Ram question, probably already covered.

[Thibodac]

I'm looking to up my ram from two sticks to four. System build is:

Cpu: ryzen 5 3600x

Motherboard: gigabyte x570 aorus master.

Ram: g.skill trident z 3600 cl18

Gpu: rx6750xt 12gb

 

Just looking for a solid answer after viewing forms for the answer is it better to go for two 16gb modules or just get another pack of 8gb modules to add to the already existing ram. I obviously plan to buy the exact same spec ram if I'm to add on. 

[RONOTHAN##]

Replacing with 2x16GB is the safer plan if you want to upgrade since RAM manufacturers suck and just because the model number is the same doesn't mean that the kits are the exact same. 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Unless you are buying crucial or klevv then sell those existing sticks and buy a 2x16 kit

 

Buying the same spec doesnt mean youll get the same ic aside from buying from a brand that is a branch of an ic manufacturer like the aformentioned klevv or crucial where you buy 3200c16 ballistix youll always get micron rev e d9wfl or 3600c18 klevv bolt (xr) where youll always get hynix djr. So you buy another 3600c18 tridentz youll likely end up with a different ram ic which sometimes causes xmp to become unstable or just outright no POST cause some ics just despise eachother

 

The only reason youd go 4x8 would be performance as dual rank > single rank but unless you are particularly savvy with ram overclocking or ram buying dont bother

[KeDoBro]

I agree with the other comments here, 2x16 is safer, but I added extra RAM to my system many years after building it and have had zero issues. If your just looking to double your capacity it might be better to go with the 4x8 config since buying another 2x8 kit will obviously be cheaper. Depending on how much you can sell your dimms for though, 2x16 might be better. Its up to you!

Edited April 2, 2023 by KeDoBro
Removed instability misconception

[Somerandomtechyboi]

40 minutes ago, KeDoBro said:

However it is important to concider the fact that you have 3600Mhz ram. Your mobo supports the ram speed, but the 3600x memory controller supports speeds at 3200Mhz. You can absolutely use XMP to get to 3600Mhz on 4 dimms, but this will push your CPU memory controller harder and might cause instability and/or worse performance.

Official supported speeds are 100% guaranteed to work but that doesnt mean anything faster will lead to worse performance or instability if it does work, most ryzen 3000 fclk top out around 3800-4000 which is far below what the imcs themselves actually top out at

 

the imcs themselves im not sure precisely where but i think somewhere around 5000 though that depends on what ics you use cause stressfull ics like bdie will have a very hard time getting up to those speeds cause imc cant handle it but rev e should be able to since its lighter on the imc

 

im just gonna clear that misconception up

 

though im curious as to where you get the worse performance or instability claims from

[KeDoBro]

35 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Official supported speeds are 100% guaranteed to work but that doesnt mean anything faster will lead to worse performance or instability if it does work, most ryzen 3000 fclk top out around 3800-4000 which is far below what the imcs themselves actually top out at

 

the imcs themselves im not sure precisely where but i think somewhere around 5000 though that depends on what ics you use cause stressfull ics like bdie will have a very hard time getting up to those speeds cause imc cant handle it but rev e should be able to since its lighter on the imc

 

im just gonna clear that misconception up

 

though im curious as to where you get the worse performance or instability claims from

I was going off of the idea that technically overclocking both the RAM and IMC adds instabilty, but I honestly did not know that the actual threshold that these controllers can reach go far beyond the rated speeds. My wording my have been a bit to dramatic lol  thanks for educating me! Ill edit my reply to take out the instabilty stuff!

 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

5 minutes ago, KeDoBro said:

I was going off of the idea that technically overclocking both the RAM and IMC adds instabilty, but I honestly did not know that the actual threshold that these controllers can reach go far beyond the rated speeds. My wording my have been a bit to dramatic lol  thanks for educating me! Ill edit my reply to take out the instabilty stuff!

 

Its alright were all here to learn after all

 

You gotta look past the advertised specs and see what speeds ppl are actually getting, usually just looking around on other forms, reddit, or even hwbot will give you a decent idea of what these are capable of, theres also yt channels like buildzoid (ahoc) which oc the balls off things and see how far they go

 

mobo advertised specs can sometimes be false as ive found with an asrock h55m (advertising 2600+ but noone has gotten past 2200 on hwbot), cpu advertised specs are very very conservative but technically not false since the cpu will do advertised speed and then some (ex my old x5660 doing 2200 ddr3, very slow for ddr3 mind you but advertised supported freq of only 1066, or my p5q + e8400 which can run 1520c7 ddr2 with some xtreem dark 1066c6 sticks in 1x3 config)