got these 2 different types of memory dont know which one is best?

Soldato
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You'll want to have even number of DIMMs to keep dual channel RAM operation.

Are you sure about this. I'm running 3 x 16GB on a Gigabyte Z370, and CPU-Z says i'm in dual channel memory.

In CPU-Z I've also accessed SPD, and again each of the 3 DIMM's are individually reporting as dual.
 
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Soldato
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Are you sure about this. I'm running 3 x 16GB on a Gigabyte Z370, and CPU-Z says i'm in dual channel memory.

In CPU-Z I've also accessed SPD, and again each of the 3 DIMM's are individually reporting as dual.
There are extensions to original dual channel operation keeping it enabled in various configurations.
But it's doubtfull all DIMMs will play nicely together in every "mix and match" setup.
And would expect some latency penalties from memory controller having to balance operation with "inbalanced" channels.
Along with uneven performance varying depending what particular memory address is accessed.
(because inbalanced amount in other channel can only run as single channel memory)

Having same amount of memory/number of DIMMs per channel, with identical DIMMs in matching sockets of both channels is the surest and gives the best performance.
 
Caporegime
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17 Jul 2010
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There are extensions to original dual channel operation keeping it enabled in various configurations.
But it's doubtfull all DIMMs will play nicely together in every "mix and match" setup.
And would expect some latency penalties from memory controller having to balance operation with "inbalanced" channels.
Along with uneven performance varying depending what particular memory address is accessed.
(because inbalanced amount in other channel can only run as single channel memory)

Having same amount of memory/number of DIMMs per channel, with identical DIMMs in matching sockets of both channels is the surest and gives the best performance.
Would the performance penalty even be noticeable in normal use? Probably not.
 
Soldato
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19 Jun 2009
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Having same amount of memory/number of DIMMs per channel, with identical DIMMs in matching sockets of both channels is the surest and gives the best performance.

I totally agree with above, all my computers here (I have four i7's, plus other stuff) are running matched memory with all DIMM slots populated. The exception is the i7 8700 with it's (3 x 16gb) 48GB RAM.

Running the 3 DIMM's I was expecting CPU-Z to report flex memory, however it reports all dual channel, however I presume the CPU is doing some clever interlacing between the 3 DIMM's to keep dual channel operation.

Would the performance penalty even be noticeable in normal use? Probably not.

When I went from 2 x 16GB (32GB) to 3 x 16GB (48GB) I noticed no difference at all. This machine is used as a software dev computer, it's been programming AI software in c#. But do 100% agree perfect world it's better to use 4 DIMM's all matched.
 
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