Upgraded my ram from 16 to 32gb. Should I mix for 48gb?

[RTX 5080 FE(Mr Happy)]

**Thread was Necrod. its over a year old and I already long ago upgraded to 32gb, thanks all**


Hey all, decided to upgrade my ram from 16gb 3000mhz to 32gb 3200mhz, because the ram was on sale and I run multiple monitors and run games like BDO on one monitor while playing something on another, so I actually can use my full 16gb ram. with my multi tasking.


Now I installed the 32gb, but I have 2 8gb sticks sitting here looking at me like I sold them out for an upgrade. Any of you use 48 gb ram?

16/ 8/ 16 /8 config? Or 8/16/ 8/16 config?

The old ram is slower, so all ram will be forced to run at 3000mhz. Just wondering if there is any reason NOT to run 48gb, I mean, its just sitting here.


I understand I have nothing atm that will use 48 ram, but I can sure as hell try loading every mod I can find for skyrim LOL

[r.linder]

Better off selling the RAM or using it for another PC, you don't need 48GB.

Mixing kits could cause problems with stability (crashes, BSODs, etc.) if you're unlucky, and it's an unnecessary loss in performance for an extra 16GB you won't even be using. Barely noticeable, but when you don't need that much RAM, it's a pointless waste of RAM.

[_I_]

at this time for gaming 16g is more than enough

if you are doing ram heavy tasks, 32g should be enough

too much ram will not help anything

if they are matching kits, with same speed/timings/voltage
mixing a different dimms will result in using the lowest speed/timings of the dimms

[RTX 5080 FE(Mr Happy)]

Originally posted by Escorve:

Better off selling the RAM or using it for another PC, you don't need 48GB.

Mixing kits could cause problems with stability (crashes, BSODs, etc.) if you're unlucky, and it's an unnecessary loss in performance for an extra 16GB you won't even be using. Barely noticeable, but when you don't need that much RAM, it's a pointless waste of RAM.

Good points. Sadly I wont get much for the ram, so Ill just save it incase I build a new test rig or just to have as back up.


I was tempted to pop in all 4 sticks, but yeah, just gonna stick with the 32gb, dont like to deal with bsod, unneeded headache.

[RTX 5080 FE(Mr Happy)]

Originally posted by _I_:

at this time for gaming 16g is more than enough

if you are doing ram heavy tasks, 32g should be enough

too much ram will not help anything

if they are matching kits, with same speed/timings/voltage
mixing a different dimms will result in using the lowest speed/timings of the dimms

Old ram corsair vengeance rgb pro 16gb 3000mhz
New ram corsair vengeance rgb pro 32gb 3200mhz

Just gonna run 32gb and stash the 16 for another possible build.


Thanks for the advise!

[xSOSxHawkens]

Since the RAM is the same speed and make, and likely same or similar timings you actually can run 48GB without any issues.

That said there is little reason to, aside from the fact that its wasted if you dont. If you plan to build up on it soon keep it stashed, if not toss it in and make what use of it you can.

Some great uses that would still keep you at 32GB total would be to use the 16GB extra as a RAM cache to your SSD or to your HDD's if you have any (in which case you can setup an L2 cache on the ssd too, and have an L1/L2 cache with read/write buffers for the physical HDD's).

Originally posted by _I_:

at this time for gaming 16g is more than enough

Entirely down to the game...

MSFS2020 @ 1440p reguilarly consumes more than 19GB as reported in game through Dev Console read out *and* as reported by Windows. Total system RAM use is regularly 25+.

Is that only MSFS2020, mostly, yes, for now. There are like 2-3 other games that are also RAM heavy, but MSFS2020 is the leader of the RAM eating pack. That said, and as I have already said, I think MSFS2020 is more of a preview to the trend than an outlier on its own. I think with coming push for streaming data PC users will be in an either/or of requiring either high RAM/VRAM or high-rated NVMe storage (or both, but only time will tell).

But the point still stands, that depending on the games he plays, he might have a real and valid argument for 32GB for gaming.

[invision2212]

show your friends how many chrome tabs you can open

[RTX 5080 FE(Mr Happy)]

Originally posted by invision2212:

show your friends how many chrome tabs you can open

lol

[Illusion of Progress]

Either or, really. If you don't need the extra 16 GB, it won't do anything but add some stress to the system (shouldn't matter much in practice) and lose you 200 MHz (which also won't lose you much in practice, especially if it nets you tighter timings as a result). So, either way, but the extra RAM does nothing if you don't need it.

[RTX 5080 FE(Mr Happy)]

Originally posted by Illusion of Progress:

Either or, really. If you don't need the extra 16 GB, it won't do anything but add some stress to the system (shouldn't matter much in practice) and lose you 200 MHz (which also won't lose you much in practice, especially if it nets you tighter timings as a result). So, either way, but the extra RAM does nothing if you don't need it.

Yeah I decided to go with the new 32gb. Ill hold on to the 16 gb for a side build maybe. Th again

One thing I can say, I personally can feel the difference 16gb vs 32, Everything just feels snappier(non game related) Programs just seem a tad faster overall

[Washell]

Originally posted by Toothless Raider:

One thing I can say, I personally can feel the difference 16gb vs 32, Everything just feels snappier(non game related) Programs just seem a tad faster overall

Could just be post-purchase rationalization, that's why we benchmark things to know for sure.

[nullable]

Originally posted by Illusion of Progress:

Either or, really. If you don't need the extra 16 GB, it won't do anything but add some stress to the system (shouldn't matter much in practice) and lose you 200 MHz (which also won't lose you much in practice, especially if it nets you tighter timings as a result). So, either way, but the extra RAM does nothing if you don't need it.

Well we wouldn't want to "stress" the system in some nebulous and inconsequential way, now would we?

I suppose "all that extra RAM would have no tangible benefit" isn't a good enough reason on it's own. Might as well add a dash of uncertainty for flavor...

[Illusion of Progress]

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

Well we wouldn't want to "stress" the system in some nebulous and inconsequential way, now would we?

I suppose "all that extra RAM would have no tangible benefit" isn't a good enough reason on it's own. Might as well add a dash of uncertainty for flavor...

Not quite sure what you're on about, or why you're being snarky.

For one, "all that extra RAM would have no tangible benefit" might be a good reason not to go out of your way to do it (as in, purchase more RAM), but when OP already has the RAM and is asking, it's obvious this is being approached from the opposite angle (as in "what reasons are there, if any, not to do it"), so no, it doesn't hurt to add more information/reasons against it. It's intriguing this additional mention even seemed to bother you.

And, yes, it might add more strain to the system (IMC needs to work harder). In theory, the system should remain stable regardless, and In practice, no, it's not going to hurt the system stability or performance most of the time; I've had 4 modules of RAM on my last handful of systems for over a decade so I know it's often fine, but there's no harm is adding that as some people HAVE seen issues arise when using more modules whereas they didn't before. Will OP? Don't know, and seemingly they haven't. Again, not sure why mentioning this upset you, but that's your business, but I listed it for OP at their request, so have a good day yourself.

[nullable]

Well someone claims it doesn't matter in practice so if they're to be believed maybe your concerns aren't warranted and your information isn't all that valuable.

[r.linder]

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

Well someone claims it doesn't matter in practice so if they're to be believed maybe your concerns aren't warranted and your information isn't all that valuable.

What's your problem? He's not wrong; there's no point in adding RAM when you don't need it, and adding RAM does put more stress on the IMC regardless, but that would really only be a potential issue on Ryzen and TR based systems.

[Tint]

If you aren't running dual channel you are missing out.
32gb running dual channel will most likely out perform 48gb single channel.