Four stick compatibility (MSI)

Jonnycat99

Limp Gawd
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Nov 9, 2006
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In the QVL list for a motherboard (in this case, MSI MAG x570 Tomahawk), the manufacturer lists RAM as being compatible with one, two, or four sticks.

Generally, what quality of RAM would prevent it from being used in all four slots?
 
Usually comes down to either it's sold as a kit of 2 vs 4 or the place testing only has x number of sticks.
 
The more sticks you add the harder it is on the memory controller especially on cheaper MB which is why you wont see top speeds with 4 sticks only with 1-2.
If the RAM is dual rank then that makes it harder again to run.

For example this is with older Ryzen CPU but you get the idea.
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The more sticks you add the harder it is on the memory controller especially on cheaper MB which is why you wont see top speeds with 4 sticks only with 1-2.
If the RAM is dual rank then that makes it harder again to run.

For example this is with older Ryzen CPU but you get the idea.

Thanks Dasa, I appreciate it. I was hoping it didn't also involve RANK, because this spec seems to be very difficult to obtain when buying RAM (Crucial doesn't even provide it on their product page for RAM modules).
 
I run 4x8GB sticks on my X570 MEG Ace at 3800Mhz with the attached timings. These are single rank and running at 1.49V, set in BIOS and more like 1.51V in Windows according to HWInfo64. Stable according to TM5, with no errors for 25 cycles.
 

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Most 8GB sticks will be single rank while most 16GB sticks will be dual rank.
Crucial Ballistix sticks using Micron e die seem to be some of the easiest to hit high frequency with on AMD Ryzen.

Also your MB is fairly decent so that should work in your favor with dual rank 16GB sticks tested with 4 sticks up to 3600.
 
Without overclocking the G.skill Hynix kit is the better of the two for a AMD system but with overclocking the 3200 Ballistix could have the edge.
 
Thanks dasa, fortunately they were both on sale (damn near everything is on sale right now).
 
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