Is 2 x 8 GB RAM faster than 1 x 16 GB RAM ?

Devlin1888 said:

Ahh my bad missed that, I added it anyways and its identical to my high performance plan anyway so no need for me, I must have changed some of the settings at one point or another to match ultimate when it wasn't there lol.

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I basically found the same thing. I tweaked my plan, and it was almost identical to the ultimate performance plan except I wasn't using hybrid hibernate. So, I just enabled that that in the plan I'm currently using. TBH, I really never considered the difference between sleep, hibernate, and hybrid hibernate. I never knew that hybrid hibernate saves your data on your drive and can recover it from a power failure. You learn something new every day!

jvickers said:

I basically found the same thing. I tweaked my plan, and it was almost identical to the ultimate performance plan except I wasn't using hybrid hibernate. So, I just enabled that that in the plan I'm currently using. TBH, I really never considered the difference between sleep, hibernate, and hybrid hibernate. I never knew that hybrid hibernate saves your data on your drive and can recover it from a power failure. You learn something new every day!

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I changed it to ultimate because well the name appropriation annoys me now that i know xD, Ah i dont use sleep or hibernate/hybrid hibernate ever, Always a shut down fully and start up cold kinda guy but i don't need it for anything that a cold boot in 30 seconds is too long for xD. Good to know none the less!

jvickers said:

Quick question, Ghot. Assuming that you have 2x16 3200MHz in your system and want to add 2x8 more or 2x16 more, aside from ensuring that they're the same MHz, should you get pairs that match, or can you use any matched pair in the other two slots? Often, they'll discontinue a certain RAM chip, so you're left with purchasing a different pair. I've never really given this much thought until seeing your post here.

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I know people who will buy a 2nd identical set and not have issues... and I know people that do the same and do have issues.

Personally, if I wanted a 64GB set, I would buy a 64GB set (2 x 32GB).
Then I would save the old 32GB set for emergencies. But that's just me.

I've never mixed and matched RAM.


The problem with mixing and matching RAM is that the identical IC chips are seldom used.
One set of 2x 16GB might be Micron IC chips and another set (same freq, and model), might use Nanya IC chips.

There are about 5-6 different IC chip manufacturers.
A matched set of RAM sticks will have the same freq., timings AND IC chips.
Unfortunately, RAM manufacturers don't divulge the IC chip manufacturers... readily.

With some serious research you may be able to find out. But even if you do... you can't order RAM by IC chip manufacturers. :/

Like here's a compatible Corsair set for my motherboard...
CORSAIR CMW32GX4M2Z3200C16(Ver3.31) 2*16GB DS Micron 16-18-18-36 1.35 3200

But ONLY version 3.31 uses Micron IC chips. When you order Corsair RAM you can match freq., timings and voltage, but you can't order by "version" number.

Here's another Corsair set... same specs... but different IC chips.
CORSAIR CMU32GX4M2C3200C16(Ver5.39) 2*16GB DS Hynix 16-18-18-36 1.35 3200


Once you receive the Corsair RAM, you can read the version number on the circuit board. But until you have it in your hands, you can't tell which version you're getting.

On my previous build I ordered two sets of 16GB (2x 8GB) 1866Mhz RAM... both Corsair, both from Newegg, both ordered on the same order, and both came from the same warehouse. One set had Micron and the other set had Nanya chips.



This is the memory QVL for my motherboard... scroll through the list, and SEE the various chip manufacturers.
Realize though, you can't order RAM by chip manufacturer.

The ONLY guarantee you get, is that a matched set... WILL have all the same IC chips.
You'll never buy, say a 2x 16GB set and get different IC chips.

But if you buy TWO... 2x 16GB sets, the odds are... you will get different IC chips, on each set.

Will mixed IC chips work together... maybe, possibly, probably.
Will matched IC chips be more stable... DEFINITELY.

Devlin1888 said:

I changed it to ultimate because well the name appropriation annoys me now that i know xD, Ah i dont use sleep or hibernate/hybrid hibernate ever, Always a shut down fully and start up cold kinda guy but i don't need it for anything that a cold boot in 30 seconds is too long for xD. Good to know none the less!

Click to expand...

Quick correction - it's sleep and hybrid sleep. Sorry for that mistake!

Ghot said:

The ONLY guarantee you get, is that a matched set... WILL have all the same IC chips.
You'll never buy, say a 2x 16GB set and get different IC chips.

But if you buy TWO... 2x 16GB sets, the odds are... you will get different IC chips, on each set.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Ghot. If I ever want to increase to 64GB, I'll get a paired set of 32GB.

jvickers said:

Thanks, Ghot. If I ever want to increase to 64GB, I'll get a paired set of 32GB.

Click to expand...

It's a lottery. A matched set... increases your odds.

Devlin1888 said:

Do you happen to have the code? Im curious to see if theres a difference, Im on the high performance plan and my turbo speed is always enabled too.

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The code is not hard... First, you need to make sure you have S3 Power mode enabled and Modern Standby disabled or else the the other power plans will not show up. You can usually tell if you have S3 or not by looking in Device Manager at the properties of the networking card, it should have a Power Management tab. If it doesn't:

Setting PlatformAoAcOverride to 0 under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power. Removing the entry again to get back modern standby.

Open cmd.exe as admin and run:

reg add HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power /v PlatformAoAcOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 0

You can just run regedit as admin and delete PlatformAoAcOverride under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power again to revert back. Or just as admin in cmd.exe:

reg delete "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power" /v PlatformAoAcOverride


Then for the powerplans...

Restore Power Plans:
powercfg -restoredefaultschemes

should restore whatever the defaults are. And you can use the following to enable those that is not showing up.

Power saver:
powercfg -duplicatescheme a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a

Balanced:
powercfg -duplicatescheme 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e

High Performance:
powercfg -duplicatescheme 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

Ultimate Performance
powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

Devlin1888 said:

Ahh my bad missed that, I added it anyways and its identical to my high performance plan anyway so no need for me, I must have changed some of the settings at one point or another to match ultimate when it wasn't there lol.

Click to expand...

Modifying High Performance Plan is not the same as the Ultimate Performance plan when it comes to performance even though you might get the setting on High Performance Plan to be the same, they do not perform the same. Someone else actually mentioned this when I posted about disabled Modern Standby in another thread. Doing a search on google, some people also claim that High Performance mode only benefits laptops and not desktops and Ultimate Performance is a bunch of baloney since what's stored in the registry is what matters.

jvickers said:

I basically found the same thing. I tweaked my plan, and it was almost identical to the ultimate performance plan except I wasn't using hybrid hibernate. So, I just enabled that that in the plan I'm currently using. TBH, I really never considered the difference between sleep, hibernate, and hybrid hibernate. I never knew that hybrid hibernate saves your data on your drive and can recover it from a power failure. You learn something new every day!

Click to expand...

On my notebook, there is no hibernate options so there was no hybrid hibernate. Are you using a HDD or a SSD? Sleep just turns the screen off while hibernate is supposed to save to the HD and also turning the system off since it does go through the bootup process including BIOS flash screen and logging in just restores from where you left off.

Almighty1 said:

On my notebook, there is no hibernate options so there was no hybrid hibernate. Are you using a HDD or a SSD? Sleep just turns the screen off while hibernate is supposed to save to the HD and also turning the system off since it does go through the bootup process including BIOS flash screen and logging in just restores from where you left off.

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I'm using a SSD. I would think you should have hibernate, sleep, and hybrid sleep on your system regardless of it's a laptop or desktop. There might be something amiss there. You could always start a thread on it and see what others say in terms of 1) if there should be, and 2) how to enable them so you see them.

jvickers said:

I'm using a SSD. I would think you should have hibernate, sleep, and hybrid sleep on your system regardless of it's a laptop or desktop. There might be something amiss there. You could always start a thread on it and see what others say in terms of 1) if there should be, and 2) how to enable them so you see them.

Click to expand...

Hybrid sleep is only for desktops atleast according to this:

There wouldn't be a way to enable it since on a desktop, it would be a option under Sleep in Advanced Settings between Sleep after and Hibernate after which doesn't exist on notebooks even with the Ultimate Performance Plan.



Think the best explanation is here on notebooks already sleep with hybrid sleep by default so there is no way to disable it:
"With hybrid sleep on, Windows always chooses this power state instead of just sleep. In any case, with hybrid sleep, our system restores to full power relatively fast. In the laptops, hybrid sleep mode is activated by default because they are trained to save everything before battery fully drains out. So, if you put your laptop on sleep mode while charging, then automatically turns into the hibernate mode.

Thus, laptops don’t require hybrid sleep to activate. "

Regardless, always learn something new... Never new hybrid sleep existed until you guys mentioned it, thanks!

jvickers said:

Quick question, Ghot. Assuming that you have 2x16 3200MHz in your system and want to add 2x8 more or 2x16 more, aside from ensuring that they're the same MHz, should you get pairs that match, or can you use any matched pair in the other two slots? Often, they'll discontinue a certain RAM chip, so you're left with purchasing a different pair. I've never really given this much thought until seeing your post here.

Click to expand...

You don't have to buy modules from the same manufacturer. Just make sure that the speed is the same. If the timing is different, all modules automatically synchronize to the slowest timing.

Devlin1888 said:

Ahh my bad missed that, I added it anyways and its identical to my high performance plan anyway so no need for me, I must have changed some of the settings at one point or another to match ultimate when it wasn't there lol.

Click to expand...

High Performance plan and Ultimate Performance plan might seem the same, but the latter forces turbo boost always enabled.

In the real world, vast majority of users would not be able to detect the performance difference as CPU and drive speed will be the principal bottlenecks to performance.

To enable the Ultimate Performance plan right-click on start button and open a Windows terminal as Administrator. Then copy-paste this code:


Then go to Power settings and select this plan. I also set the screen to never switch off and of course the computer to never sleep so I can access it remotely with AnyDesk.

Overall, if your main concern is gaming performance, the reality is that there isn’t that big of a difference between single and dual channel memory configurations.


Don't buy 1Rx16 modules.

I would buy a single 16GB module to leave the other slots available for future upgrade. Also some times is cheaper to buy a single module than a set of the same speed and total size.

Will you really need 2x16Gb?

DDR5 will be available in a year.

How many slots on the motherboard?
You can go from dual channel mode to quad channel mode with 8GB modules.
I don't know how much better that would be.

abactuon said:

Will you really need 2x16Gb?

DDR5 will be available in a year.

How many slots on the motherboard?
You can go from dual channel mode to quad channel mode with 8GB modules.
I don't know how much better that would be.

Intel Support

Intel® Customer Support home page

www.intel.com

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Oh, I'm not going up to 64GB, I was just using that as an example since I already have 32GB. I was wondering whether pairing RAM of different types would have a huge difference. @Ghot was good enough to provide a brilliant explanation of it, which is basically what I was looking for.

I'll probably be on the slow side of things for a long time since I built this system just a little under 2 years ago. My wife wouldn't understand a new build despite what I said to attempt to convince her. Plus, I mostly use Office, so my system is more than capable of handling that load, if you can call it a load! My wife is of the opinion that 1) computers are evil, and 2) that if my computer works, don't replace it. You should see the state of her iPhone SE2. It has pieces of the screen missing. Missing! She has an iPhone 12 I bought her a year ago as an upgrade but refuses to use it until the phone she has utterly bites the dust. So, I'm on the matter nowadays.