Question about using 4 sticks of RAM

L

LordBiff

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Aug 29, 2008
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Hi,

In the past, I know it was advisable to keep the number of ram sticks as low as possible. Having more could adversely affect both the performance of the system as well as its stability. Also, many m/bs of the past would struggle if you filled all the available slots, mainly for power reason as I recall.

Are these concerns still valid, or am I OK to fill it up with basically no side effects? I'd like to the 32G if so, but not if I'm more likely to have stability issues with the result.

thanks.
 
I've never had any issues about using 4 sticks, other than when heat-spreaders were first being used and some would literally be pressing against each other. As far as stability goes, the only time I've seen a system with 4 sticks become unstable was when one memory stick went bad. To the question of performance, I see no reason why having 4 sticks would cause any slow down whatsoever, since the memory controller has the same theoretical distance between banks. Even if there was a difference of a few millimeters, the delay time for CAS provides more than enough flexibility to account for that distance.

In short, go ahead and use 4 sticks. But I have to ask, wth do you need 32GB for?
 
Thanks for the reply.

Mainly, I'd like to run mutliple VMs concurrently, as well as some other photo and video editing applications occasionally.

I have 12G now, and it's enough, but I bump up against it now and then, so a fair amount of it is just that RAMs cheap and I don't want to worry about it for a while. :)
 
b U y It NoW while it's cheap, memory prices will be going up soon :eek:

The only issues I ever heard of with filling all slots was with mis-matching speeds and/or single/dual channel sticks..........obviously not something you have to worry about since you already have 12GB running well in your machine.......

and in case you missed it:

b U y It NoW while it's cheap, current and last-generation memory prices will be going up soon.......
 
You should be fine with 4 sticks - especially if they are all the same speed and timings. The only drawback I can think of is if/when one goes bad. You would have to spend a little more time diagnosing to figure out which one lol
 
i run 4 sticks of identical RAM without issue on a P67 motherboard. i bought a pair originally, then upgraded with another pair a few months later. no problems with the install or use.

i do remember a few years back with an older 775 motherboard having issues with 4 sticks, so i'm hoping this is a past problem.
 
i run 4x8gig sticks

st. now adays you need 2 sticks for dual channel. 3 sticks for tri-channel and 4 sticks for quad channal setups.
 
I seem to remember in years past filling all slots had a negative effect on memory bandwidth. It had something to do with the memory controller having to do more to access 4 banks vs 2. It was a small but measurable decrease. Some one more knowledgeable then I can tell you if this is still true.
 
as long as you use memory that's the same specs you should be fine. the performance impact would be marginal at best
 
Related question: does populating all 4 DIMM slots on a Sandy Bridge platform (say Z68 chipset) negatively affect overclocking potential? On my old P965 chipset motherboard it does because of reducing the bus speed I can run at, since I have a CPU separate memory controller.

I assume things are different with multiplier overclocking?
 
grambo said:
Related question: does populating all 4 DIMM slots on a Sandy Bridge platform (say Z68 chipset) negatively affect overclocking potential? On my old P965 chipset motherboard it does because of reducing the bus speed I can run at, since I have a CPU separate memory controller.

I assume things are different with multiplier overclocking?
Click to expand...

Not that i have noticed but im only at 4.6ghz with 4x8
 
grambo said:
Related question: does populating all 4 DIMM slots on a Sandy Bridge platform (say Z68 chipset) negatively affect overclocking potential? On my old P965 chipset motherboard it does because of reducing the bus speed I can run at, since I have a CPU separate memory controller.

I assume things are different with multiplier overclocking?
Click to expand...

It does. SB chips are rated 1333MHz for the memory controller. I tried running 4x 1866@CL9 and could not make it hyperPi stable.. I could run 1600@CL8 and it worked. Their is not much of difference in performance between these two settings so I am OK with it. IB chips will be default rated for 1600MHz IIRC.

FWIW I did not try 2x 1866 to confirm my hypothesis. This is with a 2600K at 4.6GHz with almost everything Auto on a P8P67 Pro.
 
I've been running all 4 slots filled for about 6 months with 1866 CL9 without issues. Granted, I'm running a pretty modest overclock of only 4.4GHz on my 2600K. I have not really tried pushing it further and with lesser DIMMS so I cannot comment on the effect it may have.
 
aviat72 said:
It does. SB chips are rated 1333MHz for the memory controller. I tried running 4x 1866@CL9 and could not make it hyperPi stable.. I could run 1600@CL8 and it worked. Their is not much of difference in performance between these two settings so I am OK with it. IB chips will be default rated for 1600MHz IIRC.

FWIW I did not try 2x 1866 to confirm my hypothesis. This is with a 2600K at 4.6GHz with almost everything Auto on a P8P67 Pro.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. It looks like IB will be DDR3-1600 by default (although I've seen 1333 as being supported as well). I'm not too concerned about memory performance, so I will likely be going DDR3-1600 CL9 to save money, 4x4GB or 2x8GB depending on memory prices in April.

There is another potential issue for me if I want 16GB, 4x4GB means 4 DIMM slots populated, but 2x8GB means more density per DIMM, which in the past has also caused overclocking issues on various platforms.
 
With 4 sticks, you may have to bump up the Vdimm a tiny bit to keep stable especially while overclocking. Most people may not ever notice it unless you are 100% loading your machine with either benchmarks or with distributed computing.
 
Paragon said:
With 4 sticks, you may have to bump up the Vdimm a tiny bit to keep stable especially while overclocking. Most people may not ever notice it unless you are 100% loading your machine with either benchmarks or with distributed computing.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I like to use load testing to determine if my system is stable, usually I'll do 12ish hour test runs. For actual use, as long as it does not crash in multi-hour gaming sessions, or randomly on the desktop, I am happy. I do not do any distributed computing or any important work/calculations with my home machine.
 
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