Three Channel vs Quad Channel, Is It A Big Enough Difference For Gaming?

[mnewby]

Currently I am running three channel 2400Mhz DDR4 3x8GB RAM.

Is it worth the $279 upgrade for a new quad channel kit? Same specs.
This would be for gaming purposes. Is the increase noticeable from three channel to quad?

My original RAM is no longer manufactured making it impossible to match together a new stick.

 

[lucas_7_94]

No.

 

[Rexper]

No motherboard supports triple channel. I doubt yours support quad channel either.
They'll both run in dual channel, though one stick in that triple set will run as single channel.

 

[13thmonkey]

No motherboard supports triple channel. I doubt yours support quad channel either.
They'll both run in dual channel, though one stick in that triple set will run as single channel.

not strictly true, i7-900's used triple channel, but they are rare.

Your point of, just having 3 sticks doesn't make it triple channel, is however true.

 

[Rexper]

No motherboard supports triple channel. I doubt yours support quad channel either.
They'll both run in dual channel, though one stick in that triple set will run as single channel.

not strictly true, i7-900's used triple channel, but they are rare.

Your point of, just having 3 sticks doesn't make it triple channel, is however true.

Didn't know that. Though, OP mentions DDR4, and I dont believe any DDR4 supportive motherboards also support triple channel.

Nowadays, mainstream platform like AM4 (Ryzen CPUs) and LGA 1151 (Skylake / kaby lake) only support up to dual channel. While higher end platforms support quad channel.

For anyone still interested, I suggest this as a resource: https://pcpartpicker.com/forums/topic/225588-main-memory-a-primer

Also, OP I suggest only upgrading ram if you need more capacity. And when doing so, you can just buy another stick rather than a whole new set (though no 100% guarantees it will be fully compatible).

 

[13thmonkey]

I stand corrected, ddr4 is mentioned, and I don't believe that there are any of those.

 

[mnewby]

I just know that Speccy, task manager, and dxdiag say that I have 24GB of Memory, or 3x8GB. In the user manual for my Mobo however, it does not say that it supports three channel.

My Mobo & CPU:
Gigabyte X99P-Sli
i7-5930k

edit: photo
https://i.gyazo.com/95b528f1567b42a6dacc0dd521480938.png

 

[13thmonkey]

OK, you are in triple channel, BUT mobo's and CPU's only support Dual, Triple or Quad, so you can't change to quad, an dthey only suppor DDR3 or DDR4, so you can't change from DDR3 to DDR4 either.

However as noted above, there is no benefit to be gained.

 

[mnewby]

OK, you are in triple channel, BUT mobo's and CPU's only support Dual, Triple or Quad, so you can't change to quad, an dthey only suppor DDR3 or DDR4, so you can't change from DDR3 to DDR4 either.

However as noted above, there is no benefit to be gained.

Well actually both my Mobo and CPU support quad channel. It was just a question of whether or not it's worth it money wise.

 

[Rexper]

That isn't entirely true. A motherboard that does support quad channel, normally also supports dual channel (if only 2 sticks installed) and single channel (if single stick installed).

That X99 motherboard supports DDR4 and Quad Channel. But not Triple channel. Right now you are running at double channel + single channel. Adding one more stick will result in quad channel.

Though I have not yet seen any reliable sources testing quad channel ram performance in game vs dual channel. Though the difference is definitely not worth $200+, or the hassle of selling your kit.

 

[13thmonkey]

I'd say not, 5% improvement maybe.

Very surprised to see a 2014 processor using DDR4, very surprised to see the ram being recognised as being in triple channel (suspect speccy is reading it wrong) as ram is normally in single channel or the number of channels supported, nothing in between.