Can single stick ram run fine?

[grayfox]

hi everyone! a question for my friend.....
Can 8 gb single stick ram run fine? with a z370 motherboard?
with i5 8400

[grayfox]

edit; ram will be 8gb 3000 mhz cl15 hyper x predator

[Omega]

Dual channel is highly recommended. Some games like battlefield do get massive gains from dual channel and the system overall will jsut run much smoother with a dual channel configuration.

If you are planning on getting another identical stick later, sure go ahead.

[just.kamk /idle]

No, it will feel lonely and die sooner or later.
Make sure to keep it some company, until you give him a buddy to play with, maybe sing him a song once in awhile... i can recommend "one is the loneliest number".

(it's absolutely fine for now, and depending on the rest of the setup it probably won't make any difference, or will just cause a bit decreased performance)

[RemyXIII®]

so is 2x4 better than 1x8, all other things equal (speed, latency, etc)??

...i'm guessing this was the actual question.

[Omega]

2x4gb has basically double the bandwidth of 1x8gb.

But 1x8 might be the smart way to go. When going 1x8gb you can upgrade to 16gb later and even to 32gb in a few years. With 2x4gb you will be stuck on max 16gb unless you buy all new RAM.

[grayfox]

Thank you all for the support!

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Also a must have in a Gaming Desktop; especially with regards to Intel 8th Gen or any AMD Ryzen based config.

[tacoshy]

So I actually tooked the Time for you to do a generic Benchmark Test. The only things you should really look at is the "Memory Write" and the "Latency". First you want to be as high as possible the latetr as low as possible.
The rest you should not look at ebcause it is highly depending on the ammount of memory available which is the only factor that changes here. The "Mermory Write is slight depending on it too but that is marginal and you still see some intresting (but actually normal) results.
The Latency however is the only factor that is not depending on the capcity available.


Test 1 - Running 1 RAM Module in Single Channel:
Memory Write: 6,712 - Latency: 22
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1398094846

Test 2 - Running 2 RAM Modules in Single Channel:
Memory Write: 7,400 - Latency: 22
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1398099649

Test 3 - Running 2 RAM Modules in Dual Channel:
Memory Write: 17,531 - Latency: 16
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1398093708

Test 4: - Running 4 RAM Modules in Dual Channel:
Memory Write: 16,164 - Latency: 17
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1398092724



Conclusion:
As you see, by using 2 or 4 RAM Modules in Dual Channel you highly improve Bandwidth and therefor Memory Write and Latency. SO it is highly recommend to use Dual Channel.

Now the intresting part as some people here try to recommend you to go with 4x4GB for Dual Channel because they use it and believe to be the best performance. This is just BS. The only reason to go for 4 Sticks outside of Quadchannel is to have a complete RAM Set for asthetics.
As you see the "Memory Write" improved from Test 1 to 2 slightly because of the higher capacity available. At the same time it maintained the Latency.
From Test 3 to 4 we could expect the same as we now have more RAM capcity we should also slightly improve the "Memory Write" while maintaining the Latency. But as the test clearly show (and that do other tests as well) did the "Memory Write" actually decreased and the "Latency" raise.

The reason behind it is, that using 4 RAM modules putting a lot of stress to the Memory Controller in the CPU and therefor it loosing performance in speed and latency to controll that many Memory sides.


So based on that result my standard recommendation: You should always aim for dual channel and for 2 sticks over then 4 sticks. If you start now with RAM and know that you going to double the RAM for 16GB like next month go with 1x8GB and upgrade to 2x8GB to have the best performance possiblewhen not knowing when you can upgrade and that is in a far future then going with 2x8GB to use dual channel right away would be the smarter idea.

PS: Tests are done with 4 identical RAM Sticks a 16GB - Trident Z RGB CAS 14-14-14-34 (CL14)

[Bad 💀 Motha]

If you really must for budget reasons, I'd suggest a good quality, well known brand + model of 1x 8GB of RAM. Then later when your budget allows, buy another one of the same exact model.

[just.kamk /idle]

Keep in mind that memory benchmarks are not the same as actual ingame performance - even there it varies a lot between games, and more importantly your setup.
Some potato won't benefit from dual channel, some high end system might see severely decreased performance in some titles.

IMHO, as Motha said, better to go for 1x 8, if you're on a budget, or if the money would be better spent on other components.

Or TL;DR this whole topic: leave as is, buy a second 8 GB stick later.

[tacoshy]

All system benefit from Dual channel, no system suffers from using Dual Channel.

It is true that benchmarks doesn't equal game performance as most games doesn't use up all RAM rescourcess.
But first at all Game performance isn't just higher fps but also smoothness. And there other things then just gaming on a PC.

It is true that the effect of dual channel in games differ but all games would perform better especially when using more RAM in total then 1 stick can offer.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

I'd say above all, worry about total RAM, not the whole "Channel" factors.
The more RAM the better.
8GB RAM in Gaming today is utter non-sense and does not work out very well.
Unless maybe all you load up is Steam + Game and nothing else.

[igloosfolly]

Roll with 8 and upgrade later. Ram is so fast it does not matter much. If 8 is cheaper than 2x4 then buy it.

[[☥] - CJ -]

Some boards may have issues running with a single stick, so you may want to check the RAM QVL for the motherboard