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Is it possible to run out of amperage for RAM?

Tags:
  • DDR3
  • Power Supplies
  • RAM
  • Components
  • Motherboards
Last response: in Components
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October 1, 2014 1:55:58 PM

I'm going to be buying a new PSU, but I'm a little concerned that the 3.3V rail only provides 20 amps. I currently have four gigs of DDR3 1600 cl 7 ram. Should I worry about being able to add more in the future?

More about : run amperage ram

a c 102 ) Power supply
a c 80 V Motherboard
October 1, 2014 2:03:52 PM

The 3.3V and 5V rails provide much more power than required.
The +12V rail is the one you have to be careful of.
The majority of power is drawn on the +12V rail.
What are your CPU and graphics card?
What is the power supply you are looking at?
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a b ) Power supply
a c 178 V Motherboard
October 1, 2014 2:16:02 PM

Toomuchprotein said:
I'm going to be buying a new PSU, but I'm a little concerned that the 3.3V rail only provides 20 amps. I currently have four gigs of DDR3 1600 cl 7 ram. Should I worry about being able to add more in the future?


The memory is powered by a VRM which uses a 12v input. The 3.3v rail is barely used at all, it's mostly used for some small motherboard components.
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a b V Motherboard
October 1, 2014 2:17:47 PM

If you're talking DDR3, that's usually either 1.5V or 1.65V, and tend to use 1-2W when idle, maybe 5-6W under load. So figure ~3A per stick.

With four sticks you should be fine. 4x4GB or 16GB would be way more than enough for any normal use. Do you do very large-scale graphic design or heavy-duty video editing?
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