2 sticks better than 4 or not?

E

Emz

New member
Hi!
I have just built myself a new system based on the Asus Maximus Gene V, i5-3570k CPU, ASUS GTX 670 TOP gfx card, SSD and Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM (2 sticks of 4GB) in a nice white NZXT Phantom 410 with OCZ 650W PSU.

I notice many PCs today seem to have 16GB and so I was wondering if its a good idea to buy another 2 stick of Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM to increase my system to 16GB? Or should I just keep to two sticks of 8GB?
So in other words, would 2 sticks work better than 4 sticks of ram?

My PC is used for video editing and gaming (of course).

Thanks for suggestions.
Em
 
Depending on how much you video edit, you may find it beneficial to go up to 16GB.
As you video edit, check your RAM useage. If it's saturated, then perhaps picking up another 8gb wouldn't be a bad idea.
But, for gaming, 8GB is just fine.
 
For video editing yes, not for anything else.

Windows is coded in 32 bit, so it cant use more than 4GB of RAM itself. Even with the 64 bit version, the actual OS will never use more than 4gb.
However, with more RAM in a 64bit system, anything over 4gb can be used by other programs such as games. But as games are also coded in 32 bit, they cant use over 4gb...so...
Lets say you have 8gb of RAM. That leaves 4gb for running windows in the background and another 4gb for running the game you're playing. Any more here is pointless, as the games cant use anymore than 4gb, and Windows itself cant either.
Therefore you wont see any difference whatsoever in gaming.

However, for video editing and rendering, the programs are coded to make use of more RAM. Sony Vegas can use up to 16gb, and very few editing programs will ever use more than that. Therefore in my eyes, 16gb is the most anyone would ever need - unless they're doing RAM caching or something similar.

'So in other words, would 2 sticks work better than 4 sticks of ram?' - not too sure what you mean by that - they'll work the same in everything, apart from maybe video editing :)
 
Thanks for responses both!
I should have said I have Win7 64bit and use Adobe Premiere.

I suppose I am asking about the merits of 2 or 4 sticks as I have got a bit behind in my knowledge. I hear about dual channel and quad channel (even triple). So I think i've heard its better for efficiency to keep to dual channel (2 sticks) rather than 4 sticks . I've probably got things a bit muddled and missed the point completely.

;)

Feel free to ignore me. I may stick to 8GB as cheaper option for now :)
 
basically it depends on your mobo, but typically

2slots is generally single channel (although on budget boards can be dual channel)
4slots is dual channel
6slots is triple channel
8slots is quad channel (mainly seen on socket2011 boards)

how you populate them is entirely upto yourselves,
BUT, do not believe the marketing hype as a "quad channel package" is still the same kit as a "dual channel package" just there's 4 matched sticks instead of 2 and those 4 sticks will just as happily populate all 4 slots on a dual channel configuration

i myslef use a quad channel kit in my dual channel ivy bridge rig purely because i wanted 16Gb of matched ram for what i do and it was financially more beneficial to buy the quad kit than 2x dual kits lol
 
Quad channel is just 2 X dual channel so far as I'm aware.

As long as you keep the same type of RAM, adding another 8gb will not decrease performance. It only decreases performance as with more RAM it can lead to unstable overclocks with it but for the average user this isnt really going to happen anyway.
It's all up to you though - just dont expect a massive increase in performance or anything.

And make sure you use the same RAM! :)
 
I just finished my first build and had one blue screen memory dump after the other, I done bois,, drivers,, etc,, update and still had random dumps, most of witch were 0x000000109(etc etc) I removed 2 sticks of 4gb 1600hz and haven't had one since, Boot times are about 10s quicker and about 20s faster shut down.. this is what I got,,

Maximus V Gene
i5 3570k
Corsair 4x4gb 1600hz CML16GX3M4A1600C9
XFX R7770
750w Antec HCG
Corsair Hydro H60
OCZ Vertex4 256gb
HAF 912
Windows 7 home premium 64bit
I would like to go back to 16gb ram,, Can some please tell me/us what is the best reliable ram to replace what I got,, Thanks Heaps for any advice,,
 
Last edited:
haha, I know there will be certain applications, even certain games that use more RAM. BF3 for instance can use up to 6gb so I hear, but on the masses, you dont really need more than 8gb for a gaming rig
 
jamesriley94 said:
haha, I know there will be certain applications, even certain games that use more RAM. BF3 for instance can use up to 6gb so I hear, but on the masses, you dont really need more than 8gb for a gaming rig
Click to expand...

true!
most chess engines make use of large amounts of ram. it's sth common for people that r playing chess ;)
 
Shouldnt need to. If it's overclocked then maybe. Maybe do it anyway to ensure all DIMMs have the same timings and frequency settings
 
Thanks, I haven't done any overclocking yet,, was waiting on getting my new rig running right first.. Thanks again.. This is a pretty good site. Glad I found it,,
 
back in the old days lol one would get better overclocks when just running 2 sticks in dual channel when the other slots were populated then issues came about. If you look at some of the world record overclocks most are done with a single stick of ram as trying to oc more can hinder top end. Now that said on to something that was said in an earlier reply that quad channel is 2 times dual channel. that is inaccurate. Quad channel is 4 sticks running in tandem to use a word more recognizable on a quad channel board. Dual channel is 2 sticks running in tandem where 4 sticks on a dual channel board is double dual channels not quad. each having its own memory controller.

I believe that with the memory progression and enhancements thru the generations have improved to where it makes no difference whether you use 2 sticks or 4 sticks these days. but in my experiences its always better to run the least number of sticks to get the total amount you need or want within the mobo's max per slot limits. So if you think you'll need or want 16GB of memory I'd get 2x8GB kit if its cheaper to get 4x4GB then I'd strongly recommend a quad kit as they are matched to run with each other. Now just because its a quad kit doesnt mean you can only run it on a quad board. You can run it as 2 dual kits as well. Also another reason fewer sticks is better is that like with a raid array the more disks (or sticks) you run the higher chance you have of a failure.
 
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