Two 2GB RAM or One 4GB RAM

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PC_Nerd14

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Oct 20, 2015
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Hello everyone. I am looking to upgrade my PC from 4GB of RAM to 8GB. Now, I have stumbled upon a question. You see, my PC has four DIMM slots, two of which are occupied with 2GB RAM cards. My question is, should I purchase two 2GB RAM cards, or one 4GB RAM card?

Thanks, Jake
 
Solution
Shaun o
If you have two ram memory modules fitted to the board, and have four memory slots buy another 2 x 2Gb kit of memory sticks.

Why because the current memory mode you are running with the existing 2 x 2GB is dual channel memory mode.

If you insert another single stick of memory of 4Gb into the third memory slot it will force the motherboard memory controller to default to single channel memory mode.

That is slower and has a smaller data bus width of 64 bits of data per clock cycle of the memory.

Where as memory set up in dual channel memory mode works at 128 bits wide of memory data bus width per memory clock cycle.

Twice as much data processed in one clock cycle of the memory. 64+64 =128 bits of data.
Another 2 x 2Gb sticks of...
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stl522013

stl522013

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Mar 15, 2015
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You should always use identical RAM. 2 more 2 GB would work, but that means if you want to upgrade later it would cost a whole lot more. If it were me, I would just buy 1x8 or 2x4 for like $40-$50.
 
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JackNaylorPE

JackNaylorPE

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Assuming this is a dual channel MoBo, you should always install RAM in quantities of 2 .... you must be able to match, speed and timings in order for this to work and even then, stability is not guaranteed unless all 4 came in the same package. At lower speeds, you can usually get it to work, bit tougher at higher speeds.
 
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Shaun o

Shaun o

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Oct 7, 2007
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If you have two ram memory modules fitted to the board, and have four memory slots buy another 2 x 2Gb kit of memory sticks.

Why because the current memory mode you are running with the existing 2 x 2GB is dual channel memory mode.

If you insert another single stick of memory of 4Gb into the third memory slot it will force the motherboard memory controller to default to single channel memory mode.

That is slower and has a smaller data bus width of 64 bits of data per clock cycle of the memory.

Where as memory set up in dual channel memory mode works at 128 bits wide of memory data bus width per memory clock cycle.

Twice as much data processed in one clock cycle of the memory. 64+64 =128 bits of data.
Another 2 x 2Gb sticks of memory without question, to keep the configuration in dual channel memory mode on the motherboard memory controller.


 
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Solution
JackNaylorPE

JackNaylorPE

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theoretically true but application testing shows, outside of memory benchmarks, the increase to be gained ss about 5%

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-channel_memory_architecture#Dual-channel_architecture

Tom's Hardware found little significant difference between single-channel and dual-channel configurations in synthetic and gaming benchmarks (using a "modern (2007)" system setup). In its tests, dual channel gave at best a 5% speed increase in memory-intensive tasks.[7] Another comparison by Laptop logic resulted in a similar conclusion for integrated graphics.[8] The test results published by Tom's Hardware had a discrete graphics comparison.
Click to expand...

I lost a 2400 stick on my CAD workstation and it took me weeks to notice :)
 
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