There’s a slight performance boost for the 4 DIMMS. With 2 DIMMs or 4 DIMMs for the high-performance segment like Threadripper or Server segment like Xeon. However, the bandwidth is the same. A dual-channel CPU clicks better off with two DIMMs.
2 DIMMS or 4 DIMMS
DIMM, a dual in-line memory module is called a RAM stick of a long, thin strip of the printed circuit board containing RAM chips. It’s common debates in tech forums regarding the issue of whether 2 Dimms or 4 Dimms are better. Many users are confused about the performance impact of having four DDR4 memory modules in a dual-channel system as opposed to just two modules.
If you’re using standard consumer hardware at the same operating frequency, and timings, and provide the same total memory capacity, ideally there should not be any performance difference between 2 DIMMS or 4 DIMMS.
But for the high-performance segment like Threadripper or Server segment like Xeon, then you’ll get extra benefits from extra DIMMs. For 4 channels or more provides a slight performance boost. Tests showed results of an increase in performance by adding two extra modules, without increasing memory frequency, improving timings, or overall specifications.
Benchmark Tests for 2 DIMMS vs 4 DIMMS
For Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, both AMD and Intel dual-channel platforms with the same specs there’s no noticeable difference between 2 and 4 RAM modules. This is what you can expect for most of the other applications and games, a bare minimum performance jump from the dual-channel. However, it’s not always the same case.
For some instances, the FPS gets boosted by up to 7% to a maximum of 9% and 5% for the Ryzen 9 3900X in games like Far Cry New Dawn.
World War Z shows quite an impressive performance boost by 9900K, which was up to 10% faster, while the 3900X was up to 9% faster. The FPS limit exceeds well over 150 with fully populating the DIMM slots.
To Conclude
Using four modules can be effective considering the slight average of 5-7% fps and overall performance boost. However, note that the memory limitations and the frequency and timing need to be in sync to gain such a performance boost. A straight comparison might be difficult and in some cases, not really accurate to determine which configuration is better.
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