AMD Ryzen: 4 vs. 2 Sticks of RAM on R5 5600X for Up to 10% Better Performance
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- Опубліковано 6 лип 2024
- This benchmark started as an AMD Ryzen 5000 memory timings and frequency benchmark (like of 3600 vs. 3200, 3800, with FCLK changes), but morphed into a 2x8GB vs. 4x8GB benchmark.
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Watch our AMD R5 5600X CPU review: • AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU ...
Watch our AMD R9 5950X CPU review: • RIP Intel: AMD Ryzen 9...
Watch our AMD R9 5900X CPU review: • Multikill: AMD Ryzen 9...
Watch our AMD R7 5800X CPU review: • Friendly Fire: AMD Ryz...
This didn't used to matter (much) on previous AMD platforms; in fact, running 2 sticks of RAM was sometimes better because it'd be easier to stabilize the tighter timings and higher frequencies than running 4 sticks of RAM. Now, with Zen 3 and the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, R9 5900X, R7 5800X, and Ryzen 5 5600X, it's become clear that 2x8GB vs. 4x8GB can impact performance, although this may not carry to other capacities as you exit single-rank configurations. In this benchmarking we're looking at several kits of memory in the beginnings of a "best memory" performance round-up for Zen 3, but we broke it into an initial 2x vs. 4x stick test.
CPU Testing Methodology (this has been updated for FFMPEG, new Windows, and with an EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3, but is otherwise the same): • New CPU Test Methodolo...
Article version of CPU testing methodology: www.gamersnexus.net/guides/35...
RELATED PRODUCTS
The AMD R9 5950X should be on Amazon here: geni.us/cBJGAl
AMD R9 5900X CPU will be on Amazon here: geni.us/Qkrt8e
AMD R7 5800X CPU will be on Amazon here: geni.us/yoZvN
AMD R5 5600X CPU will be on Amazon here: geni.us/AYhB
Intel Core i9-10900K on Amazon here: geni.us/Tps89G0
Intel Core i5-10600K on Amazon here: geni.us/9xEIUZ
AMD R9 3950X on Amazon here: geni.us/LynCy
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Accidental Discovery: 2 vs. 4 Sticks of RAM on Zen 3
01:30 - Controlling Memory for Reviews is Important
06:34 - It's Not Memory Utilization
06:51 - Important Explanation & Shadow of the Tomb Raider
09:26 - F1 2020 Memory Speed & Timings Test for AMD Ryzen 5600X
11:10 - Three Kingdoms (Battle) AMD Zen 3 Memory Benchmarks
13:02 - Three Kingdoms (Campaign) AMD RAM Benchmarks
15:15 - The Division 2 AMD R5 5600X Memory Test
16:55 - GTA V 2 vs. 4 Sticks of RAM
17:59 - Red Dead Redemption 2 Memory Differences Test
19:16 - 7-Zip (Compression/Decompression)
20:29 - Intel 2 vs. 4 Sticks Memory (Tomb Raider)
20:56 - Intel F1 2020 2 vs. 4 Sticks
21:08 - Conclusion: This Doesn't Mean It's Always Better!
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Host, Editorial: Steve Burke
Testing, Editorial: Patrick Lathan
Video: Keegan Gallick - Ігри
Yes, we know it's to do with ranks. As stated, we have another video coming up with more detail. Everything is rushed with a launch. Re: Speaking with Wendell, we'll hopefully be doing something next week! He seems to indicate 2x16GB is a sweet spot, so we'll talk with him more about that soon and hope to feature him in a video!
Watch our AMD R5 5600X CPU review: ua-cam.com/video/01EhbmJAW-k/v-deo.html
Watch our AMD R9 5950X CPU review: ua-cam.com/video/72AHENDeTEI/v-deo.html
Watch our AMD R9 5900X CPU review: ua-cam.com/video/utWSSlyabjc/v-deo.html
Watch our AMD R7 5800X CPU review: ua-cam.com/video/6x2BYNimNOU/v-deo.html
Just got done watching the last one (5600X) and saw this pop up, was planning to just go to bed, but eh. I'll crank another one out.
Another great video. Cheers Steveo mate.
What was tLDW set to?
😉
@Gamers Nexus 2 sticks of Dual rank memory will do the same, Tom's did nice review about that on zen 2.
The problem is that it's sometimes hard to know if the memory you are buying is single or dual rank.
I mean, you're still getting their view right? Jokes on them when someone flames them xD
Everyone knows that peak performance is achieved with 1 stick of RAM and 3 Corsair RGB dummy sticks
I genuinely just had to Google that because I didn’t believe that was an actual thing.
Really huh?
@@brindaraka5899 yeah, im running that with my threadripper and 3090
But what timing and colour configuration should be applied to those spacer sticks? We need answers!
@@theevilmuppet 2
Hi guys,
I love the channel, but have recently started losing my hearing gradually, this has made me notice that you don't have any annotations on your channel, please could you add these for your videos in future so I can continue to enjoy your channel?
help this man
Ohh man, there is really no CC. Not good.
In the mean time you can use IBM's Watson Speech to Text free for up to 500 minutes a month. My wife uses it to transcribe whole presentations. Results will vary based on the person's voice.
ODD... this is a choice when setting up the video to youtube... just a checkbox (English by UA-cam (automatic))
like why not just allow autocaptions
The human eye can't even see more than 2 sticks per second.
Lol the difference between 100fps and 1,000,000fps is null the human is the limiting hardware
The verge pc building guy😂😂
😂😂😂😂😂 Does he know you made this account???
Woah! Stefan! I put an entire tube of thermal grizzly in the socket just like you said! Thanks for the tip. You're totally right about those those two sticks per second. I can only see one.
Stefan Etienne it's true, we got one!
Me on my 16gbs of ddr3: I like your words magic man
What? I can't hear you all the way down here on ddr2
I used to use a Notebook with DDR RAM
@@webdude15 You have to speak up, I can't hear you over my 64GB of RGB DDR4
@@Renegade0056 (whispering) damn, i cant speak up my wallet isnt full enough :(
Upgrade bro, I just got a 3600 MHz 2x8 CL14 timing G.Skilk Trident Z dimms
It looks like it's NO SLEEP NOVEMBER for you guys.
Really appreciate all the content!.
Don't forget the few more wk amd gpu launch.
Im just in Normal Neck November
So they literally have to do benchmarks for the 5600x, 5800x, 5900x and 5950x with 3200,3400,3600,3800 & 4000 mhz ram with latencies varying from 14,15,16,17 to 18? All in difference configurations of 8x2, 8x4, 16x2 and 16x4... Wow they have to redo A LOT OF BENCHMARKS.
Well said. Incredible efforts.
@@iamLODD plus their benchmark suit now has to change with AMD basically being all round better now.
Only Gamer's Nexus could make a 27 minute video on the difference between 2 sticks of ram and 4 sticks of ram.
what was his conclusion?- i play all vids at 2x and missed it.
@@randymarsh3432 just consider anything featuring Steve talking to already be playing at 2x already.
And that's why I watch their stuff. Comprehensive.
😂😂😂
And we looovveee it
4xDIMMs single rank will be dual rank and that gives a performance boost sometimes, this is because the memory controller access them as dual rank memory on two channels. Basically the controller is dual channel but you can have single, dual and quad ranks. Ranks allow you to increase the amount of memory. Channels, dual channel means two command and data busses. A memory rank is a set of DRAM chips connected to the same chip select, which are therefore accessed simultaneously. In practice all DRAM chips share all of the other command and control signals, and only the chip select pins for each rank are separate (the data pins are shared across ranks).
Modern memory devices are organized into ranks and each rank is divided into multiple banks, which can be accessed in parallel provided that no collisions occur on either buses. The two buses can be used in parallel: a request of one requestor can use the command bus while a request of another requestor uses the data bus. However, no more than one request can use the command bus (or data bus) at the same time.
So each single ranked memory module can be connected as a single rank at each dimm slot. This means each rank has it own circuit. Say you have a Dual Rank memory module. You can only access one rank at a time because they both share the same circuit. When you select one rank, you cant select the second.
Now with dual rank memory you can send commands to one rank and read data from the other rank. If they have their own circuits.
In addition, modern systems can have multiple memory channels (i.e. multiple command and data bus). Each channel can be treated independently or they could be interleaved together. This means with 4xDIMMs single ranked. One channel can access one rank (first two slots) and the second can access the second rank (slot three and four). This means you can read form one rank and write to the other rank. Or read from both ranks at the same time. You cant do this if the first two slots have dual ranked ram. This is because both ranks share the same circuit. You can select only one rank at a time on the memory module. The chip select is the own difference on the PCB. The data circuit goes to both ranks on the RAM PCB. This implies to access one, you become locked out of the other.
Many dual rank kits have poor timings, like CL16 and CL18. With a dual rank kit, there are normally chips on each size of the PCB (While most often the number of sides used to carry RAM chips corresponded to the number of ranks, sometimes they did not). So to get around the poor times of dual rank kits, you can run for example two single rank kits (4xDIMMs). So all of your 4 x DIMM slots are full. With my motherboard that means 3600MT/s dual Rank CL14 with decent b-die memory. This nets me near to ~800 point more in time spy cpu. I hit 15k approx. with a 10900k. My latency increases from 42ns single rank to 47ns dual rank as expected. This is with a CR of 2, so this would be better on a better motherboard than mine.
I am no RAM expert but that what I got from A Composable Worst Case Latency Analysis for Multi-Rank DRAM Devices under Open Row Policy white paper. Zheng PeiWu - Rodolfo Pellizzoni - Danlu Guo
ummm tl:dr?
@@raptorhacker599 indeed.
@@GodKitty677 my man can you please summarize so my ape brain can comprehend this
@@neidhartmuller8804 Run dual channel by throwing 4 sticks of single rank memory sticks to your mobo, second option, 2 sticks of dual rank ram. Don’t be that fool running quad channel on mediocre cpu, unless you got threadripper
"I am no RAM expert".. If it talks like a ram expert, and it looks like a ram expert....
Hey GN. It's been a busy couple of months with several launches and you're work is excellent. I revisited this video and there clearly is a gain on 4 RAM sticks vs 2 however, reading into memory overclocking recently, I found out that it could also be a characteristic of the motherboard and it's memory trace layout/topology rather than. Exploring this subject would help clarify (although it is complex) the decision making for RAM sticks (frequency, latency, true first word latency & quantity of sticks) when people make their decisions in buying RAM to match their Zen3 chip/motherboard combinaison.
Well, this explains why some reviewers had Zen 3 performing on average on par with Intel, whereas others had it performing 10% better.
Yep. Totally makes sense now.
they literally have to do benchmarks for the 5600x, 5800x, 5900x and 5950x with 3200,3400,3600,3800 & 4000 mhz ram with latencies varying from 14,15,16,17 to 18? All in difference configurations of 8x2, 8x4, 16x2 and 16x4... Wow they have to redo A LOT OF BENCHMARKS.
@@iamLODD I'm surprised AMD didn't brief press about this in their architecture day... Instead they just let outlets discover it for themselves.
@@iamLODD No one has to "redo" anything. It's all fine as long as the testing details what is used. What a bizarre overreaction.
@@georgelopez9411 Just wait until reviewers get to play with S.A.M.
When the big and experienced tech UA-camrs need tech support, they call Wendell and I think that's beautiful.
I have a selfie with Donald Trump - can we trade?
Nice seeing you around after Robocraft Baerentoeter
I remember reading something about that in a pc parts manual so not 100% surprised by your result.
A pleasure to watch you in action!
You guys, Wendell and Buildzoid. Best tech guys on youtube, seriously. Glad you see you get them involved in the show Gamers Nexus.
If Steve ever wants to switch jobs, he can easily be an auctioneer.
Jeeze I made it 15 seconds in and I couldn't listen. Like I'm sure I could figure out all the words he says, but the mumbling and slurring is hard to listen to.
lol
Listen to Steve at 0.75 speed and he's my favorite drunk.
@@TheMikeyb86 that sounds like the best way to spend the rest of my afternoon.
I can't listen to him on anything other than 2.0 speed (or most YT'ers for that matter). I guess I'm acclimated. I also don't want to watch 45min-3hr videos.. lol
Thank you so much for clarifying that all memory can be ran dual or quad! Online stores always made it seem like they were special SKUs.
Building and selling high performance servers we have seen this difference for several years. As dram chip sizes got larger, single rank dimm became more common and a memory channel with only one dram rank performs 10-20% worse than configs where there are two or more ranks on each channel.
GN should see if they can find 2 dimm set of 16gb dimm a with two ranks on each dimm (16 or 18 chips on the pcb with 8 or 9 on each side) and see if they get the same performance as 4 sticks
Fantastic testing, I was just thinking this - lots of benchmark differences in some cases, memory certainly a factor. Thank you!
Big fan of yours, its fun to see you commenting here!
@@alexandreparent5754 nice to see you here too!
@@ClassicalTechnology So they literally have to do benchmarks for the 5600x, 5800x, 5900x and 5950x with 3200,3400,3600,3800 & 4000 mhz ram with latencies varying from 14,15,16,17 to 18? All in difference configurations of 8x2, 8x4, 16x2 and 16x4... Wow they have to redo A LOT OF BENCHMARKS.
All I'm thinking during this video is: If size doesn't matter, only the number of sticks, does 4x4gb run better than 2x8gb then?
@@shuffleducky7803 yes, weirdly yes
every time I watch one of these videos, I have to remind myself that my system performs just fine for my needs, and I have better things to spend the money on. But, but, those frames 🥺
Someday. 😉
Mine doesn't quite, but I'm waiting it out, anyway. I've been going through my 3DS, and Steam/GoG retro and indie, backlogs, instead of getting a new PC 😁.
I literally just went but another 2 sticks of ram just because of this video lmao
That's me buying a 5800x then coming home to look up videos about the 5800x3d .. Gotta tell myself to cut it out
I just wanna know if i can put 8x4 stick for 32gb, then i buy it... it look ugly if there's is empty slot..
I'd love to see a comparison of a single CPU (say the 5800X or 5900X) and it running DDR in 2x8gb, 4x8gb, 2x16, 4x16, 2x32, and 4x32 (the max for most MBs) just to see what the differences might be (you could even toss in 1x16 and 1x32 if bored :). You might have to standardize to a CL16, but I'm curious if going higher in total RAM and its configuration has any impact (positive or negative).
Would love that also at cl14.
Really interesting. Thanks for the info Steve and the rest of GN. Looking forward to watching a few more tests on memory config, but it's looking like 4 x CL16 at 3600MHz is the sweet spot again? Wonder how speed vs latency pans out this time too!
Steve : Finds out about memory behavior
AMD : It's not a bug, it's a feature.
hidden feature.. or easter egg
Well, it's weird, but way better than the other way around.
Probably both
@Cthulhu hahaha, goes well with your avatar
@@OneTwoThree225 this was for zen2 already. It has been known for a long time
I was LITERALLY googling for this answer earlier today! Thank you Steve & co.!!
Same here
This is crazy considering my 2700x X470 can't handle 4 sticks at 3200 (XMP) but can with 2 sticks. It's good to see 4 stick configurations doing better.
Thanks, this helps with my memory purchasing plans going forward for a 5600X when stock is replenished. Hopefully you will consider using the 8x2 and 8x4 configs with testing the 6800/6900 and RTX 3000. I appreciate and love all you do and share with us!
im buying the 5600x u bought 8x4? did u had problems with it ?
Whether we're talking single- or dual-rank DIMMS, using four sticks has some advantages of using two: Populating all four slots ensures you have the sticks in the right slots w/o reading the manual, and it looks cool.
Harder to overclock tho.
Monos have diagrams, at least mine have.
@@rammwurst360 i mean you probably have no business ocing ram if you can't remember which slots to put your sticks in...
I cant wait to see these test done on the gen 3 cpus with the new radeon gpu like the 6800xt 😳 , can't wait to see that full team red config with the 4x8 1:1:1 kit trident z!👑
I was curious about this recently, sick work sir.
Thanks for giving me an excuse for 2 more sticks. Seriously, was on the fence
Only have 2x8GB in my new rig with 5800X - was contemplating getting another 2x8, or hold out til proper update down the line, so this vid has perfect timing
Buildzoid has a video (~ 4 weeks ago) that seems very related to this topic. This could to be from the difference in the memory rank, where 2 sticks is 1 rank per channel vs. 4 sticks being 2 ranks per channel. The memory controller can interleave the allocated memory which can allow 1 rank to be read while the other fetches some requested data. If this is the same as what you've observed, then I believe this is also present in zen 2. Not sure if intel also has this feature.
Edit: this would also explain why Wendell suggests 2x16GB to be the sweet spot since most (all?) 16 GB memory sticks are just 2 ranks of memory on 1 stick and are essentially the same as 2x8GB as far as the memory controller is concerned (OC stability concerns aside).
Rank interleaving has been around for decades, it's nothing new.
@@Walrusbonzo I'm wondering why they posted it only now
Intel also has memory rank interleaving. It's been around since the original DDR.
its a dual channel motherboard in this vid right?
@@0cards0 yep
This is why I got your Beer mat and mouse/keyboard mat to support your deep dives into tec that you do thanks once again.
Thank you so much for this video. I have an R5 5600X, just like in the test, and G.Skill Trident Z RGB ram, just like in the test (though mine is 3600 CL16). I started with 2x16 and just bought and installed another set of 2x16 to make 4x16, all because of this video.
lmao WRONG. 1x16GB RAM is usually dual rank already, noob.
Steve are you a cyborg who doesn't sleep?
It’s a miracle which makes sense for Tech Jesus
Higher is better, more consistent is
This is clone #4, original Steve is currently on vacation.
@@TheMonthlyJack Actually, the original Steve died from exhaustion, but don't worry, he'll respawn in 3 days.
Easy to not sleep when getting new hardware, especially so close to the year-end Holiday season makes you feel young again... like a kid in a candy store...... like a kid in a well-stocked computer hardware store.
Hey Steve I got my bar runner earlier today! I love it thank you!
Awesome to hear that!
@@GamersNexus Waiting for you next video explaining every one about Dual Rank and Single Rank memory affect on Ryzen, this is what you found in this video - dual rank 2*16GB gonna perform the same as 4*8gb.
Also maybe you can ask why memory vendor's don't list this info on the product page and mostly you need to check MB QVL list to see if the memory is SR or DR.
@@hwgeek86 it’s honestly strange to me that Steve is making this sound like new behavior. This exact same behavior is seen in Zen 2 where having two dual rank sticks or four single rank sticks gives a similar boost to performance because of improved memory latency. Honestly disappointing to see Steve hype this as a new thing when it’s been very well documented
@@syenosis Interleaving usually doesn't provide this much gains though. Mostly it was 2-3%. However sometimes you could achieve tighter timings on 2 total ranks than 4 thus out performing the interleaving. (depending on cpu/dimms of course). But this radical of performance difference means 2 total ranks are now dead.
@@syenosis I was also surprised to see this video, it should not be a news for him, it's old news: tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-ryzen-3000-best-memory-timings,6310-2.html
Great video, and you rock as always, find out this first!
Omg exactly the question I asked myself. Thank you !!
Zen 3: *Run faster with 4 sticks RAM*
RAM store stocks: *chuckle* I'm in danger
My wallet is in danger too
XD legend
@ Yes, it is cheaper to get 2x16.
Less latecy = Better = more expensive
So they literally have to do benchmarks for the 5600x, 5800x, 5900x and 5950x with 3200,3400,3600,3800 & 4000 mhz ram with latencies varying from 14,15,16,17 to 18? All in difference configurations of 8x2, 8x4, 16x2 and 16x4... Wow they have to redo A LOT OF BENCHMARKS.
@ i have 2x8 now and I will upgrade to 4x8.
''Accidentally'' 👌🏻😂
Nothing gets past Steve and the GN crew!
A really impressive video. Steve and GN showed today that how reliable their benchmarking methodology is. The attention to detail from you guys is off the charts. I have been a sub for 2-3 years. I have subbed for life. :)
For some reason, even though I know exactly what Steve is saying during these benchmarks, my brain just can't keep up with the actual words, but somehow I still understand everything.
It's like the words just bypass the conscious part of my brain.
It's a trip!
I’d like to see an in-depth look into the best memory config with a set amount. 1x16GB, 2x8GB, and 4x4GB
Hey dont forget 8x2GB!
1x16gb is already ruled out because that would only run single channel. You should have 2 ram sticks at least.
memory guy here. the more sticks the better, as it gives you more concurrency, and more memory banks to respond to requests (thereby reducing latency)
1x16 would not make any sense to run.
@@eeeealmo To an extent. In past generations, it was better to run fewer sticks in order to achieve more stable frequencies and timings -- particularly on Zen 1, where it was tough to stabilize past 3000MHz initially.
Try testing dual rank sticks! It's likely the performance will go up some more!
Exactly my thoughts. Each stick has a rank prolly there's a difference with 4v2. With a max upto 4 ranks per channel would be really interesting. But the timings being looser could be a reduction in performance without more volts and tightening timings.
@@ISO-ex2lg My 9900k also performed better with 4 SR vs 2 SR. You do have to ensure rank interleaving is turned on in the BIOS. It's not just AMD from my experience.
Can you name some RAM dual rank modules? I'm looking for some info and tests with them.
I'm confused because some say 2 dual rank sticks is even better than 4 single rank sticks. So right now I'm torn between Trident Z Neo 3600MHz CL14 4x8GB SR vs Trident Z Neo 3200MHz CL14 2x16GB DR. Which peforms better on a 5600x? In other words, Dual rank vs +400mhz, which is more important?
@@grzadzr Most 2x16GB kits are dual rank. There are some exceptions like the new high speed 2x16 kits from Crucial.
The absolute best 2x16GB kits you can buy are the new 4266C17 kits from GSkill. On Ryzen, you would have to run them below XMP frequency though, as the infinity fabric can't go that high.
typically a quad channel kit will all be produced on the same prod line, exact same chip config for optimal compatibility in quad channel. You can get in sub optimal state with separate kits that may have not have exact same chips/chip configs. But yes as long as the ram sticks don't have too much variation, you can run four random sticks and you may still get quad channel stable.
I have MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX.
I had 8x4 DDR4 Kits and they were highly unstable even at 2133.
So now I have 16x2 (32GB) dual channel.
This is my message to everyone who owns MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX, get yourself dual channel memory and make your life easy.
Dude, never use 4 memories in a b450/b550/b650, those cards only have 2 efficient lanes, that means only 2 memories can run fast and the other two are standard. You have to go for an X570/X670, etc to use 4 clubs.
@@m1gu32011 Thank you! You saved me a lot of time!
Bless you for doing this, I've been wondering this for my new build.
What you got for new build?
@@patrick4594 I wanted 64gb total, ended up getting a crucial Ballistix 2x32gb 3600mhz cas 16 kit
@@stevetb7777 oh that's a great set you got! Congrats
Would love to see you have that conversation with Wendell on screen, I think that could be super informative for your viewers. Conversations between the most rigorous testing channel and The Janitor help me to think of questions I didn't even think to ask before seeing them. Thanks for all the great content and hard work!
After seeing this, I added a matching kit of GSkill Ripjaws V 3200mhz to my rig and saw the Mersene/ Prime95 iterations drop from 30ms to 17-18ms with my Ryzen 5 3600x at stock 3.8ghz. This knocked 8-9 days off my workload. haha GG Steve xD
I'll do the same. Thanks
As i recall with RAM manufacturers, the reaosn they sell sticks as a "quad channel kit" is because they are all tested together in 1 system to ensure that each stick is compatable with the settings being advertised. If you were to get 2 "dual channel" kits and put them in your system, there might be slight inconsistencies that makes them unstable to keep the same frequiencies and timings advertised, as they were not tested together as a 4.
Just osmehting to consider. Maybe a video to test this?
I only have a single data point, but I bought two 2x8gb kits for 4x8gb and they work fine.
Based on what I read, as long as the timings (the XMP profile) and the manufacturer (samsung/hynix/etc) are the same there's very little risk with mixing two 2x kits together.
And if you're buying both kits at the same time from the same place, it's pretty much a guarantee that they'll play nicely with each other.
Good find! I think you could have emphasized the difference between dual-rank and dual-channel though.
Really interesting find, thank you guys a lot! I am very curious to see if/how this influences the new AMD "Smart Access Memory" feature when the Radeon 6000 cards arrive for benchmarks.
Nice! I'll get two more sticks of RAM a year from now when my B & H backorder comes in the mail
Speaking of memory timings, what happened to part 2?
AMD:"we give a reason to fill all 4 slot memory in your motherboard!"
Wong. It‘s just 2*16gb sr and not 2*16gb dr ram..
so of course 4 sticks offer better performance.
@@iDoe84 what?
@@h4ckantrieb950 the Ram for normal Desktop CPUs comes in SR (single rank) and DR (dual rank) Modules and DR Modules offer more performance.
4* SR DDR4 = DR in DualChannel
@@iDoe84 I think you are wrong. Check the comment of Mirsad Redzovic
"the more you buy, the more you save"
interested to see after these chips been out for awhile, and people have had more time to test and play around with configurations, What ultimately winds up being the Best performance out of the box, when paired with Ryzen 5000 CPU's. I'm guessing it's going to be between the Low latency CL16 3600 kits, and the low latency 4000 kits. Certainly to see how it scales, and which does best with certain CPU's over potentially others. Fantastic Video like always, very informative.
Great video, hoping to see the follow up!
Damn, now I'm happy that I bought a 2 kits of 2x8gb (by mistake), the 5000 series will be a worth while upgrade in the future (going from 2700x). Thanks Guys for the video ! Keep it up
I'm at work, so I can't watch the video with sound fully, but I've been researching more about the whole 2 sticks VS 4 with the 5900x since recently after stumbling on a video testing that and 4 sticks being only a bit better in certain instances.... And recently trying to build a PC for a friend and thinking of selling him my RAM to get 2 sticks for myself (would be discounted and he does video editing) and get those 2 sticks to have some RGB lighting.
..... And also reading more and more about how pretty much Threadripper boards can use quad channel and dual channels can have trouble with 4 sticks........ Yeah, it's not easy.
Ryzen has always been sensitive to memory ranking. It's definitely something that isn't widely advertised on memory spec pages and should be.
I'd like to see two sticks of 16 GB compared to four sticks of 8 gb with everything staying constant. On previous Ryzen CPUs they're handled exactly the same where four sticks of 16 GB will cause a severe performance degradation as they're uncapable of handling high clocks.
Watch Channel, Odin Hardware, he has done this on a triple side by side test of many games per video
4 x 16 gb of dual rank b-die at cl 14 3200 has no performance degradation over 2x16 GB of the same ram with my 3950x running at XMP settings. The memory benchmarks are the same before and after the upgrade to 64 gb. This will limit the maximum clock speed but does not cause any problems. If anything, this is actually the best high density config for the Zen 2 series as it can be used at XMP without tweaks unlike the 3600 CL 16 b die requires as it puts too much load on the memory controller.
I look forward to upgrading to the 5950x while carrying over the same ram as I'm very pleased with the performance of stock, always being amongst the top scores for my hardware (running at stock). Higher ram speed is not worth the hassle for me.
Long story short: it's not about 2 sticks is slower than 4 sticks on Zen 3. Or 2x16 being faster than 2x8. It's about 2 single-rank sticks (taken from 4x8 kit) being slower than 2 dedicated double-rank sticks. So if buying 2 sticks, make sure they are double rank.
What is double rank?
@@lastfirst5863 I meant dual-rank.
@@reav3rtm I found out what that meant elsewhere, but I really had no idea what that even was.
Did you ever get around to doing a follow up to this? Found this really interesting. Also building a new pc and would like to know if 2x16 being the sweet spot produced the same results as 4x8. On another note just bought myself a Gamers Nexus mod mat and can’t wait to use it!
Just go 4x16 weeeeeeee
Your channel definitely deserves my subs!
WHEW IM GLAD I WATCHED RIGHT TO THE END. I almost added two more 16gb sticks to my list of things to go along with the ryzen 5900x I plan on purchasing. My 32gb 2x16 3400mhz im using with my 3700x should be fine... Wow thought I was gonna end up with 64gb of ram to get the max performance out of the new CPU.
64gb is a lot. I would opt to get 32gb at higher clocks. I'm running an old single rank kits of trident z 3866s at 1.5v and at 3733 16 16 20 38. 16gb total. Make sure to time them right. Mine get 45.2ns reads pretty happy about it for kits I got 5 years ago. The upside with 64gb is if you do compute workloads though so if you can go for it.. they look good but I'm one of the unfortunate people out of work right now with no compensation.
Hey man awesome channel, keep up the good work. Thought you might get a kick out of this.... Running my i5 3570k @ 5.1 for the last few years now, it's held up over the years, but every now and then needs a bump in voltage. The VERY FIRST WEEK I had it together, I had it gaming at a friends house, and something caught the CPU fan and blocked it from spinning, the chip sat throttling for about 3 hours above boiling point, great way to break in a new (at the time) chip.
usefull test results thanks Steve !
Your work as usual is superb. Thank you so much.
Steve i think you made a mistake at 23:57, in his video with AnandTech's Ian they say that 2 sticks of dual-rank memory work better than 2 sticks of single rank, while youre saying that 2x16 GB single-rank works the best while quoting Level1Techs.
Wendal's RAM may have been dual rank
@@Viewer19 yes in 2x16gb config you need it be DR 16gb stick like e-die ballistix 3600mhz and you can get rgb too! or no rgb in three colors.
it will then benefit from interleavin feature.
and then most mobo are daisy chain so 2x16gb is easier for memorycontroller to drive than 4x16gb or 4x8gb so this leads to higher clocks for memory with tighter timings.
This is memory interweaving. Dual rank dual channel. 2x16 gb would be the same mostly.
It helps on all CPUs by a small bit. It seems Zen 3 likes it more.
Thanks for the Info! as I'm currently running an ITX system.
So I shouldn't trade my 2x16gb for 4x8gb? I just traded my 4x8gb for the 2x16gb when I upgraded to 5900x haha
Dual rank was also good on older gen zen processor if you could get the frequency and trimming down.
@@juststeve6296 if its dual rank then no
Interleaving
Im looking forward to the speed and timings video thanks for this
Hi Steve, I think you misspoke at the end and meant to say that 2x16GB dual rank dims are a little better than 4x8GB single rank dims. 2x16GB single rank dims (ex. Crucial Ballistic Max 2x16GB) are only 128-bit, so you are not getting the benefit of interleaving that way.
I would also be interested in seeing how 4x16GB dual rank dims perform in your future video because there is a good chance 512-bit would overload the memory controller and tank your achievable memory frequencies. I'm curious if the additional bandwidth of 512-bit at slower speed would be enough to overcome the FCLK penalty compared to 256-bit and higher speed. I suspect not...
TL;DW for everyone else...
For best performance you want to have a memory set up with 256-bit bandwidth meaning 2x dual rank dims(2x128-bit) or 4x single rank dims(4x64-bit). 2x single rank (ex. 2x8GB) can leave up to 10% performance on the table due to lack of interleaving.
I would say : single rank dram vs dual rank.
2 dual rank sticks will give you same results as 4 single rank sticks.
So, when is the part two of memory overclocking coming out?
Dang, the day after I finally pull the trigger on two sticks of DDR4. With a new B550 mobo, Zen 3 chip and m.2 drive, it's such an upgrade on my current rig that I won't notice these sorts of differences. Luckily I got an mATX mobo with 4 RAM slots, so this might yet be an option down the line.
With every bit of review i'm tweaking my soon to be pc build more an more. I was going for the very early rumoured 3600mhz dual channel ram as a sweet spot but now things are getting interesting :)
I love how you guys always address the most pertinent queries on an apt timeline following releases
This is a interesting test. Maybe people will actually start using all four slots.
Depends what resolution your running. At anything above 1080p the returns diminished very quickly. Went from 1080p to 1440p to ultra wide and now the CPU is barely ever the bottleneck.
I had no idea people didn't use all 4. I mostly use my computer for production so I need the ram. My motto is if there's a hole, it must be plugged!
@@jakejohnson1378 guess I don't need to ask where you store your phone!
@@jakejohnson1378 i see you man of culture, here i'm thought dp already push the limit, my respect for you brother
@@ablet85 That only applies to gaming for 1440p, and not if you are running high FPS.
Thanks for such a well done video on memory.
I'd be curious to see how the RAM configuration would impact video editing and rendering.
Are you planning an updated "best ram for ryzen"?
@@tevlar they go hand in hand, probably just grab 3200cl16
Depends if you want to pump up the memory speed some or lower the latency
@@tevlar im going to buy same kit from newegg was doing research on which one had samsung capacitors and its the one you mentioned, you should prob get another kit for 64gb quad channel XD I know I'm going to
DO IT! I am burning to know how 3600CL14 and 3800CL15-16 would perform
3600 / 16 = 225
3800 / 18 = 211,11
3200 / 14 = 228.57
That's why to me, 3200CL14 is faster here, against the rest.
I am looking for any F4-3600C14Q-64Gxxx kit right now 4x16GB, 3600MHZ, CL14-15-15-35 1.45V.
Wonder if that will beat all these
Would be curious how this same test ran with dual rank memory with 4 sticks looks. I feel like it wouldn't do as well.
Im not native english speaker, never leave my country. Happy to find out that even smoe of native ones said they cant keep up with his speed. Cuz I can barely keep up.
Thanks for this. It prompted me to download more ram but I have no idea if it’s improved things for me or not.
One does not simply "Call wendel" it more of a summoning really
24:30 So you had the correct answer all along, but for some reason did a whole bunch of testing and presented it as some kind of mystery that's totally new with Zen 3.
It isn't new at all. Zen 3 just shows bigger differences in some applications.
Those G.SKILL TridentZ sticks have a single rank. Use two of them, and you get one rank per channel. Use four of them, and you get two ranks per channel. That in turn gets you rank interleaving, which increases performance, in basically the same way that using multiple channels gives you channel interleaving, which increases performance. All bog standard stuff with computer memory.
Using two sticks of dual-rank memory will probably provide slightly better results, because it's only one DIMM per channel, but still two ranks per channel.
More than two ranks per channel might allow a very slight increase in performance, but the achievable memory speed also goes down as the number of ranks per channel goes up, so the optimal choice is likely going to be higher clocks with just two ranks per channel.
I think the difference, here, is that Ryzen is memory hungry enough that it actually makes a difference outside of very specific tasks. I could be wrong, though.
The video signifies the fact that not all channels tested with optimal configuration and that Ryzen 5000 seems to need DR even more than Zen 2.
The bigger difference is what's new. Previously, you could make up the difference with faster 1R kits, and that was cheaper, too, with very fast kits going beyond the interleaving improvements.
@Transistor Jump very likely no. 16gb memories are double rank
thanks for this comment! my heart jumped a bit as i have a 2x16gb tridentz neo kit (dual rank). i think i'm set for zen3
I thought I had RAM nailed for my next build (will be done within a month) . Gaming is only a little important, I want to run DaVinci Resolve for editing and rendering 2k vids and later 4k vids. The plan was to start with 2 sticks of 32 GB each and then add 2 more later if needed. Looks to me like single ranked is totally out of the question for me. I just have to get Ryzen optimized RAM wherever I can get it, apparently, and not worry about this. Please don't tell me I don't need 32 GB for projects, I fill 16 GB just going overboard with Firefox tabs.........like when looking at the right side of UA-cam to pick stuff for later viewing.......for PC research.
I’ve had 2x16 3200c16 forever and just scored another 2x16 3200c16 to make a total of 4x16…this video makes me happy because it’s also the trident z rgb ram. Looks like I’m getting at least 5% gains with my 5900x at lower resolutions…I usually run 1080p, sometimes 1440p so yeah. I’m stoked for gains. I mainly just wanted 64gz for more multitasking, but this is a welcome addition. Great video, thanks for all the testing..👏🏼
how is it running? rule of thumb is usually to not just buy 2 sticks that didn't come off of the same manufacturing line, but to sell the 2 you have and buy 4 that did, so im just curious
@@JaxDagger I have the same configuration but I bought two packages separately G.Skill RIPJAWS V 3600mhz cl16,19,19,39 F43600C16D-32GVKC I put them at 3200Mhz, so far no blue screen and I play warzone 2.0 for hours with this seasonal heat and without any failure
Tech Jesus throws acronyms like they're used by everyone and their cat. Me who has no idea what they mean, I'm wondering why I'm still watching this. 😂
All I know is this guy really llikes shopping at TJ Maxx.
Hi Steve.
It's not the number of sticks that matters. It's the number of memory ranks per channel.
Buildzoid has done a video on this called "Testing XMP settings in dual and single rank".
Because of interleaving between the ranks the memory controller can talk to the 2nd rank, while the 1st one is "busy".
This also has the effect that the more ranks you add per channel frequency starts to matter more and timings affect performace less.
Sorry for my bad English.
You explained it the best in any of the comments I've read so don't worry about your English
In theory running quad rank 4x16GB(same timings) should give another bump in performance. If the memory controller can handle it.
Also this is how servers get away with using "bad" JDEC timings on their ecc memory. Servers simply have a ton of memory ranks per channel.
@@yosharian Thanks.
I would think Steve knows about this. This must be different than that, because he claims the effect is greater on Zen3 than Zen2
He knew about it(that’s why they made that RAM choice for testing). The video is about the fact that is has quite a significant difference in case of Zen 3, which was unknown.
Thanks Nexus for incredible Work with your latest videos. ❤
Whenever I ask this question of 2 vs. 4 sticks, most of the time tech reviewers always tell me to go with 2 sticks for (2) reasons...(1). Running (4) sticks puts a much higher workload on the memory controller of the processor, and generates more heat. (2). You can buy (2) sticks with lower lower timing settings as compared to 4-stick kits, giving better performance. Now its looks like for the the Zen 3 that this isn't true, and 4-stick kits are better?
I had just ordered a 8GBx4 kit the day before for my 5800X :)
I can confirm your results Steve, I'm saw the same thing with Zen 2 as well: ua-cam.com/video/dhMYmEu8gks/v-deo.html
Shameless self plug
another great detailed video, nice
Awesome content as always. Would be easier to follow if comparisons were shown using PowerBI and selecting and showing only the items you are talking about at the time. By the time I see the comparison you have moved on.
Great video
This is "Rank Interleaving" for you :P While one rank in a channel is busy refreshing or activating rows or such a second independent rank can be addressed by the IMC. The (lengthy) top comment on this somewhat explains this, but gets the channel width wrong: The Data-width on one memory channel is 64 Bit, so with 2 IMCs you get 128 bits of that, regardless of rank count. One would select a different rank via the CS-Bit ("Chip Select"), which is not a data- but a control-pin. Take a look at Micron's technical documents regarding their UDIMMs (and look for RDIMMs and LRDIMMs while you're at it!).
For weird Edge-cases you can even have multiple ranks on one Memory IC (usually that would be used in 3D-Stacked memory).
That top comment is confusing so many people with that "256 bit" thing...
We'll need another review once RDNA2 comes out to see if having 4 sticks affect Smart Access Memory as well (Zen 3 + x570 + rx6000)
As a hardware engineer having worked several years on the development of PCIe controllers, I don't see any reason for that to affect the performance of SAM.
The Smart Access memory basically enables the CPU to see directly more GPU memory using a BAR reconfiguration that enables it to show more than 256MB through PCIe. Usually the PCIe BARs have to be that small because it's still 32b legacy during boot up. The gpu memory is then accessed through this bar window plus a memory bank register that is written whenever the upper bits of the address need to be modified. So if the memory can directly be accessed without needing to modify the upper address separately it may improve the access time, hence a slight improvement in performance when doing this. This has nothing to do with the cpu memory so changing the CPU memory configuration won't affect this.
That's all well and good for an extremely detailed overclocking setup. What's the impact on a factory default system?
Damn I learnt so much from this video. Thank you
Curious if there's a meaningful difference when dual rank is taken into consideration. ie: 4x8gb SR (as tested) vs 2x16GB DR. I personally have the latter in 3200CL14 and since you mentioned interleaving there may not be much of a performance difference between the above two configurations.
Yes dual rank should be the same as 4 sticks: ua-cam.com/video/Q4aTB0k633Y/v-deo.html
Yes
Dual rank crucial ballistix with my 3700x outperforms single rank sticks, spent a lot of time researching and overclocking.
So they literally have to do benchmarks for the 5600x, 5800x, 5900x and 5950x with 3200,3400,3600,3800 & 4000 mhz ram with latencies varying from 14,15,16,17 to 18? All in difference configurations of 8x2, 8x4, 16x2 and 16x4... Wow they have to redo A LOT OF BENCHMARKS.
@@Traumatree Not if electrical interference from the empty slots reduces your overclock. 4 single-rank sticks on a dual-channel platform are effectively dual-rank. So, if you're going dual-rank, you should prefer to populate all slots.
"Games REALLY don't need it."
Cities: Skylines would like a word. My savegames with mods was reaching 14gb used, which prompted me to upgrading my RAM to 32gb. I went with 4x8gb, which is why I'm watching this.
To be fair this is pretty much one of the only games that actually will blow through an entire 16GB.
Me here
You Jay Linus Nick ... are the Go To Guys! My Next build before 2025 will be apart of what I learn from all of you!
The definition of a term "nerd" at 2:45, love it.