I currently have 16GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2400 memory in a 2×8GB configuration, paired with a Ryzen 5 5600 and a GTX 1050 Ti. I mainly play World of Warcraft while keeping a stream, Discord, and around 30 browser tabs open. Memory usage typically reaches 89–94%, and I occasionally experience slowdowns or lag. Would upgrading to 32GB help, and what kit should I buy? I found an affordable 32GB DDR4-3600 kit, but I'm unsure whether mixing it with my existing DDR4-2400 memory would cause problems or reduce performance.
3 Answers
A 32GB upgrade makes sense for your usage since you’re consistently getting above 90% memory utilization. Rather than adding the new kit to your existing 2×8GB kit, replace the current memory with a matched 2×16GB kit. Mixing kits can reduce compatibility and may force everything to run at the slower 2400MT/s speed. Check your motherboard’s memory support, and updating the BIOS can help with newer or faster kits. Selling the old 16GB kit can offset some of the cost.
The DDR4-3600 kit should generally work, but if you install it alongside your current DDR4-2400 memory, all of the RAM will normally run at the slower common speed. Ryzen processors benefit from faster memory, so a clean 2×16GB kit is preferable. You can always run a 3600 kit at a lower speed if your motherboard or processor needs it.
Your high memory usage suggests that extra RAM could improve multitasking and reduce slowdowns from paging to storage. That said, not every lag spike will be caused by RAM—the GTX 1050 Ti is likely to be the bigger limitation in many games. Closing some tabs or moving the browser to another device would also reduce memory use, but 32GB is a reasonable quality-of-life upgrade for keeping everything open.
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