Hello guys! I’m new to pc building and I’m about to build my very first gaming pc. I’m getting a ryzen 5 3600 and a b450 tomahawk. My friend also upgraded his gaming pc recently and he gave me 3x8gb ddr4 3000mhz ram sticks for free. Since I’m a newbie I wanted to ask if i should use only 2 of them for the dual channel or if I should buy another stick and go for 4x8gb ram. I will not need more than 16gb of ram for sure but in case I’d see a higher performance with 4 ram sticks instead of two I’d gladly spend another 50eur. Sorry if my questions seems a bit stupid, as I said I’m new to this whole pc building thing^^
Hi Rockyy,
In the scenario that you presented my thought would be to go with just two sticks.
You may run into some frustrations trying to match up a single stick to the rest of what you have.
2 vs. 4 for performance eh, there are a lot of variables in play for that, mem topology used on the board, the quality of the IMC on the CPU, are your sticks dual rank or single rank…
TLDR;
Generally speaking you may find you 'll have an easier time with a kit of 2. Typically be able to clock faster with lower latency and is easier the CPU memory controller.
Get two sticks up and running now start using and learning your system and then later if you decide you want to change out ram kits - go for it - Ram is a easy upgrade all things considered.
The simple answer is, only running 2 is the same as running 4 because its ‘dual channel’. There will be no advantage in bandwidth for having 2 sets of dual channel memory. If you were to have quad channel capabilities then it would be an advantage.
You can also run that third stick by itself in a single channel setup but people will tell you this is a bad idea. Really if all you do is browse the web or play some games, it doesnt matter much.
slap it in there and forget about it.
For gaming/performance machines, only use 2. Memory speed degrades with increased number of sticks. Basically, you’re dividing the memory bandwidth more ways with more sticks. With Intel chips this isn’t much of a worry. With AMD’s Infinity Fabric, memory speed has a some more effect on performance than in the past.
This goes triple for any CPUs with integrated graphics where you are using the iGPU for gaming.
I would go 2x8GB. Since you don’t seem to need more at this time, I would just wait for when 2x16GB goes down in price if you need more RAM with performance.
Alright, I will stick with 2x8 for now 
thanks a lot guys!
Make sure you get the Tomahawk MAX model, it has guaranteed BIOS support.
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It’s not available in my country yet so I’m waiting for it to come out
Depends on what you’re doing with the System and if you need more than 16GiB Memory. For Gaming in general, 16GiB should be enough for a while.
As said, the Max Frequency archieved by the system is far lower with 4 Sticks and also more problematic (SRY) as well. So I’d stick with 2 so far…
But you might want to grab another stick anyway, as long as its available, if you plan to build another PC…
What is you Country??
You should get the MAX!
You might even be able to get one in Germany or Austria and ship it to your Country
https://geizhals.eu/msi-b450-tomahawk-max-7c02-020r-a2106584.html
I’m not sure where you’re getting this from.
Memory frequency can degrade with more DIMMS, but only when you’re really pushing the limit of your controller. I put 32GB of 3200MHz in my 1700 when Ryzen first gen came out and it was fine. I’ve got 64GB (8x8) of 3600 in my 1950x now and it’s just fine.
The Infinity Fabric is not tied to the memory clock on 3rd gen Ryzen.
I have no idea what you mean by that.
You could theoretically run 3 dimms as wel.
But then it will run in flex mode.
However depending the specs of the dimms,
If they are identical it shouldn’t be much of an issue.
However if the timings and speeds differs allot, then just use 2 diims really.
Because using two different dimms on one channel,
will mean that they will both run at the speeds of the slowest dimm.
And when unlucky, you might only be able to run them at jdec 2133mhz,
Or the board might not boot at all.
Still it’s just a matter of trying out really.
2 sticks is best for a good amount of compatibility and OC. This is primarily due to the topology of the motherboards.
I like to do 2 sticks on dual channel and 4 sticks on quad. Your not getting any benefits for the same amount of ram going with 4 sticks normally
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Yeah, but in OP’s case, he has the RAM already and he’s getting the benefit of having double the RAM so…
I’d say, go with 4 sticks. The performance difference, if any, should be negligable. I’d prefer double the RAM any day. If you notice any instability, you can always test with two sticks.
If you’re buying new, get 2 over 4 ofc.
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I didnt read that oops LOL … hmm well yeah I guess this will be fine… hes only pushing 3000 so he should be fine… 3200 and 3600 would have been more difficult from testing we have seen