Why are almost all ATX motherboards 4 DIMM when running 2 ram sticks optimal and all most people need
- Thread starter Joxeon
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Soldato
Maybe it's a throwback
To the days when individual modules were much lower GB
So you needed say 4 x 4GB etc
There must be a % of users
Who do stuff where filling all 4 is required I guess
Perhaps with modules increasing in density
2 slots might become the future
Or maybe lpcamm (not sure got the name right)
But modules that lie flat like seen recently
Will mean ram slots get removed altogether
To the days when individual modules were much lower GB
So you needed say 4 x 4GB etc
There must be a % of users
Who do stuff where filling all 4 is required I guess
Perhaps with modules increasing in density
2 slots might become the future
Or maybe lpcamm (not sure got the name right)
But modules that lie flat like seen recently
Will mean ram slots get removed altogether
Associate
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- 13 Jun 2012
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- 367
one (dual-channel) memory slot, but yes.
i for one am happy to accept my uni-dimm overlord!
i for one am happy to accept my uni-dimm overlord!
Soldato
Thanks
That's probably what I was trying to remember
I wasn't too far off
Got the camm part right
Soldato
do you think that will take over?
I like the idea
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Associate
- Joined
- 13 Jun 2012
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- 367
I hope so:
Not sure it matters in the (tier1) lifetime of AM5, but if it became the 'standard' for AM6 then it would mean faster standard memory speeds, sooner.
It's become clearer that 16c Zen5 parts may not see the all-core multi-thread uplift that gaming benchmarks will see, in large part because the IPC+clock cannot be fed by the DDR5 memory bandwidth available.
Imagine how bad things will get if they finally double CCD cores for Zen6!
Even with DDR6, by the the time we get to Zen7 on AM6 I'm pretty much certain that AMD will mandate CAMM2 dimms.
If only so the reduced trace length permits the max possible memory speeds to feed all those high performance core.
Re "tier1" above - i suspect a low-cost DDR5 platform based on AM5 will last well beyond the introduction of DDR6/AM6, just as AM4 is proving to half a remarkably long half-life today.
Not sure it matters in the (tier1) lifetime of AM5, but if it became the 'standard' for AM6 then it would mean faster standard memory speeds, sooner.
It's become clearer that 16c Zen5 parts may not see the all-core multi-thread uplift that gaming benchmarks will see, in large part because the IPC+clock cannot be fed by the DDR5 memory bandwidth available.
Imagine how bad things will get if they finally double CCD cores for Zen6!
Even with DDR6, by the the time we get to Zen7 on AM6 I'm pretty much certain that AMD will mandate CAMM2 dimms.
If only so the reduced trace length permits the max possible memory speeds to feed all those high performance core.
Re "tier1" above - i suspect a low-cost DDR5 platform based on AM5 will last well beyond the introduction of DDR6/AM6, just as AM4 is proving to half a remarkably long half-life today.
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Soldato
I have 4 x 16GB - means I dont have to worry about memory and it runs the same speeds as if I only had 2 sticks.
Camm2 in certainly an interesting tech and it may well take off so long as the memory and boards are not hugely expensive but of the benefits from camm2 like the higher clocks and better stability would work on 2 dimm traditional boards.
How many people building a new Intel or AM5 systems today are likely to fill all 4 dimm slots over the lifetime of the board, 32gb is fine for gaming and you can even go 64gb if you want some overhead or play heavily modded games. Even if you say went with 32gb now then decided you wanted 64gb in the future the vast majority would just swap out all the ram for a 2 dimm kit as 4 dimms just don’t offer the speed / timings and stability.
DDR5 will get less crap eventually, so it will be interesting to see how AMD's second generation do with 4 sticks.
I don't like 2 dimm ddr4 boards because it is less easy to make use of spare sticks from other builds and you're more limited with the config.
Soldato
No problem running 4x8 sticks on my 12700K system at full speed.
I agree it’s not for everyone but so far as it stands I can only see 1 AM5 ATX board with 2 dimm slots and that is the gigabyte B650E Aorus tachyon which is a high end OC board that is not even available in this region.
Soldato
It's a good point actually.
I am runnin 2x32GB DIMMS so only using 2 of my slots, I future proofed this when I built it, and also had the memory controller in mind only using 2, so I am very unlikely to ever use the extra 2 slots of this build.
I am runnin 2x32GB DIMMS so only using 2 of my slots, I future proofed this when I built it, and also had the memory controller in mind only using 2, so I am very unlikely to ever use the extra 2 slots of this build.
Maybe it doesn't add that much to the cost and nobody wants to be the first to offer an atx board with superficially less?
I've noticed with some boards (otherwise a similar spec) that cutting 1x M.2 slot and 2x RAM slots seems to shave like.. £10-£15 from the price of the higher model at most.
Soldato
I've got all 4 populated with no issues. Running xmp profile, it's not tuned by myself, but the sticks are pretty fast (for ddr4) with zero issues.
4x8GB 3600 CL14 8pack Ripped edition
4x8GB 3600 CL14 8pack Ripped edition
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Soldato
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Because 4 slots of Corsair Dominator RGB RAM looks SOOOOOOOO much better than two...
Associate
I think you can get fake RAM modules to fill the spare slots..
I guess from a manufacturing perspective it's simpler to leave the four slots in than have to make a separate PCB with the tracers removed