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Are two sticks of different sized ram compatible with each other?

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I recently ordered an ASRock Z77 Extreme6 on sale and it had a promotion for it, a stick of 8GB Ram. I'm wondering if I can use it with the memory I already have.

My Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Promotional Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Obviously I know that they're both the same brand, type and speed (DDR3 1600mhz). What I'm wondering is if I can use it all at the same time, essentially having 16GB of ram across 3 sticks (2x4GB and 1x8GB), Or if the timing and Cas latency won't allow it.

Also, If they don't happen to work together, would I be better of changing to the one stick of 8GB opposed to my 2 sticks of 4GB, or stick with my 2x4GB?

Help is appreciated. Thanks.

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Memory Master

Higher density sticks are usually timed slower at the same speed so that's why the 8GB stick is cas 10 vs cas 9 on the 4GB sticks. They should all work fine together although you may have to set it manually to the slower timings of the 8GB stick ( 10-10-10-27 ). You will lose the roughly 5% performance gain of having dual channel by running an odd number of sticks.

anort3 said:
Higher density sticks are usually timed slower at the same speed so that's why the 8GB stick is cas 10 vs cas 9 on the 4GB sticks. They should all work fine together although you may have to set it manually to the slower timings of the 8GB stick ( 10-10-10-27 ). You will lose the roughly 5% performance gain of having dual channel by running an odd number of sticks.

So I'd probably be better off sticking with what I have? I'm mainly using it as a gaming machine so 8gb should be plenty for me.

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Memory Master

The only way you will see a difference between cas 9 and cas 10 is with benchmarking programs. The 5% hit over dual channel would also not be noticeable in day to day use but in my opinion 5% is 5% and that's a decent performance hit. Unless you need the extra RAM for something other than gaming you are probably better off sticking with what you have.

You could always sell the extra stick on ebay or Craigslist.
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anort3 said:
The only way you will see a difference between cas 9 and cas 10 is with benchmarking programs. The 5% hit over dual channel would also not be noticeable in day to day use but in my opinion 5% is 5% and that's a decent performance hit. Unless you need the extra RAM for something other than gaming you are probably better off sticking with what you have.

You could always sell the extra stick on ebay or Craigslist.

Alright, thanks for the help. I think I'll just have a backup on deck just in case. Thanks again.
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