Can I add my old ram (4 gb) to my new system for increased memory?

[mf_makka]

So I'm building my second machine and here are the details:

 

CPU AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor[4] Motherboard Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard[5] Memory G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory[6]   Video Card Asus Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card

 

Everything else will be taken from my old system. I build a system in 2010 with a Silver rated XFX 750w PSU and I would also like to use my old RAM to get a final total of 12 gb. My old ram is G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL , which is surprisingly still in stock. My new ram doesn't have the same timing and isn't the same model, my fault since I bought the newegg deal a day before the same style RAMs went on sale.

 

My old ram is DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800), Timing 9-9-9-24-2N, Cas Latency 9, Voltage 1.5V , and my new ram is DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900), Timing 9-10-9-28, Cas Latency 9, Voltage 1.5V. I know that the RAM performance will be reduced to the lowest performing stat, so I was wondering if it is worth using this RAM in my system to get a slighly slower performance at 12 Gb or should I just run the 8Gb setup?

 

 

Cheers.

 

[nsyedhasan]

Yes, you can I would get the same speed and latency.

[mf_makka]

Thanks for the response. So I would be running at 1600 and 9-10-9-28 timing? Pardon my ignorance, but does that justify the extra 4 gb? I've read that RAM frequency makes very little difference at the end of the day, so is the extra capacity worth it?

[mvitkun]

Thanks for the response. So I would be running at 1600 and 9-10-9-28 timing? Pardon my ignorance, but does that justify the extra 4 gb? I've read that RAM frequency makes very little difference at the end of the day, so is the extra capacity worth it?

Well that depends on whether or not you actually need the 4 extra GB of ram.

 

It seems like the average gaming pc to me,and if all you plan to do is game,maybe record or stream I'd say no reason to add the 4GB.

 

If you plan to do hardcore 3D modeling/animation,video editing, or post processing,to the point that either the render or the project itself requires more than 8GB of ram,then I'd say it's definitely worth it.

But if you plan to just play games on it as said above it's not worth mixing two different kits.

[brob]

Thanks for the response. So I would be running at 1600 and 9-10-9-28 timing? Pardon my ignorance, but does that justify the extra 4 gb? I've read that RAM frequency makes very little difference at the end of the day, so is the extra capacity worth it?

 

Memory timings do make a difference. It can be a perceptible difference with certain workloads. But the total amount of memory makes far more of a difference - with the caveat that one can always create an environment where that isn't true.

[RusBruin]

Memory timings do make a difference. It can be a perceptible difference with certain workloads.

Perceptible as in you think there is a difference while there is no in reality? These sorts of claims would be much more credible if they were with some concrete examples.

[gareklaw]

If you don't use more then 8gigs total then you will suffer a tiny bit but if you feel that you will use the extra 4 then it will help with higher ram usage.

[brob]

Perceptible as in you think there is a difference while there is no in reality? These sorts of claims would be much more credible if they were with some concrete examples.

 

Perceptible as in I have perceived (which lead me to measure) an improvement in certain tasks with faster memory.

 

Haven't seen any studies on AMD systems but on Haswell AnandTech | Memory Scaling on Haswell CPU, IGP and dGPU: DDR3-1333 to DDR3-3000 Tested with G.Skill determines that improvements of 5%+ can be realized by faster memory.