For RAM which is better and WHY?

2x8GB sticks OR 4x4GB sticks.

I already have two 4GB sticks and thinking of getting another two. That's why I want to know.

Why do you think you need 16gb of RAM?

http://www.techspot.com/article/1043-8gb-vs-16gb-ram/

Lanth is correct. For general use and gaming. Editing Videos or images, creating music or rendering are scenarios where an update can make sense.

Short answer to your question: Getting additional 2x4 GB RAM sticks is fine.

Long answer: 2x8 GB is better because you still have the option to upgrade. Obviously that's not a good enough reason for throwing away 8 GB RAM.
The other (negligible) disadvantage of 4x4 GB RAM would be having 2 new + 2 old RAM sticks vs. 2 new ones. More componenents and older component both increase the chance that any one of them is failing. But since RAMs go bad in basically never that doesn't really count.

I want to be able to render more minecraft blocks at a higher distance.

I have a question about RAM as well: Why does it say I have 8GBs installed, but only 3.95 is usable? How do I fix this?

No idea. Too specific. Just measure RAM usage and try to guess.
Install a 64 bit operating system (you have 32 bit). Oh and stay away from Windows 10. It's only "free" because it's the first step to change the business model so that MS has full control over everything, kind of similar to Adobe Cloud products.
Make a new topic.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Sep 8 2015, 6:52 am by NudeRaider.

Had 1 stick of RAM go faulty in my bfs pc. Initially assumed it was the hdd. He had 4x2gb, so taking 1 out to leave him with 6 was fine - he doesn't really use his computer for more than web browsing (got it for free a few years ago, was only slightly worse than mine at the time)


Do you know for certain that increasing your RAM, while keeping all other components the same, will achieve this?

Almost certainly you've got a 32bit operating system, they can only map 4 gbs of RAM.

Look guys i appreciate the concern but you're not really addressing my concern here.

I just want to know if I *CAN* get more RAM, not the merits of whether it's a good idea or not...

And so the question remains, is it better for two sticks of equiavelent memory or four sticks of equiavelent memory?

Lanth and Nude made pretty good points on your question.
Two sticks are better if they are equal to or greater than four sticks, because you'll have room to upgrade.
Though Nude said it's not reccommended to mix old and new RAM together... It's ultimately up to you how you want your PC to be.
You can stick with getting 4 new sticks, or you could stick with just using two sticks. Or use your two new sticks and two old sticks together for 20 GBs of RAM instead of 16.
Having room to upgrade is always the better option.
The only pro of using four sticks is that if one fails, you're only down 4 GBs opposed to 8 GBs.

If I had the money to spend, and if I could get my RAM issue fixed (Unless getting new RAM would fix it), then I would definitely go for the two sticks.

About the room for upgrade point:

As others here have said, 8GB currently is perfectly enough RAM for most things. 16GB is totally overkill. 32 is super overkill.

I won't actually care about room for upgrade because of this. With 16GB of RAM I (hopefully) will not need to upgrade my RAM in a long time.

As for mixing and matching, well - that's just it. I can buy two more sticks of identical RAM to the RAM I already have for $89 AUD. That's what I'm contemplating doing. I just wanted some input before I did it.

I don't really think you need 16GB of RAM, but as you can get identical sticks, I'd just do that. Cheapest and easiest.

I answered all questions you posted, even more thoroughly than necessary. If you still have questions you gotta post the remaining concerns to get new answers.
But you're right, BZ shouldn't have hijacked your topic. And since the answer isn't obvious it deserves its own topic.

Getting Identical RAM sticks is always a good idea. While different brands usually go well together there sometimes (rarely) are incompatibilities when mixing.