Confusion about Ryzen Memory Ranks/Clocks

It was in this video, he was saying you are better to have 2 x 16 rather than 4 x 8.

GSkill have the Flare X & Fortis series of DDR4 which is made specifically for Ryzen. I have the Flare X 2x8GB @ 3200 in my build, but have yet to power it up, so can't say how good or bad it is. But if you're looking for guaranteed compatibility at official speed, then it's probably a decent way to go.

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Oh ok, so the second idea was the right one then... just got confused about it :slight_smile:

I'm was just thinking about how much RAM I should get... On the one hand 16GB is probably enough for now, but I was thinking maybe go balls to the wall and just hammer 32GB in there... I want to use it for a while, so might as well...

At this point I don't really get around 4 sticks though, would need to search for 16GB sticks for 2 slots...

The 2 x 16GB kits aren't working well at overclocked speeds yet, so you may be better off getting 2x8GB for now, then upgrading later on if you feel the need to. By that stage there may be faster kits available with better compatibility- or at a better price.

Yeah that's what I thought... or I could get the same kit again and might be able to clock it higher due to UEFI Updates...

So many decisions :confused:

I believe what he said was that for 32GB it was faster to go Dual Rank 16GB x 2 Dual Channel than Single Ranked 8GB x 4 as there is no Quad Channel support at this time for Ryzen ecosystem.

Oops! I see you found the answer already as I didn't read carefully.
I'm glad you cleared this up as it was a very good question.

Sorry for my lack of spacing in the formatting.
I believe this supports the assertion that 2 x 16GB Dual Rank Sticks will run at a higher frequency than 4 x 8GB Single Rank Sticks if you are wanting 32GB.

Ryzen Series CPUs:
UDIMM Memory Slot Frequency(MHZ)
A1 A2 B1 B2
- SR - - 2667
- DR - - 2667
- SR - SR 2667
- DR - DR 2400-2667
SR SR SR SR 2133-2400
SR/DR DR SR/DR DR 1866-2133

I've also got the g.skill fortis kit.
I haven't received all my other parts yet, but I'll share my experience once I do.

my philosophy is it's better to have 4 × 16.

If I had the money for that I'd go for that too. But at current RAM prices, the memory alone would cost more then the other components combined lol.

Maybe this is interesting?

This was relating to speed, not capacity.

I believe the intended capacity is relevant as people need to consider to what capacity the goal is when picking modules.
At the present time I cannot purchase 32GB at once, so I will go one 16GB, then buy another later so as to have the best speed. 16 x 2 > 8 x 4

Yeah same goes for me, 16GB minimum for the new PC, but eventually I would like to be able to use all 4 Slots without having to rip out old modules... Problem is then I'd need to take a single 16GB stick :<

I just made a deal with Newegg, they are refunding me $20 on this stick:

yeah. i'm starting with only 2 × 16; will get the second pair later.

You realize that 4 x 16GB will lower your speed, yes?

well, chipset won't do 2 × 32, so dunno what you're getting at :wink:

Hey guys... the best SCHTICKS yet... so far for people trying to get past 3200.. theres alot of people making 3460 and 3600 on these. Only these ones though and specifically

the F4-3200C14D-16GFX

If they just came in white...

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It's become such a search to find both QVL listed and color scheme memory at the best discount, so I had to settle for Black with White Trim, as adding 16GB modules to the filter narrows the choices even further.
I chose 16GB so as to get the highest speeds in Dual Channel.
At the end of the day, 32GB of 2667 OC RAM for $202 is the best I could do.

Memory ranks is one of those things that is explained horribly in all the docs and info I've seen.

Let me set y'all straight.

All rank is - is a way to put more memory on a single channel. If you have 2 single rank sticks in a dual channel motherboard (and populated for dual channel), you have single rank. If you were to add another 2 single rank sticks (total 4 sticks), you'd be dual rank, and still dual channel.

But but but.... they said dual rank is faster than single rank. Yes and no. The increased speed comes from the 2nd rank being ready to write memory while the first rank is busy. That is a small gain... about 10% ideally.

So, what type of rank do you want? All the same, and as low as possible (if you have any possibility of upgrading after the fact). The only time dual rank might be preferable over single rank is when an upgrade is out of the question (like if you only have 2 RAM slots, both filled, or the system memory won't be upgraded ever)

However, you might be forced to use more rank to get the density of memory you want. If you are building a system with 1024GB RAM, you'll probably have to get at least dual rank memory, if not quad ranked, in order to get that much memory in the system. Also, you'll notice that the lower rank, the more expensive the memory is.

tl;dr
You want the lowest rank you can use
Only 1 rank (per channel) of RAM can be accessed at a time
Running dual rank gives a very slight performance boost (but not worth it)
Anything more than dual rank is slower.
More than 1 stick of RAM per channel increases up the number of ranks you are using.
Check your system board, BIOS revision notes, and QVL regarding supported memory.