Can i combine different RAM timings ?

[aiven]

Hello, i ve bought Kingstom 8GB KIT DDR4 2133MHz CL14 HyperX Fury Black Series (Dual-channel) 2 years ago. I want to upgrade my RAM. I want to buy 4 GB more, but i cant find CL14 timing anywhere on the internet (in my country). My question is : Can i combine CL14 8GB with 4GB CL 16 ? Thanks for your answers.

[svk_w0lf]

Hey dude! It may or may not work. Either way the speed would fall back onto the slower one. Have a good day!

[jaslion]

6 minutes ago, aiven said:

Hello, i ve bought Kingstom 8GB KIT DDR4 2133MHz CL14 HyperX Fury Black Series (Dual-channel) 2 years ago. I want to upgrade my RAM. I want to buy 4 GB more, but i cant find CL14 timing anywhere on the internet (in my country). My question is : Can i combine CL14 8GB with 4GB CL 16 ? Thanks for your answers.

First. You shouldnt add a single stick as that will take your system out of running dual channel mode and run it in single channel. Which depending on what cpu you have can give a noticeable performance decrease. Second you should really try to match everything as close as possible to avoid issues. Can it work? Sure. But the less the sticks are alike the bigger the chance is that it will cause issues. Try to find an identical kit to your old one.

[aiven]

 

25 minutes ago, jaslion said:

First. You shouldnt add a single stick as that will take your system out of running dual channel mode and run it in single channel. Which depending on what cpu you have can give a noticeable performance decrease. Second you should really try to match everything as close as possible to avoid issues. Can it work? Sure. But the less the sticks are alike the bigger the chance is that it will cause issues. Try to find an identical kit to your old one.

So in my case can i do like 4GB in dual channel like 2 + 2 GB ? And if i really cant find CL 14 should i go with CL15 or CL16 ?

[mariushm]

You can combine sticks with different timings.

All the memory sticks will run at the slowest timings.

If you already have a pair of memory sticks, you should only add another pair, to preserve the "dual channel" mode, which adds improvements.

Some motherboards and processors can run in a sort of "hybrid" mode, where if an application reads or writes data in the first 8 GB, it will work in dual channel, otherwise will work in single channel mode (slower) or something to that effect, but it's always better to maintain dual channel mode, using pairs of sticks.

 

In your particular case you have DDR4 2133 Mhz CL 14

2133 is very slow.

What you can do is buy 2666 Mhz or 3000 Mhz or 3200 Mhz CL16-CL18 memory sticks. The CL16 or CL18 is valid for that frequency (2666,3000,3200) and the memory stick will have some built in presets for lower frequencies like 2133 Mhz or 2400 Mhz where the timings are lower.

So for example, a 3000 Mhz CL16 stick will probably have a 2133 Mhz CL14 profile stored in them, and/or maybe a 2400 Mhz CL15 profile.

 

Here's for example G-Skill 3600 Mhz (real frequency 1800 Mhz) :

You can see the XMP-3602 profile (3600 Mz) with the 16-16-16 timings and 1.35v but the same stick can run at 2133 Mhz (1066 x 2 ) with the 15-15-15 and 1.2v preset (JEDEC #6) or 16-15-15 and 1.2v (JEDEC #7)

 

 

 

You won't find 2 GB DDR4 sticks, they simply don't make the individual tiny ram chips that small (the smallest ram chips are 512 MB, so 512 x 8 chips = 4 GB)

[aiven]

12 minutes ago, mariushm said:

You can combine sticks with different timings.

All the memory sticks will run at the slowest timings.

If you already have a pair of memory sticks, you should only add another pair, to preserve the "dual channel" mode, which adds improvements.

Some motherboards and processors can run in a sort of "hybrid" mode, where if an application reads or writes data in the first 8 GB, it will work in dual channel, otherwise will work in single channel mode (slower) or something to that effect, but it's always better to maintain dual channel mode, using pairs of sticks.

 

In your particular case you have DDR4 2133 Mhz CL 14

2133 is very slow.

What you can do is buy 2666 Mhz or 3000 Mhz or 3200 Mhz CL16-CL18 memory sticks. The CL16 or CL18 is valid for that frequency (2666,3000,3200) and the memory stick will have some built in presets for lower frequencies like 2133 Mhz or 2400 Mhz where the timings are lower.

So for example, a 3000 Mhz CL16 stick will probably have a 2133 Mhz CL14 profile stored in them, and/or maybe a 2400 Mhz CL15 profile.

 

Here's for example G-Skill 3600 Mhz (real frequency 1800 Mhz) :

You can see the XMP-3602 profile (3600 Mz) with the 16-16-16 timings and 1.35v but the same stick can run at 2133 Mhz (1066 x 2 ) with the 15-15-15 and 1.2v preset (JEDEC #6) or 16-15-15 and 1.2v (JEDEC #7)

 

 

 

You won't find 2 GB DDR4 sticks, they simply don't make the individual tiny ram chips that small (the smallest ram chips are 512 MB, so 512 x 8 chips = 4 GB)

Thanks for your reasearch and your time! My last question is: doest the dual channel makes big difference ? i dont want to spend like unnecessary money on my pc so bec. of that i would rather buy 4gb single channel and have 12gb ram.

[jaslion]

2 hours ago, aiven said:

Thanks for your reasearch and your time! My last question is: doest the dual channel makes big difference ? i dont want to spend like unnecessary money on my pc so bec. of that i would rather buy 4gb single channel and have 12gb ram.

It depends on what you you have so if you could tell us that we can tell you.

[aiven]

2 hours ago, jaslion said:

It depends on what you you have so if you could tell us that we can tell you.

You mean other specs ? I can show u: 

 

And as i said my RAM are: Kingstom 8GB KIT DDR4 2133MHz CL14 HyperX Fury Black Series (Dual-channel)

[aiven]

[jaslion]

24 minutes ago, aiven said:

You mean other specs ? I can show u: 

 

And as i said my RAM are: Kingstom 8GB KIT DDR4 2133MHz CL14 HyperX Fury Black Series (Dual-channel)

Single channel is fine with an i5 7400.

[aiven]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

Single channel is fine with an i5 7400.

Thank you very much !