Question Benefits of 4x4 vs 2x8

It really depends.

On a motherboard that supports quad-channel ram, you will get more memory bandwidth with 4x4, which benefits performance in some instances.

The problem is most consumer motherboards and processors are dual-channel only, meaning your ram cannot run in quad-channel. Running 4 sticks limited to dual-channel will provide no bandwidth advantage over 2 sticks and does not allow your ram to run with a command rate of 1, which hurts performance.

The difference is marginal for most workloads either way, so it's not worth swapping ram kits.

What are your full system specs?
 
Last edited:

Sean_apple

Commendable
Jul 13, 2017
18
0
1,510
It really depends.

On a motherboard that supports quad-channel ram, you will get more memory bandwidth with 4x4, which benefits performance in some instances.

The problem is most consumer motherboards and processors are dual-channel only, meaning your ram cannot run in quad-channel. Running 4 sticks limited to dual-channel will provide no bandwidth advantage over 2 sticks and does not allow your ram to run with a command rate of 1, which hurts performance.

The difference is marginal for most workloads either way, so it's not worth swapping ram kits.

What are your full system specs?

Ryzen 5 2600
MSI X470
GTX 1070
4x4GB 2666Mhz