Are 4 dimms ok on Ryzen?

Soldato
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Sorry for the annoying predictable question amongst all the others, but I'm curiously if people have thoughts on this.

I'm thinking about buying some more memory, I already have this figured I'd just get some more.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...3200mhz-dual-channel-kit-black-my-08l-tg.html

However I've seen these this is on offer and am tempted.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...00c16-3600mhz-dual-channel-kit-my-002-8p.html

Are 2 dimms better than 4? Would I get worse unstable performance with 4?
 
Soldato
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Are 2 dimms better than 4? Would I get worse unstable performance with 4?
Two single ranked DIMMs is better than four single ranked DIMMs. What you're talking about here is four single ranked DIMMs vs two dual ranked DIMMs which are roughly equivalent.

Whether you'd benefit from having 3600MHz instead of 3200MHz memory will depend on the motherboard and which generation of Ryzen you have.
 
Man of Honour
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4 DIMMs does change the max memory clock, especially with 1st and 2nd gen. If you have 3rd gen it'll probably be okay at 3200, but you may have to raise voltages.
 
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4x8GB @3600MHz on mine, intitially had a weird issue where setting XMP did not set voltage correctly, but after a BIOS flash / reset down the line I enabled XMP again and it worked out the box. This particular kit isn't on the QVL either.
 
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No problem here running 4x8Gb at 3600 CL14 on x570/3900X but I am using B-die.

Would strongly recommend using ryzen dram calc with the options set to 4 sticks to tweak the settings.
 
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Thanks for the replies.

I have the same RAM on a 2700X. 2 DIMMs will run Fast settings at 3200MHz.

4 DIMMs will only do straight DOCP at 2933... take from that what you will.

I have the same motherboard and cpu so I'm limited to that speed I'm guessing its not that much of a drop in performance though.

I'm possibly going to get one of the new 4th gen Ryzen cpu's with a x570 motherboard when they are released. So maybe its better to go with the faster 2 dimms for more future proof though.
 
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Thanks for the replies.



I have the same motherboard and cpu so I'm limited to that speed I'm guessing its not that much of a drop in performance though.

I'm possibly going to get one of the new 4th gen Ryzen cpu's with a x570 motherboard when they are released. So maybe its better to go with the faster 2 dimms for more future proof though.

You never know. Silicon lottery being what it is, maybe your chip has a better memory controller than mine, who knows? Try it at 3200 (give it about 1.38 on the mem volts) and see what happens- it might work.
I did get mine going at 3200/4 DIMMs for a while, but it was erratic and bluescreened a lot. 2933 at DOCP is good, and day-to-day not noticeable, but the knowledge that I've traded useful performance for extra Gigs which I have no real need for is an annoying quandary.
Knocking the infinity fabric down 133MHz (1600 to 1467) is a direct effect, so you'll bench slightly lower, but general performance is still perfectly good enough.
 
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I run 4 sticks here that are 3200cl14. Though for the most part have had no trouble running them at 3600cl16. B-die, 3900x, Asrock x570 Taichi.
 
Soldato
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I moved 4 sticks of Team Group 3200mhz ram (4x8 gig) to a ryzen tomahawk max mobo (latest bios)
Refused to boot with all 4 in. Took 2 out worked fine. Swapped them about but only the 2 would boot.
Had two Corsair 3200 mhz 8 gig sticks (near identical timings) and populated the spare 2 slots along with two of the Team group 8 gig sticks.
Booted fine and all good with xmp profile.
Odd but I've had this with Intel boards so sometimes it's just random or luck with populating all 4 slots.
 
Soldato
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Some BIOS versions are unstable when using 4 sticks of high frequency RAM with my Gigabyte X570 Master causing random restarts in Memtest. The latest BIOS F20 being one of them, which is why I have had to go back to the stable F10 to get my 32GB Crucial Ballistix 3600MHz RAM (4*8GB) working.

Four sticks can be a bit of a headache but I knew that going in, it depends on the quality of your CPU's memory controller and to a lesser extent the motherboard.
 
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0 issues with 4x8 here, makes 0 difference in last 3 years on a 1600, 3600x and a 3900 now. Running the 8pack 3200mhz kit, had it OCed up to 3900mhz with all 4 sticks. Now running it on c16 3600mhz with no issues.
 
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Thanks for the all the help. I think I'm going to go with the 2 dimms they are more expensive but faster and hopefully less hassle.
 
Soldato
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Another quick question if the 3600mhz memory is unable to run at that speed on the XMP profile will it just auto set it lower like 3400mhz or something, or will I have to figure out the mhz and the timings manually.
 
Man of Honour
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If it can't even boot usually it will be reset to stock. XMP doesn't have the intelligence to choose a lower (more stable) setting if the board enables XMP, unless the board forbids it from running at a given frequency (AMD boards don't do that, but Intel do).
 
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