Should I buy new RAM to take advantage of Dual Channel Memory

[EazeeOne23]

Hi,

My system specs are:
AMD RYZEN 5 3600
GIGABYTE B450 GAMING X
TEAM VULCAN 4X4GB 3000MHZ
RTX 2080 SUPER


So when I first built this system, after coming off an old intel build, I was given 2 sticks of 4GB ram 3000mhz as a hand-me-down from a friend. In order to make it 16GB, I purchased another set of 2x4GB 3000mhz ram from the same brand.

At the time I didn't know about dual channel memory - in fact still don't think I fully understand the concept. Also apparently my ryzen 3600 will highly benefit from ram speeds of 3600mhz?

My question is basically, should I buy a set of 2x8GB 3600mhz ram to take advantage of high speed ram modules and dual channel memory? Or is it a waste of money for negligible performance improvement?

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Hi. I think what you've heard about is dual rank memory. You are already running dual channel memory if you have at least 2 sticks of RAM in the correct slots.

Heres an article that explains dual ranked RAM better then I can, and shows some of the gains which are small all in all. You are already getting that benefit.

As for upgrading from 3000 to 3600 the benefit is there but relatively small. Heres another article with benchmarks.

You would almost certainly be able to tighten timings and overclock your current RAM fairly easily to achieve some of the benefit. That will take you some time and research though, and is worth doing properly for system stability. In the end have a look at the benchmarks and decide if 5% better minimums in some situations is worth the effort or money to you.

I swear I have no affiliation with Techspot, they just do good articles