[xcortman]

G'day all,

Quick question here: When I built my PC 3 years ago I went with 2x8 (16GB) DDR4 3200MHZ Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro sticks as I was on a budget.

But now would like to upgrade to 32GB. Performance wise which config would work better between the two. My mobo has 4 RAM slots.

Option 1: 4x8GB sticks OR
Option 2: 2x16GB sticks

If option 2 I would consider selling my 2x8GB sticks which is fine. Thanks for any input.

X

 

[spunk.funk]

Unless you are a heavy the gamer, or you use Autocad, or 3D modelling you will not see an improvement upgrading to 32 GB of RAM 16GB will suffice.
If you are upgrading, I would replace the 2X8 GB sticks with 2X16 GB sticks leaving a blank rail on the motherboard in-between them

 

[xcortman]

Unless you are a heavy the gamer, or you use Autocad, or 3D modelling you will not see an improvement upgrading to 32 GB of RAM 16GB will suffice.
If you are upgrading, I would replace the 2X8 GB sticks with 2X16 GB sticks leaving a blank rail on the motherboard in-between them

Thanks for the quick response. I'm not a gamer however I do edit 4k and 5k videos in premier pro and it does get sticky /stuttery at times as the timeline of the video increases with adding more clips etc. Would more RAM help with this?

OR

Would it be the GPU that needs upgrading? I currently run a gtx 1060 6gb.

Thanks
X

 

[MPR]

I do edit 4k and 5k videos in premier pro

I think you've answered your own question. Adobe recommends a minimum of 32 GB RAM for Premiere Pro.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Performance wise which config would work better between the two. My mobo has 4 RAM slots.

Option 1: 4x8GB sticks OR
Option 2: 2x16GB sticks

Doesn't matter. Assuming you bought 2 new sticks identical to the existing sticks. "IF" there is any difference between 4 x 8GB and 2 x 16GB sticks of the same speed, you will not see any difference (except - maybe - on paper).

So my advice is to buy 2 new sticks to add to the existing.

HOWEVER, if you just have money burning holes in your pocket and you really want to add more RAM by getting all new RAM and getting rid of your existing RAM, buy faster RAM. That is you [might] see a difference with 32GB of faster RAM compared to 32GB of not-as-fast RAM (note I didn't say "slow" RAM).

Just make sure any RAM you are considering is listed on your motherboard's QVL - or at least has the same specs as RAM listed on the QVL - to ensure compatibility.

 

[xcortman]

THANKYOU! Just the answer I was looking for.

I think the only other benefit of running 2x16GB sticks would be that i would have 2 free slots to upgrade to 64GB in the future. But assuming that I don't play any games and SOLELY video edit and do a bit of graphic stuff 32GB of RAM should suffice for a while.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I think the only other benefit of running 2x16GB sticks would be that i would have 2 free slots to upgrade to 64GB in the future.

True - assuming you could find compatible RAM in the future. Note DDR5 is here. Therefore, DDR4, just like DDR3 and DDR2 before that is being phased out and harder and harder to find.

Your computer is already 3 years old. At some point, it is not economically feasible to spend more money on legacy hardware.

 

[xcortman]

What you say is right although I don't see myself upgrading to DDR5 for another 5 years or so. I'm quite an average user and probably only push my PC to its extremes while its exporting 4k/5k video or decoding etc. So that way I think I'll be ok.

I did have a look at the Tomahawk Max B450 manual again and it did say that it was dual channel memory. So if I did throw in 2 similar additional 8GB sticks to make a total of 4 sticks into the mobo. Would the memory controller work efficiently enough? I ask this because I'm now under the impression that I would need a mobo that would support quad channels

Am I understanding this correctly?
Thanks
X

 

[Bill_Bright]

What you say is right although I don't see myself upgrading to DDR5 for another 5 years or so.

It is not a matter of consciously making the decision to upgrade to DDR5. What is much more likely is you will simply decide you want (or need) a new computer. And because DDR5 will be the industry standard, your new computer (or motherboard) will simply require and use DDR5.

DDR5 is NOT compatible with DDR4. The electrical contacts of the sticks, and the motherboard slots the sticks insert into are physically different intentionally - just to avoid using the wrong (and incompatible) RAM.

Am I understanding this correctly?

No.

Dual channel simply means your RAM sticks will work in pairs to improve performance. So on a dual channel motherboard with 4 slots populated with 4 sticks, you simply have 2 pairs of RAM. And that's a good thing. If you look at your manual (or the board itself) you most likely will see two different color slots. The first pair will go in one color, the second will go in the 2nd color. The manual should show which pair to use first, and how they are physically configured. Some boards use slots 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 for the 2 pairs. Others use 1 & 3 and 2 & 4. There is no industry standard. So check your manual.