DDR 4 ram which is better?

[SonnyNXiong]

is it better to have 16 gb of ram across 4 sticks or is it better to have 16 gb ram across 2 sticks?

 

[luckymatt42]

You may have to find your motherboard documentation, or search online. You will generally see two terms: "Dual-Channel" and "Quad-Channel". Generally speaking, "consumer grade" motherboards are Dual channel (2x8), high end or workstation motherboards are generally Quad channel (4x4).

A bit of research about your motherboard should tell you which is better. (Whether a motherboard is dual or quad should be listed pretty high up on the spec sheet)

 

[Serinox]

Go for 2 sticks! it leaves room for future upgrades. Also improves the chance of a good memory oc if needed.
Less sticks also correspond to smaller load/voltage on the imc, which is good for your cpu.

 

[faalin]

What motherboard a CPU are you using?

Any intel cpu in the 1150, 1151, 1155, 1156 socket is going to run dual channel, even if you put 4 sticks in it will only run in a dual dual channel config.

intels 1366 socket could run triple, dual, and single channel
intels 2011-0, 2011-1, and 2011-v3 socket will do quad, triple, dual, and single channel

all AMD sockets from AM4 and older run in a dual/single channel config
AMD's TR4 socket run in quad channel mode.

For intel (1151) or amd (am4) i would go with just 2 sticks, it just plays nicer with the memory controller