Question Is it OK to populate all RAM slots with threadripper 1950x?

[boing]

My system specs are as below, I thought going from 16GB on my last build to 32GB would future proof me for a while but almost straigth away my rendering is now still hitting memory limits so I need to double up again. I currently have 4 x 8GB sticks and was going to purchase another 4 but then read a couple of comments that Threadripper doesn't like all dimms to be populated, is there any truth to this? I can obviously do 64GB with 4 sticks but don't want the expense if it isn't needed.


CPU - Threadripper 1950X
MB - Gigabyte X399 AORUS Gaming 7
GPU - Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1080 Ti
HDD C: - Samsung Evo 960 500GB
RAM - G Skill F4-3200C14-8GFX (32GB)
OS - Win 10 64 bit.
PSU - Seasonic SSR - 750 GD

 

[Soulkeeper]

They wouldn't put that many dimm slots if it didn't work. Just check the specs page for max speeds officially supported. You might lose a little overclocking potential. Worst case scenario is you'll have to manually set a few bios settings.

 

[boing]

yeah but some platforms have weird idiosyncrasies so I just thought I'd check before unlocking the wallet from its vault...

 

[jrichrds]

He's right in that some platforms do have issues trying to populate all RAM slots. My Gigabyte Intel Haswell boards (Z87 and B85) have issues resuming from sleep with all 4 RAM slots populated.

 

[KentState]

It looks like you have quality CL14 ram right now. Typically the problems with TR memory come from overclocked or lower tier memory. I'd be more worried if you had 3600/18CL or something like that but it is still a crap shoot.

 

[boing]

I'm not big on hardware, I know my way around a system but at a pretty basic level but I'd always assumed spreading the RAM over more sticks would offer better bandwidth for accessing memory? it's weird it can actually cause problems.

 

[Viper GTS]

I'm not big on hardware, I know my way around a system but at a pretty basic level but I'd always assumed spreading the RAM over more sticks would offer better bandwidth for accessing memory? it's weird it can actually cause problems.

It's less about DIMM count and more about channels and ranks to max out the memory controller potential. In general more DIMMs = more ranks though so you are largely correct.

I have 8 DIMMs on a 1950X with no issues. Specifically I have 8x Samsung M391A2K43BB1-CRC for a total of 128 GB ECC which I run at 2933. Motherboard is X399 Designare.

Viper GTS

 

[KentState]

I'm not big on hardware, I know my way around a system but at a pretty basic level but I'd always assumed spreading the RAM over more sticks would offer better bandwidth for accessing memory? it's weird it can actually cause problems.

Threadripper is quad channel so 4 or 8 should make little difference. They are usually chain the second set of dimms onto the first so you are sharing a single channel.