It would double the memory capacity, providing more space for applications and files.
It would double the memory capacity, providing more space for applications and files.
Hi, I purchased Corsair Vengeance 2x8GB 3200 CL16 and found a great offer for another set of the same model. I just learned that using four 8GB modules could be unstable, though I haven’t experienced it before since I’ve never connected multiple RAM sticks.
Unstable refers to a lack of assurance in achieving desired speeds, such as DDR4 3600MHz or DDR5 6000MHz. Performance might be reduced, possibly affecting overall efficiency.
It's complicated. There's a couple main factors that influence RAM compatibility, the big two are the PCB revision and the memory IC. PCB revision barely matters, so it can be mostly ignored, though there are a couple of incompatibilities that show up every now and then from it. The memory IC is what actually matters, since there's dozens of different ICs that exist in the 3200 CL16 bin, and because RAM manufacturers suck, they'll swap them out depending on the day. Different ICs have different training characteristics, so if you have two that don't train with similar enough settings, you won't boot or will be very unstable. In practice, it does still work most of the time. In my experience for similar speed bins it's about 85% chance that everything just works, 10% chance that it works at JEDEC but not XMP, and 5% that it just won't boot. If you are buying from somewhere with a decent return policy or are willing to take that risk, give it a shot, and worst case scenario you resell the kit. More likely than not though it'll just work, and it should be slightly faster than a 3200 CL16 2x16GB setup since it's effectively dual rank compared to the likely single rank nature of the 2x16GB setup.
I purchased two separate sticks for $13 each. According to CPU-Z, they match in every detail—same Samsung die, identical single rank, nearly identical production dates. You can view the listing here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005847529140.html
Samsung offers various die revisions, which means they aren't always identical. A matching manufacture date can help confirm this, but the sticker provides a clear version identifier like ver. 4.31 or ver 4.33. The '4.3' indicates an 8Gb density die, and the final number specifies the exact revision, so matching digits confirm the sticks are the same.