Two or four STICKS?

[GeezerGamer]

Planning to buy a RAM kit soon totaling either 32 or 64 GB's.
Most likely Corsair Dominator or Vengeance Pro at 3600MHz.
Is it better to configure with two sticks or four sticks?
So 4x8 for 32GB's or 2x16 for 32 GB's?
These will go into a new build powered by a new upcoming AMD CPU, most likely 5800 or 5900.
Do you see any issues I should be concerned with?

Cheers

Link to my new build thread below.

New Kicking Build is on nigh!

I'm starting this thread in hopes of getting your opinions and sound advice moving forward with a new build. I'm an older gamer enduring an Approx 10 year old gaming build which back then was near top end. After being away from PC gaming for a few years I wanted back in so earlier this year I...

hardwarecanucks.com

 

[CMetaphor]

Match to the CPUs number of memory channels whenever possible. And check your motherboard to ensure that higher capacity and/or density rank sticks don't create a penalty somehow. Some boards might support 32 GB sticks but at lower speeds, for example.

The current AMD sweet spot for Ram frequencies, I believe, is 3600mhz. So again, if high capacity sticks means the board will only clock those sticks to 3200mhz or something, you better be sure you need to capacity vs the speed loss.

Personally? Unless you're playing MS Flight sim 2020 I've yet to see many games require more than 16gb of ram. So 32 (2x 16gb in dual channel) is probably going to be plenty for a while.

 

[Soultribunal]

Generally speaking (though I haven't OC'd RAM in forever) if your gonna push the memory you ideally want minimal sticks. But I'll second what CM says.
I do know some programs however (not just games CM) that will require more than 32 if you use all the tools.

Personally speaking, I would always opt for the minimal amount of sticks , if possible.

Regards,

-ST

 

[Bond007]

100% go with 2 sticks if you can. The same performance and the ability to add more later if you want.

 

[GeezerGamer]

I appreciate your responses, Thanks!
I'm thinking OC down the road would be nice if the need arises and I'd like to future proof if at all possible which is why 64GB's is being considered!
Regardless, I guess waiting until AMD product specs are announced next week would be the way to go?
This can get confusing for an older fella......I don't want to make any wrong choices!

 

[GeezerGamer]

If I get two sticks now for 32GB's will I be able to find and add the same two identical sticks three years from now?
Hypothetical?

 

[sf101]

They only have 2 memory channels so really no difference in performance from what i can see.

If it was a x299 you want to go with 4 for example.

 

[lowfat]

If they are single rank, 4 sticks will work fine. If they are dual rank DIMMs then you may not be able to run them at their rated speeds depending on your cpus memory controller.

 

[Bond007]

I would recommend waiting for new ryzen release/info. If rumours are true it will be the way to go.

 

[GeezerGamer]

Sounds like a plan, thanks.