2 or 4 sticks

chrislip

chrislip

chrislip

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I am looking to upgrade shortly to an AMD system proably a 3700x but maybe a 3900x. I am wanting to have 64GB RAM as I run a few VMs for work and testing purposes. Motherboard wil either be an X470 Taichi or Gigabyte X570 Auros Elite as has been previously recommended. I will not be majorly overclocking , but will want to have best performance that I can. Shold I go for 2x32 GB stick, or 4 x 16 GB, and what woiuld you recommend? Currently contemplating the 2*32 GB Corsair Vengance https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...3600mhz-dual-channel-kit-black-my-4cf-cs.html but have heard good things about the Ballistix Sport Lt so should I go for this with 4*16 GB?
 
I guess it comes down to 2 sticks that have been tested together and guaranteed to work well vs 4 sticks that have never all been tested together.

Also silicone lottery. There's a higher chance of getting 2 great sticks vs 4 great sticks.

I read a while ago that some 4 slot motherboards have some kind of querk where 2 of the slots work better than the other two.
 
What's the cost difference of 2 ram modules vs 4 of them?
4 will leave no slots for expansion
Yes I know some will say you will never need more than 64gb of ram ~I remember them saying it at 4gb~8gb~16gb and now a new build lot of people are going for 32gb and they don't run handful of VMS
But it's going to add up depending how many virtual machines you run and how much ram you allocate to each
Plus assume you will do other stuff as well
Probably 64gb will be fine but 2 empty slots for future proofing won't hurt
And yeah I know adding more ram later if needed isn't 100% guaranteed to work
Not overclocking the ram 4 will be fine
Overclocking 4 would likely not go as high as 2
And see a lot of people opting for patriot viper steel lately
I have the vengeance lpx but only 3000mhz as carried over from Intel build and got 4 modules
Never had any problems with it so nothing bad to say about vengeance lpx really
 
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Minstadave said:
4x16GB doesnt run amazingly for me, max 3000mhz. I've seen people achieve better but if you can get 2x32GB I'd probably go that way.
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what mobo?

I have just ordered 64Gb G Skill Flare X 4 x 16gb modules...just got a refund on my 16gb Flare X of £161.99 making my upgrade to 64Gb £136.01 :D
 
I have recently tried 4x 16GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX in a x570 Aorus Master. 2 sticks work to 3200mhz, but the 4x16BG sticks will only work around the 2800mhz in all 4 slots. Still probably ok for your VM work, but certainly slower for gaming etc. I also tried to manually input the values from the Ryzen memory calculator but the results were the same. HTH iin finding your 64GB. Please let me know as I am in exactly the same boat. I just want to reach 64GB stable on an XMP profile.
 
xmal said:
I have recently tried 4x 16GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX in a x570 Aorus Master. 2 sticks work to 3200mhz, but the 4x16BG sticks will only work around the 2800mhz in all 4 slots. Still probably ok for your VM work, but certainly slower for gaming etc. I also tried to manually input the values from the Ryzen memory calculator but the results were the same. HTH iin finding your 64GB. Please let me know as I am in exactly the same boat. I just want to reach 64GB stable on an XMP profile.
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I’ll know tomorrow...apparently the ram I bought is B Die...and the QVL list stead 4 x 16 sticks at 3200mhz

did you have the largest bios? Just checked mine and the latest bios is for better ram compatibility.
 
easyrider said:
I’ll know tomorrow...apparently the ram I bought is B Die...and the QVL list stead 4 x 16 sticks at 3200mhz

did you have the largest bios? Just checked mine and the latest bios is for better ram compatibility.
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Yes, I’m on the latest bios. I’ll probably try the Ballistix and see how I get on. Like I said I want plug and play and not have to faff on with the settings. I do enough configuration in my day job. Please keep me posted! And I will do likewise.
 
4 sticks should be fine, as long as it's decent brand.
Using 4 sticks 8Pack 3200 here, no issues running at advertised timings, since the Ryzen 1600 (1000 series Ryzen and B350/x370 series really fussy about RAM), running perfectly at 3600MHz now (3600's kit timings) on Ryzen 3600 + X570 motherboard.
 
MrPotato said:
4 sticks should be fine, as long as it's decent brand.
Using 4 sticks 8Pack 3200 here, no issues running at advertised timings, since the Ryzen 1600 (1000 series Ryzen and B350/x370 series really fussy about RAM), running perfectly at 3600MHz now (3600's kit timings) on Ryzen 3600 + X570 motherboard.
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Are your sticks 4 or 8gb modules? If they're 8GB modules they're usually single rank and a lot easier to run than dual rank 16GB modules.
 
8GB. Don't think 2 identical 2*16GB would be trouble, unless if overclocking them.
There's 4*16GB kits available, and those should give you an extra reassurance.
 
MrPotato said:
8GB. Don't think 2 identical 2*16GB would be trouble, unless if overclocking them.
There's 4*16GB kits available, and those should give you an extra reassurance.
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2x16GB is fine, even at high clocks, but the OP wants 64GB.

Running 4x16GB on X570 at decent speeds is not easy at speeds much over 3000mhz. Buying a 4x16GB kit doesnt guarantee itll work.
 
Minstadave said:
2x16GB is fine, even at high clocks, but the OP wants 64GB.

Running 4x16GB on X570 at decent speeds is not easy at speeds much over 3000mhz. Buying a 4x16GB kit doesnt guarantee itll work.
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But at least the kits should be as close as possible to being identical.
For the use he's aiming, a TR wouldn't be a better option? Previous gen was quite attractive price wise.
 
CuriousTomCat said:
I guess it comes down to 2 sticks that have been tested together and guaranteed to work well vs 4 sticks that have never all been tested together.
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I wouldn't worry about that. I've run all sorts of totally mis-matched sets of DDR, DDR2, DDR3 etc without issue, so unless DDR4 is different I don't forsee an issue.

Even if you have sticks with different clock speeds they will all match the clock speed of the slowest stick.
 
Minstadave said:
2x16GB is fine, even at high clocks, but the OP wants 64GB.

Running 4x16GB on X570 at decent speeds is not easy at speeds much over 3000mhz. Buying a 4x16GB kit doesnt guarantee itll work.
Click to expand...

I would tend to agree on that the DS RAM does not want to run even at the advertised speeds on 4 ranks, never mind the OC. Let's see how I get on today with my RAM and I will report back.
 
Just a quick update. The Crucial Ballistix Sport LT were loaded via the XMP Profile. Saved to bios and reloaded. Bios recognized the 4x16GB sticks @3200, so it is a result so far for me. No other bios setting needed. Presently running a bootable USB for 24hrs of MemTest86. I will post results from that later.
 
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