Hey everyone! I'm curious about whether having 24GB of DDR4 RAM, made up of three 8GB modules, leads to any performance issues. They all have the same speed, but I'm wondering if dual channel mode activates with this setup?
3 Answers
Actually, you can use three RAM modules in dual channel mode, but it only applies to the first (n * 2) gigabytes of RAM, where 'n' corresponds to the size of the smaller channel. The rest will operate in single channel mode, which is known as 'flex' mode. It's a decent setup, and while it's not as reliable as full dual channel, it's better than having all RAM in single channel.
From what I know, with DDR4 and a solid system, it shouldn't be an issue. But if you're using DDR5, three sticks might make your setup unstable at full speeds. Just keep that in mind depending on your motherboard and other components.
I've heard differing opinions on this. Many say that having three sticks won't activate dual channel, and you need to weigh if you really need that extra RAM for your software versus getting better speed with fewer sticks. If the extra RAM is extra valuable for your use case, it might be worth it!
Yeah, I get that! It's about finding the right balance of capacity versus speed for what I'm doing.