gamersnexus AMD Ryzen: 4 vs. 2 Sticks of RAM on R5 5600X for Up to 10% Better Performance

[axipher]

 

 

This makes me feel a little better about going 4x8 GB for my future 5900x system instead of 2x16 GB, will be curious to see Gamer's Nexus to more testing like this going forward.

[ENTERPRISE]

Interesting and makes me feel good having 4 Dimm's haha. When I first started in I.T my much younger self (while wrong) assumed surely regardless of capacity that more modules would be better from a load balancing perspective, while this may not be the reason for Zen 3's behaviour here...

My younger self feels vindicated lol

[UltraMega]

I've seen a lot of these 2 vs 4 stick tests but I don't get why they even do them. There's never really any difference since it's dual channel either way, unless I'm missing something.

Edited November 8, 2020 by UltraMega

[ENTERPRISE]

On 11/8/2020 at 7:00 PM, UltraMega said:

I've seen a lot of these 2 vs 4 stick tests but I don't get why they even do them. There's never really any difference since it's dual channel either way, unless I'm missing something.

 

Thus far there is an improvement in performance with Zen 3 BUT I don't think anyone has released a statement or video as to what within the new architecture allows this to happen.

[UltraMega]

6 minutes ago, ENTERPRISE said:

 

Thus far there is an improvement in performance with Zen 3 BUT I don't think anyone has released a statement or video as to what within the new architecture allows this to happen.

Oh haha I guess that answers my question. I didn't watch the video before, just assumed it was the same results as the last ten times I've seen this test. Very interesting.

[ENTERPRISE]

17 minutes ago, UltraMega said:

Oh haha I guess that answers my question. I didn't watch the video before, just assumed it was the same results as the last ten times I've seen this test. Very interesting.

Ahh right, no, this time there seems to be an uplift in performance by having 4 modules over two...free performance is always good eh.

[tictoc]

I didn't watch the video, but I assume this just comes down to dual rank vs single rank.  Was the 2x configuration done with single rank DIMMs?  If so, then populating the board with 4x single rank DIMMs will effectively give you the same thing as running a pair of dual rank DIMMs. 

 

There is a bit of performance to be had going with dual rank DIMMs when everything else is equal.  It can be a little tougher to push clocks on 4 DIMMs vs 2 DIMMs.  Dual rank DIMMs on both of my Threadrippers were better than single rank.  Not a huge difference, but enough that it was outside of the margin of error when I was testing various DIMMs.

[ENTERPRISE]

19 hours ago, tictoc said:

I didn't watch the video, but I assume this just comes down to dual rank vs single rank.  Was the 2x configuration done with single rank DIMMs?  If so, then populating the board with 4x single rank DIMMs will effectively give you the same thing as running a pair of dual rank DIMMs. 

 

There is a bit of performance to be had going with dual rank DIMMs when everything else is equal.  It can be a little tougher to push clocks on 4 DIMMs vs 2 DIMMs.  Dual rank DIMMs on both of my Threadrippers were better than single rank.  Not a huge difference, but enough that it was outside of the margin of error when I was testing various DIMMs.

 

I would imagine you are 100% on the money. Video here from Hardware Unboxed saying the same thing. 

 

 

[mouacyk]

Haven't seen the term interleave mentioned yet, so I will.  This used be an old feature in BIOS that could be enabled for multiple dimm modules.  It's basically RAID0 for RAM.  With optimal channels, perhaps Ryzen is automatically enabling it, or some form of striping?

[J7SC_Orion]

9 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

 

I would imagine you are 100% on the money. Video here from Hardware Unboxed saying the same thing. 

 

 

 

I watched this earlier in the day, and yeah, nothing new to report really (other than the unwritten jab at GN re. their recent vid ). I use at least 4 sticks (or more, depending on HEDT etc) and tune for 'CL' preference over maxing outright MHz near the limit

[ENTERPRISE]

22 hours ago, mouacyk said:

Haven't seen the term interleave mentioned yet, so I will.  This used be an old feature in BIOS that could be enabled for multiple dimm modules.  It's basically RAID0 for RAM.  With optimal channels, perhaps Ryzen is automatically enabling it, or some form of striping?

That is a good point actually. I forgot about memory interleaving !

 

16 hours ago, J7SC_Orion said:

 

I watched this earlier in the day, and yeah, nothing new to report really (other than the unwritten jab at GN re. their recent vid ). I use at least 4 sticks (or more, depending on HEDT etc) and tune for 'CL' preference over maxing outright MHz near the limit

 

Yeah clocks will only get you so far. Striving for a balance with timings is necessary, draw back is it can take time. I will have to re-do mine soon when new memory comes...semi excited and not at the same time