Unsure about 4 sticks or 2

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I'm upgrading my PC and replacing the 1600 with a 5700x3D and the 1060 with either a 9070 or 5070 TI. I currently only have 16gb RAM so I've decided to upgrade to 32gb

Currently I have Corsair Vengeance 3000MHZ CL15 (2 x 8GB). Getting another 2 sticks of this is like £40.

2 Sticks of Corsair Vengeance 3200MHZ CL16 (2 x 16GB) is £46

Which option makes more sense? I've bought both already just need to decide which one to send back


​

 
If your sticks have RGB, we might have the same RAM :D

I picked up two more identical 8 GB sticks to go with my current 8 GB. I think they were only £27 or so delivered at the time.

The four sticks have been rock solid with my 5700X3D and the 5700X before it. I vaguely recall that there's a bandwidth throughput bonus even in dual channel when you have 4x sticks over 2x.

The days of Ryzen having issues with more than two sticks is only true for the earlier generations, not the 5000 series.
 
yer i remember having 4 x 4gb 3000mhz with a 1700x, but like you say if the option for 2 is there take it

Annatar said:
Currently I have Corsair Vengeance 3000MHZ CL15 (2 x 8GB). Getting another 2 sticks of this is like £40.
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buy 3600mhz minimum with looking at ddr4 with an 5000 chip there as been shown to be a big uplift in FPS.
i know X3d is less ram speed depended but still 3600mhz should be a base line for ddr4 in a gaming if upgrading.

Annatar said:
Getting another 2 sticks of this is like £40.
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you can get a 32gb kit for about £40 second hand

New obviously you will pay more
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WARburton said:
for AM4 always 2...


(Enter someone saying i used 4 and it works perfect)... 2
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To be fair, X570 copes with 4 matched single rank sticks (typically, but not always 4 and 8GB modules and some 16GB modules late in production) absolutely fine. For simplicity's sake 2 sticks are going to be less hassle, even if they're dual rank they'll work fine.

16GB sticks can be either single or dual rank iirc.
 
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loonyk said:
had 4xCorsiar 3600mhz with 3700x then with 3900x for 5 years - no issues at all
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Your experience was the exception, not the norm. It IS possible to get 4 sticks stable but it's difficult and 2 sticks are far more likely to work straight out of the box.

I've had issues with 4 sticks of RAM and managed to get a 2 by 16gig dual rank kit of Samsung C Die which just works so well.
 
2 dual rank sticks is the same as 4 single rank sticks for am4, I've run 4x 8gb sticks at 3800 with a 5950x on x570 since launch and it's fine.
Do not use 4x dual rank on am4
 
Since you've ordered them anyway try it and see, my own experience of am4 across 3100,3800x,3800xt and now a 5700x3d is that they were all at least capable of 3600mhz 2 dimm, 3800xt and 5700x3d could both do 3600mhz 4 dimm thats using a 16gb single rank kit + 32gb dual rank kit for a total of 48gb, going against @JollyJamma but garbage imc on 3000/5000 series is the exception.

Keep the 32gb kit you may be able to run it with your current 16gb kit and if it doesn't you still have a 32gb kit.
 
Why do motherboards even bother having 4 slots if most of the time it doesn't work properly. And b) this has been a problem for so long why hasn't it been fixed by now?
 
danlightbulb said:
Why do motherboards even bother having 4 slots if most of the time it doesn't work properly. And b) this has been a problem for so long why hasn't it been fixed by now?
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Because motherboard manufacturers want to sell more motherboards so if they suddenly dropped the boards down to 2 slots, everyone will get confused and only buy the 4 slots design, even if it’s worse.

It’s the same reason why you see the manufacturer claim that a mid-range board can hit 8000+ MT/s in memory speed. Marketing.

That board would need extremely well binned memory and a CPU with a strong IMC and it’s almost never going to be able to hit that speed with your average retail CPU and memory but people will buy it because it’s “fast”.
 
I’m another with AM4 and 4 sticks running fine. Have 4x8gb teamgroup 3600/16 with a 5700x

But I went 4 only as I upgraded to 32gb years after buying my pc by adding more sticks.

Going new or having a choice 2 sticks is less potential faff for sure
 
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Me:
Vexr said:
The four sticks have been rock solid with my 5700X3D and the 5700X before it.
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Four hours later:
WARburton said:
(Enter someone saying i used 4 and it works perfect)... 2
Click to expand...

tamzzy said:
that would be me :cry:
Click to expand...

Guess I'm on the ignore list of at least two people :cry:

I researched going to 4 sticks before I went for it and was satisfied the issues with earlier Ryzens were now solved with the 5000 series, and there'd even be a slight bandwidth throughput bonus using 4 sticks vs 2.

Just make sure the two new sticks are identical to your current pair. I.e. my Corsair Vengeance RGB 8GB x 2 were CMR16GX4M2C3000C15. The two additional sticks I got have the exact same SN / model number, and it's been good times running the four together to this day.
 
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Vexr said:
Me:


Four hours later:




Guess I'm on the ignore list of at least two people :cry:

I researched going to 4 sticks before I went for it and was satisfied the issues with earlier Ryzens were now solved with the 5000 series, and there'd even be a slight bandwidth throughput bonus using 4 sticks vs 2.

Just make sure the two new sticks are identical to your current pair. I.e. my Corsair Vengeance RGB 8GB x 2 were CMR16GX4M2C3000C15. The two additional sticks I got have the exact same SN / model number, and it's been good times running the four together to this day.
Click to expand...
most 4gb or 8gb are single rank, like like running 2 x 16gb dual rank thats why its ok mainly try running 64gfb 4 x 16gb
 
Just bunged in another matching set (TG 8Pack 2x16GB 3600) into my AM4 system, no issues yet. Interesting that the games I'm currently playing have upped their RAM usage accordingly (Dead Space Remake now using ~21GB).
 
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