# [SOLVED] Dual channel 2x4gb or 4x2gb



## specter51095 (Nov 25, 2009)

im running a phenom II x2 560 unlocked to quad core and will be overclocking to 3.6ghz from the stock 3.3 so i need my memory to be at least 1800mhz to prevent bottlenecks im going with 8gb and im thinking that some slightly overclocked 1600mhz chips will work for this build and if im overclocking the cpu the ram should change dynamicly with that so there is no point in spending up for 1800/1866 ram thing is i have read in some places that when overclocking ram the more induvidual sticks of ram you have the harder it is to overclock due to power and heat and expecialy load on your memory controller so i have come here to confirm or deny that fact i know that 2x4gbs in dual channel are much faster than 1x8gb (duh) but im not sure about the proformance gains if i have 4x2gb chips vs 2x4gb chips if they are equal then im going with 2x4gb chips to save DIMMs/power/heat/room for my cpu cooler anyway main thing is 2x4gb or 4x2gb and does having more phisical chips when overclocking strain the memory controller more 

thanks for your time and help

System specs other than already listed-
antec 750w psu
ASUS M4A89TD PRO mobo


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

*Re: Dual channel 2x4gb or 4x2gb*

4GB (2X2) is more than sufficient unless you are doing serious graphics work.
More RAM won't make the CPU OC any faster/better.
Going from 3.3 to 3.6 should very easy using 1066 RAM.


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## specter51095 (Nov 25, 2009)

*Re: Dual channel 2x4gb or 4x2gb*



Tyree said:


> 4GB (2X2) is more than sufficient unless you are doing serious graphics work.
> More RAM won't make the CPU OC any faster/better.
> Going from 3.3 to 3.6 should very easy using 1066 RAM.


well im not concerned about the cpu overclocking thats easily done but on a "perfect system" (and thats what im shooting for) there are no bottlenecks and to not bottleneck my gpu i need at least 3.6ghz on the cpu any more and the gpu is the bottleneck so im not going any higher on the cpu but i can if i wanted i just dont want to add extra un-needed heat and strain and to not bottleneck the cpu i need 3.6ghz on the ram and thats not posable right now so to make it posable i need 3.6ghz/2channels=1800mhz so if i get 1600mhz ram and overclock it 200mhz then i get to 1800mhz i am also doing serious graphics work so im going with 8gb my questions are what is better proformance 2x4gb or 4x2gb and when overclocking what is easyer on the memory controller 2x4 or 4x2


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## lool123 (Oct 20, 2009)

*Re: Dual channel 2x4gb or 4x2gb*

Yea, I'd go with 2x4 GB too. Less sticks mean one of them is less likely to go bad, and cause your computer to crash and BSOD.

Also, 2x4GB can be bought in a pack/set with matching sticks, which won't better the performance, but buying 2x4GB sticks induvidually and risking they're not matching might cause their performance to drop.
(I haven't seen any 4x2GB packs, so im guessing 2x4GB is easier to get ahold of too)

I dont know what's easier to overclock, but look at it logically this way:
2x4GB sticks means less to keep track of, which should make it easier to overclock
4x2GB sticks mean twice as many as 2x4GB to keep track of, which should make it harder
Dont you agree?


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## specter51095 (Nov 25, 2009)

*Re: Dual channel 2x4gb or 4x2gb*



lool123 said:


> Yea, I'd go with 2x4 GB too. Less sticks mean one of them is less likely to go bad, and cause your computer to crash and BSOD.
> 
> Also, 2x4GB can be bought in a pack/set with matching sticks, which won't better the performance, but buying 2x4GB sticks induvidually and risking they're not matching might cause their performance to drop.
> (I haven't seen any 4x2GB packs, so im guessing 2x4GB is easier to get ahold of too)
> ...


in a way but im not conserned about bad sticks (thats what rma is for) i do agree on the less sticks being easyer to overclock because its less heat power and sticks to mannage on the mem controller but i have always heard that more ram sticks are better expecialy in multi channels so would i be worth the extra hastle on my part if 4x2gb is a proformance increase (also corsair sells a kit of 4x2gb at 1600mhz of XMS3 memory http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145261)


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## lool123 (Oct 20, 2009)

*Re: Dual channel 2x4gb or 4x2gb*



specter51095 said:


> in a way but im not conserned about bad sticks (thats what rma is for) i do agree on the less sticks being easyer to overclock because its less heat power and sticks to mannage on the mem controller but i have always heard that more ram sticks are better expecialy in multi channels so would i be worth the extra hastle on my part if 4x2gb is a proformance increase (also corsair sells a kit of 4x2gb at 1600mhz of XMS3 memory http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145261)


Yea, maybe you're right. 4GB RAMs run at 800 MHz, while 2GB RAMs can run at 1066 MHz. Am i mistaken?

Which RAM are you looking to buy? DDR, DDR2, DDR3? PC-****, PC2-****?


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## specter51095 (Nov 25, 2009)

*Re: Dual channel 2x4gb or 4x2gb*



lool123 said:


> Yea, maybe you're right. 4GB RAMs run at 800 MHz, while 2GB RAMs can run at 1066 MHz. Am i mistaken?
> 
> Which RAM are you looking to buy? DDR, DDR2, DDR3? PC-****, PC2-****?


i dont think capacity has anything to do with clock speed but im getting ddr3 PC3-12800 and i want to overclock them to 1800mhz im just wondering whats higher proformance 2x4gb 4x2gb and what config out of those 2 is easer on the memory controller for a amd phenom ii x2 560cpu on an asus M4A89TD PRO mobo


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

*Re: Dual channel 2x4gb or 4x2gb*

Personally, I'm not sold on 4GB RAM sticks and we do see issues arise from some users that have them.
On the other hand, filling all the RAM slots on a Mobo can cause Voltage issues.
If I HAD to have more than 4GB of RAM I would go for 2 2X2 GB matched pairs of the same brand/specs.
Perhaps I'm not interpreting your intentions properly but I don't see the problem getting your CPU to 3.6GHz and what that has to do with RAM. :4-dontkno


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## lool123 (Oct 20, 2009)

*Re: Dual channel 2x4gb or 4x2gb*

Yea, now that i read, i see they both come at 1600 MHz.

Well, if you overclock 2x4GB to 1800 each (1800+1800=3600 MHz)
On the other hand 4x2GB to 1800 each (1800+1800+1800+1800=7200 MHz)
Doesn't that sound logic?

Anyhow; I have no idea, sorry. I've never done overclocking myself. You'll have to wait for a tech to come help you.


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## lool123 (Oct 20, 2009)

*Re: Dual channel 2x4gb or 4x2gb*



Tyree said:


> Perhaps I'm not interpreting your intentions properly but I don't see the problem getting your CPU to 3.6GHz and what that has to do with RAM. :4-dontkno


I think he doesn't want anything to bottleneck anything. He wants everything to be good. "Perfect System". Meaning good CPU, lots of RAM, good GPU, etc.


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## specter51095 (Nov 25, 2009)

*Re: Dual channel 2x4gb or 4x2gb*



lool123 said:


> I think he doesn't want anything to bottleneck anything. He wants everything to be good. "Perfect System". Meaning good CPU, lots of RAM, good GPU, etc.


actualy i meen by perfect system is no bottlenecks anywhere this isnt about overclocking the cpu i know ram doesnt effect that but what this has to do is cpu takes most of its commands directly from the ram so if i have a 3.6ghz cpu and the ram is 1600mhz or 1.6ghz and the ram is in dual channel or 1600mhzX2channels for an effective clock of 3200mhz or 3.2ghz so if i want zip 0 nada bottleneck then i need an effective clock of 3.6ghz or 1800mhz x 2channels ram speed has to be the same across the whole comp so your mobo will automaticly underclock the higher clocked ram to match the lowest dimms speed if it didnt then you would crash on boot every time because your cpu commands would be offset greatly so i am going to overclock my 1600mhz dual channel efective 3200mhz to 1800mhz in dual channel thats an effective 3.6ghz or my cpu speed so all the commands coming from ram is in sync with the cpu speed because if it is lower then the cpu is doing nothing while waiting around for another command and if ram has higher clocks then the ram sits and waits for the cpu (dual channel works kinda like raid 0 the mem controller pulls from eatch channel at the same time) because the clock speed has to be the same across all ram then regardless of how many ram chips they all share the same channel so say 2x2gb chips running in the same channel are reconised on the mem controller as 1x4gb chip (thats why the have to be the same clock speeds) so regardless if i have 4x2gb or 2x4gb the mem controller will reconise 2 channels with 4gb of ram at XXXXmhz clock the question is will 2chips or 4chips bouth setups totaling at 8gb in dual channel mode so 4gb per channel perform higher and what is less load on the mem controller 2chips or 4chips because if there is too much load i wont have a stable overclock because the controller wont be able to handle it


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## Niram (Jun 20, 2009)

*Re: Dual channel 2x4gb or 4x2gb*

your posts are extremely difficult to read

just wanted to point that out


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## specter51095 (Nov 25, 2009)

*Re: Dual channel 2x4gb or 4x2gb*



Niram said:


> your posts are extremely difficult to read
> 
> just wanted to point that out


im sorry i think i figured it out it was from somone elses post on a different forum i was googleing around and ill quote it here for peoples info

quote from superuser.com

"4 sticks would cause more strain on the memory controller and motherboard chipset. It would take slightly longer for the CPU to add and retrieve data from 4 sticks as opposed to 2.

For this reason, 2 x 4GB would be faster then 4 x 2GB.

EDIT - there is a much better technical explanation on EE (experts exchange) to enforce my answer, although it does mention lower sized sticks:

It's better to use 2 2GB modules -- not for any appreciable speed difference (although there may be a small advantage -- more in a bit) -- but for a more reliable memory subsystem.

Most desktop systems use unbuffered RAM modules -- this results in very large loads on the address and data buses when you have more than 2 modules installed, and can significantly degrade the signalling on these buses. The memory subsystem "sees' one load per memory chip -- so with 2 modules installed, that's up to 32 loads (with double-sided modules) ... and with 4 modules installed that's as many as 64 electrical loads on the bus. Some systems automatically adjust for this higher load by either increasing the voltage a small amount; reducing the clock frequency of the memory (thus slightly slowing it down); or by adding a cycle to the SPD's latency setting (again, slightly slowing it down). These adjustments help keep the memory subsystem reliable -- but mean that 4 x 1GB modules would be slightly slower than 2 x 2GB modules on these systems. But regardless of whether there's any timing differences, the memory will definitely be more reliable with only 2 modules."

anyway hope that helps anyone who has the same question it certainly helped me


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