A few questions about my CPU (i5 4590) please help!

XplosiveNoctua99 · July 15, 2016

So I have a few questions

I was looking at my cpu's specs and stuff..

and I saw this

Max # of Memory Channels

2

does this mean that I can't have 4x8gb sticks of ram???? (for 32gb)

also

will I be able to have 2 16x pcie things (as in 2 rx 480's in Xfire both using 16x slots?

i couldn't find it

thanks

typographie · July 15, 2016

No. It means that your memory should ideally be installed in matching pairs of two to enable dual-channel mode, which doubles memory bandwidth. 4x8 GB is perfectly fine.

Your CPU provides 16 PCIe lanes. With two video cards those lanes are divided between the two, so they will run in 8x/8x mode. That's fine, and shouldn't ever make a noticeable difference to performance.

XplosiveNoctua99 · July 15, 2016

3 minutes ago, typographie said:

No. It means that your memory should ideally be installed in matching pairs of two to enable dual-channel mode, which doubles memory bandwidth. 4x8 GB is perfectly fine.

Your CPU provides 16 PCIe lanes. With two video cards those lanes are divided between the two, so they will run in 8x/8x mode. That's fine, and shouldn't ever make a noticeable difference to performance.

so can i stick them in 16x slots tho?

XplosiveNoctua99 · July 15, 2016

2 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Max channels of 2 means dual channel

Two pair of sticks is still dual channel

You will get all the RAM you installed (provided you on 64bit ofc)

No.

Provided your mobo has an extra full length slot, you can crossfire two 480's

And with two cards they will both operate at X8 (unless its an X4 slot)

Not that it matters because the bandwidth at X8 is still more than sufficient

Remember that VRAM will NOT stack in Crossfire

I advise against running multiple cards. Crossfire/SLI support in games is still too iffy to be a good investment in general.

Get a single more powerful card like the 1070 or wait for the RX 490

ok

I know VRAM doesn't stack But I already have 1 rx 480 and the crossfire is mainly for VR.

and It's also cheaper to get 2 480s rather than a 1070

i don't care that it's less powerfull (veeery slightly) than a 1080. $450 cheaper too.

but each to their own i guess

but would i be able to run the gpu's in 16x slots? or what?

typographie · July 15, 2016

1 minute ago, XplosiveNoctua99 said:

so can i stick them in 16x slots tho?

Yeah… the slot names are a bit confusing. The PCIe x16 slot can have up to 16 lanes allocated to it, but the CPU/chipset will divide up the lanes if there is more than one card installed. x16 slots are the correct (and without modification, the only) place to install modern graphics cards, regardless of the number of cards.