12 GB RAM?

[Hajall]

Hello, is it worth to buy 3 x 4 GB RAM or is it better to have dual channel 2 x 4 GB? Does the extra stick outweigh dual channel? What is better option? Type of RAM is DDR4, 2133 MHz

[vanished]

generally if you can it's better to not mix and match, and to get a "balanced" amount, so 2 x 4, or 4 x 4, or 2 x 8, etc.

[Anghammarad]

I personally would always go dual channel, or double dual channel... but that is perhaps just my preference... even though you lose performance when not using dual channel.

[LeviBW]

3 minutes ago, Hajall said:

Hello, is it worth to buy 3 x 4 GB RAM or is it better to have dual channel 2 x 4 GB? Does the extra stick outweigh dual channel? What is better option? Type of RAM is DDR4, 2133 MHz

I would prioritize capacity so out of those two options I would go for the 12Gb but that is gonna use ip 3 DIMM slots which limits your future expansion. My recommendation is to get 2X8GB if you can afford it

[Evolution90]

8 minutes ago, Anghammarad said:

I personally would always go dual channel, or double dual channel... but that is perhaps just my preference... even though you lose performance when not using dual channel.

0.1FPS loss in performance is kinda ... moot.

[AnonymousGuy]

With 3 sticks I would question whether dual channel would work since it's usually 1 or 2 dims per channel.  

[Anghammarad]

2 minutes ago, Evolution90 said:

0.1FPS loss in performance is kinda ... moot.

There are people that overclock their displays and mice... so yeah... I would say a probably big deal

[Hajall]

16 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

generally if you can it's better to not mix and match, and to get a "balanced" amount, so 2 x 4, or 4 x 4, or 2 x 8, etc.

Yes, I realize that, but currently the RAM prices are kind of high and the difference between buying 16GB and 12GB is noticeable (for me at least). That's why I decided for 12 GB as a middle choice, just wondering if it's worth it over having dual channel 2 x 4. Will dual channel will work with the 2x4 and the 1x4 will run single or will all 3 run single? They are all same type (manufacturer, size, etc...)

[KenjiUmino]

34 minutes ago, Hajall said:

Hello, is it worth to buy 3 x 4 GB RAM or is it better to have dual channel 2 x 4 GB? Does the extra stick outweigh dual channel? What is better option? Type of RAM is DDR4, 2133 MHz

buy 2x 4gb and 2x 2gb instead.

 

if you run 3 sticks, the problem is that 8gb will run at dual channel bandwidth but the remaining 4gb will only have single channel bandwidth and because ram is accessed kind of randomly that COULD introduce inconsistencies ... maybe in the form of sudden framedrops or slowdowns. 

 

in a dual channel system i'd always try to get a symmetrical setup - that means 2 sticks or 4 sticks. 

 

 

[Kiani]

Buy 12 GB now, see if you max it regularly, if yes then buy more RAM later. GBs of RAM will always be important than their channel configuration if you utilize the RAM.

 

I am running 12 GB for a long time and it was a sweet spot. For new systems I think 20-24 GB is better (in my usecase) 

[AnonymousGuy]

1 hour ago, KenjiUmino said:

buy 2x 4gb and 2x 2gb instead.

 

if you run 3 sticks, the problem is that 8gb will run at dual channel bandwidth but the remaining 4gb will only have single channel bandwidth and because ram is accessed kind of randomly that COULD introduce inconsistencies ... maybe in the form of sudden framedrops or slowdowns. 

 

in a dual channel system i'd always try to get a symmetrical setup - that means 2 sticks or 4 sticks. 

 

 

I don't think RAM works that way.  It's would probably be all single channel.  Would make for an interesting test though since I don't know the answer.

[KenjiUmino]

7 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

I don't think RAM works that way.  It's would probably be all single channel.  Would make for an interesting test though since I don't know the answer.

RAM works kind of like RAID 0 if i understand correctly.

 

what if you have a 2tb and a 1tb drive in the array and allocated all the available space? it would stripe between both drives until the 1tb disk is full and then keep writing everything else to the remaining space on the 2tb drive (but at half the speed) 

 

there is also this youtube video i found a while ago where the guy tries out different ram configurations and measures their performance with a benchmark tool. 

 

it starts pretty simple: one stick got around 12 gigabytes a second, two sticks doubled that to around 24

 

mixing brands changed nothing as long as only 2 sticks were used in total.

 

... but three sticks got a mix of single and dual speeds ...

 

the benchmark would show 12 GB/s on the first run, then back up to 24 GB/s the next run 

 

here is the interesting part of the video: 

 

it's from a german hardware magazine but you don't need to understand much of the talk ... just look at the numbers