It works in pairs. A single 8 gig stick in any slot will give you 8 gig in single channel. it will work, but in single channel mode, you will get less out of it than you would with 2x4 gig sticks. Its safe, the computer will run, but it will have half the bandwidth of a 2x4GB setup..
Then, do you need 2 sticks of RAM?
RAM has several components that all come together to make it perform well. For two different size RAM sticks to perform optimally together, they need to use the same voltage and their respective controllers should play well with each other and the motherboard. That's why it's best to use the same model in all slots.
Additionally, is one stick of RAM enough? No. It will work just fine. But they work best in pairs ( 2 sticks or 4 sticks), because you gain some speed that way. But you can always add one more stick later, when you need it.
Also question is, can I use 8gb RAM in one slot instead of 2x4gb RAM?
Yes you can. And you'll get the full 16 gb too. But here's the thing, Games use dual channel memory to collectively read and write information. Using an 8gb stick with 2x4gb sticks will prevent dual channel interaction as the games will only be allowed to communicate with either the 8gb stick or the 2x4gb sticks.
Is 2 RAM sticks better than 1?
It would suck if your motherboard has only two RAM slots, having both occupied with 4GB sticks. Better would be if you had one slot occupied with a single 8GB stick, making it easy to add another 8GB stick later. Generally speaking without knowing the rest of your specs, 2 sticks are usually better than one.
Related Question Answers
Is it better to have 2 sticks of RAM or 4?
General rule with Ryzen is always to prefer 2 sticks over 4. If you want 32GB get 2x16GB. 2x8GB will have better timings/speeds though. the more physical chips on the dimm, the denser the routing and the worse signal integrity you get.Is 32gb RAM overkill?
Is 32GB overkill? In general, yes. The only real reason an average user would need 32GB is for future proofing. As far as just simply gaming goes, 16GB is plenty, and really, you can get by just fine with 8GB.Is it better to fill all RAM slots?
If it is DDR2 or DDR3 with 4 DIMM slots, then it will be a dual channel configuration, in which there will be no performance difference between having two slots filled vs all four filled, if only two are filled, it is the matter of if the motherboard supports the RAM sticks and the correct slots to fit them into.Is 1 16gb RAM better than 2 8gb?
In general computers today are dual channel. That means in terms of performance two modules is better than one. A single 16 GB stick at the same frequency/latency as two 8 GB sticks may be a little less expensive or no different than a matched pair of 8 GB sticks but you sacrifice dual channel performance.Is one stick of 16gb RAM better than two 8gb?
So if you have more than one physical ram slot per processor ram channel, you are better off with the two sticks of 8GB. But the difference is small enough that if the 16GB stick costs less, you may want to buy it instead.Is it better to have 2x8GB or 1x16GB?
Is there a difference between 2x8GB RAM and 1x16GB? Dual Channel is the major one as others have said, but it is also great for troubleshooting. Dual channel only gives you more FPS if you are CPU bottlenecked. Otherwise there's no difference.Which RAM slots to fill first?
If you are installing memory in a dual-channel memory motherboard, install memory modules in pairs, filling the lowest numbered slots first. For example, if the motherboard has two slots each for channel A and channel B, numbered 0 and 1, fill the slots for channel A slot 0 and channel B slot 0 first.What is better 2x4GB or 1x8GB?
Dual channel is slightly faster, so 2x4GB would be the better choice. However, if you ever plan on upgrading your ram in the future I would suggest the 1x8GB stick. Yes, dual-channel memory is supposedly faster, but for most normal use, there's literally no difference between any stick of RAM in terms of speed.Can you use RAM of different sizes?
You can't add RAM of different sizes (frequencies/models/etc.) Of course, it's highly advisable that you use RAM sticks of the same manufacturer, lineup, size, and frequency — but it's only to reduce the chance that problems may arise.What's the biggest RAM you can get?
So, the most amount of RAM a computer can have is 2048 GB, or two terabytes of memory, theoretically.Can I add 8gb RAM to 4gb laptop?
If you want to add more RAM than that, say, by adding an 8GB module to your 4GB module, it'll work but the performance of a portion of the 8GB module will be lower. In the end that extra RAM probably won't be enough to matter (which you can read more about below.)Can you use 8gb and 16gb RAM together?
Yes it may work. Just to be sure, buy the kit having same serial no as of the current 8GB RAM. By the way, 16GB is sufficient for your stated work.Does it matter what RAM slots I use?
The RAM itself does not matter no, but the slots on the motherboard that you use does. There are two slots that are used for the heap memory, meaning the computers temporary variables, and the other two are used solely for logical storage. Pending on what you are doing on your computer, it might matter.Can I add 2 more sticks of RAM?
The short answer is yes, if you can purchase the exact same brand and model, and keep the channels aligned (so if you used slots 1 and 3 for the old ones, use 2 and 4 for the new ones).Does RAM speed matter?
Your RAM's speed does not alter how fast your CPU goes, even when overclocked or hyper-threaded, but it can slow the CPU down depending on if your RAM is full or not. RAM speed comes down to how much data is transferred at a given time, and much of that can be determined by the number of your RAM module.Is it better to have more RAM sticks or less?
It is of course much better for performance to populate all memory channels. That is, it is better to use many smaller size RAM sticks to populate all channels than just a single or two large size sticks inserted into 1 or 2 memory channels.Why is dual channel RAM better?
Every person with a good knowledge about computers will agree: if your computer supports dual-channel mode, it is better to buy two memory modules than a single module with twice the capacity. Doing so, the maximum bandwidth of the memory doubles, because both modules are accessed simultaneously.How much RAM do I need for gaming?
8 GB is the minimum for any gaming PC. With 8 GB of RAM, your PC will be running most games without any problem, though some concessions in terms of graphics will probably be required when it comes to the newer, more demanding titles. 16 GB is the optimal amount of RAM for gaming today. What is RAM dual channel?
Alternately referred to as multi-channel memory, dual-channel memory is a DDR, DDR2, or DDR3 chipset on the motherboard providing RAM with two dedicated high-throughput data channels. The channels permit reading from and writing to memory to occur on distinct channels. 
