Is matching ram necessary?

[Noobpc]

I have 1 stick of kingston 4gb value ram at 1600mhz. I was thinking about adding another stick of ram in my system as i have 1 more slot available (2 slots total).

Does the new stick of ram i am buying have to be EXACTLY the same as my old stick for it to work? I wanted to add an 8gb stick for a total of 12gbs.

I dont plan on overclocking or anything special.

 

[moeid97]

if u buy another stick exactly same it will be good other wise any other brand or different mhz will run!
i have a kingston 2 gb ram x1 and samsung 256 mb x2 they all got combined to work!

 

[lowriderflow]

without being long winded here.... 100% absoutely buy a second stick of the exact same RAM you already have.

save yourself lots of headaches, nobody needs more than 8gb for gaming and normal computing anyway.

 

[geofelt]

Ram is sold in kits for a reason.
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.
That is why ram vendors will NOT support ram that is not bought in one kit.
Although, I think the problem has lessened with the newer Intel chipsets. Still,
it is safer to get what you need in one kit.
In this case, you could try a 8gb stick and see if it works. The ram should have the same voltage, speed and cas numbers.
If it runs, the odd 4gb will run in single channel mode. That is ok since the performance delta is minimal, and that is what you are doing now.
Usually, 8gb is enough. You could consider just buying a 8gb kit of 2 x 4gb compatible ram and abandoning or selling your 4gb kit.

 

[Noobpc]

Ok, i think i am getting a bit of conflicting opinions on this. Some are saying it is ok to mix, others are saying it is not.

I think i'll just play it safe and not mix.

For safety's sake, i bought 1 stick of this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008CP5QR2/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

"Kingston Value RAM 4GB 1600MHz PC3-12800 DDR3 Non-ECC CL11 DIMM SR x8 Desktop Memory (KVR16N11S8/4)"

I'll be safe just buying another stick of that right?

 

[geofelt]

Not safe, as in guaranteed by anybody to work.
But ... it is likely to work.

 

[moeid97]

its 100% ok to mix iam running my pc by mixing two rams and my pc works great without any problem! those who telling its not ok they mean that it will simply lower uer performance!

 

[geofelt]

its 100% ok to mix iam running my pc by mixing two rams and my pc works great without any problem! those who telling its not ok they mean that it will simply lower uer performance!

Some motherboards are very sensitive to mixed ram.

Actually, a second stick helps performance by adding a second channel, and is recommended.

 

[Noobpc]

Ok my motherboard is an msi fm2 a75ma e3.

Will it be ok with the mixed ram? I dont know if it is sensitive or not.

 

[geofelt]

Ok my motherboard is an msi fm2 a75ma e3.

Will it be ok with the mixed ram? I dont know if it is sensitive or not.

Modern motherboards are better with handling mixed ram. You are likely to be ok.
Since you already have 1 4gb stick, buy a second exactly the same if you can.

It is just that a ram vendor may not guarantee support it if you should encounter a problem.

Run memtest86+ for a few full passes to verify that all is ok.
You should see NO errors.

 

[yashas6a]

its 100% ok to mix iam running my pc by mixing two rams and my pc works great without any problem! those who telling its not ok they mean that it will simply lower uer performance!

Can u tell us which two rams u mixed?