4 dimms on a dual channel board

[tiagocosta90]

What happens if i put 3 or 4dimms in a dual channel board ? Do i lose performance on those dimms or lose or downgrade all the ram?

 

[mcnumpty23]

3 wouldnt be dual channel---4 would be dual channel

 

[Grimwinder]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/285172-30-memory-sticks-dual-channel-mobo

 

[BadBoyGreek]

As long as all the RAM is identical, you won't downgrade or lose the dual-channel configuration if you populate all 4 slots. 3 DIMMs, however, will limit you to single channel configuration. You need to install your RAM in pairs to maintain dual channel.

 

[tiagocosta90]

How 4 dims is dual channel? Sorry if im dumb, what gives me the best performance in games 2x8gb or 4x4gb

 

[laviniuc]

2x8 is best in this case. 4x4 doesn't always work in dual channel (same as when you buy 2 modules separately there's cases where it just doesnt wanna work). 2x8 you can get as a kit guaranteed to work in dual channel.

 

[mcnumpty23]

because 4 dimms is 2 in one dual channel slots and 2 in the other--your dimm slots should be 2 different colours

 

[BadBoyGreek]

2x8 is best in this case. 4x4 doesn't always work in dual channel (same as when you buy 2 modules separately there's cases where it just doesnt wanna work). 2x8 you can get as a kit guaranteed to work in dual channel.

This is partially true. While you should ideally buy RAM as matched pairs to ensure proper channel functionality, larger DIMMs aren't necessarily better performing. Often times, people stick with smaller DIMM sizes because they tend to have faster CAS latency timings than larger DIMMs. Real world performance wise, CAS latency doesn't produce a huge difference in performance, but if a vendor has a line of RAM in 2 different sizes, the smaller DIMMs usually tend to be the better performing at any rated speed, if only marginally.