RAM - 4 banks of 8, or 2 of 16?

[rouchie]

Hi all, my current order, 78 days in preproduction, below, will be linked to a 32 inch Samsung Monitor and possibly a Dell 2731HM (if that will work) and primarily used for gaming.

I have my Ram configured as 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB) and wondered if it might be of benefit to set it up as 4 x 8gb of RAM, I will be altering the order tomorrow to change the CPU to a 5900X so would be good to know if I should change the RAM configuration at the same time?

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
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CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
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Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
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Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
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Price: £0.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/bvPHaXVwBW/

 

[loso64]

does not matter on AMD, as long as you have 4 ranks of dual channel memory. This can be achieved either with 4x8 or 2x16. So i say keep it as it is

 

[loso64]

the one thing that might benefit zen 3 a bit more is upping the speed, while latency is the same between CL16 3200 and CL18 3600, having 3600 mhz ram also means your infinite fabric will be running at 1800mhz instead of 1600. Could have marginal speed benefits

 

[rouchie]

Thanks for the swift response @loso64

 

[loso64]

Thanks for the swift response @loso64

also you should change the title of the post kinda confusing that you say 4x4 or 2x8 but in the post you are talking about 32gb ram and deciding to change from 2x16 to 4x8

Just in case you actually think of downgrading ram to 16gb, it is better to go with 4x4 so you still keep the 4 ranks. 4 and 8gb ram sticks usually have 1 rank of memory. 16gb rams have two ranks per stick

 

[rouchie]

also you should change the title of the post kinda confusing that you say 4x4 or 2x8 but in the post you are talking about 32gb ram and deciding to change from 2x16 to 4x8

Just in case you actually think of downgrading ram to 16gb, it is better to go with 4x4 so you still keep the 4 ranks. 4 and 8gb ram sticks usually have 1 rank of memory. 16gb rams have two ranks per stick

Doh! If only I could count!

 

[loso64]

Doh! If only I could count!

lets blame it on early morning and lack of coffee ;D

 

[Scott]

16gb rams have two ranks per stick

They're coming out now with single ranks at times, as confirmed by another member. I was quite surprised by this, I guess they must have a surplus chiplets from the 64GB/128GB kits

 

[loso64]

They're coming out now with single ranks at times, as confirmed by another member. I was quite surprised by this, I guess they must have a surplus chiplets from the 64GB/128GB kits

huh i know there exist single rank 16gb sticks, but those are fairly rare and last time i talked with support they said they dont have those at all.

Those ram sticks are good, but yeah, you need to up the ram at that point. it is only up to 10% speed benefits on zen 3, but you really should be aiming for 4 ranks max

 

[loso64]

i guess better ask support to be 100% sure

 

[rouchie]

i guess better ask support to be 100% sure

Will do - I need to ring them to amend my order anyway as I cant seem to do it on the configurator

 

[rouchie]

Will do - I need to ring them to amend my order anyway as I cant seem to do it on the configurator

So upgraded my order to the 5900x, they also recommended I amend the case to the 5000D so I also changed the RAM to RGB . They confirmed the RAM is dual Channel which I assume is what we were looking at??

 

[loso64]

So upgraded my order to the 5900x, they also recommended I amend the case to the 5000D so I also changed the RAM to RGB . They confirmed the RAM is dual Channel which I assume is what we were looking at??

no, dual channel is different than ranks

 

[loso64]

DDR stands for Double Data Rate, those are all the DDR memory sticks
Dual channel is when you use two memory sticks to run in dual channel mode. compared to 1 memory stick
Dual Rank is how many memory ranks are on the stick itself.

Memory rank - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[rouchie]

oh, I asked if the ram had 2 ranks and they said, yes I can confirm it is dual channel?

 

[loso64]

 

[loso64]

Ranks is the amount of memory chips on the stick itself, and how they are connected.
Dual channel is how you connect the memory to the motherboard itself. Two different things

 

[loso64]

You need to specify more clearly what you need to know what is the amount of ranks on the module (not channels, maybe link them the picture)

 

[rouchie]

ok, I will email them for confirmation, as whoever ansdwered my question obviously didn't understand me

 

[loso64]

when i asked this chat myself month ago, Tove did give me clear answer that 16gb modules are 2 rank and 8gb modules are 1 rank.
That said someone in here said they are now selling 16gb 2 rank modules, so better be sure