I am going to upgrade my 8gb desktop pc. I have 2 free slots and 2 slots with 2x4gb 2400Mhz. I will buy 2x8gb with 3600 MHz. Should I put them together and have 24gb at 2400Mhz or should I remove the 2x4 in favor of the 3600Mhz.
I’m asking because I read that when you have 2 different ram speeds it will default to the lower one.
Edit: it’s for gaming and I have a Ryzen 3 1200 with a b350m as a motherboard
“Any time” is quite absolute and is not always true.
If all you’re doing is playing an esports games like CS:GO, you’ll have no benefit between 16GB and 32GB.
Ryzen’s infinity fabric scales with memory frequency, so there is CPU performance that can be left on the table in that case. Those in pursuit of high and stable framerates (like in esports) will have better results with high speed, low latency memory.
In the end, context is key and use case absolutely matters.
My point is, even if there is a performance improvement with faster RAM, it usually is in the single digits and usually not worth considering over just getting more RAM.