Dual channel RAM vs Quad channel
If I am building a render PC with 64gb RAM, should I do 2x32 sticks dual channel or do 4x16 stick for quad? The price of the kits im looking at are about the same for either so just wondering what is optimal for DAZ. I know quad in general is faster but idk if DAZ has some weird optimization setting or something that would make dual channel a bit better.
Comments
Quad channel?
So you have 8 ram slots?
You should better save slots for more RAM to be added later if needed. I never heard about Quad channel RAM boosting Daz Studio or Iray rendering performances.
Stick to dual unless you are 100% certain that your mobo and cpu can handle quad, you will cook the memory controller on the mobo otherwise.
If it's an actual PC, I'm pretty sure, it doesn't have quad-channel memory (which has nothing to do with the amount of ram slots).
I think these configurations are backwards compatible, so if your motherboard supports something called quad channel mode, it can also run in dual channel mode. It's the motherboard that's quad channel, not the RAM. RAM is just RAM.
If you're adding RAM, I would maximize each slot as much as possible to get the most out of it. So, yes, 2x32 sticks.
On a Dual Channel motherboard, 4 sticks will be faster, but each pair remains Dual Channel.
This is an actual hardware thing and DAZ Studio has no control over any it.
...but I agree with Seven193; aim for 4 x 32GB to maximise the capacity and still get the '4 stick speed boost'.
Basically RAM is RAM, your mobo and cpu determine what you can use.
One RAM slot and you are using single channel.
Two RAM slots and you have dual channel.
Four RAM slots and can run quad channel.
However not all CPU's can handle having all four slots filled, end result of this is the memory controller get's over stressed and will eventually fail.
Triple and Quad channel capability is only available on specialist or high spec. motherboards. The motherboards come with the appropriate number of DIMM slots that the CPU(memory controller) can handle.
I have not heard of memory controllers not being able to manage all the available DIMM slots on a motherboard, unless you're talking about putting a CPU in an incompatible motherboard.
I was thinking more of an incompatible CPU.
Did a little digging for more info as I've seen mobos with 8 DRAM slots.
Most mobo/cpu are dual channel, 2 slots means you have 1 stick per channel, 4 slots usually means 2 paired slots per channel.
You do get quad channel mobo/cpu, they come as either 4 slots with 1 slot per channel, or 8 slots with 2 paired slots per channel.
Back to dual channel, most prebuilds come with 1 or 2 sticks of RAM, as a result the DRAM voltage in the BIOS is set to match that, adding more sticks means you need to alter the settings in the BIOS, otherwise the RAM will be underpowered, which can have an adverse effect on the memory controller.