4x2GB Worse than 2x2GB?

Hey guys I am new to the forums here, been lurking for awhile now.

Recently I completed a new build and bought 2x2GB G.Skill 1600 with timings 9-9-9-24. I am looking to possibly expand on that and buy another set but I have been reading that having 4 sticks of 2GB memory may actually perform worse. Is there any validity to that?

And will I see a noticeable increase in performance from 4-8GB? My main concern is for optimal gaming performance.

I am open to any suggestions any of you have, thanks!

It will only perform worse in the sense that you may have a reduced overclock. If you have bankinterleaving enabled IIRC (which it should be even if you have one 2GB stick in your system)there was test run at XS and 4 sticks actually performs a small bit better. All speeds and timings equal of course.

That was on AMD.


You will doubtfully notice any difference in performance, unless you were paging constantly.

The only way I can see 4x2 being worse is if you can't run them at as high of a speed due to extra stress on the memory controller, and even then you probably wouldn't see the difference of slower speed memory outside of benches.

That said for purely gaming performance I doubt you'll see any gains going to 8 GB.

Thanks for the replies.

So basically spending the money on another 4GB probably wouldn't be worth it. I guess I will look into other alternatives.

Yeah, 4GB should be plenty for gaming. Only a few games even get near the 2GB mark on RAM usage.