Anyone Prefer 4x8gb over 2x16gb DDR4 (Single rank)?

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SpongeBob

The Contraceptive Under the Sea
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So in my sponge brain I realize I am no memory expert very far from it so I'm curious about real world experience not a few benchmarks on Youtube. Does anyone prefer running 4 sticks over 2? Again being that I have no idea how software is allocated over multiple sticks I'm guessing windows for example gets spread around and isn't just using 1 stick.
I remember hearing a while ago 4 sticks perform better as it performs like dual rank then but it limits your boost/overclock since 2x16 is easier on the memory controller. While sure that makes sense to me I worry more about the additional heat and voltage running through the system. Ultimately I'm curious about real world experience not so much just a few benchmarks on Youtube.

What do you guys go for? Especially those using their systems for gaming.


This is just a side question but something else I've been curious about since I can't test it since my memory and XMP settings don't mesh. Does running XMP limit overclocking if left on? For example you stick in 16-18-18-38 3200Mhz ram with XMP on. You push it to 3600Mhz 18-20-20-40 with XMP however since XMP is still on are those other bazillion timings still using the 3200Mhz XMP timings which are straining the ram or would they have automatically adjusted? I just wonder if turning XMP off would be better with auto rather than still running at the origian XMP 3200Mhz timings. If all those other timings were looser maybe the memory would be using less voltage or tighter timings or hitting 3800Mhz easier.
 
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4 is harder on the imc. imo your overthinking it, put in the amount of ram you want and use the system, you probably wouldnt even notice the difference.
no.
 
I am running 4x8GB b-die and have a great OC with a 5800X but if I had 2x16GB high bin b die and a MB with two RAM slots it would probably do a little better due to the shorter traces to the RAM.
I went with 4x8GB due to price.

4x8GB b die and 2x16GB b die are both dual rank while most new cheap 2x16GB sticks are single rank.
So 4x8GB 3200c16 would likely perform better than 2x16GB and I doubt you would have any trouble running ether on a half decent MB and relatively recent CPU.
The difference it makes is under 5% to CPU performance but it all adds up.

As for XMP left on while overclocking I don't think it matters but it likely depends on the individual BIOS.
I just leave it off and tweak everything manually.
 
SpongeBob said:
So in my sponge brain I realize I am no memory expert very far from it so I'm curious about real world experience not a few benchmarks on Youtube. Does anyone prefer running 4 sticks over 2? Again being that I have no idea how software is allocated over multiple sticks I'm guessing windows for example gets spread around and isn't just using 1 stick.
I remember hearing a while ago 4 sticks perform better as it performs like dual rank then but it limits your boost/overclock since 2x16 is easier on the memory controller. While sure that makes sense to me I worry more about the additional heat and voltage running through the system. Ultimately I'm curious about real world experience not so much just a few benchmarks on Youtube.

What do you guys go for? Especially those using their systems for gaming.


This is just a side question but something else I've been curious about since I can't test it since my memory and XMP settings don't mesh. Does running XMP limit overclocking if left on? For example you stick in 16-18-18-38 3200Mhz ram with XMP on. You push it to 3600Mhz 18-20-20-40 with XMP however since XMP is still on are those other bazillion timings still using the 3200Mhz XMP timings which are straining the ram or would they have automatically adjusted? I just wonder if turning XMP off would be better with auto rather than still running at the origian XMP 3200Mhz timings. If all those other timings were looser maybe the memory would be using less voltage or tighter timings or hitting 3800Mhz easier.
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If you can get two sticks which you know for sure are dual rank----there is no reason to use 4 sticks. Trouble is, a lot of 16gb sticks are single rank, now. And the ones which are not, don't always advertise it. I believe that 32GB sticks are most likely dual rank.

Ignoring the total amount of RAM; the reason to use 4 sticks, is to garuntee that the IMC will have at least 4 ranks to utilize. It results in a solid performance increase. (more than 4 ranks doesn't result in another boost).
 
If you want to get dual rank 16GB sticks Kingston provides specs for there kits which tell you how many ranks they have.
Or there is the expensive option b die which is not really worth it now that DDR5 is out.
 
My dual rank experience is documented in a recent thread. Just terrible lol so I'm not hunting for more but I definitely appreciate Kingston actually being transparent about their kits. This is all just more for my information than anything I've been wondering about this stuff for a while.

My current sticks I have are incredibly hard to find more of and im not over paying for them. They are some Oloy sticks my bud got free with his 3080 not mass produced easy to find kits. I'm pretty nervous about adding mix matched ram to get me to 32gb so I'd just go 2x16gb anyway.
 
My benchmarks were so much better with dual rank, however, I made sure to get 16gb modules in dual rank, so 2x16gb. Yes, Dual rank does make a very big different with DDR4 and my 9900K when compared to single rank.
 
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