1 stick or 2 stick for media pc 2200g

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nightanole

[H]ard|Gawd
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Feb 16, 2003
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So media pc is getting long in the tooth (j1900). I have a left over 2200g. I have a 450b based mobo. Im not sure if i should spend $40-50 on 2x4 or 1x8 for memory. If i buy 2x4, they will just be thrown in the trash some day because they will be worthless, but an 8 gig stick could still be useful down the road.
 
nightanole said:
So media pc is getting long in the tooth (j1900). I have a left over 2200g. I have a 450b based mobo. Im not sure if i should spend $40-50 on 2x4 or 1x8 for memory. If i buy 2x4, they will just be thrown in the trash some day because they will be worthless, but an 8 gig stick could still be useful down the road.
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You definitely want two sticks so that that the memory runs at 128bit. You run only one stick and you're limited to 64 bit memory access. Dual channel will also bolster application and game performance.

You also want the RAM to be at least 2666 capable so you get the most out of that graphics card on die. It supports up to 2666 memory. That will also increase performance on two levels because it's the frequency that the Ryzen talks to it's components at as well as the graphics rendering faster in memory.

16 gig is going to boost your performance over 8 by roughly 10-15% and you can also allocate more RAM to the graphics in a dedicated fashion which will bolster gaming performance as well.
 
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For my son's computer I was on a slight budget, so I had to choose between slower clock 2x4GB or higher clock 1x8GB for the same price. I looked at various benchmarks and found that Ryzen is pretty responsive to higher clock speeds. But couldn't find much negligible difference between dual vs single. So I went with 1x8GB.

And as the OP mentioned, 1x8GB has better long term life than 2x4GB.
 
You need to run both sticks of RAM. Otherwise you are screwing yourself on performance. I was wrong about the memory timings earlier, apparently you can get the integrated graphics to accept OCed RAM. It's been a while since I had played with the APUs. Below is a great example of why going with one stick of RAM screws you:

Single Channel vs Dual Channel
Of course when we are talking about memory performance, and especially with APUs, the idea of using one DIMM in a single channel configuration v.s. two in a dual channel configuration is a big topic.



3dmark-single.png
 
Guys, OP is upgrading a Media Center PC from an anemic J1900.

His performance loss from single channel will be completely unnoticed in his stated usage scenario. Go with 1x8GB and leave yourself the opening to add another stick when you become RAM constrained.
 
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