Question Old board that maxes out at 16GB RAM is using 24GB (??)

[ManOfArc]

I have a Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H motherboard in my old shop PC. According to the board's specs, it only accepts up to 16GB RAM max. That is how much I had been using until I found 2x4GB sticks lying around that I forgot I had. So not wanting them to go to waste, I added them just to see if they would be recognized. They were!
The BIOS shows 24GB, the POST screen shows 24GB, and CPU-Z shows 24GB. But... is the system actually using all the RAM, or is 8GB just sitting there wasted? How can I verify?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Not suprised. I have seen several cases where more ram worked than was supposed to. Likely the reason it says 16gb max is because 4gb sticks were the maximum available when that board were new.

I would download prime95 and run a blend test. Monitor ram usage.