2 or 4 sticks

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noobuilder1

noobuilder1

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Mar 23, 2013
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Ok please someone smarter then I answer this question.... Ok all things being equal in this hypothetical situation... lets say I have a mobo with 4 dimm slots and I have 6 sticks of ram say 4 x 1gb and 2 x 2gb all speeds and timings are equal. Would there be any advantage to use 4 sticks of ram over just 2? The total amont of ram is equal (4 and 4gb) but does band width increase with more dimms populated or does it just become 2 stick and 2 stick duel channel? Thanks for your answers...
 
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Tradesman1
Nukemaster has it right, 2 by is better than 4by as there is less stress on the MC, A DIMM by itself acts as a 64bit single device, but in dual channel they act together as a single 128bit device - with 4 sticks it's still seen as a single 128bit device, but you are in effect having to feed and pull from 4 pipes (the DRAM slots)
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ust4ever

ust4ever

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Basically, yes and no, the bandwidth won't increase, but you will get increased performance, mainly down to the fact that the load will be spread across the 4 sticks. Similar to a dual core and quad core CPU, the quad is better at multi-tasking because the cores have a spread load
 
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noobuilder1

noobuilder1

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So your locked in to the bandwidth by the physical wiring of the mobo? Thank you btw.
 
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ust4ever

ust4ever

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Jun 24, 2013
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Pretty muchly :p
 
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ust4ever

ust4ever

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But bear in mind that for overclocking, 2 sticks is always more stable. 4 dimms being filled causes all kinds of stability issues, and not just for ram overclocking, but for the entire system's stability, regardless of the load bearing theory

Look, I would personally get two sticks (just for the off chance of upgrade) and chances are, they'll be cheaper anyway
 
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nukemaster

nukemaster

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Nov 23, 2004
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It is more easy on the memory controller to run 2 sticks vs 4.

Honestly, I would not expect ANY improvements on 4 sticks. Unlike a quad core cpu with all cores being accessible at any time only 2 of the sticks will be accessed at any given time(the access is so fast you should not see the difference).

I think the dual to quad core example is inaccurate in this case.

Dual to Quad core would be more like dual to quad channel memory.
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

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Jun 5, 2013
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Nukemaster has it right, 2 by is better than 4by as there is less stress on the MC, A DIMM by itself acts as a 64bit single device, but in dual channel they act together as a single 128bit device - with 4 sticks it's still seen as a single 128bit device, but you are in effect having to feed and pull from 4 pipes (the DRAM slots)
 
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