Question Memory

[nhardinger2003]

So i stupidly made the mistake of buying ddr4 3200 speed memory during the crypto craze, and it will not run for the life of me at that speed, so im thinking of pulling it and getting a new kit. Right now i have 8 gigs of ddr4 3200 from corsair on a asrock ab350m pro 4 mb and a ryzen 5 2400g. My question is im planning on upgrading to 16 gigs, however im wondering if i should just get 2666 or 2933. I can only get my kit of 3200 to run at 2666 before everything crashes and causes lots of issues. I need an upgrade because either some games struggle with the amount i have (for some reason windows thinks i want 1.1 gigs for hardware reserves, idk why, and when doing some video editing and opening a google tab, i run out of memory and everything crashes including the computer itself. I was debating on upgrading the mb to a b450 but id assume id have to reinstall windows on my drives. Any help you can offer would be great. Thanks

 

[TheBigOrton]

When upgrading RAM, the easiest thing you can do to make sure you don't run into any problems is buy the exact same model, regardless of how it performs.

However, you want to get a second kit of RAM at the speed of 2666Mhz/2933Mhz rather than the speed of your current kit which is 3200Mhz. It is possible to do this, however, you'll need to check that the second kit of RAM has the same cas latency, timings and voltage as your original kit of RAM. Otherwise, it will not work.

If these are the same for both kits, that is great! The RAM will most likely work. However, if you have one kit of RAM running at 3200Mhz and the second kit running at 2666Mhz, the motherboard will underclock the faster RAM to the speed of the slower RAM. As you seem to have your 3200Mhz RAM running at 2666Mhz already, you should be fine in this case.

Just remember to be careful & look out for the details before buying your new RAM kit.
(or just buy the exact same kit again to avoid any potential issues )

 

[nhardinger2003]

When upgrading RAM, the easiest thing you can do to make sure you don't run into any problems is buy the exact same model, regardless of how it performs.

However, you want to get a second kit of RAM at the speed of 2666Mhz/2933Mhz rather than the speed of your current kit which is 3200Mhz. It is possible to do this, however, you'll need to check that the second kit of RAM has the same cas latency, timings and voltage as your original kit of RAM. Otherwise, it will not work.

If these are the same for both kits, that is great! The RAM will most likely work. However, if you have one kit of RAM running at 3200Mhz and the second kit running at 2666Mhz, the motherboard will underclock the faster RAM to the speed of the slower RAM. As you seem to have your 3200Mhz RAM running at 2666Mhz already, you should be fine in this case.

Just remember to be careful & look out for the details before buying your new RAM kit.
(or just buy the exact same kit again to avoid any potential issues )

Im planning on pulling it and upgrading it to a 4x4 kit to get to 16 gigs. Ill try to sell the other ram once i know that the new kit works in the system, I understand that compatibility is largely an issue, the kit i have for some reason its still 200 where i can get a 4x4 kit of ballistix sport 2666 for 89 dollars. I may just end up getting that kit. Id love to get higher speed for future upgrades but if the mb or processor wont let me get it to that stably, then i dont wanna try.

 

[TheBigOrton]

Im planning on pulling it and upgrading it to a 4x4 kit to get to 16 gigs. Ill try to sell the other ram once i know that the new kit works in the system, I understand that compatibility is largely an issue, the kit i have for some reason its still 200 where i can get a 4x4 kit of ballistix sport 2666 for 89 dollars. I may just end up getting that kit. Id love to get higher speed for future upgrades but if the mb or processor wont let me get it to that stably, then i dont wanna try.

Fair enough. If your pulling your old kit out and replacing it with a new kit, then you do not really need to worry about compatibility (other than the fact is has to be the correct DDR* type of memory). You should be fine man

 

[iMatty]

Well if the ram is not running at 3200MHZ probably because your motherboard doesn't support that speed, plus before buying any ram check the QVL list of supported ram sticks for your motherboard.

 

[Satan-IR]

Including full system specs would help. For example to determine whether your board can run RAM at that speed or not.

 

[nhardinger2003]

Including full system specs would help. For example to determine whether your board can run RAM at that speed or not.

What do you mean? I have the mb processor and ram kit listed? Is their something else I’m supposed to list?

 

[nhardinger2003]

Well if the ram is not running at 3200MHZ probably because your motherboard doesn't support that speed, plus before buying any ram check the QVL list of supported ram sticks for your motherboard.

Here’s the funny part though, on asrocks website it says my kit is supported to run at that speed but in the manual it’s has oc next to it. I have no clue how overclocking works so that could be an issue too.