it has 4 slots. I don't understand why its says in the specs dual channel?

-I am not an over clocker. Im just a person that wants to get the most out of their build.

-I have watched tons of videos and read articles, but am not getting a clear answer on using all four slots or just two to get that extra 5%-10% boost on FPS.

 

Im looking at:

+G Skill 3600hz 2x16 or 4x8 CL?

+Corsair Dominator platinum 3600hz 2x16 or 4x8 CL?

(Do I even go with those brands? Im new to computer building IDK what's best.)

 

Thank You, for reading

[Hyrogenes]

3 minutes ago, New rig said:

THANK YOU, for everyone that has replied.

 

-I do understand that it has 4 slots. I don't understand why its says in the specs dual channel?

-I am not an over clocker. Im just a person that wants to get the most out of their build.

-I have watched tons of videos and read articles, but am not getting a clear answer on using all four slots or just two to get that extra 5%-10% boost on FPS.

 

Im looking at:

+G Skill 3600hz 2x16 or 4x8 CL?

+Corsair Dominator platinum 3600hz 2x16 or 4x8 CL?

(Do I even go with those brands? Im new to computer building IDK what's best.)

 

Thank You, for reading

Get 2x16 3600 or 3200 CL 18 . Dual channel means 2 connections to your cpu. Each channel has 2 slots on your mobo. So the left 2 slots are the same channel and the right 2 slots are the other channel

[gal-m]

8 minutes ago, Hyrogenes said:

Get 2x16 3600 or 3200 CL 18

No, not really.. 

@New rig I presume you don't really have a tight budget. I'd go for something like this: G.Skill Trident Z Neo DIMM kit 64GB, DDR4-3600, CL16-16-16-36 (F4-3600C16Q-64GTZN)

 

Yes, I know it's 64GB and technically 2X16 (2xdual rank) or 4X8(4xsingle rank) would give you better performance but my man.. you've got a 5950X a $500 motherboard and a $2500 GPU. 

Might as well go for 64GB .

[gal-m]

4 minutes ago, gal-m said:

Might as well go for 64GB

If you want 32GB look at something like this: G.Skill Trident Z Neo DIMM kit 32GB, DDR4-3600, CL16-16-16-36 (F4-3600C16Q-32GTZN)

Or this: G.Skill Trident Z Neo DIMM kit 32GB, DDR4-3600, CL16-16-16-36 (F4-3600C16D-32GTZN)

[CommanderAlex]

14 minutes ago, New rig said:

THANK YOU, for everyone that has replied.

 

-I do understand that it has 4 slots. I don't understand why its says in the specs dual channel?

-I am not an over clocker. Im just a person that wants to get the most out of their build.

-I have watched tons of videos and read articles, but am not getting a clear answer on using all four slots or just two to get that extra 5%-10% boost on FPS.

 

Im looking at:

+G Skill 3600hz 2x16 or 4x8 CL?

+Corsair Dominator platinum 3600hz 2x16 or 4x8 CL?

(Do I even go with those brands? Im new to computer building IDK what's best.)

 

Thank You, for reading

Dual channel is due to how the hardware is laid out, especially the memory controller inside the CPU. RAM runs in, for right now, DDR4, so double data rate 4. A single stick will be single data rate. Hence, two sticks will run in DDR or double data rate. This will populate a single channel going to the processor.  So, this leaves one more channel for your processor, which will be the other two DIMM slots on your motherboard. So, by having 2 kits of 2x16 (or whatever GB size of RAM you are getting) run in dual channel mode (4 DIMMs, the most the motherboard has) will fill up the integrated memory controller's 2 memory channels, hence, dual channel. 

 

Hope the explanation helps somewhat explain. 

 

For the RAM kits, you will want to look for DDR4-3200 CL16 or DDR4-3600 CL16 or CL16 (The lower the CL#, the tighter the timings will be, and the more performance you will get). Both companies produce great kits of RAM. The modules themselves are produced by three big DRAM manufacturers; Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron. Other companies, such as Corsair and G Skill, outsource the modules from the three companies for their own RAM kits.

 

Crucial memory will use Micron modules as Micron owns Crucial.

[New rig]

THANK YOU for responding.

 

In the footnotes of AMD its said:

"Testing by AMD Performance Labs as of September 23, 2020 using a Ryzen 9 5950X and Intel Core i9-10900K configured with DDR4-3600C16 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. Results may vary. R5K-039"

 

So that means for latency I need to stay at 16CL or 18CL correct? @SpiderMan

 

@gal-m suggested:

-G.Skill Trident Z Neo DIMM kit 32GB, DDR4-3600, CL16-16-16-36 (F4-3600C16Q-32GTZN)

-G.Skill Trident Z Neo DIMM kit 32GB, DDR4-3600, CL16-16-16-36 (F4-3600C16D-32GTZN)

-G.Skill Trident Z Neo DIMM kit 64GB, DDR4-3600, CL16-16-16-36 (F4-3600C16Q-64GTZN)

 

I would like to fill all slots.

@gal-m@SpiderMan @Hyrogenes @AnirbanG007@WereCatf @Tristerin 

[gal-m]

4 minutes ago, New rig said:

So that means for latency I need to stay at 16CL or 18CL correct?

@New rig as @Spider Man mentioned (if you really don't care about money): the lower the CL (latency, aka. time it takes the memory to access information stored in it) & the higher the MHz (clock speed, which means the speed at which memory "calculates") -> the better the performance.

Technically the best RAM in the world would have a clock speed of 999999999999MHz and latency of CL1-1-1-1, if you know what I'm trying to say.

 

[gal-m]

8 minutes ago, gal-m said:

Technically the best RAM in the world would have a clock speed of 999999999999MHz and latency of CL1-1-1-1, if you know what I'm trying to say

HOWEVER in the real world something like 3600MHz, with low latencies is a nice sweet spot, since you'll also need to overclock your infinity fabric.

And yes, the memory you buy does NOT come overclocked out of the box - you'll have to do that yourself. Otherwise it will just run at 2133MHz.

 

Ryzen 5000 technically supports a 2000MHz infinity fabric overclock (which would mean 4000MHz RAM), though that hasn't been achieved by a lot of people as it also depends on what kind of memory chips you get, the quality of your motherboard and the quality of the silicon in your CPU.

 

Also - the differences in performances are MINIMAL when going from e.g. 3600MHz to 4000MHz (in the real world). 

[Tristerin]

If you want to fill all slots, with Ryzen 5000 they are alot more stable with 4 slots, from what I read, compared to first, second gen Ryzen for example.  Go with 4x8gb 3600mhz CL14 and call it a day, at least thats what I would do unless I was trying to smash worldwide records and better overclocking etc

[CommanderAlex]

13 minutes ago, New rig said:

THANK YOU for responding.

 

In the footnotes of AMD its said:

"Testing by AMD Performance Labs as of September 23, 2020 using a Ryzen 9 5950X and Intel Core i9-10900K configured with DDR4-3600C16 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. Results may vary. R5K-039"

 

So that means for latency I need to stay at 16CL or 18CL correct? @SpiderMan

 

@gal-m suggested:

-G.Skill Trident Z Neo DIMM kit 32GB, DDR4-3600, CL16-16-16-36 (F4-3600C16Q-32GTZN)

-G.Skill Trident Z Neo DIMM kit 32GB, DDR4-3600, CL16-16-16-36 (F4-3600C16D-32GTZN)

-G.Skill Trident Z Neo DIMM kit 64GB, DDR4-3600, CL16-16-16-36 (F4-3600C16Q-64GTZN)

 

I would like to fill all slots.

@gal-m@SpiderMan @Hyrogenes @AnirbanG007@WereCatf @Tristerin 

For DDR4-3200 CL16 or lower will be great. For DDR4-3600, CL18 and lower (like the kits you've listed) are fantastic.  Any of those kits will work great. actually. 

[gal-m]

17 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

Go with 4x8gb 3600mhz CL14 and call it a day

Or just go for 4x16GB and have 100 Chrome tabs while playing 3 games and doing other things at the same time.

With specs like yours @New rig I (personally aka. if I had the type of specs you have) wouldn't even THINK about getting anything less than 64GB even if you don't need it. With your type of budget the computer SERVES YOU.

Though 4x16GB prob. won't be as "quick" as 4x8GB, but you know what I'm trying to say.. I'm also assuming you'll be pushing 4K or multiple monitors at which point the GPU will be the bottleneck and not your RAM, so..

[New rig]

Thank you. @gal-m @SpiderMan @Tristerin 

 

-I am not streaming. I am running two screens though. 

1)PG35VQ

2)PG259QN

 

I think I will go with the:

-4x8gb 3600mhz CL14 

 

 

 

[New rig]

One is for competitive gaming and the other for personal enjoyment.

[CommanderAlex]

2 minutes ago, New rig said:

Thank you. @gal-m @SpiderMan @Tristerin 

 

-I am not streaming. I am running two screens though. 

1)PG35VQ

2)PG259QN

 

I think I will go with the:

-4x8gb 3600mhz CL14 

 

 

 

Haha that PG35VQ is a pricy monitor...never be able to own one of those. 

 

That sounds like a decent kit. 

[New rig]

Thank you. 
I’m looking at this one now:

F4-3600C14Q-32GTZNB

 

but it has a “Q” for quad.. that means it won’t work with my setup? Because my mother board prefers dual?

 

@gal-m @SpiderMan @Tristerin

 

 

[New rig]

I just don’t want games to be crashing because it’s too powerful or doesn’t work together perfectly..

 

remember: I don’t understand how to build computers. I just don’t want those issues.

[gal-m]

Just now, New rig said:

but it has a “Q” for quad

Q for Quad on memory kit packaging only means there's four sticks in there.

 

There is no such thing as quad channel or dual channel memory sticks. All (consumer) DDR4 sticks are, in general, equal and can be used on dual, triple, quad, six, eight channel motherboards @New rig (not that we have 8 channel consumer motherboards, was just making an example).

It's only the CPU and motherboard that either support quad channel memory, or don't.

[New rig]

So would you guys say that this specific ram is okay? I looked on the QVL but what do you guys think?

 

F4-3600C14Q-32GTZNB

 

thank you.