[SOLVED] Should I upgrade to quad channel on my x470 motherboard with a 5900x?

droppinq0909

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Jan 15, 2019
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Wondering if I need to first upgrade to a x570 motherboard to see an actual difference in performance in games. Currently have 2x8 gb 3200mhz and thinking of getting 4x8 gb 3600mhz.
 
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Solution
Ryzen operates in dual channel mode, regardless of 2 or 4 sticks.
4 stick kits should be more expensive because of the extra matching required. I have heard that 4 stick kits might perform better, but I think the difference is just academic.

What is your current motherboard and cpu?

As to upgrading the motherboard for more performance, I would seriously doubt that you would see any benefit.
Ryzen operates in dual channel mode, regardless of 2 or 4 sticks.
4 stick kits should be more expensive because of the extra matching required. I have heard that 4 stick kits might perform better, but I think the difference is just academic.

What is your current motherboard and cpu?

As to upgrading the motherboard for more performance, I would seriously doubt that you would see any benefit.
 
Solution
Wondering if I need to first upgrade to a x570 motherboard to see an actual difference in performance in games. Currently have 2x8 gb 3200mhz and thinking of getting 4x8 gb 3600mhz.
I don't think any games need more than 16Gb to perform optimally, but if any do only consider going more than that if you play one.

You have to go with Threadripper if you want quad channel memory; anything Ryzen is dual channel only.

Many if not most memory sticks use fairly loose timing to get 3600 speeds so you might actually suffer if your games are memory latency dependent vs. memory bandwidth dependent. In such cases, low latency memory at 3200 often performs better than high(er) latency at 3600. So again, you have to know your games.

4 DIMM setups are harder to get to higher clocks. You might spend all that money for 4 brand new 14,14,14, 3600 DIMMS and find you can't get it stable anyway. In such cases, tweaking the timings can help but it's time consuming.

The right top-end X570 board is more likely to work since they more frequently use the right topology for connecting four DIMM's to the CPU IMC but that topology also tends to work poorly with two DIMM setups.

And lastly: people who do these crazy things generally wind up gaining only a few FPS improvement in the end. So...ask yourself if this is really worth it for only 2 FPS as that might be all you get compared to a well optimized 2 DIMM setup in your current board.
 
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