I've been using 4 x DDR4 RAM 16GB at 2133 MHz. Should I up all 4 or only use 2 at 3200 MHz for gaming?

Posted by lucasamaral@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 17 comments

I have a B450 Tomahawk MAX with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-core, 16-thread. I just noticed at my task manager that I have been using my 4 RAM sticks (CORSAIR Vengeance RGB PRO DDR4 RAM 16GB (2x8GB) 3200 MHz) at 2133 MHz for about 3 years now.

For gaming, should I increase all 4 RAM sticks to 3200 MHz or remove 2 and have 2 RAM sticks at 3200 MHz?

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Plenty-Industries@reddit

Bro.... just enable XMP/DOCP.

Its literally free performance.

4 sticks on DDR4 with an overclocking profile is generally going to work.

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Pineapple_Scorpion@reddit

Enjoy the free performance!

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Beneficial-Ranger238@reddit

If you even notice…

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Pineapple_Scorpion@reddit

Maybe he won't after using 2133 for 3 years lol

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Beneficial-Ranger238@reddit

Yeah, I don’t know, I’ve never felt a major difference but I generally don’t go messing with it to see if there would be any noticeable differences either.

I have a few systems with 2400 sticks because they were like $40 for 32gb a while back and I updated all my older pc to 32gb using those. All the gaming stuff has 3200 or 6000 but a couple tv pcs and my x99 rig still have the slower memory.

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Pineapple_Scorpion@reddit

Idk about the basic gains for setting xmp vs stock I've always done it but I recently tightened all my timings and noticed a difference immediately in everything from the OS to gaming

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Beneficial-Ranger238@reddit

I have never dug into messing with memory. I just hate all the trial and error with tuning and it always scares me a bit, especially memory as I’ve seen them not post at all. It’s mainly laziness and I think it would be great to do with a brand new system because you don’t have a bunch of stuff to lose, but then again, you always want to get ripping when you finish something so you can see what it can do. I guess if I had more time then I’d probably get into it, then again, I’d probably just play games 😂.

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4070ti@reddit

do you have any performance issues? if not then i don’t see a reason to change anything

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lucasamaral@reddit (OP)

No issues while using them at 2133 MHz. I just didn't know if I was missing performance by not having them at 3200 MHz.

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4070ti@reddit

yeah you are technically “missing” performance. but after being a bios nerd and changing so much stuff i just leave it default at this point. when stuff starts crashing and you don’t know why, it can get really frustrating. so if things are running smoothly, then no reason to change it. but if that’s all you’re gonna change, and you really want to, then by all means. try it out!

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SwordsAndElectrons@reddit

Set the speed properly and test. If it is stable with 4 at 3200 then there's no benefit to having less capacity.

People sometimes advise only using 2 sticks for stability at full rated speed, but you aren't shopping around and planning a build here. You already have the 4 sticks, and there's no reason to preemptively pull half your capacity before testing to see if you need to.

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CustardCivil@reddit

for me stability is much better only 2 sticks of ram

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Slottr@reddit

Are they all the same kit rated for 3200?

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lucasamaral@reddit (OP)

Yes, they are all the same kit.

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