What better 4x8gb ram or 2x16gb ram? Thinking of upgrading to 32gb

[BeastHotDogGUY]

Budget (including currency): 

Country: 

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: cod, Fortnite, Minecraft, etc

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

[Beerzerker]

2x16 would be better/best for you in this case. 4x8GB's means you'd have to run them with all slots populated and for some boards this isn't optimal.
Not to mention any future upgrades will mean you can't add any more RAM without setting the 4x8GB sticks aside so go ahead and get 2x16GB sticks if you can.

[RONOTHAN##]

All of this is assuming you're talking about a consumer dual channel DDR4 setup. If you're talking about DDR3, DDR5, or a quad channel setup like Threadripper or X299 the conclusions are wildly different. 

 

4x8GB can in some instances have better performance than 2x16GB. The difference comes from single rank vs. dual rank memory. Dual rank RAM has on average about the same performance as a single rank configuration clocked about 400MHz higher, though at the expense of being much more difficult for the memory controller and motherboard's memory topology. On Ryzen 3000/5000, for instance, the difference between dual rank and single rank memory for clock speed with a good motherboard is about 4000MT/s for dual rank and 4800MT/s for single rank, but because in most scenarios for best performance you usually want to stick to a 1:1 ratio with the FCLK a dual rank setup at somewhere between 3600-4000MT/s will give the best performance, and therefore a dual rank setup is what you want. 

 

Basically every 8GB DIMM made since 2016 is going to be single rank, and because the effective rank is just how many ranks are present on a memory channel, 4x8GB would have 2 ranks present on each memory channel, effectively resulting in dual rank. 16GB DIMMs however can be both single rank and dual rank. Most made in the past ~3-4 years are single rank, but there are still some kits from Kingston that are guaranteed dual rank as well as some high end memory bins like 3600 CL14-15-15 that are guaranteed to be dual rank. 4 single rank sticks will perform identically as 2 dual rank sticks, though the 2 dual rank sticks on most motherboards should in theory clock memory higher than the 4 single rank sticks (there are exceptions to this, there are a lot of B550 boards that clock 2 dual rank DIMMs and 4 single rank DIMMs the same, as well as some older motherboards that will do better with 4 single rank sticks, but for the most part 2 dual rank DIMMs will be easier to run than 4 single rank DIMMs). There is also the argument of compatibility, usually in order to get 4x8GB setups, you need to buy 2 2x8GB kits, and those kits can run into compatibility issues, especially if they were bought years apart. It's to the point where I don't really recommend 4x8GB setups unless you really know what you're doing and can confirm that the sticks are from the same batch. 

 

Tl;Dr: 2x16GB if you don't want to think about it, 4x8GB if you want it guaranteed to be a little faster and willing to risk it possibly not working. 

[675409]

23 minutes ago, BeastHotDogGUY said:

Budget (including currency): 

Country: 

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: cod, Fortnite, Minecraft, etc

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

there is no real performance difference, so as said above, get the 2x16gb sticks so you can upgrade in the future

[Beerzerker]

16 minutes ago, 675409 said:

there is no real performance difference, so as said above, get the 2x16gb sticks so you can upgrade in the future

With the noted absence of system specs/details that's how I see it myself.
Note I'm not disagreeing with Ronothan either, he's on target too but as said the OP didn't bother to give system specs so we really don't know what they are working with to "Definitively" say one way or the other, hence why I suggested 2x16GB for the reasons I gave myself with the assumption (Based on the RAM amount values given as options) it's a DDR4 based system.

[BeastHotDogGUY]

27 minutes ago, Beerzerker said:

With the noted absence of system specs/details that's how I see it myself.
Note I'm not disagreeing with Ronothan either, he's on target too but as said the OP didn't bother to give system specs so we really don't know what they are working with to "Definitively" say one way or the other, hence why I suggested 2x16GB for the reasons I gave myself with the assumption (Based on the RAM amount values given as options) it's a DDR4 based system.

I have a amd ryzen 5 5600g with a 1660 super and 8gb ram

[BeastHotDogGUY]

49 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

All of this is assuming you're talking about a consumer dual channel DDR4 setup. If you're talking about DDR3, DDR5, or a quad channel setup like Threadripper or X299 the conclusions are wildly different. 

 

4x8GB can in some instances have better performance than 2x16GB. The difference comes from single rank vs. dual rank memory. Dual rank RAM has on average about the same performance as a single rank configuration clocked about 400MHz higher, though at the expense of being much more difficult for the memory controller and motherboard's memory topology. On Ryzen 3000/5000, for instance, the difference between dual rank and single rank memory for clock speed with a good motherboard is about 4000MT/s for dual rank and 4800MT/s for single rank, but because in most scenarios for best performance you usually want to stick to a 1:1 ratio with the FCLK a dual rank setup at somewhere between 3600-4000MT/s will give the best performance, and therefore a dual rank setup is what you want. 

 

Basically every 8GB DIMM made since 2016 is going to be single rank, and because the effective rank is just how many ranks are present on a memory channel, 4x8GB would have 2 ranks present on each memory channel, effectively resulting in dual rank. 16GB DIMMs however can be both single rank and dual rank. Most made in the past ~3-4 years are single rank, but there are still some kits from Kingston that are guaranteed dual rank as well as some high end memory bins like 3600 CL14-15-15 that are guaranteed to be dual rank. 4 single rank sticks will perform identically as 2 dual rank sticks, though the 2 dual rank sticks on most motherboards should in theory clock memory higher than the 4 single rank sticks (there are exceptions to this, there are a lot of B550 boards that clock 2 dual rank DIMMs and 4 single rank DIMMs the same, as well as some older motherboards that will do better with 4 single rank sticks, but for the most part 2 dual rank DIMMs will be easier to run than 4 single rank DIMMs). There is also the argument of compatibility, usually in order to get 4x8GB setups, you need to buy 2 2x8GB kits, and those kits can run into compatibility issues, especially if they were bought years apart. It's to the point where I don't really recommend 4x8GB setups unless you really know what you're doing and can confirm that the sticks are from the same batch. 

 

Tl;Dr: 2x16GB if you don't want to think about it, 4x8GB if you want it guaranteed to be a little faster and willing to risk it possibly not working. 

So if I put in 4 sticks and it doesn’t work is it just not dual channel and instead 4x single channel

[RONOTHAN##]

1 minute ago, BeastHotDogGUY said:

So if I put in 4 sticks and it doesn’t work is it just not dual channel and instead 4x single channel

No, if you put 4 sticks in and it doesn't work the system either won't POST or is unstable at XMP. As long as all 4 DIMMs are populated and the system turns on it'll be in dual channel. 

[BeastHotDogGUY]

5 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

No, if you put 4 sticks in and it doesn't work the system either won't POST or is unstable at XMP. As long as all 4 DIMMs are populated and the system turns on it'll be in dual channel. 

If it doesn’t post is it the system or sticks dead or do I need to take out some sticks

[RONOTHAN##]

3 minutes ago, BeastHotDogGUY said:

If it doesn’t post is it the system or sticks dead or do I need to take out some sticks

If it doesn't POST it's an incompatibility between the sticks themselves. Everything will still work, you can test each set individually and it should function just fine, but together not so much. 

[BeastHotDogGUY]

6 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

If it doesn't POST it's an incompatibility between the sticks themselves. Everything will still work, you can test each set individually and it should function just fine, but together not so much. 

so will it work if I buy 3 single 8gb kits (I already received 1 as a gift)

[RONOTHAN##]

12 minutes ago, BeastHotDogGUY said:

so will it work if I buy 3 single 8gb kits (I already received 1 as a gift)

It's a game of odds. It might, it might not. If you only have one stick though I'd probably sell it and just get a 2x16GB kit instead. Finding someone selling 3 sticks of RAM is pretty difficult, and you're betting on there being compatibility twice. 

[BeastHotDogGUY]

2 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

It's a game of odds. It might, it might not. If you only have one stick though I'd probably sell it and just get a 2x16GB kit instead. Finding someone selling 3 sticks of RAM is pretty difficult, and you're betting on there being compatibility twice. 

1. im buying new so does that change anything

2. would I even need that much ram?

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, BeastHotDogGUY said:

1. im buying new so does that change anything

2. would I even need that much ram?

1. Nope. The whole reason is that even within the same model number, RAM manufacturers change up the memory IC type depending on what they had on hand that day. The IC is what determines compatibility, there are some that play nice with each other, and some that will not POST, and the higher you go on the speed scale the less likely they are to work together. The odds in my experience are something like 75% that will work no problem, 20% it will work but will not do the rated settings, and 5% that it will not even turn on if the sticks are together. That's the odds (in my experience at least, though I do go through a fair bit of RAM) for any two random memory ICs, start getting to the area of 3 or 4 like you would have to be to get 4x8GB setups depending on if you buy 3 single sticks or two pairs (a kit of RAM is guaranteed to be the same) and the odds of it not working multiply. 
2. There aren't many situations where you need more than 16GB of RAM. There, however, are some modern games that are starting to use more than 16GB, and since DDR4 at least is so cheap you might as well get 32GB, if you're just buying a kit it's usually only an extra $10.

[BeastHotDogGUY]

21 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

1. Nope. The whole reason is that even within the same model number, RAM manufacturers change up the memory IC type depending on what they had on hand that day. The IC is what determines compatibility, there are some that play nice with each other, and some that will not POST, and the higher you go on the speed scale the less likely they are to work together. The odds in my experience are something like 75% that will work no problem, 20% it will work but will not do the rated settings, and 5% that it will not even turn on if the sticks are together. That's the odds (in my experience at least, though I do go through a fair bit of RAM) for any two random memory ICs, start getting to the area of 3 or 4 like you would have to be to get 4x8GB setups depending on if you buy 3 single sticks or two pairs (a kit of RAM is guaranteed to be the same) and the odds of it not working multiply. 
2. There aren't many situations where you need more than 16GB of RAM. There, however, are some modern games that are starting to use more than 16GB, and since DDR4 at least is so cheap you might as well get 32GB, if you're just buying a kit it's usually only an extra $10.

i think im just gonna stick with 2x8gb but tysm for the help