RAM Upgrade help

Forums › Desktop computing › RAM Upgrade help

1 | 2

Jase2985

13732 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6205

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2660587 21-Feb-2021 15:50

that motherboard has a funky memory layout

normally they are labeled 1-4 not 4 2 3 1. and then you populate the odds or even slots. this leaves a gap in between and helps with cooling (what little they need)

Follow what the motherboad manual says for the memory slots, 1 and 3 or 2 and 4.

Secondly your sticks might be 2400MHz but unless you enable DOCP in the bios they will run at 2400MHz. you can see this by the 1200MHz in CPU-Z (DDR, Double Data Rate so its actually 2400MHz)

DOCP could be called EOCP on gigabyte. turn this on and you will get another 800MHz bump in memory speed to 3200MHz. its done from within the bios. on my asus board its on the main screen when you get into the bios.

your image of the memory tab shows they are in single channel. move one stick then check is it says dual channel.

Loismustdye

942 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 256

Trusted

#2660588 21-Feb-2021 15:51

I have the 390z mobo using slot 1 and 3 and can confirm with CPUz that it is running in dual channel

Loismustdye

942 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 256

Trusted

#2660590 21-Feb-2021 15:53

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suAIR4XtLgI

I also used this video linked from cpu benchmark as a guide to change my RAM frequency in BIOS........ as I’m not very literate with computer stuff (although I did build my last two PCs) I found it easy to follow.

Virgil

Dangerous Chocolate
212 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 66

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2660591 21-Feb-2021 15:55

kiwis:

That's what the manual says,

But this confuses me.. It's literally underneath each other in this order.

OK I can see why that is confusing. I believe the second image is incorrect, and the headers across the top should read DDR4_, DDR4_3, DDR4_2, DDR4_1.

If you have only two modules, put them in slots 1 and 3.

Cheers

Lurking ...

Jase2985

13732 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6205

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2660593 21-Feb-2021 15:57

at the end of the day you can confirm you are in dual channel mode in CPU-Z. if its not then change the slots.

For some reason gigabyte have called it XMP, check out page 25 of the manual set it to profile one. and you should see the ram speed increase.

1024kb

1197 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 519

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2660597 21-Feb-2021 16:16

Also, desktop DDR4 has this thing that I think is dumb. Desktop DDR4 RAM is generally all locked to 2133MHz, even the higher-rated RAM. Whatever MHz number is printed on the box is irrelevant without setting the frequency in BIOS. Yes, you actually gotta look at the speed rating of your sticks & enter that number manually in BIOS, overclocking it from the entry-level speed (2133MHz) for DDR4.

I don’t remember any other component ever requiring this level of tweaking just to operate at the level you paid for. Most decent BIOS will alter your related settings automatically, but you still need to set the frequency manually first. Because computer.

You should have your RAM pairs in even / odd numbered slots, so 2 & 4, 1 & 3. Adding a 16GB stick to an 8GB pair will give you 32GB capacity but you’ll lose the dual channel performance because it’ll only operate as fast as the slowest component. A pair of 8GB @ 3200MHz & a pair of 16GB @ 2400MHz will result in 48GB @ 2400MHz.

Megabyte - so geek it megahertz

Dyson

Shop now for Dyson appliances (affiliate link).

Jase2985

13732 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6205

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2660605 21-Feb-2021 16:59

1024kb: Also, desktop DDR4 has this thing that I think is dumb. Desktop DDR4 RAM is generally all locked to 2133MHz, even the higher-rated RAM. Whatever MHz number is printed on the box is irrelevant without setting the frequency in BIOS. Yes, you actually gotta look at the speed rating of your sticks & enter that number manually in BIOS, overclocking it from the entry-level speed (2133MHz) for DDR4.

no you dont,

mine showed as 2666mhz, i set docp and it went to 3200mhz which is its rated speed. 2 clicks done.

kiwis

837 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 12

#2660607 21-Feb-2021 17:20

So I guess a question is.

Do I trust the manual or CPU-Z. The board itself is marked as per the manual as far as order goes.

I've set my BIOS to profile 1. This is what CPU-Z shows now. Is this as expected?

Jase2985

13732 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6205

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2660609 21-Feb-2021 17:47

Looks better.

Dual channel and 1600MHz speed, which means its running at 3200MHz.

SpartanVXL

1498 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 666

#2661064 22-Feb-2021 11:49

Massive amounts of confusion here. OP you got it right now but so many people reading the table incorrectly. Yes Gigabyte make it confusing by alternating the slot numbers but please read their docs.

Dual channel by definition is ‘two channels’

The table specifically lays out that:

Channel A: slot 2, slot 4
Channel B: slot 1, slot 3

If you want DUAL channel you need something in BOTH channels. OP got it right with slot 1 and slot 2 (or slot 3 and slot 4).

Everyone who said slot 1&3 misread the docs and would get single-channel only.

kiwis

837 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 12

#2661090 22-Feb-2021 12:52

SpartanVXL: Massive amounts of confusion here. OP you got it right now but so many people reading the table incorrectly. Yes Gigabyte make it confusing by alternating the slot numbers but please read their docs.

Dual channel by definition is ‘two channels’

The table specifically lays out that:

Channel A: slot 2, slot 4
Channel B: slot 1, slot 3

If you want DUAL channel you need something in BOTH channels. OP got it right with slot 1 and slot 2 (or slot 3 and slot 4).

Everyone who said slot 1&3 misread the docs and would get single-channel only.

Cheers for the clarity. I was still unsure why it was showing dual in CPU-Z and working better yet being in contrary to the manual. But this clarifies it nicely.

Ironically, my original question never got answered though.

To increase my RAM from 16GB to 32GB (debatable if an improvement will be noticeable/worthwhile). I need to get another 2 sticks of 3200Mhz 8GB ram?

Something like this

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MEMKHX37006/HyperX-Fury-16GB-RAM-2-x-8GB-DDR4-3200MHz-CL16-135

There's not point getting 2666Mhz or 3600Mhz or 2X 16GB ram etc is there?

Apple TV

Stream your favourite shows now on Apple TV (affiliate link).

Jase2985

13732 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6205

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2661091 22-Feb-2021 12:54

Try and get the same as whats in there if you can.

but its likely going to make little to no difference.

SpartanVXL

1498 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 666

#2661104 22-Feb-2021 13:31

Just increasing the amount of memory will not improve performance (given you get exactly same dimms). You only start seeing frame drops, stuttering/hitching if you are actually running out and the system pages to disk, which is unlikely in gaming.

If you swap out your current 2x8GB for 2x16GB it’s likely you will get dual rank dimms. There are some benchmarks out there which may show you about the performance delta of having dual ranks in each channel. From memory Gigabyte aorus motherboard lineup is daisy chain topology.

For a performance increase you would need to get 3600MHz CL 14/16, this would be the safe limit for Ryzen at the moment due to Infinity fabric clock matching RAM frequency which is 1800MHz on average (x2=3600MHz for ddr)

You are approaching the max for overclocking on this platform so any higher is not impossible but unlikely. You might find that the money you spend versus the performance gain is not that great and you’d be better off spending the money on cpu/gpu upgrade.

Edit: if you are feeling particularly adventurous then you can attempt to manually overclock your current memory to 3600MHz CL16/18. There is a Ryzen dram calculator on Overclock.net and elsewhere which has a guide on doing this. It involves manually setting the timings instead of using the XMP profile.

Buying a kit with a rating just means the vendor tested it to run at that rating, lower rated memory can also reach higher but is not officially rated, doesn’t mean it can’t do it though 😉

ratsun81

516 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 183

#2661164 22-Feb-2021 15:47

kiwis:

I've got 16GB of RAM on my machine and am looking to increase this to see if I can get a bit of performance improvement from a few different games.

I have a B450 Pro motherboard, and looking at CPU-Z I've got two sticks (slots 3 & 4 in use) . I assume I have another two slots in there? (I've not opened it up yet).

What's the logic with RAM again, I can only equal what I have as anything bigger will only work as hard as the weakest list? So a 16GB won't double it if I currently have two 8gb will it?

I think I'm better off getting another 2x 8GB DDR4 ram to make 34GB in total? - please correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, what's the best affordable (cheap) DDR4 8GB ram out there). I don't want to sink a heap of money in it as I may not get much improvement at all.

Give us a full rundown of your computer setup, what games you are hoping to get more performance out of as well as what you expect it to run like and then we might be able to comment if adding RAM will help or not.

There were some obvious setup issues in your rig which you have now fixed so now you should be able to get a picture of how its running.

It would also help to run something like hwinfo64 while you game and record some of the info that captures to see how your system is running overall.

Quic Broadband

Use R212389ELFLL2 promo code for free setup at checkout.

1 | 2