[SOLVED] is it okay to have 4 RAM sticks installed?

[googomag]

hello, i have 2 RAM sticks of 8GB each, and im looking to upgrade, but then i saw forum threads in here that say that they had issues once upgrading from 2 to 4 sticks. so im no longer sure about upgrading and wanted to ask your opinion.
the issue is of course the price, a 16gb stick is twice as expensive as a 8gb stick, and having to stay with only the same two slots, means i have to spend twice the money to upgrade.

just in case these RAM slots issues are hardware specific, im posting my computer specifications:
cpu: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
RAM: DDR 4, 8gb x2 3000 mhz (link to the exact place i purchased so you can see all the information)
motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING
GPU: gigabyte 4095MB nvidia geforce RTX 2060 SUPER
storage: SSD

thank you!

 

[rgd1101]

most of the time it will work. sometime don't
a memory kit are tested together. 2 set might not work

 

[kanewolf]

hello, i have 2 RAM sticks of 8GB each, and im looking to upgrade, but then i saw forum threads in here that say that they had issues once upgrading from 2 to 4 sticks. so im no longer sure about upgrading and wanted to ask your opinion.
the issue is of course the price, a 16gb stick is twice as expensive as a 8gb stick, and having to stay with only the same two slots, means i have to spend twice the money to upgrade.

just in case these RAM slots issues are hardware specific, im posting my computer specifications:
cpu: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
RAM: DDR 4, 8gb x2 3000 mhz (i think its running at 1500mhz, based off CPU-Z) (link to the exact place i purchased so you can see all the information)
motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING
GPU: gigabyte 4095MB nvidia geforce RTX 2060 SUPER
storage: SSD

thank you!

You are better off REPLACING your 2x8GB with 2x16GB matched set and selling your 2x8GB.

 

[KyaraM]

You can do both. If you simply upgrade to 4 sticks, make very sure that it's the same RAM model as you have already installed. It usually works, but not always, even if you use the same model. That's why sets exist after all.

Personally, I would try to grab a kit of good 3200MHz RAM, though. It's not that expensive, and when sold as a kit, it should definitely work. Also, 3200MHz would be faster than your current RAM, too. You can try to sell the old kit as suggested above.

 

[googomag]

i see, thank you for the responses!
i thought about buying a single 16gb one, and attaching it together with the 8gb x2, that way if it the slot doesnt work, i can sell the two 8gb and buy another 16gb one,
the question is if its okay to run 16gb + 8gb x2 sticks, a total of 3 sticks?

 

[kanewolf]

i see, thank you for the responses!
i thought about buying a single 16gb one, and attaching it together with the 8gb x2, that way if it the slot doesnt work, i can sell the two 8gb and buy another 16gb one,
the question is if its okay to run 16gb + 8gb x2 sticks, a total of 3 sticks?

Ryzen does not like imbalanced RAM, your performance may be lower than your current setup because the CPU may run all the RAM in single channel.

 

[geofelt]

Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
The internal workings are designed for the capacity of the kit.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards, particularly Ryzen, can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when more sticks are involved.

If you do buy more disparate sticks, they should be the same speed, voltage and cas numbers.
Even then your chances of working are less than 100%
I might guess 60% success.
What is your plan "B" if the new stick/s do not work?

Really, it is best to buy a known compatible replacement.
ryzen is particularly picky about ram.
Not all DDR4 ram will work properly.
Exercise due diligence and buy only compatible ram kits.

One place to check is your motherboards web site.
Look for the ram QVL list. It lists all of the ram kits that have been tested with that particular motherboard.
Sometimes the QVL list is not updated after the motherboard is released.
For more current info, go to a ram vendor's web site and access their ram selection configurator.
Enter your motherboard, and you will get a list of compatible ram kits.
Sometimes, the model of cpu you plan on using is relevant.

 

[alceryes]

hello, i have 2 RAM sticks of 8GB each, and im looking to upgrade, but then i saw forum threads in here that say that they had issues once upgrading from 2 to 4 sticks. so im no longer sure about upgrading and wanted to ask your opinion.
the issue is of course the price, a 16gb stick is twice as expensive as a 8gb stick, and having to stay with only the same two slots, means i have to spend twice the money to upgrade.

just in case these RAM slots issues are hardware specific, im posting my computer specifications:
cpu: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
RAM: DDR 4, 8gb x2 3000 mhz (link to the exact place i purchased so you can see all the information)
motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING
GPU: gigabyte 4095MB nvidia geforce RTX 2060 SUPER
storage: SSD

thank you!

What, specifically, do you hope to gain from increasing your RAM from 16GBs to 32GBs?
If it's gaming performance, you'll be disappointed unless you're using massive amounts of RAM outside of the game. In fact, populating all 4 slots may cause the memory to run at looser timings and even speeds - causing slower performance than with just 2 sticks.

The easy way to test this is just to have task manager open, in the background, as you game. Does your memory usage ever get above 15GBs?

 

[googomag]

What, specifically, do you hope to gain from increasing your RAM from 16GBs to 32GBs?
If it's gaming performance, you'll be disappointed unless you're using massive amounts of RAM outside of the game. In fact, populating all 4 slots may cause the memory to run at looser timings and even speeds - causing slower performance than with just 2 sticks.

The easy way to test this is just to have task manager open, in the background, as you game. Does your memory usage ever get above 15GBs?

i simply ran out of RAM to run things, i even switched from chrome to opera gx to lower my ram usage but its not enough.
and yes, i often max out my RAM usage 😕

One place to check is your motherboards web site.
Look for the ram QVL list. It lists all of the ram kits that have been tested with that particular motherboard.
Sometimes the QVL list is not updated after the motherboard is released.
For more current info, go to a ram vendor's web site and access their ram selection configurator.
Enter your motherboard, and you will get a list of compatible ram kits.
Sometimes, the model of cpu you plan on using is relevant.

thank you for this tip, this is proving to be a very difficult endeavor

 

[Nighthawk117]

hello, i have 2 RAM sticks of 8GB each, and im looking to upgrade, but then i saw forum threads in here that say that they had issues once upgrading from 2 to 4 sticks. so im no longer sure about upgrading and wanted to ask your opinion.
the issue is of course the price, a 16gb stick is twice as expensive as a 8gb stick, and having to stay with only the same two slots, means i have to spend twice the money to upgrade.

just in case these RAM slots issues are hardware specific, im posting my computer specifications:
cpu: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
RAM: DDR 4, 8gb x2 3000 mhz (link to the exact place i purchased so you can see all the information)
motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING
GPU: gigabyte 4095MB nvidia geforce RTX 2060 SUPER
storage: SSD

thank you!

4 sticks is fine, however two different 16GB kits are not guaranteed to work together reliably. This is mostly an issue when running the DIM's in XMP and it does depend on what speed they run at and what CPU/platform you've got.

I have 4 x 8GB DIM's in my machine, 2 kits bought at different times, I've done this on my last 3 Intel machines and never had an issue. However Ryzen is more fussy with RAM. That being said though, there is a good chance that 4 x 8GB DIM's at 3000Mhz will work with a Zen 2 chip like the 3600. On the earlier Ryzen's that would be asking for trouble.

The RAM you've listed is what I've used successfully with Ryzen in the past for 1000, 2000 and 3000. It's on AMD's QVL list, so you could buy another 2 x 8GB kit from Amazon and try. If worst comes to worst you can just return it.

 

[googomag]

i apologize for all of the questions, in the same forum post. this is the last one i promise.

i noticed the price for a single 32gb ram stick is the same or cheaper than two 16gb.
so the question is, is running a single stick better or worse than two sticks of halves? what are your opinions and recommendations?



thank you nighthawk117 for the response, i cant risk it since im ordering from amazon overseas, and returning will cost too much money. so i will go with buying either two new sticks at 16gb each, or a single 32gb depending on the answer i get here.
thank you everyone, i appreciate your answers!

 

[Bob.B]

i apologize for all of the questions, in the same forum post. this is the last one i promise.

i noticed the price for a single 32gb ram stick is the same or cheaper than two 16gb.
so the question is, is running a single stick better or worse than two sticks of halves? what are your opinions and recommendations?



thank you nighthawk117 for the response, i cant risk it since im ordering from amazon overseas, and returning will cost too much money. so i will go with buying either two new sticks at 16gb each, or a single 32gb depending on the answer i get here.
thank you everyone, i appreciate your answers!

You want to buy a 2x16 KIT.
A kit is 2 sticks that come in one pkg.
They are matched sticks.

 

[KyaraM]

i apologize for all of the questions, in the same forum post. this is the last one i promise.

i noticed the price for a single 32gb ram stick is the same or cheaper than two 16gb.
so the question is, is running a single stick better or worse than two sticks of halves? what are your opinions and recommendations?



thank you nighthawk117 for the response, i cant risk it since im ordering from amazon overseas, and returning will cost too much money. so i will go with buying either two new sticks at 16gb each, or a single 32gb depending on the answer i get here.
thank you everyone, i appreciate your answers!

Single stick RAM is a lot worse. Tou essentially cut bandwidth in half with a single RAM stick because boards are constructed so that the CPU cann communicate with both channels at the same time. With only a single memory module, that is impossible. The results can be seen in this graph:
https://g3f4h2w2.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/image-4-2.png

DDR4-3600 suddenly turns into DDR4-2400. I think I don't have to mention why that is not desirable.

Also, again, what people told you before. Get a kit! Even if buying two seperate sticks might be slightly cheaper than buying a set of two, Don't do it. Those sets are tested with each other to ensure they work with each other. You don't have that guarantee with thwo seperate sticks. The failure chance is rather high. Buy them as twins!

 

[googomag]

Single stick RAM is a lot worse. Tou essentially cut bandwidth in half with a single RAM stick because boards are constructed so that the CPU cann communicate with both channels at the same time. With only a single memory module, that is impossible. The results can be seen in this graph:
https://g3f4h2w2.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/image-4-2.png

DDR4-3600 suddenly turns into DDR4-2400. I think I don't have to mention why that is not desirable.

Also, again, what people told you before. Get a kit! Even if buying two seperate sticks might be slightly cheaper than buying a set of two, Don't do it. Those sets are tested with each other to ensure they work with each other. You don't have that guarantee with thwo seperate sticks. The failure chance is rather high. Buy them as twins!

thank you for explaining why a kit matters!! i thought that a "kit" simply meant two ram sticks of the same type and module. i was literally gonna do that mistake you said cause it was cheaper. thank you!
and thank you all for the great answers!

 

[googomag]

message to future people looking here:
after installing the new RAM kit, my computer started behaving extremely weird, programs kept crashing left and right, BSODs, and other things.
i ran a RAM test ("windows memory diagnostic" tool), and it showed that there are no faults with the new RAM.

after a while and asking in the forums here, i found out that installing the new RAM caused the BIOs to revert back to an older version.
also in the BIOs, the RAM "dram cas latency" was different than the value selected:
"DRAM CAS# Latency" "CHA: 16" "CHB: 16" then on selection it said "15".

i loaded defaults, and then updated bios to the newest version, then the issues were all gone