can I mix different kits of ddr4?

[IEatglue]

hi, i currently have a r5 2600 16gb of HP V6 DDR4 RAM (3000 MHz) and some cheap b450 board with a gtx 1660, its not bad but i want to upgrade and i thought the cheapest and easiest way to do that was with a ram upgrade (16gb -> 32gb) but the exact kit i have is like $45 USD and i know you can get it a lot cheaper if i go for a different kit ($30 USD)  i looked it up but theirs a lot of varying answers. so is it okay to mix a different kit or should i spend the extra $15 to get the same kit?

[svmlegacy]

The same kit does not offer a guarantee of it working. Might as well save the money.

 

Even in ideal sense, you may need to reduce the speed somewhat to support the extra memory. Pinnacle Ridge's memory controller is not the best - update your BIOS before installation to give the best chances.

[Needfuldoer]

The whole setup will only run as fast as its weakest link. That could be the cheaper RAM, or it could be the memory controller coping with four DIMMs.

 

It will work fine, but it might not be ideal. (Especially if you plan on upgrading to a Ryzen 5000 CPU.)

[WereCat]

In theory it's okay. In practice it's hit and miss.

 

The most important thing to understand is to be absolutely certain that the RAM in the different kit uses the same ICs. Because while the kit may appear to be the same... it may be using different components. So in fact, it will not be the same kit and you may run into issues.

 

For example you get Corsair Vengeeance kit now and then get another one 6 months later. You're almost guaranteed to end up with very different RAM because Corsair likes to source chips from Samsung and Micron while slapping it on the "same kit" under the same name.

And even if both kits have for example Micron chips... they still may differ in which kind of chips they have. For example Micron rev-E is very different vs Micron rev-B especially in subtimings, etc...

 

EVEN THAT should work... but then it comes down to what motherboard and which BIOS you have, etc... every manufacturer handles the auto settings differently and it may run fine or you may run into issues.

 

If you are able to set some stuff manually and not afraid of doing so and willing to spend some time on it if you run into issues, chances are you can make it run just fine almost always.

[Dedayog]

26 minutes ago, IEatglue said:

hi, i currently have a r5 2600 16gb of HP V6 DDR4 RAM (3000 MHz) and some cheap b450 board with a gtx 1660, its not bad but i want to upgrade and i thought the cheapest and easiest way to do that was with a ram upgrade (16gb -> 32gb) but the exact kit i have is like $45 USD and i know you can get it a lot cheaper if i go for a different kit ($30 USD)  i looked it up but theirs a lot of varying answers. so is it okay to mix a different kit or should i spend the extra $15 to get the same kit?

More ram is only an upgrade if you need it.

 

Do you need more than 16gb?

 

I'd personally save for a ryzen 5600 or a better GPU.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

38 minutes ago, IEatglue said:

hi, i currently have a r5 2600 16gb of HP V6 DDR4 RAM (3000 MHz) and some cheap b450 board with a gtx 1660, its not bad but i want to upgrade and i thought the cheapest and easiest way to do that was with a ram upgrade (16gb -> 32gb) but the exact kit i have is like $45 USD and i know you can get it a lot cheaper if i go for a different kit ($30 USD)  i looked it up but theirs a lot of varying answers. so is it okay to mix a different kit or should i spend the extra $15 to get the same kit?

What b450 board? Just send a pic if you dont know

 

Send a thaiphoon burner pic to identify ics

 

Generic plastic heatspreader xmp rams will come with completely random ics so it literally doesnt matter what generic kit you buy cause youll be getting a random ic anyways

 

I wouldnt reccomend buying another generic xmp kit and instead buying some oem bare pcbs that actually come with ics that match your current rams since oems like samsung or hynix will have part numbers that specifically state the rank config, ic, etc. So if you order that particular part number you will get the same exact ic every single time

 

for example m378a1k43db2, you will always get a single sided (single rank 1rx8) stick with 8gbit samsung d die, or hma82gu6djr8n where you will always get a double sided (dual rank 2rx8) stick with hynix 8gbit djr

 

Basically means xmp is guaranteed to work since theyre the exact same ics, its just upto the mobo and cpu if they can handle 4 sticks at 3000

[IEatglue]

3 hours ago, WereCat said:

In theory it's okay. In practice it's hit and miss.

 

The most important thing to understand is to be absolutely certain that the RAM in the different kit uses the same ICs. Because while the kit may appear to be the same... it may be using different components. So in fact, it will not be the same kit and you may run into issues.

 

For example you get Corsair Vengeeance kit now and then get another one 6 months later. You're almost guaranteed to end up with very different RAM because Corsair likes to source chips from Samsung and Micron while slapping it on the "same kit" under the same name.

And even if both kits have for example Micron chips... they still may differ in which kind of chips they have. For example Micron rev-E is very different vs Micron rev-B especially in subtimings, etc...

 

EVEN THAT should work... but then it comes down to what motherboard and which BIOS you have, etc... every manufacturer handles the auto settings differently and it may run fine or you may run into issues.

 

If you are able to set some stuff manually and not afraid of doing so and willing to spend some time on it if you run into issues, chances are you can make it run just fine almost always.

yea honestly i could do the work as a do feel comfortable with messing around with BIOS but for now il prob just save the money to get a whole new system  in the future (with DDR5)

3 hours ago, Dedayog said:

More ram is only an upgrade if you need it.

 

Do you need more than 16gb?

 

I'd personally save for a ryzen 5600 or a better GPU.

as for this yes i do but am4 is kind of a dead platform evan with a 5800x3d as the 7800x3d is better and only $60 more (obv getting a whole new platform would also be way more expensive but also way better)
so i will just save up but thanks for all the replys!