question about memory

[OuttaMyWay]

heres my build so far

MB-asrock z270 fatality k6

GC-evga gtx 1070 ftw hybrid

CPU-i7 7700k kaby lake

PSU- evga 650W gold

memory that i chose and here comes the question after- Ballistix Sport LT 32GB Kit (16GBx2) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DIMM 288-Pin - BLS2K16G4D240FSE (Red)

now this is 2 sticks of memory  at 32gbs would i be better off using 4 sticks of 8gbs or is 2 sticks of 16 gbs better for gaming and OCing or easier to OC and is this memory even worth having for a board that is capable of optane ? or should i get XMP memory im kinda lost. i know this issue might sound simple or maybe even petty to some but its quite important to me to have the best performance possible . i realize the gtx 1070 isnt as good as i can get but i will sli shortly and for the price i thi nk its a great card compared to gtx1080 cost for the performance.so i guess basically my question is would 4 sticks of 32 gb be better performance for OC or is 2 just as good ?

[Daveeede]

4 sticks vs 2 sticks won't make much of a difference.

Don't worry about XMP.

Don't worry about Optane.

 

Why are you going for 32GB over 16GB?

[OuttaMyWay]

the reason for the step up to 32gb instead of 16gb is for one solid reason i have been noticing in games recently . the longer you play the game the  higher the ram usage goes up. for example gta5 using 16 gb i noticed it bumps up slowly from 6 to 7 gb to 8 then 8.5 etc etc until you reboot the game only then does it start over but still over and over it does this.so i think at 32gb i shouldnt have to worry if i play for say 5 hours at one session. it shouldnt creep up high enough to affect it . . am i misguided in this ? plus i like to stream and make videos as im playing as well so i guess i just want to see if 32gb ddr4 is gonna work better than i think it should.

[MageTank]

1 hour ago, Daveeede said:

4 sticks vs 2 sticks won't make much of a difference.

Don't worry about XMP.

Don't worry about Optane.

 

Why are you going for 32GB over 16GB?

You are mostly correct, but I do want to clarify one thing. 4 sticks of 8GB would be easier to overclock in terms of the IC's themselves (having 8 DRAM pieces per stick instead of 16 per stick means lowering the odds of a specific DRAM chip being unable to hit your desired overclock speeds) however, you also activate specific DPC (Dimms Per Channel) timings, which adds more stress to the IMC.

 

8GB sticks can also be single rank, while 16GB sticks are guaranteed to be dual-rank. Rank Interleaving won't really make much of a difference for the average gamer, but if you do tasks that are heavily ram-bound, rank interleaving is a serious boon. 

 

I do agree, that worrying about XMP is silly, as every DDR4 kit i've ever used, has overclocked manually to 3000mhz with ease. Optane is also a very gimmicky feature, and the average consumer will have no need of it.

 

Memory speed, in regards to gaming, only really matters in situations with high CPU overhead. Where the CPU is holding the GPU back. Memory capacity only matters if you are running out of it, or you plan on caching some drives with your additional memory.

[OuttaMyWay]

yes and i appreciate that reply fully and ill explain why.beyond the xmp and optane anyhow. they r as you said and i agree gimmicky.i have noticed with newer games some seem to be more cpu thread based and some just like to be GPU based and yes i completely agree with that i have seen linus prove it time and time again. and the 32gb capcity i really did not want to do but it just seems the games i like seem to suck more and more the longer i play and yes i keep using gta5 as an example but it is the perfect example of this. and plus the speed of my ram is another topic id like to ask about in a different thread because intel says my cpu is only rated for  a certain speed  memory but yet i can OC my memory and it accepts it ? well yes very confusing but thats for another topic and i appreciate your replys very much. and thankl you .

[MageTank]

9 minutes ago, OuttaMyWay said:

yes and i appreciate that reply fully and ill explain why.beyond the xmp and optane anyhow. they r as you said and i agree gimmicky.i have noticed with newer games some seem to be more cpu thread based and some just like to be GPU based and yes i completely agree with that i have seen linus prove it time and time again. and the 32gb capcity i really did not want to do but it just seems the games i like seem to suck more and more the longer i play and yes i keep using gta5 as an example but it is the perfect example of this. and plus the speed of my ram is another topic id like to ask about in a different thread because intel says my cpu is only rated for  a certain speed  memory but yet i can OC my memory and it accepts it ? well yes very confusing but thats for another topic and i appreciate your replys very much. and thankl you .

Intel gives that rating as it's the speed they tested and verified the CPU as "capable of running this speed". They use JEDEC defined industry standards. It's basically a guarantee. "Every CPU in this family is guaranteed to hit this speed". It's by no means the absolute max memory speed your CPU actually supports.

 

You won't damage your CPU at all by overclocking memory, or using XMP kits, as long as you pay attention to VCCIO/VCCSA voltages. Even then, it would take a hefty amount of these voltages to actually kill an IMC quickly. Most boards I've used have been perfectly capable of auto-setting these values as well, so I wouldn't worry too much. 

[OuttaMyWay]

oh! so basically its the minimum of what they say the cpu will accept ? this has gottten so confusing anymore as it was 10 years ago when i started building my gaming computers.i thought in 2007 when i built a pc with gt 250 in sli i was on top of the world and the graphics were so awesome.and they were for like 3 months with my 512 mb of ram that i had no idea what mghtz were . i really think alot of this is all about how much bling you want to buy and not so much how important it is to an extent. thats where im getting confused. i dont mind spending the money but i want the purpose not the bling. if i want bling ill buy rgb lighting or turn it on  as for some reason every part i just got has them and i ccant stand lightinng as it does nothing but use more juice  . to me its bling i just want solid straight forward gaming with no stuttering and my bling is my graphics not an led light .