[SOLVED] Can I have memory RAM issues if I have one slot with 8GB and another with 16GB

[henry223]

I currently have 8GB and I'm thinking of buying 16GB for the empty slot, but some people told me that if I'm not careful with memory balance in my RAM slots, there may be problems, slow performance or loss of usable memory. Is that true or is it a myth?

 

[--SID--]

Is true. I've seen a lot of issues with mismatched RAM and AMD Ryzen CPUs.

 

[henry223]

Is true. I've seen a lot of issues with mismatched RAM and AMD Ryzen CPUs.

Ohh really. What kinf of issues did you have?

 

[sizzling]

Ohh really. What kinf of issues did you have?

Anything from lost performance, random crashes through to not even being able to boot. However it can also work fine.

 

[geofelt]

Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
The internal workings are designed for the capacity of the kit.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards, can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when more sticks are involved.
Ram must be matched for proper operation.
Ryzen is more sensitive to ram issues than intel.

You could give it a shot on an intel pc.
Match the specs as to speed, voltage and timings.
At the very worst, you would have 16gb and the same single channel performance you have now.
If both sticks play nice, you will have 24gb of which 16gb will be running in dual channel mode and the odd 8gb in single channel mode.
That is called flex mode.

 

[Zerk2012]

I currently have 8GB and I'm thinking of buying 16GB for the empty slot, but some people told me that if I'm not careful with memory balance in my RAM slots, there may be problems, slow performance or loss of usable memory. Is that true or is it a myth?

You can try that and it might not work at all.

If you need 16GB then sell what you have and buy a 2X8GB set as in one package, or 2X16GB for 32GB if you need more than 16GB.

This way at least you just buy new memory one time.

 

[Karadjgne]

When the factory makes a kit, it has Thousands of sticks to mix and match with to get a perfectly compatible multiple stick configuration. When You mix and match, you have One stick. It might work great, might only work with some tinkering and adjustments, or might not work at all. There's No Guarantee on any outcome other than that.

Better to buy All the ram you want as a single kit, pretested at the factory. Anything less is just going to potentially make someone upset when you return otherwise working ram in multiple failed attempts to match up your existing ram.

It's entirely possible your ram can be so incompatible with any other ram, you could try 100+ other ram of every other brand, voltage, size, speed you can think of, and still no joy.