Two 4 GB RAM or one 8 GB RAM

1 points by ankit_1990 12y ago ↗ HN

Hi,

Can someone tell me whats the performance difference between one 8 GB RAM stick & two 4 GB Ram stick. Configs for both are same.

My entire config.

i5-4670K, z87 extreme 3 MB, 8 GB corsair Vengeance RAM Stick, Corsair PSU 600 Watts, Nvidia Gtx 760.

Thanks in Advance.

7 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 33.7 ms ] thread

plef 12y ago ↗

The 1 x 8GB will run on single channel mode, when the 2 x 4GB will run on dual channel mode aka double performance (double bandwidth to be exact).

tuananh 12y ago ↗

is this still true until now? I remember reading about this few years back.

ankit_1990 12y ago ↗

Hi tuananh,

Can you give me some links that tell me more about this thing.

Thanks in advance.

tuananh 12y ago ↗

You can read more about this on Intel.com (http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-0119...)

devx 12y ago ↗

I would go for 1x8GB if you want to upgrade it in the future with another 8 GB.

ankit_1990 12y ago ↗

I am not going to upgrade atleast for a year. What would you recommend me then ?? my MB has 4 slots...

cnvogel 12y ago ↗

Depending on your CPU and its integrated memory controller, you might have one, two, three or even four "channels" that can work concurrently. The i5-4670K has two channels.

While this sounds like a huge possibility for performance imporovement, in practice the gain is on the single-percent level. It can be measured, but to actually feel the difference during use of the machine, you'll need something like a 50% speedup.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Intel-Core-i7-Nehalem,20...

So for a desktop machine, I'd say it does not matter at all. Buy what's more affordable, and maybe think about possible future upgrades.