Is mixing ram good or bad?

[Guest]

i have 8GB RAM DDR3 1600MHz and another 4GB DDR3 1333MHz
i wanna mix them together, but dunno if it's good or bad, or if it will make danger to my motherboard

Thank you
-Gabriel

 

[MarkW]

Bad. For a lot of reasons. First off, the memory controller needs one set of settings that it can use to talk to each memory stick. As soon as it sees that combo you have, the 1600 will be stepped down to 1333. Then the settings we never see have to be matched up too. And there are lots and lots of them. During this process a few things can happen.

• 
  The memory controller can find a way to work with everything, and it works.
  The memory controller cannot find a way to work with everything, and it just freezes.
  The memory controller finds a way to work with everything, but when Windows is running, it doesn't really work and you get some really, really strange things happening with you machine. Weird errors, BSOD, freezes, all kinds of nasty things.
  
  Sometimes, it will work. Most of the time, its not worth it.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Bad, just don't even try it. RAM has dozens of settings called "timings", and everything has to go exactly right or it causes tons of issues. The timings are different between different brands, and different types, and all kinds of things. Even experts will only do that in a worst case scenario.

 

[andrye_groza]

It should work fine if both sticks have the same voltage.
But they will run at lowest speed stick: 1333 Mhz.

 

[Tradesman1]

It should work fine if both sticks have the same voltage.
But they will run at lowest speed stick: 1333 Mhz.

___________________

It's a crapshoot, look around in the forums, they are full of folks trying to mix packages of DRAM - OFTEN the same exact model of DRAM and problem after problem, voltgae is actually about the least of the worries problems wise

 

[IInuyasha74]

It should work fine if both sticks have the same voltage.
But they will run at lowest speed stick: 1333 Mhz.

___________________

It's a crapshoot, look around in the forums, they are full of folks trying to mix packages of DRAM - OFTEN the same exact model of DRAM and problem after problem, voltgae is actually about the least of the worries problems wise

Yes like he said. Technology has advanced a long way, but because the nature of how RAM works, RAM more or less has the same compatibility it did in the 1990s. Companies have implemented changes to allow for different quantities to work together which didn't exist before, but that basically increased the chance of it working from 0, to 1 in 100. It still isn't worth trying.

If you really need more RAM, sell your old RAM, and buy a kit that has a higher capacity to begin with.

 

[Tradesman1]

Actually DRAM in particular DDR3 ahas gone through and continues to evolve, early on DDR3 through about 2011 (introduction of the 1155 socket) used low density memory chips, today basically all DRAM is high density and not compatible with the older 775, 1156 and many 1366 socket mobos, also Kingston introduced the Fury line which steps away from the standard XMP profile approach and uses PnP (also not compatible with older chipsets). DDR3 originally was to only go up to 1600, but people wanted faster and the manufacturers obliged - we had 2400/2600 DRAM available before JEDEC ever published Standards for 1866 or 2133 DRAM, and mobo makers have had to continually update their mobo BIOSs to accomodate new DRAM with different settings as it arrives. Just a few of the things that come to mind when we continually see these statements from many saying "DDR3 is DDR3, it's all the same ", same with the myth that the mobo determines what data rate of DRAM you can have, which went by the farside back with the demise of the 775 socket when the MC 9Memory controller) was part of the mobo (on Intel the NB chipset, most commonly). 😉

 

[IInuyasha74]

Actually DRAM in particular DDR3 ahas gone through and continues to evolve, early on DDR3 through about 2011 (introduction of the 1155 socket) used low density memory chips, today basically all DRAM is high density and not compatible with the older 775, 1156 and many 1366 socket mobos, also Kingston introduced the Fury line which steps away from the standard XMP profile approach and uses PnP (also not compatible with older chipsets). DDR3 originally was to only go up to 1600, but people wanted faster and the manufacturers obliged - we had 2400/2600 DRAM available before JEDEC ever published Standards for 1866 or 2133 DRAM, and mobo makers have had to continually update their mobo BIOSs to accomodate new DRAM with different settings as it arrives. Just a few of the things that come to mind when we continually see these statements from many saying "DDR3 is DDR3, it's all the same ", same with the myth that the mobo determines what data rate of DRAM you can have, which went by the farside back with the demise of the 775 socket when the MC 9Memory controller) was part of the mobo (on Intel the NB chipset, most commonly). 😉

I didn't mean that RAM hasn't evolved, of course it has undergone a huge amount of change over the years. I meant in terms of compatibility with other RAM.