Question RAM upgrade and configuration ?

[Maxinity]

I’ve decided to add an extra 16GB of RAM to my gaming PC as it would help with the games I play, though I’m not sure if I should get 2x16GB 3600MHz for £50 and sell my old RAM for around £30 or if I buy another 2x8GB set of 3200MHz vengeance RAM for £30

From the videos I’ve watched it seems faster RAM is either as good as slower RAM or sometimes even worse but I’ve also heard having 4 sticks in your MOBO can put strain on your memory controller

Which do I go with? Money isn’t really a factor as between the 2 choices its only a £10 difference

For reference I currently have:
B450M-A
Ryzen 5 5600
2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance 3200MHz

 

[Lutfij]

You could just buy another kit of ram similar to your existing Corsair ram kit though please keep in mind that Corsair is the only brand that has PCB revision numbers for their rams since they source ram IC's from multiple chip makers so you can and will run into compatibility issues if you mix and match different IC'd rams in spite of them looking the same on the outside with a vengeance branding/heatspreader.

One other point I'd like to throw in, is if you could spend a little more and look for a tight timing(low latency) ram kit to get a bump in performance.

2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance 3200MHz
I would advise that you buy a larger ram kit, meaning a 2x16GB DDR4-3600MHz;

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/memory/#b=ddr4&S=3600,8400&Z=32768002,65536002&sort=price&page=1

In your current state, I'd advise on making sure you're on the latest BIOS version but if you're able to, maybe look into a B550 chipset motherboard.

Summary;
1. 2x16GB DDR4-3200MHz(CL16 or lower), ditch the existing ram kit, keep everything else the same
2. 2x16GB DDR4-3600MHz(CL16 or lower), swap the motherboard to B550 chipset
3. 2x8GB DDR4-3200MHz ram kit as the Vengeance but verify that the PCB version is identical to yours.

 

[Maxinity]

You could just buy another kit of ram similar to your existing Corsair ram kit though please keep in mind that Corsair is the only brand that has PCB revision numbers for their rams since they source ram IC's from multiple chip makers so you can and will run into compatibility issues if you mix and match different IC'd rams in spite of them looking the same on the outside with a vengeance branding/heatspreader.

One other point I'd like to throw in, is if you could spend a little more and look for a tight timing(low latency) ram kit to get a bump in performance.

2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance 3200MHz
I would advise that you buy a larger ram kit, meaning a 2x16GB DDR4-3600MHz;

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/memory/#b=ddr4&S=3600,8400&Z=32768002,65536002&sort=price&page=1

In your current state, I'd advise on making sure you're on the latest BIOS version but if you're able to, maybe look into a B550 chipset motherboard.

Summary;
1. 2x16GB DDR4-3200MHz(CL16 or lower), ditch the existing ram kit, keep everything else the same
2. 2x16GB DDR4-3600MHz(CL16 or lower), swap the motherboard to B550 chipset
3. 2x8GB DDR4-3200MHz ram kit as the Vengeance but verify that the PCB version is identical to yours.

I’ve recently rebuilt my pc as it was a mess before and I’m really not planning on doing that again by upgrading the motherboard any time soon so getting that 3600mhz kit sounds a bit too much for me

Thanks a lot for your reply though, I think your first suggestion sounds best, I’ll sell the old kit and get a 2x16gb kit@3200mhz

And just to confirm, you’re suggesting a b550 chipset for the 3600mhz ram as I’m guessing my current mobo wouldn’t handle it?

​

 

[Misgar]

The Ryzen 5 3600 is specified for use up to DDR4-3200. Above 3200MT/s, especially with really tight timings, you might need to tweak a few settings manually, e.g. CL (CAS). That's not to say you wouldn't be able to reach 3600MT/s, but a lot depends on the Silicon Lottery and how good you are at tweaking.

I'd definitely opt for 2x16GB and not 4x8GB if you do change your mind and buy RAM rated at 3600MT/s. Two sticks are often easier to overclock than four DIMMs, especially at higher speeds, but results vary.

Unless you keep a close eye on the FPS count in your games, I doubt you'd notice much difference between 3200 and 3600MT/s. If your games and background apps are currently running out of memory, you'll see a bigger improvement just by doubling the amount of RAM. Good luck.

It's true that certain combinations of CPU and RAM can result in slightly lower processing speeds at higher XMP speeds, but these differences are generally only a few percent and not worth worrying about. Other apps will run faster on the same system if you speed up the memory interface.

 

[Kona45primo]

2x16GB 3600MHz for £50

Mixing ram kits is never the best idea.

 

[Maxinity]

Just an update and conclusion for this post

I ended up trying that 3600mhz 32GB RAM kit on my B450M-A and it works fine at the rated speed, whether these motherboards can easily run RAM at that speed or if I just got lucky I definitely can recommend it