Can I mix 2, 8GB DDR3 with 2 4GB DDR3 for a total of 24GB RAM?

[JosWick]

Hello, just a quick question. Would I be able to do this? Im not sure how to check voltage on the RAM sticks and I was wondering if there was any other factors, thanks <3

 

[Darkbreeze]

If the specifications are all very similar, with timings and voltage that are the same or very close to the same, you can try it. There are never any guarantees when mixing RAM however. Often, they will not play nice together.

Also, they will default to whatever module has the lowest speed if they do run together. In some cases it might be necessary to start with only one stick of memory installed and increase the DRAM voltage when running four modules or running at speeds higher than the default JEDEC SPD speed of 1333mhz.

There are a lot of ways this can fail to work, and only one way really that it will. So don't be surprised if some amount of tinkering is necessary to get them all to run together, and if there are major differences in the sets, or even if there aren't, it's still highly possible they won't.

It also matters how much memory your motherboard supports, what size sticks it supports and what CPU is installed.

Knowing the model number of all memory modules and the rest of your system specs would be helpful in at least pre-determining what the chances are they'll run together. Motherboard, CPU, power supply and memory part numbers.

 

[kanewolf]

Voltage and timing are both important. Mix and match for RAM is a gamble. More often than not, it doesn't work.

 

[geofelt]

If you have it, go ahead and try it.
No harm will come if they do not work together.
If your motherboard permits sometimes increasing ram voltage a bit will do the trick.
Test your ram with memtest86.
You should get NO errors for a full pass.

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.
That is why ram vendors will NOT support ram that is not bought in one kit.