Question Can I mix 2 sticks of RAM with different latency in my PC?

[christianmatthew99]

Hi, I have an existing 8GB of RAM in my system, it is a PATRIOT ELITE 8GB DDR4-2666MHZ CL15.

Now, one of my friends offered to give me his extra RAM, a Patriot Signature Line 8GB DDR4 DR 2666 MHz CL19.

I am wondering if I can use them together?

I've searched the internet if I can use them together but I am confuse with all the answers. Can you please clarify it for me guys? Thanks!

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

You honestly won't know till you try them together. Even if they were identical , there would be a small chance of incompatibility.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Well since the ram is easily removable, you can try them together. However if they do work together they will default to the much slower cl 19. If they do work I would benchmark with and without the additional 8gb ram and see if you are getting better results.

 

[christianmatthew99]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that my friend is coming from the Philippines and will be arriving in 3 weeks time, I am currently here in UAE. Because if they don't work together, I can just tell him to give it to someone else. Anyways, thanks for the quick response, much appreciated.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Glad to help , can't hurt to try them together. Hopefully they pair well.

 

[christianmatthew99]

Glad to help , can't hurt to try them together. Hopefully they pair well.

Maybe i'll just have to wait until I can try them together. The used market is open 24/7 anyways if it's not going to work.

 

[KKMasterYT]

It "will" work for your mobo for sure, as its proved you already have a DDR4 mobo with the RAM you mentioned that you have, and the one that your friend's is also DDR4. So, it must work. Good luck with your upgrade!

 

[Rogue Leader]

It "will" work for your mobo for sure, as its proved you already have a DDR4 mobo with the RAM you mentioned that you have, and the one that your friend's is also DDR4. So, it must work. Good luck with your upgrade!

You cannot say that for sure at all. Will it work on its own? Probably. Will they work together? probably a 75/25 shot.

 

[gyuuula]

It's very rare, that RAM modules don't work together, if you know, how to tweak the clock and timings.

1, Before installing the "new" module, go into the BIOS/UEFI and set your RAM speed and timings to a JEDEC standard (disable XMP/go with SPD settings).

2, Install and boot.

*If you don't care about losing a little speed you can skip step 3.*
3, If everything went well, reboot and you can start tweaking your RAM settings. You can find plenty of guides on the net. A few tips:
-Bumping up the voltage to 1.35V is safe, and may allow the "Signature line" stick to keep up with the Elite's XMP profile.
-If it doesn't work, try to boot with the "Signature line" XMP profile.
-If that doesn't work either, roll back the base SPD speed or try to manual settings.

4, DO a through RAM test after you finished the setup! Booting into windows doesn't mean your PC is stable.

But if I were you, I would get the same RAM, you already have in the PC. It's quite fast, and with the new module you will likely lose some speed (0-5% depending on the app).

 

[DHardo]

Check one of my replies in similar thread:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/mixing-ram-of-two-different-timings.417869/post-20965060

 

[DHardo]

Check one of my replies in similar thread:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/mixing-ram-of-two-different-timings.417869/post-20965060

Check one of my replies in similar thread:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/mixing-ram-of-two-different-timings.417869/post-20965060

Note that if your ram has the same speed and voltage I would recommend using timings from memory block you put in slot 1

 

[DHardo]

Note that if your ram has the same speed and voltage I would recommend using timings from memory block you put in slot 1

Since my post was deleted due to necro posting I will write it here:
My case was that i had 2 different ram sets 2x4gb g.skill sniper 2133 hz 1.65v and 2x4gb g.skill trident x 2400hz 1.65v and both have different timings. What i did to make them work together is put the slower (sniper) in slot 1 and faster (trident x) in slot 2 and continued with sniper slot 3 and tridentx slot 4. After that your system might boot in black screen which requires a cmos reset to fix. Once I booted in bios i manualy put timings from g.skill sniper ram to be used for all of them and frequency to one my cpu can support. After that my PC was running normal and stable with different ram. If your motherboard does not support manual ram timing adjustmemts i would not recommend doing it.
For guide how to change timings you can check this video:

View: https://youtu.be/w4sx-GuY3CA

 

[christianmatthew99]

Since my post was deleted due to necro posting I will write it here:
My case was that i had 2 different ram sets 2x4gb g.skill sniper 2133 hz 1.65v and 2x4gb g.skill trident x 2400hz 1.65v and both have different timings. What i did to make them work together is put the slower (sniper) in slot 1 and faster (trident x) in slot 2 and continued with sniper slot 3 and tridentx slot 4. After that your system might boot in black screen which requires a cmos reset to fix. Once I booted in bios i manualy put timings from g.skill sniper ram to be used for all of them and frequency to one my cpu can support. After that my PC was running normal and stable with different ram. If your motherboard does not support manual ram timing adjustmemts i would not recommend doing it.
For guide how to change timings you can check this video:

View: https://youtu.be/w4sx-GuY3CA

Nice, thanks for the guide. I will try it out as soon as I receive the ram from my friend. Much appreciated.