Should I add another stick of RAM?

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Jacob_107

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Aug 14, 2016
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Hi there,
I would like to ask for help about deciding about whether I should add another stick of RAM or not. I currently got 16GB with the speed of 2133MHz from Kingston FURY so is it worth buying another one? Will it be useful also if I would be putting it in a new build or would the speeds be too slow in the next 2-3 years? Will it be Futureproof? Not too sure if it's worth buying another stick with this speed as there are already sticks with the speeds of 3200MHz etc but those are probably used in servers I guess... If you need more info just ask... Thank you
 
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You will have a hard time finding any server that uses RAM faster than DDR4-2400 as (serious) servers heavily favor reliability over performance and DDR4 speeds above 2400 do not officially exist as far as JEDEC specs and CPU vendors are concerned. Speeds above that require overclocking, which is always at your own risk. That typically doesn't happen on anything remotely close to a production server.

If you currently have 1x16GB and are asking if you should get a 2nd 16GB DIMM, then yes, as that would mean going from single-channel to dual-channel for double the memory bandwidth which will give you 5-10% more performance in...
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banker

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May 21, 2016
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16gb of ram is the sweet spot for gaming, I wouldn't buy more also ram speed doesn't really matter for games either, more/ higher ram speeds are better for things like encoding or editing
 
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Jacob_107

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Well, yeah I totally agree with you but my main question is how futureproof is one stick of 16GB RAM with the speed of 2133MHz...? To be honest I have no idea how will the technology change in 2-5 years so it can be hard to tell.. But also I'm confused why does it tell that my RAM is only running on about 1000MHz? When I use softwares such as Speecy etc etc it doesn't tell me the right speed and I don't think it's showing the actual speed being used so I have no idea...
 
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banker

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in the future ddr5 will be out, I would say just get more memory if you NEED it, since right now you don't need it, don't worry about it, will games in the future use more memory, maybe but right now, no, so I would say don't get more memory right now
 
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aquielisunari

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Mar 31, 2011
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No.

Why? https://s5.postimg.org/t4ajhopvb/Far_Cry4_2016_11_08_22_14_29_543.jpg I can see(a couple years ago) I am not even close to 8GB of RAM usage. You can see how much RAM your system is using while gaming using MSI Afterburner. It will be much less than 16. What's your motherboard? Does it say dual channel within the specs? I can almost guarantee it does. That means RAM modules are installed in multiples of 2. That means if you do upgrade you should install 2 more modules and not just one. But I doubt you NEED more RAM so that's moot at this point.
 
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thx1138v2

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Jun 18, 2011
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If you're not running out of memory, you don't need another RAM module.

Reasons not to add it:
It may or may not work. That's why RAM is sold in "kits" - the kits are guaranteed to work together.

You didn't say whether your current RAM is 1X16GB or 2X8GB. Assuming you have a double channel motherboard, if you are using 2X8GB and you add a third module, you will lose the double channel feature which makes the RAM effectively twice as fast.

Nothing is future proof. With Optane on the horizon RAM is even less future proof. Forget the concept of "future proof".

Now there might be a benefit if you have a dual channel motherboard and you are running a single 1X16GB RAM module. IF the two modules do work together AND they have the same density, speed, and timings, and that's a huge "if", you would enable the dual channel feature of your motherboard.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/memory-upgrade/
 
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Titan
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May 18, 2007
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You will have a hard time finding any server that uses RAM faster than DDR4-2400 as (serious) servers heavily favor reliability over performance and DDR4 speeds above 2400 do not officially exist as far as JEDEC specs and CPU vendors are concerned. Speeds above that require overclocking, which is always at your own risk. That typically doesn't happen on anything remotely close to a production server.

If you currently have 1x16GB and are asking if you should get a 2nd 16GB DIMM, then yes, as that would mean going from single-channel to dual-channel for double the memory bandwidth which will give you 5-10% more performance in many everyday tasks and games. If you have 2x8GB and want to add 1x16GB, then performance may suffer due to non-uniform memory layout between channels.
 
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Jacob_107

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Yes, I'm currently running 1x16GB and my motherboard is a dual channel one which supports up to 32GB..
Btw my full specs are here: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/FWkwXH
 
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Jacob_107

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Aug 14, 2016
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Yes, I'm currently running 1x16GB and my motherboard is a dual channel one which supports up to 32GB..
Btw my full specs are here: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/FWkwXH
 
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InvalidError

Titan
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May 18, 2007
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Then your best two options are:
1- get another identical DIMM if you can and hope you don't run into weird compatibility issues due to fabrication variance between batches
2- sell your existing 16GB and get a dual-channel kit to replace it, which gives you many more DIMM options to choose from
 
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