[SOLVED] How bad is it to use single channel ram instead of dual channel ram on ryzen 5 3600?

Oct 9, 2020
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So I'm upgrading my pc but unfortunately I spent almost all of my money on the other parts, and now I need to get a ram but I can only afford single 8gb ram (2x4gb are unavailable), and knowing amd CPUs perform better with dual channel ram, how bad is it to use a single one? How much performance i'm loosing?
 
Solution
So I'm upgrading my pc but unfortunately I spent almost all of my money on the other parts, and now I need to get a ram but I can only afford single 8gb ram (2x4gb are unavailable), and knowing amd CPUs perform better with dual channel ram, how bad is it to use a single one? How much performance i'm loosing?

Also, at least from what I've seen, single 8gb sticks are normally only sold for higher quality and speed DIMMs. So you should be able to find 2x8gb of a lower quality/value for around the same prices as a result. And the two sticks will possibly perform better because of that dual channel support.

If you throw your budget for RAM out there, along with at least the model of your motherboard, people might be able to offer...

PC Tailor

Illustrious
Ambassador
Welcome to the forums!

How much performance i'm loosing?
Unfortunately this is one of those "how long is a piece of string" - it entirely depends on:
  • the rest of your system
  • what applications you are running at the time
  • what settings you are running those applications at
and so on...

But you can expect in some scenarios some signficant dips in performance without dual channel memory as your CPU is effectively only using one lane of traffic. Ideally you should get dual channel.
 

tsibiski

Reputable
Jun 23, 2019
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So I'm upgrading my pc but unfortunately I spent almost all of my money on the other parts, and now I need to get a ram but I can only afford single 8gb ram (2x4gb are unavailable), and knowing amd CPUs perform better with dual channel ram, how bad is it to use a single one? How much performance i'm loosing?

Also, at least from what I've seen, single 8gb sticks are normally only sold for higher quality and speed DIMMs. So you should be able to find 2x8gb of a lower quality/value for around the same prices as a result. And the two sticks will possibly perform better because of that dual channel support.

If you throw your budget for RAM out there, along with at least the model of your motherboard, people might be able to offer more pointed advice and specific examples. Also, mention where you live, as that is relevant from a price-to-delivery standpoint.
 
Solution
Oct 9, 2020
3
0
10
Welcome to the forums!


Unfortunately this is one of those "how long is a piece of string" - it entirely depends
Welcome to the forums!


Unfortunately this is one of those "how long is a piece of string" - it entirely depends on:
  • the rest of your system
  • what applications you are running at the time
  • what settings you are running those applications at
-The rest of my system is :
gpu : rx 580 8gb
Motherboard : gigabyte b450m ds3h
Ram : I wanted to get the xpg D60 3200mhz
Power supply: thermaltake 650watts

-Applications I'm running:
Mostly some gaming: dota2, fortnite, cod...

-settings:
Nothing too crazy just 1080p gaming with a 75hz monitor
 

PC Tailor

Illustrious
Ambassador
This was more a rhetorical question. The performance loss you'll encounter will vary application by application and how you are using it at the time, there is no way to put a number on it.

In some games you might see up to 20% loss of performance, in others maybe 1% and so on. It's why just generally you should always try and go dual channel.
 
Apr 26, 2021
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I'm not sure, recently built my pc with a Ryzen 5 3600, EVGA GTX1650 super XC black, B550 steel legend, and a single Hyperx Predator DDR4 16gb 3200mhz cl16 stick, but I just realized that I'm not having a good performance.
Any game isn't going like YouTube test with almost the same pc parts.
I spent the last month thinking that my graphics card is fake or the memory RAM is the problem, it makes me feel anxious...
(I bought a single stick because it was too cheap, even more than 2x8gb)