ryzen 2x 4GB ram vs 1x 8GB ram to pair with AMD Ryzen 5 2500G APU

[Abid Naziri Sami]

Hello! I'm suuuper new here

 

So I'm planning on building a pc, and I've heard that dual channel memory pairs up better with Ryzen. Is that really the case? If yes, why?

And are 2x 4gb Memory sticks (e.g. 2x Geil Evo Spear 4GB DDR4 2666 MHz Ram) going to be a better choice than a single 8gb (e.g. Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB 3200MHz DDR4 Desktop RAM) considering future proofing and all? The sticks mentioned here cost roughly the same where I live, with the 8gb one being about 2$ more.

I will use my PC for both my studies (Coding and stuff) and light to medium gaming (probably not the latest tiles, something like Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor running at a reasonable FPS will do).

 

While being on this subject, does anyone know the difference between Asrock B450M-HDV and ASRock AB350M Pro4 motherboard? And benefits of choosing one over the other?

 

TIA.

[lmeneses]

Well, Ryzen benefits from dual channel and higher ram speeds, so I do not know which would be the better option, especially since one is dual channel, but the other has faster ram speeds. As for which mobo, the b450m definitely. 

[Finners369]

If you plan on future-proofing, I would go for the single 8gb. (Also how many RAM slots do you have?)

[Abid Naziri Sami]

9 minutes ago, lmeneses said:

Well, Ryzen benefits from dual channel and higher ram speeds, so I do not know which would be the better option, especially since one is dual channel, but the other has faster ram speeds. As for which mobo, the b450m definitely. 

For some reason, the 450m costs less here, that's why I got a bit confused :3 

 

[Abid Naziri Sami]

2 minutes ago, Hunter_Finlay said:

If you plan on future-proofing, I would go for the single 8gb. (Also how many RAM slots do you have?)

2 or 4 slots depending on which motherboard I choose from the two mentioned in the post (the 450m probably has two). 

[lmeneses]

6 minutes ago, Abid Naziri Sami said:

For some reason, the 450m costs less here, that's why I got a bit confused :3 

 

That's mainly due to the 350m's 4 ram slots compared to the 450m's 2; however, the 350's VRMs are quite bad. 

 

5 minutes ago, Abid Naziri Sami said:

2 or 4 slots depending on which motherboard I choose from the two mentioned in the post (the 450m probably has two). 

If you get the b450, then I would definitely recommend getting the 1x8gb 3200mhz stick of ram, so that you have the option to upgrade to 16gb total. 

[Abid Naziri Sami]

Just now, lmeneses said:

That's mainly due to the 350m's 4 ram slots compared to the 450m's 2; however, the 350's VRMs are quite bad. 

 

If you get the b450, then I would definitely recommend getting the 1x8gb 3200mhz stick of ram, so that you have the option to upgrade to 16gb total. 

Roughly how much performance will I lose until I buy another 8gb ram? Is the difference between dual channel and single channel significant? Because as of now, 16gb becoming the new standard doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon right?

[SolarNova]

If the motherbaord your getting/got has 4 dimm slots, grab the dual channel kit, if its only got 2 dimm slots, grab the single channel kit.

 

If you havnt got the motherboard yet, and the one ur looking at has 2 dimm slots, looked for a different one with 4 dimm slots around the same price, shouldnt be hard. That way you can get the 2x4 now, and buy another 2x4 later.

[lmeneses]

4 minutes ago, Abid Naziri Sami said:

Roughly how much performance will I lose until I buy another 8gb ram? Is the difference between dual channel and single channel significant? Because as of now, 16gb becoming the new standard doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon right?

Well, its not coming soon, but its happening quicker than you think. However, since the 8gb stick of ram has 3200 MHz compared to the 2x4gb ram having dual channel but with speeds of only 2666, I think you will lose barely any performance, if none at all. So, getting the 1x8 is definitely the better option imo. 

[Abid Naziri Sami]

5 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

If the motherbaord your getting/got has 4 dimm slots, grab the dual channel kit, if its only got 2 dimm slots, grab the single channel kit.

 

If you havnt got the motherboard yet, and the one ur looking at has 2 dimm slots, looked for a different one with 4 dimm slots around the same price, shouldnt be hard. That way you can get the 2x4 now, and buy another 2x4 later.

What do you think about the speed of the memory sticks? Are 2x 2666Mhz 4gb ram going to do better than 1x 8gb 3200Mhz ram?

[Abid Naziri Sami]

4 minutes ago, lmeneses said:

Well, its not coming soon, but its happening quicker than you think. However, since the 8gb stick of ram has 3200 MHz compared to the 2x4gb ram having dual channel but with speeds of only 2666, I think you will lose barely any performance, if none at all. So, getting the 1x8 is definitely the better option imo. 

Although ab350m and b450m aren't my only two options, what happens if I can either find a better motherboard (than 350m) with 4 slots OR I can find 2x 4gb sticks with 3200 Mhz speed? I guess what I'm trying to ask is, among future proofing, dual vs single channel and getting 450m with 2 slots vs 350 with 4 slots, which one do you think should I prioritize? 

[SolarNova]

good question, porbably dual chanel.

 

Usualy a single 8gb 3200 would cost slightly cheaper than 2x4 3200mhz sticks.

 

So if you can get 3200mhz for only $2 more than the 2666mhz 2x4, then the 2x4 is way overpriced. ....or the 1x8gb is on sale.

 

Can you not find like 2x4 3000mhz ?

[Sakkura]

Ryzen in general benefits from dual channel just because it improves memory bandwidth.

 

But that benefit is MUCH bigger when it's an APU, because GPUs are critically dependent on memory bandwidth. While a dual-channel DDR4-3000 configuration provides 48 GB/s of memory bandwidth (which an APU would share between the CPU cores and the integrated GPU), a dedicated GPU will usually have much more bandwidth. A GTX 1050 Ti has a memory bandwidth of 112 GB/s, and even a lowly GT 1030 has a bandwidth of 48 GB/s for the GPU alone.

 

If you're going to use the integrated GPU of an APU for any gaming or other significant workload, dual channel memory is mandatory.

[SolarNova]

3 minutes ago, Abid Naziri Sami said:

Although ab350m and b450m aren't my only two options, what happens if I can either find a better motherboard (than 350m) with 4 slots OR I can find 2x 4gb sticks with 3200 Mhz speed? I guess what I'm trying to ask is, among future proofing, dual vs single channel and getting 450m with 2 slots vs 350 with 4 slots, which one do you think should I prioritize? 

If you can get a 4 Dimm slot motherbard and 2x4 GB 3000mhz RAM (or faster) , ,thats the best option. You can then add another 2x4 3000mhz ram in the future should you need it.

[Abid Naziri Sami]

12 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

good question, porbably dual chanel.

 

Usualy a single 8gb 3200 would cost slightly cheaper than 2x4 3200mhz sticks.

 

So if you can get 3200mhz for only $2 more than the 2666mhz 2x4, then the 2x4 is way overpriced. ....or the 1x8gb is on sale.

 

Can you not find like 2x4 3000mhz ?

Maybe, will need to check out a few more shops I guess, the prices really do seem odd ._.

[Abid Naziri Sami]

14 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

Ryzen in general benefits from dual channel just because it improves memory bandwidth.

 

But that benefit is MUCH bigger when it's an APU, because GPUs are critically dependent on memory bandwidth. While a dual-channel DDR4-3000 configuration provides 48 GB/s of memory bandwidth (which an APU would share between the CPU cores and the integrated GPU), a dedicated GPU will usually have much more bandwidth. A GTX 1050 Ti has a memory bandwidth of 112 GB/s, and even a lowly GT 1030 has a bandwidth of 48 GB/s for the GPU alone.

 

If you're going to use the integrated GPU of an APU for any gaming or other significant workload, dual channel memory is mandatory.

How much does the memory bandwidth change depending on the speed of the ram? And what if I plan on getting a dedicated GPU within, let's say 6 months? Is it still going to be worth it to buy 2x 4gb sticks?

[Sakkura]

17 minutes ago, Abid Naziri Sami said:

How much does the memory bandwidth change depending on the speed of the ram? And what if I plan on getting a dedicated GPU within, let's say 6 months? Is it still going to be worth it to buy 2x 4gb sticks?

The bandwidth scales pretty much linearly with the speed. DDR4-3200 gives you 33% more than DDR4-2400 and so on. Dual channel doubles it (so dual-channel DDR4-2133 is equivalent to single-channel DDR4-4266).

 

You'd be having a major performance difference for those 6 months, and then still a small one afterwards, for a price difference that should be pretty small. I would say that's definitely worth going for dual channel.

[Abid Naziri Sami]

17 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

The bandwidth scales pretty much linearly with the speed. DDR4-3200 gives you 33% more than DDR4-2400 and so on. Dual channel doubles it (so dual-channel DDR4-2133 is equivalent to single-channel DDR4-4266).

 

You'd be having a major performance difference for those 6 months, and then still a small one afterwards, for a price difference that should be pretty small. I would say that's definitely worth going for dual channel.

Thanks a lot! Do you have any suggestion on the two motherboards (Asrock b450m and ab350m)? Because a 2x 4gb would be better on a board with 4 slots, but the 450 seems to be better overall. Which one would you recommend? 

[lmeneses]

1 hour ago, Abid Naziri Sami said:

Although ab350m and b450m aren't my only two options, what happens if I can either find a better motherboard (than 350m) with 4 slots OR I can find 2x 4gb sticks with 3200 Mhz speed? I guess what I'm trying to ask is, among future proofing, dual vs single channel and getting 450m with 2 slots vs 350 with 4 slots, which one do you think should I prioritize? 

If the price difference isn't to get great, the asrock b450m pro4 is a great option with 4 dimm slots and good vrms  https://m.newegg.com/products/N82E16813157843?ignorebbr=true&ignorebbr=true&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-Mobile&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-Mobile-_-pla-_-Motherboards+-+AMD-_-N82E16813157843&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6aP2vZf33QIVScDICh0-ngKWEAQYASABEgJ4nvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

[Sakkura]

2 minutes ago, Abid Naziri Sami said:

Thanks a lot! Do you have any suggestion on the two motherboards (Asrock b450m and ab350m)? Because a 2x 4gb would be better on a board with 4 slots, but the 450 seems to be better overall. Which one would you recommend? 

The AB350M Pro4 is in theory a higher-end board than the B450M-HDV, except for using the older B350 chipset. But the VRMs are a bit off... the 350 board has 3 phases for the CPU and 3 phases for the GPU, while the 450 board has 4 + 3. But the heatsinks and component counts are better on the 350 board. It's not really an easy choice.

 

Just now, lmeneses said:

If the price difference isn't to get great, the asrock b450m pro4 is a great option with 4 dimm slots and good vrms  https://m.newegg.com/products/N82E16813157843?ignorebbr=true&ignorebbr=true&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-Mobile&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-Mobile-_-pla-_-Motherboards+-+AMD-_-N82E16813157843&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6aP2vZf33QIVScDICh0-ngKWEAQYASABEgJ4nvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

That board has the same 3 + 3 VRM configuration as the AB350M Pro4.

[lmeneses]

Just now, Sakkura said:

That board has the same 3 + 3 VRM configuration as the AB350M Pro4.

Newer vrms tho

[Abid Naziri Sami]

Where exactly do the difference in vrm quality/quantity matter? While overclocking? Or is it an issue with stabilizing? I'm ashamed to be a CS student and just finding out about vrms ._.

[Sakkura]

6 minutes ago, Abid Naziri Sami said:

Where exactly do the difference in vrm quality/quantity matter? While overclocking? Or is it an issue with stabilizing? I'm ashamed to be a CS student and just finding out about vrms ._.

They matter more when overclocking, because overclocking pulls more power and puts more stress on the VRMs. It also makes the system's stability more dependent on stable power delivery from the VRMs.

 

But if VRMs are bad enough they can even be a problem without overclocking. I'm not sure that's the case here though.

[lmeneses]

25 minutes ago, Abid Naziri Sami said:

Where exactly do the difference in vrm quality/quantity matter? While overclocking? Or is it an issue with stabilizing? I'm ashamed to be a CS student and just finding out about vrms ._.

Vrms regulate the amount of power flowing into the mobo. So, it will convert high amounts of power (volts) going to the cpu into lower volts that the cpu can utilize. for example, most CPU's, even with overclocking, only pull less than 1.5v of power, so if the motherboard is receiving let's say 10 volts of power, the vrms reduce the number of volts to what the cpu needs 

[Abid Naziri Sami]

Do you guys happen to know any motherboard with 4 slots that has a good VRM configuration, and supports the 2400G by any chance? :3