Hi all! Im thinking about upgrading my RAM seeing that newer titles become memory hoggs and reguire lots of ram (case n point new COD). My rig has 8 gigs (4x2Gb) of Kingstone Hyper X DDR3 1600mhz and it works fine. My mobo can handle up to 32 gigs. I was thinking about upgrading to larger ddr3 memory and keeping some of the old sticks( ddr4 and new cpu/mobo combo are out of the question for now) So, since i have 4x2Gb in all slots i was thinking replacing 2 2gb ram sticks with 2x8 gb sticks in confiruration 2+8+2+8 gb in dual channel, of course. Memory i aim to buy is : Kingston DIMM DDR3 8GB 1600MHz HyperX Fury White CL10 http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-HyperX-FURY-1600MHz-DDR3/dp/B00J8E8ZMY So, is it a good idea to mix 2gb and 8gb ram sticks, them being Kingstone? Is 20 Gb overkill? I would really like to keep some of my older ram sticks .....
Why do people get this wrong. Dual channel means that pairs of memory sticks operate as one. And most motherboards often have 4 slots which means two separate channels, channel A and channel B, each with their own pair. (They don't actually operate as one but for all intents and purposes it's easier to describe it as such). So in this case, ensure the 8GB sticks are in channel A and the 2GB sticks in channel B. The channels are often denoted by colour. If you had an 8GB stick and a 2GB stick in channel A, then the faster ram stick will clock down and operate at the same speed as the slower stick.
Yes, ram sticks have the same speed and timmings. In one channel (A) two 8 gig sticks would be and in the other (B) two 2 gig stick would remain. So, there wont be any problems? Is 20 gigs too much? I just play games, nothing else much.....
You missed the point, I was explaining if the 2GB sticks were different, it would be fine as long as they're in their own channel. You can never have too much ram. But yeah, just make sure that matching ram is paired in their own channel.
I could be wrong on this, but for max speed across the entire ram wouldn't you want to have the sticks staggered - meaning each channel gets 2+8 rather than 2+2 and 8+8? If my understanding on how dual-channel ram gets used is correct, then in the 2+2 / 8+8 setup you would only see top speed across the first 8 gigs. So at a physical level 4 gigs can be accessed in parallel to 16 gigs, so the top speed would only be achieved while the 4G set is reading in parallel to the first 4 gigs of the 16G set. Again, maybe I'm off on this - but ideally the channels should have the same capacity so that there isn't "extra" ram in one of the channels that cant be interleaved with ram in the other channel. If I'm way off here someone please correct me on this, but I think I remember looking into this and it does have an impact on performance.
That is correct Hazmat, he would be better off buying a new 16gb kit for full speed. PS. Hazmat as in MCM?
Channels A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B | | | | v v v v 8 2 8 2 gb = 8+8 2+2 = dual channel enabled 8 8 2 2 gb = 8+2 8+2 = dual channel disabled As far as i know it is supposed to work like this....
