Looking to get a little bit more RAM for my PC but I can't really afford an extra 2x4GB right now. If I just bought 1 4GB stick would it work, and would I see any performance decreases?
What type of memory are you looking for? That said, yes, it'll work.
a 4GB stick is $20, it can't be that hard to save up money for one more.
[QUOTE=knutmora;52340736]a 4GB stick is $20, it can't be that hard to save up money for one more.[/QUOTE]
DDR4-3000 is like £40
[QUOTE=meharryp;52340746]DDR4-3000 is like £40[/QUOTE]
Specifying what you need is kind of a useful thing to do.
If I recall correctly, the ideal number of RAM sticks depends on your CPU. If it's dual-channel, like I think most common CPUs are, you'll get the best performance if you use two sticks. That said, I don't believe you'll really notice a difference if you use more or less sticks.
[QUOTE=meharryp;52340746]DDR4-3000 is like £40[/QUOTE]
Why do you need, 3000 ram?
You running Ryzen?
[QUOTE=meharryp;52340746]DDR4-3000 is like £40[/QUOTE]
This is probably a pretty controversial statement to make, but here goes anyway.
From what I've heard it's not worth investing in DDR4 unless you're video editing, 3D Modeling or taking part in any other RAM intensive operations, so I'd personally kick it down to DDR3.
[QUOTE=Havasu;52342140]This is probably a pretty controversial statement to make, but here goes anyway.
From what I've heard it's not worth investing in DDR4 unless you're video editing, 3D Modeling or taking part in any other RAM intensive operations, so I'd personally kick it down to DDR3.[/QUOTE]
Yeah if this is his third stick, chances are his other sticks are DDR4, so whether the performance bump is worth the money is kind of irrelevant. It's also not entirely useless (at all) in high refresh rate gaming.
Also OP, three sticks should work just fine (in most cases, if you're using identical RAM I can't see you running into many issues) - I can't remember whether running dual channel is "all or nothing", but I'm gonna say you're gonna be running single channel with three sticks. Whether that's worth it kinda depends on whether the workload is bottlenecked by the speed of your RAM or simply the capacity - you could always get another stick down the line, though.
DDR3 and DDR4 depend on the motherboard. If his takes DDR4 then he can't use DDR3
Turned out I had more than I expected in my paypal :v:, bought 8gb.
[editline]12th June 2017[/editline]
fuck how do i mark as solved here
You don't.
About 3 RAM sticks... there's [i]usually[/i] a catch.
You see, that most likely means that your MoBo's memory is at least dual channel (or quad, if you have 8 DIMM slots). Your system will operate faster if you only have one channel filled up. If you have two, you should be the judge yourself: is the extra 50% of RAM worth the much greater factor of speed decrease?
Especially when it's asymmetrical: your RAM gets unganged. This is even slower.
[QUOTE=KD007;52352239]About 3 RAM sticks... there's [i]usually[/i] a catch.
You see, that most likely means that your MoBo's memory is at least dual channel (or quad, if you have 8 DIMM slots). Your system will operate faster if you only have one channel filled up. If you have two, you should be the judge yourself: is the extra 50% of RAM worth the much greater factor of speed decrease?
Especially when it's asymmetrical: your RAM gets unganged. This is even slower.[/QUOTE]
There's fuck all real world difference between single and dual channel with everything else being identical. You're going to be getting much better performance out of having memory free and not using swap.
Were talking very low single digit effects, single digit change in FPS [I]at best[/I] (as in you [I]might[/I] get 1 FPS higher on dual channel). Granted there's a little bit more of an effect if you're doing something like video editing but at the price point of not being sure if you can afford a second 4GB module I doubt RAM will be the bottleneck there.
[QUOTE=helifreak;52352295]There's fuck all real world difference between single and dual channel with everything else being identical. You're going to be getting much better performance out of having memory free and not using swap.
Were talking very low single digit effects, single digit change in FPS [I]at best[/I] (as in you [I]might[/I] get 1 FPS higher on dual channel). Granted there's a little bit more of an effect if you're doing something like video editing but at the price point of not being sure if you can afford a second 4GB module I doubt RAM will be the bottleneck there.[/QUOTE]
Well, it all depends on the application you have in mind, right? Picture no hardware acceleration with a heavy broadphase. Those programs would take a performance hit in a much more significant manner. For DX/GL games, yeah, you don't notice it. That's because the memory is not relevant. All important buffers sit in the VRAM.
[editline]14th June 2017[/editline]
As for swapping, yeah. That's when you hit the point where you should start measuring in seconds per frame :V
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