Upgrading
Posted by Mrcarrat@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 10 comments
Im planning on upgrading my ram to 32. Right now I have 16 dual channeling. Im wondering if I should get two 16gb sticks or get 2 more 8gb sticks since my motherboard has four slots.
Kwolf21@reddit
It's almost always a better idea to run dual channel.
Legitimate_Payment49@reddit
OP knows.
Kwolf21@reddit
How do you know OP knows? OP specifically asked: Im wondering if I should get two 16gb sticks or get 2 more 8gb sticks since my motherboard has four slots.
Legitimate_Payment49@reddit
as long as you have a pair of sticks, you'd be in dual-channel. like you said, OP specifically asked whether to get TWO sticks of 16GB or add another TWO sticks of 8GB. OP did NOT say one stick (or odd number sticks) of RAM.
Kwolf21@reddit
I meant 2 stick dual channel not 4 stick dual channel. It's also never ever recommended to buy one set of sticks, then another set of sticks. If you are going to do 4 sticks, you buy a set of 4 sticks. RAM is sold in matched kits for a reason. A 2x8GB kit is tested to run together. If you buy another "identical" 2 stick kit later, they might use different memory chips. Can cause instability.
aragorn18@reddit
Do you have DDR4 or DDR5?
Mrcarrat@reddit (OP)
I have DDR5
aragorn18@reddit
DDR5 doesn't work well with four sticks. If it works at all it will be at a much slower speed.
rucekooker@reddit
If you don’t urgently need 32GB, it makes more sense to stick with 16GB for now.
I used to run 32GB, but one of my 16GB sticks died a few months ago. I could RMA it, but I haven’t bothered cuz its a 3 hours drive, so I’ve just been using 16GB. For gaming, even with modern AAA titles plus a fair bit of multitasking, it’s been completely fine.
The only real limitation shows up with really heavy games. In those cases, you’ll want to avoid keeping Chrome or whatever website browser you use open in the background, since they can quietly eat a big chunk of your RAM. Other than that... 16GB is pretty amazing.
deTombe@reddit
If you are not tech savvy stick with two sticks especially with DDR5.