4x8GB of RAM vs 2x16GB of RAM

[lovemesomespeed]

I just built my first PC. i9-10900k, ASUS ROG Maximus XII Hero Z490 motherboard. Running a 1080Ti until I get a 3080 or 3090. I’ll be racing with the Reverb G2.

I had read in plenty of places that 16GB was more than plenty for gaming, so I purchased 2x8GB DDR4 3600.

Now I’m reading that 32GB is ideal, and I’m bummed I missed the return window for the RAM I just bought.

Is there an advantage to buying 2x16GB instead of just purchasing two more sticks of the 8GB?

 

[NeoGrotesk]

Not really. I mean there might be, but it'd be so minimal it's insignificant imho.

One thing I will recommend, buy exactly the same set. Sounds like you've bought them recently so hopefully that won't be a problem.

In theory it shouldn't matter if they're different but I recently bought two more sticks of 8gb that had slightly slower timings than my original pair (I couldn't get more of the original ones anywhere), they were both 3600mhz but my motherboard kept using the xmp profile from the faster set causing things to crash. I had to manually set the timings to get it to work properly.

Edit to add: I don't know if you really need 32gb, I got it because it was reasonably cheap and MSFS 2020 runs better with 32gb. Not sure if it makes any difference with racing sims.

 

[Trebormoore84]

Is there an advantage to buying 2x16GB instead of just purchasing two more sticks of the 8GB?

Using 4 sticks in a dual channel board can be fine, I am doing this as well, but just be aware it puts more load on the memory controller on the CPU. As above depending on how compatible the sticks are with the board and CPU they are you might not be able to get the XMP frequencies to work or get the frequency and timings the same as you had with just 2 sticks, so might need to bump up voltages / down tune them slightly to get it to work.

However if the kits are on your motherboards compatibility list and are matched (you need to go find this on the MB support page) they should run fine with XMP profile no problem. It will be slightly slower than 2 sticks because they are sharing bandwidth to the cpu but not enough that's worth talking about.

It can get really complicated when you start talking about single and dual rank and how much additional strain it puts on the CPU, and this goes over my head a bit TBH. But if its on the MB list it should work just fine, if not on the list you are better off getting 2 sticks of 16gb to save some hassle TBH.

As above I don't think 32gb is really required yet, unless you have a specific use case like MSFS.

 

[lovemesomespeed]

As above I don't think 32gb is really required yet, unless you have a specific use case like MSFS.

I did buy MSFS and plan on getting flight controls.

 

[Trebormoore84]

There you go, reasons to buy more RAM are the fringe cases when you really need it to keep performance. otherwise you have to accept a compromise on the settings of that one case.

Compatibility list here:

ROG MAXIMUS XII HERO (WI-FI) | Motherboards | ROG United Kingdom

ROG MAXIMUS XII HERO (WI-FI)

www.asus.com

 

[xVatch1x]

4x8 is completely fine, and in some cases beneficial. i run 32GB that way as well. would not hesitate to do it again.

 

[RobertR1]

You won’t need more than 16gb for simracing.

Z490 hero is daisy chain thus I’d get 2x16gb kit

C14 3200 2x16 bdie based mem is good. higher frequency is fine but bdie is most important if you want to tune for max performance

Mem tuning helps a lot in vr as it greatly impacts average and low FPS. its the low FPS that send you into reprojection frames which you want to avoid

XMP is slow because secondary and tertiary timings are set very loose

 

[Terry Rock]

This subject brings up some very interesting points.
Currently...How many of you guys ignore or prefer to use XMP and why?
I generally keep it along with PBO disabled on my own computer.
I've elected to simply hard-select the 3600 MHz and instead tighten the timings on my TimeTec kit to 15, 19, 19, 19, 36.
It runs really stable and extremely nice with 1.39 volts....no crashes whatsoever.
I cannot tell you the last time I experienced a crash in Windows.
Every racing title runs exceptionally smooth, including ACC at mostly epic settings.

 

[dapper_10]

I have 32gb 4 sticks of Patriot Viper Steel 4000 c19 which are Bdies, currently have them at 4000mhz 17 17 17 39 @1.45v and they have been solid from day one. There is some room left for improvement but I feel it is already a decent overclock.

Below is a guide I used to tighten the sub-timing.

MemTestHelper/DDR4 OC Guide.md at master · integralfx/MemTestHelper

C# WPF to automate HCI MemTest. Contribute to integralfx/MemTestHelper development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[Case_]

2x16 GB or 4x8 GB doesn't really matter, provided you manage to get the second pair of 8 GB sticks to be as close to the first one (which can be kinda tricky, given that even when buying the exact same model, the stick might actually be slightly different). If you don't, then potentially there might be some compatibility issues. I'd say the chance is not that high and most of the time it's fine, but the possibility is there.