Installing different sized ram

[emilpukk21]

So I have a motherboard with 2 RAM slots (ASRock A320M) And I have 4GB of RAM on it, I'm planning to upgrade to 16GB but right now I can only afford one 8GB stick. They are both the same model, both are CL15 2400MHz. I know that they might not work together, so my question is what can happen if it doesn't work.

 

[Chaos2Theory]

if it doesnt work you just pull out the 4gb stick and have an upgrade to 8gb for now until you can afford one, but that shouldnt happen. The ram should work and boot perfectly, but you will lose some speed as the ram cannot act in dual channel mode, which isnt the worst thing. I would take 12 gb of ram instead of slightly faster ram any day of hte week.

 

[emilpukk21]

if it doesnt work you just pull out the 4gb stick and have an upgrade to 8gb for now until you can afford one, but that shouldnt happen. The ram should work and boot perfectly, but you will lose some speed as the ram cannot act in dual channel mode, which isnt the worst thing. I would take 12 gb of ram instead of slightly faster ram any day of hte week.

How big are the speed losses tho, and will the speed be back to normal when I get another stick of 8GB?

 

[Chaos2Theory]

if it doesnt work you just pull out the 4gb stick and have an upgrade to 8gb for now until you can afford one, but that shouldnt happen. The ram should work and boot perfectly, but you will lose some speed as the ram cannot act in dual channel mode, which isnt the worst thing. I would take 12 gb of ram instead of slightly faster ram any day of hte week.

How big are the speed losses tho, and will the speed be back to normal when I get another stick of 8GB?

you wont notice them unless you run benchmarks, and yeah when the ram sticks match dual channel is back on