Best channel configuration for Ram?

[waterjug]

I have 16GB total, with 2 4GB and 1 8GB. My motherboard has 4 ram slots with 2 channels. What is the best configuration to put the ram in to get optimal performance out of the ram?

[Eigenvektor]

If your CPU and motherboard support it, you might be able to get it to run in Dual Channel (Interleaved) mode.

 

See here: https://www.compuram.de/blog/en/single-dual-and-multi-channel-memory-modes/

Search for "Dual Channel (Interleaved) mode configuration with three DIMMs"

 

But ideally you'd want either two or four identical sticks rather than such a mix.

[Pixelfie]

Most of the Time A2 > B2 > A1 > B1. But I'd recommend looking at your motherboards manual, it should be listed there. Also, if one of the sticks has a lower frequency than the others, it would pick the lowest.

[Chris Greene]

2x4gb in dual channel or buy a matching kit of the 2x4gbs and match their timings mixing ram can be risky if the timings are off it could cause instability on your platform.

[RollinLower]

To be honest you're probably fine running both 4GB sticks in channel A and the 8G stick in channel B. Or vice-versa.

You will be locked to the lower clocked RAM, and you might (rarely) get some stability issues, but you're probably fine.

[waterjug]

2 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

If your motherboard supports it, you might be able to get it to run in Dual Channel (Interleaved) mode.

 

Highly doubt it, this a $50 4 year old ddr3 motherboard. I'll look into it tho

 

2 minutes ago, Chris Greene said:

2x4gb in dual channel or buy a matching kit of the 2x4gbs and match their timings mixing ram can be risky if the timings are off it could cause instability on your platform.

I'll go with that configuration. All of the sticks have the same timings. Was running 2x4gb for several years and just picked up a cheap 8gb stick and 16gb is a nice upgrade from 8

[Chris Greene]

7 minutes ago, waterjug said:

Highly doubt it, this a $50 4 year old ddr3 motherboard. I'll look into it tho

 

I'll go with that configuration. All of the sticks have the same timings. Was running 2x4gb for several years and just picked up a cheap 8gb stick and 16gb is a nice upgrade from 8

so long as youre not pushing overclocking on the ram you should be fine I have limited experience in this field but was told by my initial mentor that ram size doesnt matter but timings is where it matters. for years I ran a corsair kit and a gskill sniper kit it looked super derpy two neon blue rams and a set of camo rams. now im running a dual kit 2x8gb 3200 corsair in my new build.