Mixing Different RAM Together | Good or bad?

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JESSE1408

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I've recently upgraded to 16GB of ram, from the previous 4GB.

I'm wondering if it's okay to mix the 2 kits as they are different brands and I'm not sure about the timings.

16GB : Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz
4GB : Hynix 1600Mhz
 
Solution
shrapnel_indie
If you have the RAM, like already suggested, try it.... if it don't work at 1600, try 1033, 1066, or 1333 and get the detail from there (CPU-Z is good.) Usually setting them to the highest settings may do the trick. (i.e DDR3-1600 10-10-10-32 and DDR3-1600 7-8-8-28, try DDR3-1600 10-10-10-32 settings.)

You will be reminded here and anyplace else about it not being recommended, not supported, or it not being a good idea. While that may be true, my personal experience is that a vast majority of the time it will work. It isn't 100% guaranteed though and you could run into a case where they don't play nice and work.

To manually adjust, just like using XMP (Intel) or, as in this case, AMP. You enter the UEFI/BIOS and select manual over...
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JESSE1408

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Suppose they do need tweaking? That'd be done within the UEFI, right?
 
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J

JESSE1408

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So I figured but then DRagor seems to have a different opinion on the topic so it's interesting to think who is right.

RAM should be compatible but they probably make kits incompatible so you have to stick to a specific brand after you buy from said brand - taking away a customer's freedom, how ironic.
 
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shrapnel_indie

shrapnel_indie

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If you have the RAM, like already suggested, try it.... if it don't work at 1600, try 1033, 1066, or 1333 and get the detail from there (CPU-Z is good.) Usually setting them to the highest settings may do the trick. (i.e DDR3-1600 10-10-10-32 and DDR3-1600 7-8-8-28, try DDR3-1600 10-10-10-32 settings.)

You will be reminded here and anyplace else about it not being recommended, not supported, or it not being a good idea. While that may be true, my personal experience is that a vast majority of the time it will work. It isn't 100% guaranteed though and you could run into a case where they don't play nice and work.

To manually adjust, just like using XMP (Intel) or, as in this case, AMP. You enter the UEFI/BIOS and select manual over the auto settings, and select each value one at a time and set them. Make sure to save the changes. :)


EDIT: fixed typo and added an extra "speed"
 
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Solution
J

JESSE1408

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Not 100% sure how to use memtest86 but I ran it and just let it do its thing and I got up to 27 iterations with no errors and it seemed to reset to 1 iteration and I let it go for a few minutes with no changes.

As for CPU-Z, I'm not sure what I'm looking for.
M2cMPDQ.png
 
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J

JESSE1408

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I mean I kind of knew that already. My question was just me being skeptical and also about the ram kits being of different brands.
 
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shrapnel_indie

shrapnel_indie

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under the SPD tab, there is a drop down to select each RAM stick. You can check their JEDEC and XMP settings. If they are all the same, super, if not, when it comes to the timings use the larger numbers if the same rated speed. If they are, say rated DDR3-1600 and DDR3-2133, use the DDR3-1600 speed and its timings as much as possible.
 
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J

JESSE1408

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Right, thankfully the 2 kits run at 1600 each, the timings are just a bit different.
 
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