ram Should I go for another set of 2x8GB or should I replace what I have with 2x16GB?

[FluorescentGreen5]

I'm considering whether to buy two 8GB sticks to go with my current 2x8GB kit or replace it with a 2x16GB kit for the better performance it offers over 4 sticks on a dual-channel motherboard. I also heard from an LTT video that most dual-channel boards have a multiplexor for each pair of slots, which could mean that the performance difference between 2 sticks and 4 sticks won't be as big as it would if the motherboard only had 2 slots, and was wondering if this was the case and if it mattered.

 

Current Setup:

• MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX
• AMD Ryzen 5 3600
• 2x8GB Team T-Force Vulcan DDR4-3200 (planning on upgrading to 32 GB)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 @ 1620 MHz

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

4x8GB vs 2x16GB will perform identically all other things held equal (including that both are 2 ranks per channel).

 

In the case that you get a single rank kit of 2x16GB, then it will actually perform slightly worse than a 4x8GB config.

 

You should choose the cheapest option, which in this case is obviously the additional 2x8GB kit.

 

Try to find one with identical speed and timings as you existing kit, preferably the same make and model.

 

The only case where you should choose the 2x16GB kit, is if you think you may upgrade to 64GB in the future.

[SirWendall]

13 minutes ago, FluorescentGreen5 said:

I'm considering whether to buy two 8GB sticks to go with my current 2x8GB kit or replace it with a 2x16GB kit for the better performance it offers over 4 sticks on a dual-channel motherboard. I also heard from an LTT video that most dual-channel boards have a multiplexor for each pair of slots, which could mean that the performance difference between 2 sticks and 4 sticks won't be as big as it would if the motherboard only had 2 slots, and was wondering if this was the case and if it mattered.

 

Current Setup:

• MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX
• AMD Ryzen 5 3600
• 2x8GB Team T-Force Vulcan DDR4-3200 (planning on upgrading to 32 GB)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 @ 1620 MHz

Here's a in-depth to RAM on Ryzen.