Question Is 4 sticks ddr5 a bad idea?

[Aleksxx03]

I recently upgraded my pc and with this had to upgrade to ddr5. Currently I am running in dual channel mode with two 8gb sticks (16gb total), I am planning to upgrade to 32 by buying 2 more 8gb sticks so I will by using all 4 slots. I have read about some issues regarding stability so I wanted to ask if these have been fixed or if I will run into trouble.
Specs;
Motherboard: Asus rog strix b760-f
Cpu: Intel i5-14600k
Cpu cooler: NZXT Kraken pro 360
Ram: 2x8gb ddr5 Kingston fury rgb 5600mhz
Gpu: Asus rog strix 2070 super AD
Psu: Corsair RM850

 

[Ralston18]

Key:

"Motherboard: Asus rog strix b760-f"

Go to the Asus website and find the User Guide/Manual applicable to your motherboard.

The User Guide should provide both a listing of supported RAM and RAM configurations,

Do be sure that you are at the Asus website. Just because "Asus" appears in the URL does not mean that the website is truly Asus.

Overall: if you have 16GB and the system is performing well then 32 GB may not be beneficial.

Which invokes the "If it ain"t broke then don't fix it" rule.

 

[USAFRet]

I am planning to upgrade to 32 by buying 2 more 8gb sticks so I will by using all 4 slots.

Its not the 4 slots, but rather mixing of old and new.

It may work, it may fail.

Do you really need 32GB? Are you actually running out at the existing 16GB?

 

[artk2219]

I recently upgraded my pc and with this had to upgrade to ddr5. Currently I am running in dual channel mode with two 8gb sticks (16gb total), I am planning to upgrade to 32 by buying 2 more 8gb sticks so I will by using all 4 slots. I have read about some issues regarding stability so I wanted to ask if these have been fixed or if I will run into trouble.
Specs;
Motherboard: Asus rog strix b760-f
Cpu: Intel i5-14600k
Cpu cooler: NZXT Kraken pro 360
Ram: 2x8gb ddr5 Kingston fury rgb 5600mhz
Gpu: Asus rog strix 2070 super AD
Psu: Corsair RM850

Its more an issue with mixing ram of two different manufacturers, speeds, or latency ratings. If its another two sticks of the same RAM, you shouldnt have much of an issue, you are rolling the dice if youre mixing RAM manufacturers etc though. Some machines have issues with it, others don't care one bit, either way make sure you're on the latest BIOS before you do an upgrade as there are usually some stability issues that get addressed over time.

 

[Aleksxx03]

Its more an issue with mixing ram of two different manufacturers, speeds, or latency ratings. If its another two sticks of the same RAM, you shouldnt have much of an issue, you are rolling the dice if youre mixing RAM manufacturers etc though. Some machines have issues with it, others don't care one bit, either way make sure you're on the latest BIOS before you do an upgrade as there are usually some stability issues that get addressed over time.

so if i buy the exact sticks i have right now it should work fine? (from 2x8gb ddr5 Kingston fury rgb 5600mhz to 4x8gb ddr5 Kingston fury rgb 5600mhz)

 

[USAFRet]

so if i buy the exact sticks i have right now it should work fine? (from 2x8gb ddr5 Kingston fury rgb 5600mhz to 4x8gb ddr5 Kingston fury rgb 5600mhz)

Even then, maybe not.

The exact same is closer to working, but not guaranteed.

 

[Aleksxx03]

Key:

"Motherboard: Asus rog strix b760-f"

Go to the Asus website and find the User Guide/Manual applicable to your motherboard.

The User Guide should provide both a listing of supported RAM and RAM configurations,

Do be sure that you are at the Asus website. Just because "Asus" appears in the URL does not mean that the website is truly Asus.

Overall: if you have 16GB and the system is performing well then 32 GB may not be beneficial.

Which invokes the "If it ain"t broke then don't fix it" rule.

when checking the asus website i found the sticks i have currently (2x 8GB), but they wont show up as 4x 8gb (i dont think kingston sell 4 sticks of 8gb together). I think it will run fine as they have my current sticks on the list and the tech specs says the motherboard supports 4 x Dimm
Where i checked on asus: https://rog.asus.com/no/motherboard...b760-f-gaming-wifi-model/helpdesk_qvl_memory/

 

[bill001g]

This is where YOU rather than the factory is going to test and see if the memory sticks really work together. What you pay extra for when you buy kits of memory rather than individual sticks is the testing that was done at the factory to ensure the sticks of memory will properly work together.

Even within the actual memory chips on each stick they need to find chips that work together. They test every single memory unit to decide which can go on the same circuit boards.

There is no guarantee that chips cut from the exact same silicon wafer will function together. Gets even more complex when they are made in different factories or manufactured by different companies.

Gamers nexus youtube channel fairly recently has a tour of a memory manufacturing plant, it is surprising how must testing of chips it being done.

 

[thestryker]

Depending on what's available where you are buying 32GB in 2x 16GB form might not be much more (where I live a good DDR5 32GB 6400 kit is about $15 USD more than what you're talking about buying). Generally speaking I'm a big advocate for avoiding using 4 DIMMs for DDR5 where possible though 5600 is probably slow enough it should work so long as the timings on all of the modules are identical.

 

[artk2219]

so if i buy the exact sticks i have right now it should work fine? (from 2x8gb ddr5 Kingston fury rgb 5600mhz to 4x8gb ddr5 Kingston fury rgb 5600mhz)

It has a better chance of working fine, memory is funny like that. You could pick up a couple more sticks that have a return policy and test it out, if it has issues you can just return them and then look to getting 2 x 16gb sticks instead. Or you could try your hand at getting another pair of similar sticks. Now all this is to say that you aren't guaranteed to have issues if you mix 4 sticks of RAM, but it's not uncommon for it to cause issues.

 

[geofelt]

so if i buy the exact sticks i have right now it should work fine? (from 2x8gb ddr5 Kingston fury rgb 5600mhz to 4x8gb ddr5 Kingston fury rgb 5600mhz)

No, you can not buy the same exact sticks.
Ram differs slightly in the internal operation, even from ram produced on the same day and run.
It is measured and factory matched to insure operation at the advertised specs.
Most of the time, you can get it to work by adding a bit of voltage to the specs.
XMP settings are embedded in the ram sticks, they may differ between two separate kits.
Which set of xmp settings will the motherboard use?
ram must all be controlled by the same set of voltage,speed and timings.

My guess is that you will be able to pass memtest86 85% of the time wo/ issue.

Kingston support may not be willing to help you with disparate kits.
What is your plan B if you have issues?

I might add that it is harder for a motherboard to manage 4 sticks vs. two.

Consider seriously buying a 2 x 16gb kit and sell your old or keep them as backup.

 

[Karadjgne]

Picture a big square sheet of silicon. Chop that up into 100 tiny squares. Stick 4-16 of those squares onto a pcb. That's ram. Micron, Samsung, Nanya, all of them do it that way.

Then gskill says to Samsung that they need 5000 of 16/ 3200MHz with the gskill Trident-Z rgb heatsink. So Samsung glues on a heatsink, gives the ram an eprom full of info and you got gskill ram. Then corsair says they want the same thing, so Samsung grabs another 5k of the exact same raw ram, puts on a Vengeance heatsink, fills the eprom with corsair bios, and you get corsair ram.

Which is the same as the Trident-Z. Same ram, different name, different heatsink. So Brand really doesn't matter.

Add to that the fact that each sheet of silicon is slightly different. It's a bunch of melted sand, and that will have different impurities, in different levels or concentrations, leading to differences in compatibility. So you could as easily have a Corsair set and a gskill set with flawless compatibility or get 2 identical Corsair kits bought on the same day, from the same shelf of the same store, and be totally incompatible. Of course you will have no idea what the result will be, or how many trips to the store it will take, or if the original kit is so whacked out of compatibility that it's never going to align with any other kit.

Add more to that is the topology of the board. That's how the traces between the slots are laid out. Some boards have no detriment to 4x sticks, some do as the traces between each pair at the top of the slot create interference at higher frequency. So you could run 3200MHz all day long with 2x sticks, but be plagued with instability at anything over 2666MHz with 4x sticks, for instance.

So since your board accepts your ram with 2x sticks as a given stable config, best bet if you want 32Gb is simply use 2x16Gb. That avoids guessing, as the sticks are already factory tested for compliance and compatibility, and your board already accepts such with no issues getting rated speeds.