Dual Channel vs Quad Channel RAM in a Dual Channel board

Hi guys,

 

My new build is an ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Formula X570 motherboard.

The manual and online specs report this as a Dual Channel board.

 

I'm down to deciding on what RAM to select for it and I seem to have a choice.

Choice 1 reports itself as a Quad Channel kit.

Choice 2 says it is a Dual/Quad Channel kit.

 

I am assuming that in my case it probably makes no difference as whichever I select is only going to run in Dual Channel mode anyway since that's what the board does.

 

In both cases I am looking at populating all 4 RAM slots on the board.

There are slight differences in timings between my options as well, obviously I need to consider that, but this question is more centred around Dual vs Quad channels

 

Am I dramatically oversimplifying things or is there some kind of difference I probably should consider?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Sal

This shouldn’t matter. The “quad kit” may have been marketed at x299 or other Quad channel boards, but in reality a matched set should be a matched set. I think whatever the other specifications are for the RAM should be the deciding factor.

[ame] [/ame] Edited May 29, 2020 by KILLER_K
Easier than a page of text.

Thanks for the feedback guys, all good info to ponder.

 

Board topology is new to me so I will go away and do some digging.

 

Regarding planned use, which is always the most important factor ! I won't be setting any OC records or squeezing every last drop out of this. I will play with OC initially for a little while, primarily as a learning exercise rather than trying to eke out every last oz of capability, and then this new build will become my daily drive workhorse and I will turn my nerdy fun attention to planning the next build !

 

I have already thought a bit about the 2 sticks vs 4 scenario. My thinking was that if I do go with 2 now and then down the track decide that I want to populate the remaining 2 slots, then unless I get super lucky and manage to chase down another 2 pack with close enough specs to the first 2 I put in, then there's going to be a mismatch there. Hence my thinking of just biting the bullet and getting 4 now and being done with it. But converse to that I have also read that overclocking 4 sticks can be more challenging than 2 due to the memory controller being much busier. So its really swings and roundabouts I think !

 

Thanks again for the feedback guys, Appreciate it.

OK, I thought you were comparing 4 module "dual channel kit" to 4 module "quad channel kit", which unless there is a specific reference to 'made for x570", should mean nothing. That Asus board definitely uses T-Topology so you will get better results with 4 modules. 4 vs 2 will only matter at the absolute upper limits of frequency, a place most people do not need to be.

 

If one of the kits is marketed specifically at the AMD platform, that might have more bearing.

One of the kits was specifically labelled as Dual/Quad Channel, the other was marked as Quad Channel. I'm not really sure what Dual/Quad channel means - I thought it was either one or the other !

 

Neither was marked as AMD optimized as far as I recall. I have seen that marking on G-Skill RAM though.

And thanks for confirming the T-Topology for that board. I was starting to think that that's what it was based on some Googling, and trying to filter out the noise !!!

 

So 4 sticks is probably the answer then.

 

So if I'm looking at 4 sticks, and the board is Dual Channel - does it matter if I get dual channel or quad channel RAM?

No it doesn't.

Cool, thanks again c-attack - helpful and efficient as always :-)

Pleasure doing business with you :-)