Question Is it okay to use 3 ram sticks?

[Brandon_140]

Is it okay for me to use 3 ram sticks instead of 4 in my msi x370 sli plus motherboard? I had 4 x 8gb ddr4 3200mhz but i ruined on stick.

 

[Endre]

Is it okay for me to use 3 ram sticks instead of 4 in my msi x370 sli plus motherboard? I had 4 x 8gb ddr4 3200mhz but i ruined on stick.

Hello!

It is OK in the sense that it will work.
However, that is not an optimal setup!
I'd buy another RAM kit (2x16GB).

 

[Brandon_140]

Hello!

It is OK in the sense that it will work.
However, that is not an optimal setup!
I'd buy another RAM kit (2x16GB).

Thanks for a reply? I understand its definitely not optimal. But do you think its beneficial to have that ram stick in there? I read that having 3 sticks will force you system to run in single channel, which ruins their preformance. If thats the case, is 2 dual channel sticks for a total of 16 gb better than 3 single channel sticks for a total of 24gb

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for a reply? I understand its definitely not optimal. But do you think its beneficial to have that ram stick in there? I read that having 3 sticks will force you system to run in single channel, which ruins their preformance. If thats the case, is 2 dual channel sticks for a total of 16 gb better than 3 single channel sticks for a total of 24gb

You have these currently...what happened when you tried this?

Do you need more than 16GB? If not, 24GB won't give any magical performance increase.

If you DO need more than 16GB, but a 32GB set....2x 16GB.

 

[Endre]

Thanks for a reply? I understand its definitely not optimal. But do you think its beneficial to have that ram stick in there? I read that having 3 sticks will force you system to run in single channel, which ruins their preformance. If thats the case, is 2 dual channel sticks for a total of 16 gb better than 3 single channel sticks for a total of 24gb

Hello!

Generally, using 3 RAM sticks instead of 2 leads to, both, some performance gains and some losses, depending of your use cases.
•If your applications require a lot of memory, then 3 sticks will perform better than 2 sticks.
•If your applications use less RAM amount than the density of your 2 RAM sticks, then remove the 3rd stick!

I hope this helps...

 

[geofelt]

Is it okay for me to use 3 ram sticks instead of 4 in my msi x370 sli plus motherboard? I had 4 x 8gb ddr4 3200mhz but i ruined on stick.

It is ok in the sense that no damage will be done.
There is something called "flex mode" where two sticks will operate in dual channel mode and the odd stick in single channel mode.
I know Intel can do this, but I do not know if Ryzen can operate in that mode.

Ryzen depends on fast ram for performance.
If three sticks run in single channel mode, your performance will be compromised.
Try your most critical workload in each of the two situations to see which works best.

 

[CelicaGT]

It is ok in the sense that no damage will be done.
There is something called "flex mode" where two sticks will operate in dual channel mode and the odd stick in single channel mode.
I know Intel can do this, but I do not know if Ryzen can operate in that mode.

Ryzen depends on fast ram for performance.
If three sticks run in single channel mode, your performance will be compromised.
Try your most critical workload in each of the two situations to see which works best.

AFAIK AMD observes the same behavior as Flex mode. The two sticks (in the correct slots) will be dual channel, the third, single. This should all be in the MB manual. As long as everything is at the speeds expected there's typically no downside to using this arrangement.