2 slower sticks of RAM or 1 faster stick of RAM?

Clockwork Catz · May 16, 2017

So I'm shopping for 8gb of RAM and I'm sort of on a budget. I know that two sticks vs one stick at the same speed the two stick is better but I'm wondering if 2x4gb DDR4 RAM at 2133 is better than one DDR4 8gb stick at 2400, 2800 or 3000? Also how much does Cas latency matter, specifically 15 vs 16 vs 17? Thanks!

Dave8671 · May 16, 2017

We would need to know your motherboard model to help. If you have duel channel ram than you need to sticks. As for cas latency lower is better. Look here for this info.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAS_latency

Clockwork Catz · May 17, 2017

Dave8671 :

This is the motherboard model https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128972&ignorebbr=1 I know lower is better but I'm just wondering how much better, how much more is it worth to pay for 15 instead of 16 or 16 instead of 17? How much will it affect gaming or just browsing the web? Thanks for the quick reply.

Btw it says it is dual channel, does that mean I HAVE to have two or four sticks of RAM or it just means it supports it?

thx1138v2 · May 17, 2017

Clockwork Catz :

No, you don't have to have 2 RAM modules. You will, however, lose the dual channel feature which makes RAM effectively twice as fast if you only use one module.

The actual clock frequencies are half of the speed advertised, i.e. 2400 would actually be running at 1200 but would appear to be running 2400 when the dual channel feature is enabled. Without the dual channel feature enabled you'll get the 1200 and there's no way to enable the dual channel feature with just one module.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-dual-triple-and-quad-channel-memory-architectures/2/

So 2X4Gb@2133 is better than 1X8Gb that will actually be running at 1200 without the dual channel feature.

Clockwork Catz · May 17, 2017

thx1138v2 :

Clockwork Catz :

No, you don't have to have 2 RAM modules. You will, however, lose the dual channel feature which makes RAM effectively twice as fast if you only use one module.

The actual clock frequencies are half of the speed advertised, i.e. 2400 would actually be running at 1200 but would appear to be running 2400 when the dual channel feature is enabled. Without the dual channel feature enabled you'll get the 1200 and there's no way to enable the dual channel feature with just one module.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-dual-triple-and-quad-channel-memory-architectures/2/

So 2X4Gb@2133 is better than 1X8Gb that will actually be running at 1200 without the dual channel feature.

Thanks! That pretty much answered my question. Do you have any idea how much its worth to pay for 15 or 16 Cas latency instead of 17 though?

Dave8671 · May 17, 2017

Clockwork Catz :

The mobo has quad channel. The board has 8 slots. Most of the time the slots are color coded as to the type read the manual. As for the latency you not really notice it. Just go as low as you can afford.

thx1138v2 · May 18, 2017

Clockwork Catz :

You likely won't notice the difference when actually using the machine. There is so much else that goes into the performance that the minor change in DRAM CAS gets buried under other things that affect performance more.

That might not be true if you run something that takes hours to complete and is heavily DRAM dependent. In that case the task mike finish slightly faster.

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