Yes, the Ryzen 5 1600 with 6 cores and 3.6 GHz clock speed can function well with four RAM sticks.
Yes, the Ryzen 5 1600 with 6 cores and 3.6 GHz clock speed can function well with four RAM sticks.
My motherboard is the AMD Prime B350 Plus with four slots. On Amazon, the CPU I own lists as "Channel 2." I'm using two 8GB sticks in dual channel and ordered another identical model, but it hasn't shipped yet. I'm checking if the remaining two 8GB sticks will work when all four arrive. They're identical. I updated my CPU to the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 65W AM4 processor at 3.6 GHz. Please let me know soon—I don’t want to lose money if it doesn’t work.
The system indicates channel 2 on the CPU yet supports four sticks. Using all four sticks won’t necessarily cause major problems, especially if your current setup runs smoothly under heavy gaming loads. The reference to 3200 means you’re using a 3200MHz clock speed, which is standard for most modern cards. If your sticks are already at that frequency and you haven’t noticed performance drops, upgrading won’t be drastically worse. Your goal of giving Photoshop more space for heavy editing as an artist is a solid reason for the upgrade.
Two sticks can operate together on one channel, which means your motherboard likely has ports labeled A1, A2, B1, and B2. The A1 and A2 slots are connected to a single channel, so you must place both sticks in either A1,B1 or A2,B2 to activate the Duel mode. When using two sticks, most CPUs can reach their advertised speed, but with four sticks it often doesn’t run smoothly because of increased load on the memory controller.
The CPU's memory controller offers two channels, each with two slots. You referred to 3200 as 3200 MT/s. Would you like to think about switching to a Ryzen 5 5600 or Ryzen 7 5700X?
You'll most likely get around 2666 or a bit higher, with some models reaching more depending on the parts used. Certain versions perform better than others, making it somewhat dependent on luck—except you can't change that except by accepting the risk. My Zen 1 runs reliably at about 2700, but beyond that it becomes unpredictable, crashing at random intervals.
It turns out your assumption was correct—it was indeed a matter of luck. I connected with someone who faced the same problem, and they successfully ran their system at 3200 MHz without any issues. When I inquired about RAM compatibility, others confirmed it would work. They managed to get 16 GB in dual-channel at that speed. Another person mentioned they also achieved similar results. The update should reflect a 3.6 GHz clock speed instead of 3.2.