Mobos that support 16GB RAM vs 8GB RAM

[fuzzybabybunny]

This is something that I've been wondering. Can motherboards that only support 8GB or RAM on their specs sheet support 16GB anyway? Is it just a matter of the mobo manufacturer thinking that 16GB wouldn't ever be used by anyone due to the price and somewhat impractical nature of it, so they just list 8GB as the max supported RAM?

I'm specifically looking for a 790GX board that supports CrossfireX and can take 16GB RAM in the future.There have been a few contenders, but those always seem to have glaring issues: SATA ports blocked with a full length video card, only 4 USB ports, crappy unstable BIOS, etc. I have a lot more options with boards that support 8GB RAM.

 

[Ratman6161]

I was surprised to see that some of the 790GX boards I see listed say max of 8GB while others say 16GB. Since AMD processors have the memory controller on the processor, I would have thought that the supported RAM would be the same regardless of motherboard.

 

[Andrew1990]

Maybe bios limitation or circuitry problem?

 

[n7]

Just because a chipset supports a certain amount of memory doesn't mean the mobo manufacturers have to implement support for that much.

I imagine there can be limitations due to the physical design on the board, & there certainly can be BIOS limitations.

 

[tcsenter]

Pretty much any current AMD64 chipset is going to support at least 16GB by four DIMM slots. Whether the motherboard company intends to do any BIOS vetting with modules greater than 2GB or total population greater than 8GB, will be up to them.

And by "current", I mean the most recent generation, not chipsets that are previous generation but motherboards using them are still selling. e.g. AMD 690 or GF 7050

If you intend to go with an AMD chipset, make sure it has SB700 or SB750, not SB600.