Mixing Memory

[Silentknight]

I'm wondering if its going to be ok to mix memory timings (ie: i have Corsair Dominator 1866 mhz 4x4) with my old ram i replaced which is Corsair Vengence 1600 mhx 4x4, the net total would be 32GB ram, overkill but w/e.  Will it be ok to mix both sets togeather and fill all 8 slots on my MB or will there be issues ?

[NiwatiX]

It can cause unexpected problems. At the theoretical level, mixing brands should not be a problem. All DDR memory comes from the same protocols. The idea was to standardize memory in most computers. Minor memory problems can cause issues with power usage, responsiveness and what they call CPU cycling 

[Beskamir]

when i tried mixing ram i ended up with less then what i was expecting. i had 8GB mixed with 4GB but i was only getting 6GB, so obviosly i gave up on mixing ram..... (also why doesn't the forum have any spell checks? my spelling is aweful)

[cyberlocc]

Ya not a good idea but if you feel you must at the very least macth the timing and latencys in line with each other or it defiantly won't work right

[heineygoat]

It's physically possible, but I wouldn't do it.

[Dexterity]

The timings and profiles of the 1866ram will be slowered to match the 1600

[virusal19]

It is possible but it will most likely give you more problems than the benefits are worth.  

[cyberlocc]

The timings and profiles of the 1866ram will be slowered to match the 1600

your right forgot about that lol

[Quaker]

Will it be ok to mix both sets togeather and fill all 8 slots on my MB or will there be issues ?

There shouldn't be any major issues, but all the RAM will run at DDR3-1600 settings - not that that really matters much either. :)

[EtaCarinae]

I'm wondering if its going to be ok to mix memory timings (ie: i have Corsair Dominator 1866 mhz 4x4) with my old ram i replaced which is Corsair Vengence 1600 mhx 4x4, the net total would be 32GB ram, overkill but w/e.  Will it be ok to mix both sets togeather and fill all 8 slots on my MB or will there be issues ?

 

Depends, do you like to have a stable system?  :lol:

[Maverik5124]

Try it out. Just set them to 1600mhz and set the timings to the lowest that both of them support

Trying it out will not hurt so go for it

[vrabec]

hi, i have a similar question :)

 

 

i have 2x2gigs of kingston hyper x memory:

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/kingston_hyperx_cl9/2.htm

 

and frieds would sell me his  dominator 2x2 for 15$: 

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/corsair_cas8/2.htm

 

is it worth to go through the trouble or not? :)

[mgsstar]

Mixing them might be possible. Try setting your ram with the same timings and the clock of your lowest clocked ram to see if that works.

[XiaoPigs]

I would straight up just go for the same RAM. Save yourself the headache.

[HEXiT]

unless you can get the ram to run at the same speed and timings its not worth the effort. as the resulting stress on the mmu will cause either the ram or the cpu to fail over time.. 

if you can match up the jdec timings then you should be ok but if your trying to run cas 9 with cas10 or 11 then i would think the jdec is to wide and will likely result in damage.

 

say you have 2 sticks of different ram

stick 1 has 9-9-9-27 @666, 8-8-8-24 @567, 7-7-7-20@ 400 

and stick 2 has 9-8-9-25@666 8-8-8-24@567 and 7-6-6-18 @400

it will be perfectly fine to run the ram at the 8-8-8-24 timings. but your likely to run into issue if you try to run all the ram at 9-9-9-27 or 7-7-7-20.

 

also if you run ram faster than what the cpu can handle natively then you wont be able to use more than 1 stick per channel, so if you decide to oc and the ram frequencies go past 1600 in your case, half the (2 or the 4 sticks)ram will likely disappear in windows and be classed as unusable.

[Silentknight]

Both sets i have are all 16GB quad channel kits bough as a whole, i only just upgraded to the Dominator ones cause simply put.  Dem Looks, the Vengence ones have served me well for a good while, i was only curious if it was ok to mix n match, considering i do tinker with video editing at times.  The timings on the older Vengence ram is 9-9-9-24 @1600 Mhz, the timinigs on the Dominator is 9-10-9-27 @1866 Mhz  Both kits are 16GB Quad Chan.

 

So if what im getting is right, if i do add in the other kit, i would be best to manually adjust the Dominator set to 9-9-9-24 in bios to match the vengence set.