15 hours ago, Pilot53 said:

You dont want to use all four ram slots with a 9900k if you can help it, it will hurt your overclock even with the best motherboards.   Why not just go with 2x16gb sticks and upgrade to 2x32gb sticks if you need 64 gigs down the line.  By the time 64gb is needed 2x32 sticks of ddr4 will be mainstream and significantly cheaper.  There's no such thing as future proof with pcs, don't fall into that trap!  Trust me, been there done that.

Do they make 2x32GB DDR4 memory currently? I don't mind going this route if that means I can use the 4 slots on the motherboard to max out my ram at 128GB later down the line if necessary.

For current Z390 motherboards with 4 ram slots, will it accept 2x32GB and 4x32GB configurations?

On 4/17/2020 at 12:41 PM, captain420 said:

Do they make 2x32GB DDR4 memory currently?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1462782-REG/owc_other_world_computing_owc2666ddr4s64p_64gb_kit_2x32_2666mhz.html

I have seen a few comments with respect to 2 sticks of RAM being better than 4 for the same total RAM in a system, but is this actually correct? I have seen other comments which suggest that the performance difference is negligible.

It's been said that the reason 2 is better than 4 is that in many cases overclocking and XMP process is simpler with 2.  

4 sticks puts more stress on the memory controller which adds to more heat. If not going for extreme O/C then 4 sticks should be fine. However I would still recommend 2. 

DDR 5 ram will be coming to PC`s in a couple of years.

The "2 DIMMs are better than 4" rule of thumb doesn't apply to Asus and Gigabyte motherboards that use T-Topology.

For refernce, I run 4x8GB on my Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master board at 3600MHz with the XMP profile - runs great!

Edited April 29, 20206 yr by TechguyMaxC

4 hours ago, TechguyMaxC said:

The "2 DIMMs are better than 4" rule of thumb doesn't apply to Asus and Gigabyte motherboards that use T-Topology.

For refernce, I run 4x8GB on my Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master board at 3600MHz with the XMP profile - runs great!

Does the ASUS ROG Maximu Hero VI Wi-Fi use T-Topology?

8 hours ago, captain420 said:

Does the ASUS ROG Maximu Hero VI Wi-Fi use T-Topology?

It sure does!

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-CROSSHAIR-VI-HERO-WI-FI-AC/

Edited April 29, 20206 yr by TechguyMaxC

An interesting video here about the different memory configurations and there potential problems (including T-Topology - not necessarily the best, apparently): https://youtu.be/8kSnU_RVMV0

32 minutes ago, vortex681 said:

An interesting video here about the different memory configurations and there potential problems (including T-Topology - not necessarily the best, apparently): https://youtu.be/8kSnU_RVMV0

A 6 minute high-level overview may be helpful for those who are less technically-minded, but the ~34 minute video I posted goes into much greater detail, and was created by a highly-respected extreme overclocker who possesses more technical knowledge than every member of the tech media, and it's easy to see in his videos.  Case-in-point: Gamers Nexus' Steve Burke is viewed by many people as one of the most (if not the most) technically-knowledgeable tech journalists operating today.  When Gamers Nexus' needs more insight on how things work, Buildzoid (the creator of the ~34 minute video I linked) is among the small group of highly knowledgeable analysts and experts to whom they turn.  

If you have the time, I recommend watching the above video.  I'm not sure what drawbacks the author of your linked video associates with T-Topology, but in my experience the limits don't come into play for your average everyday enthusiast.  At this point, I would rather have 32GB of 3600MHz RAM in a 4x8 configuration than 16GB at say 4000MHz in 2x8 configuration.  

Edited April 29, 20206 yr by TechguyMaxC

1 hour ago, TechguyMaxC said:

If you have the time, I recommend watching the above video.

I actually managed to watch the video to the end which was quite an achievement as he rambles so much and contradicts himself and changes his mind so often! The thing that I took away from it, which he summarised at 28:00 was that no layout is definitively the best because of the way different manufacturers design them. So I stand by my original comment that T-Topology is not necessarily the best. He even admits at one point, when talking about the sort of frequencies you could expect with different numbers of DIMMs, that he's "not sure exactly how the comparisons would work out". However, as with the video I linked, he said that Ryzen does not seem to work as well with 4 DIMMs because of memory controller problems (21:06) so the possible advantage of a T-Topology board goes away. The bottom line seems to be that if you only use 2 DIMMs, daisy chain is probably better and if you want to use 4 DIMMs, T-Topology may be better (but probably only for Intel).

As far as running 2x16GB or 4x8GB - he says in the video that they would probably run at the same speed (12:55).

Edited April 29, 20206 yr by vortex681

1 hour ago, vortex681 said:

I actually managed to watch the video to the end which was quite an achievement as he's rambles so much and contradicts himself and changes his mind so often! The thing that I took away from it, which he summarised at 28:00 was that no layout is definitively the best because of the way different manufacturers design them. So I stand by my original comment that T-Topology is not necessarily the best. He even admits at one point, when talking about the sort of frequencies you could expect with different numbers of DIMMs, that he's "not sure exactly how the comparisons would work out". However, as with the video I linked, he said that Ryzen does not seem to work as well with 4 DIMMs because of memory controller problems (21:06) so the possible advantage of a T-Topology board goes away. The bottom line seems to be that if you only use 2 DIMMs, daisy chain is probably better and if you want to use 4 DIMMs, T-Topology may be better (but probably only for Intel).

As far as running 2x16GB or 4x8GB - he says in the video that they would probably run at the same speed (12:55).

A couple points:

1) Yes, T-Topology is of more benefit to Intel CPUs, when paired with 4 DIMMs

Given the fact that 99% of users here run Intel, and that Intel CPUs are still the best for flight sim, T-Topology offers benefit to users here.  

2) The idea that 2x16 and 4x8 will run at the same speed is true - of T-Topology motherboards.  This is not guaranteed to be the case with daisy-chain designs.  

3) Maximum achievable RAM speed will be higher with 1DPC or daisy-chain boards than with T-Topology, but with limited capacity.  The benefit of T-Topology is consistency of clock speed across all DIMMs.  You might be able to hit 4000MHz RAM speed on a 1DPC or daisy-chain motherboard, but you must sacrifice capacity to do so.  T-Topology allows you to run 4 DIMMs and achieve higher clockspeeds than daisy-chain under the same conditions.  

Edit: just to be clear, it doesn't always work out that way, and that's why you hear Buildzoid make hedging statements.  The best daisy-chain board may achieve higher RAM clockspeeds than the worst T-Topology board, with all DIMM slots populated.  By and large though, T-Topology will perform better than daisy-chain with all DIMM slots populated.  But that is the requirement, you must populate all DIMM slots to see the benefit.  

Edited April 29, 20206 yr by TechguyMaxC

On 4/29/2020 at 11:00 AM, TechguyMaxC said:

A couple points:

1) Yes, T-Topology is of more benefit to Intel CPUs, when paired with 4 DIMMs

Given the fact that 99% of users here run Intel, and that Intel CPUs are still the best for flight sim, T-Topology offers benefit to users here.  

2) The idea that 2x16 and 4x8 will run at the same speed is true - of T-Topology motherboards.  This is not guaranteed to be the case with daisy-chain designs.  

3) Maximum achievable RAM speed will be higher with 1DPC or daisy-chain boards than with T-Topology, but with limited capacity.  The benefit of T-Topology is consistency of clock speed across all DIMMs.  You might be able to hit 4000MHz RAM speed on a 1DPC or daisy-chain motherboard, but you must sacrifice capacity to do so.  T-Topology allows you to run 4 DIMMs and achieve higher clockspeeds than daisy-chain under the same conditions.  

Edit: just to be clear, it doesn't always work out that way, and that's why you hear Buildzoid make hedging statements.  The best daisy-chain board may achieve higher RAM clockspeeds than the worst T-Topology board, with all DIMM slots populated.  By and large though, T-Topology will perform better than daisy-chain with all DIMM slots populated.  But that is the requirement, you must populate all DIMM slots to see the benefit.  

That's an interesting video, looks like my Gigabyte M/B may handle another 2X8 sticks of ram just fine being t-topology. 

On 4/29/2020 at 2:00 PM, TechguyMaxC said:

A couple points:

1) Yes, T-Topology is of more benefit to Intel CPUs, when paired with 4 DIMMs

Given the fact that 99% of users here run Intel, and that Intel CPUs are still the best for flight sim, T-Topology offers benefit to users here.  

2) The idea that 2x16 and 4x8 will run at the same speed is true - of T-Topology motherboards.  This is not guaranteed to be the case with daisy-chain designs.  

3) Maximum achievable RAM speed will be higher with 1DPC or daisy-chain boards than with T-Topology, but with limited capacity.  The benefit of T-Topology is consistency of clock speed across all DIMMs.  You might be able to hit 4000MHz RAM speed on a 1DPC or daisy-chain motherboard, but you must sacrifice capacity to do so.  T-Topology allows you to run 4 DIMMs and achieve higher clockspeeds than daisy-chain under the same conditions.  

Edit: just to be clear, it doesn't always work out that way, and that's why you hear Buildzoid make hedging statements.  The best daisy-chain board may achieve higher RAM clockspeeds than the worst T-Topology board, with all DIMM slots populated.  By and large though, T-Topology will perform better than daisy-chain with all DIMM slots populated.  But that is the requirement, you must populate all DIMM slots to see the benefit.  

Interesting, I learned something here for sure