What affects RAM speed more: upgrading the amount or the speed itself?
What affects RAM speed more: upgrading the amount or the speed itself?
The difference in speed is minimal, so having two 16GB modules would definitely be preferable if you can use them together. Combining RAM can cause problems and at most they'd operate at the slower module's speed or worse, limiting dual-channel performance significantly. You'll need to test each setup yourself.
I prefer selling everything and purchasing a dedicated 2x16GB package that delivers maximum performance.
Hi CountMike - thanks for the reply. I was also familiar with the speed reduction. It seems the question should have asked whether it's better to use 32GB of DDR4 at 2400MHz or 20GB of RAM at 2666MHz (for typical usage, not intense gaming, mainly for streaming or browsing on TV).
Don't feel the need to say much more, just to stress again that frequency isn't the whole story. Latency also plays a role; consider Cl (Cas latency) and aim for low values. A dual channel setup can boost memory performance by 33-50% compared to a single channel, which is hard to match with two different sticks. So unless you're open to upgrading to a 2x16GB configuration, the difference in performance won't be significant. Extra RAM only matters if you regularly run out of memory, otherwise it has little impact.
Sticks working well together will provide 8GB with dual channel and 12GB with single channel. Combining two 16GB sticks results in 32GB using dual channel.