mixed sizes of memory

[shanyin]

Hi. I have 4 sticks of memory in my 4 slots on my motherboard. Two 2gb sticks, one 4 gb and one 8gb. The 2x2 are corsair ddr3 1600 and the 2 other ones are Ballistix 1600 speed.

I'm wondering if I should just get two 8 gb sticks that are both balistix, which might be an option if I can take back my 4 gb stick that I bought today.

Is there a certain order that the RAM should be in on my motherboard? (p55a ud3p). I tried a bunch of different arrangements and finally got the computer to recognize it.

 

[Rogue Leader]

If it works thats great but its probably not properly functioning in dual channel.

Replacing all your ram with 2 8gb sticks to get you 16gb is the best approach.

 

[iamacow]

If you mix different dimm sizes it will revert to single channel. That or crash constantly. My laptop just goes into single channel since I have a 4gb and 8GB dimm. I ended up just buying a second 8GB dimm to get dual channel running again.

 

[shanyin]

What's dual channel? Better performance?

 

[Rogue Leader]

What's dual channel? Better performance?

yes 20-30% faster performance

 

[Tradesman1]

How much of the DRAM is showing and usable? Most all P55 mobos don't accept or use 8GB sticks, the mobos max at 16GB and call for that in a 4x4GB config

 

[shanyin]

15.2 is shown as usable.

 

[Tradesman1]

If all is usable (the odd .8 not showing is probably being shared with the GPU) I'd prob leave it as is