Two duel channel ram kit + one single stick

[hiran91]

Hello guys...

 

im using 8GB (2*4GB) 2400Mhz ram kit atm and one of my friends have a extra 8GB (2400mhz) single stick which i can use.all sticks are from the same brand(Team elite+) same speed, 4gb modules are new with new heat sinks but the 8gb module is old.

 

8GB kit(2*4GB) - 

 

 

8 GB stick - 

 

I have some concerns that i have to clarify

 

if i install this 8gig stick 

 

1.will it stop my 2*4GB sticks running on duel channel ? 

 

2.will it be incompatible with my 2*4GB sticks since its an old one ? 

 

 

[Guest]

1. Yes, you need 2/4 stick for dual channel

2. No

[hiran91]

2 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

1. Yes, you need 2/4 stick for dual channel

2. No

Thanks for the quick reply 

 

so will it affect my gaming and pc performance ? I mean if i install this ? 

[Technomancer__]

4 minutes ago, hiran91 said:

Thanks for the quick reply 

 

so will it affect my gaming and pc performance ? I mean if i install this ? 

No

[Imakuni]

1 hour ago, hiran91 said:

if i install this 8gig stick 

 

1.will it stop my 2*4GB sticks running on duel channel ?

You can still use dual channel just fine, you just have to put both 4 gb sticks in one channel and the 8 one in the other.

1 hour ago, deXxterlab97 said:

1. Yes, you need 2/4 stick for dual channel

Wrong. I'm on tablet right now and cant really get things easoly, but look for intel's guideLines on dual channel operation and you'll see that, in fact, 3 sticks can do dual channel, if the conditions are right.

 

 

1 hour ago, hiran91 said:

running on duel channel

 

[hiran91]

1 hour ago, Imakuni said:

You can still use dual channel just fine, you just have to put both 4 gb sticks in one channel and the 8 one in the other.

Thanks for the reply.

thats what i heard also but wasnt sure.i think i saw a video from linus saying u can use duel channel + a single memory stick.

 

and yes i have already installed 4GB sticks in a single channel.so there will be no issue right ? Even the other ram is kind of old ? 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

31 minutes ago, hiran91 said:

.so there will be no issue right ? Even the other ram is kind of old ? 

It doesn't really matter, the only question is whether you'll be able to run all channels with the same settings or you'll need to use separate settings for each channel, and whether your motherboard allows you to do that. 

 

Worse case scenario you're back to JEDEC standards regardless of the rated speed of your kits. 

[hiran91]

28 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

It doesn't really matter, the only question is whether you'll be able to run all channels with the same settings or you'll need to use separate settings for each channel, and whether your motherboard allows you to do that. 

 

Worse case scenario you're back to JEDEC standards regardless of the rated speed of your kits. 

I dnt think my mobo has that opton since its a gigabyte b150M,both rams are same speed.i think the timing also the same.according to what i searched and geard ita just the heat sink which is different.

 

since mu mobo only supports 2133mhz all of them will run at 2133mhz.

 

im kind of new to this so please can you explain what you mean by JEDEC standard ? 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

30 minutes ago, hiran91 said:

im kind of new to this so please can you explain what you mean by JEDEC standard ? 

Precisely that: the 2133MHz CL15 standard  

 

JEDEC is a kinf od consortium that develop open standards, most noticeably for RAM. Hence, all manufacturers of RAM, motherboard, CPU, etc commit to make their products compatible with said standards. There's one for DDR3, one for DDR4, etc (maybe there's more than exactly one, but you get the point ).

Hence, when manufacturers advertise that their RAM sticks can run at higher speeds and/or tighter timings, or that their motherboards/CPUs can handle those higher speed/tighter timings, they are claiming to do that on top of supporting the standard. Those OC profiles vary from ram kit to ram kit, but they must all handle the standard to be DDR4-compliant.

Using a program like CPU-z you can see the JEDEC standards your ram kit can default to, as well as any OC profile (like XMP) stored in the stick itself. Something like:

In this DDR3 example, all 888MHz CL6, 1066MHz CL8, and 1333MHz CL9 are shown, while the XMP profile (the one the RAM vendor will advertise) is 1600MHz CL9  

 

TL;DR: you should be able to run all those 2133 sticks together unless someone is lying about DDR4 compliance  

[hiran91]

21 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

 

TL;DR: you should be able to run all those 2133 sticks together unless someone is lying about DDR4 compliance

Thanks a lot for the explanation   and thanks for the clarification

 

so i should go ahead and install the 8GB stick right ?   and nothing will happen (negatively) to my PCs performance  right ?

[SpaceGhostC2C]

21 minutes ago, hiran91 said:

 

so i should go ahead and install the 8GB stick right ?   and nothing will happen (negatively) to my PCs performance  right ?

Yes. The worst that can happen is that your PC won't boot, in which case you remove the stick again and check what is amiss. The second worst that can happen is that it boots fine but it reports less RAM than you have, or it's not working in dual channel properly, etc. Again, you can troubleshoot it if it comes to that.

If it boots up fine and you confirm in Windows that all is well, then you are good to go. I don't think there's room for any "hidden variable" to reduce your performance if you pass that quick sanity check.

[hiran91]

5 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Yes. The worst that can happen is that your PC won't boot, in which case you remove the stick again and check what is amiss. The second worst that can happen is that it boots fine but it reports less RAM than you have, or it's not working in dual channel properly, etc. Again, you can troubleshoot it if it comes to that.

If it boots up fine and you confirm in Windows that all is well, then you are good to go. I don't think there's room for any "hidden variable" to reduce your performance if you pass that quick sanity check.

yep the ram is working(my friend just bought some new sticks that's why hes giving it to me) and it shouldn't have any problem booting so according to what i heard dual channel doesn't affect gaming performance right ? so i will be ok in that side as well

[hiran91]

Ok guys i thought it will be a good idea to update the post with the result

 

so i installed my friends 8GB stick and 1st time it didn't boot after pushing the ram a bit hard into the slot it booted. As soon as i finished booting i opened the cpu-z and checked about the duel channel situation and the result is in below screenshot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see it says it runs on duel channel,

i have two 4GB sticks in the slot 2 and 4

and the 8GB stick in the slot 3. as i hoped the old stick turned out to be the exact same ram without the heat spreader even it has the same timing, i think that might be the reason for this result

Anyway thanks everyone who replied