Different size RAM

[Col. Anubis24]

Why do I have to match exactly same size RAM modules?
As an example I have 4GB RAM and a 2 GB RAM of same manufacturer and same frequency, but in game it says incompatible. In real life it is possible to have 4 GB RAM + 2 GB even if they have different frequency.

Anyone have ideas?

[💫𝓗yp𝟹rspac𝟹💫]

Cuz that's how commercial PC technologies work currently. It wasn't like that until recent years, and all I see in it is mere market greed, as you can always design such technologies to work as they used to before.

I can't assure you that you can have odd amounts of RAM of the same size, but even amounts do work and is the way to go. Can't assure you that even when placed in pairs, you could have 2 or more different RAM sizes, but maybe can have different speeds on separate pairs. I'll let the detailed confirmation to people w more knowledge about the matter, but the fact that you can't have 2 different sizes in a pair is the current reality for consumer PC's.

The game did this correctly in reference to current reality and changing it in game would be detrimental for the game. I know it sucks, but I don't see this changing in an early future for informatics overall.

[Col. Anubis24]

Makes sense, thanks for your detailed analysis and response

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

I just wanted to add: The developers did allow us to mix and match ram with no restrictions back during Early Access. Then they released an update to require us to match ram now. They are unlikely to go backwards on this change as it is now in the game after it reached "Release". After the game has been released they mostly don't change core aspects of it like this. They are mainly focused on adding new parts and bug fixes now.

[Rabob]

Originally posted by 💫Hyp3rspac3💫:

Cuz that's how commercial PC technologies work currently. It wasn't like that until recent years, and all I see in it is mere market greed, as you can always design such technologies to work as they used to before.

I can't assure you that you can have odd amounts of RAM of the same size, but even amounts do work and is the way to go. Can't assure you that even when placed in pairs, you could have 2 or more different RAM sizes, but maybe can have different speeds on separate pairs. I'll let the detailed confirmation to people w more knowledge about the matter, but the fact that you can't have 2 different sizes in a pair is the current reality for consumer PC's.

The game did this correctly in reference to current reality and changing it in game would be detrimental for the game. I know it sucks, but I don't see this changing in an early future for informatics overall.

What? Your middle part makes no sense to me.

You can mix ram pretty much how you want as long as it is at least the same/similar voltage and DDR slot (otherwise it will never fit in your motherboard).

For instance in my own pc there is, 32, 16, 8 and 8 GB (total 64) at 3000mhz. You lose out on dual channel performance that way and if one ram is slower than the rest, then the rest of your ram will be underclocked.

So example: Corsair 16gb, 3000mhz and G-Skill 4gb, 2666mhz would end up at 20gb, 2666mhz with no dual channel boost. I think this would even work with different LT scores, but it might mean that your faster RAM is crippled by the slower one. So in this case you might rather have 16GB at full speed than 20 in a crippled way.

I think with regards to PC building sim they didnt do it, because it could complicate the 3D mark score and overclocking a bit and it would make it a bit annoying if you are looking for the same ram brand + mhz. Suppose for isntance you match 2 different ram speeds, that would make overclocking hell, for underclocking it's no problem.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by Rabob:

What? Your middle part makes no sense to me.

You can mix ram pretty much how you want as long as it is at least the same/similar voltage and DDR slot (otherwise it will never fit in your motherboard).

For instance in my own pc there is, 32, 16, 8 and 8 GB (total 64) at 3000mhz. You lose out on dual channel performance that way and if one ram is slower than the rest, then the rest of your ram will be underclocked.

So example: Corsair 16gb, 3000mhz and G-Skill 4gb, 2666mhz would end up at 20gb, 2666mhz with no dual channel boost. I think this would even work with different LT scores, but it might mean that your faster RAM is crippled by the slower one. So in this case you might rather have 16GB at full speed than 20 in a crippled way.

I think with regards to PC building sim they didnt do it, because it could complicate the 3D mark score and overclocking a bit and it would make it a bit annoying if you are looking for the same ram brand + mhz. Suppose for isntance you match 2 different ram speeds, that would make overclocking hell, for underclocking it's no problem.

There's another thing you're not factoring in to this: ram timings. Just because they all drop down to 2666 Mhz does not mean that the 3000 mhz sticks support running at the same timings at 2666 mhz that the 2666 mhz sticks run at. They might, they might not. If you go look in various information programs (HWINFO, AIDA64) and read the SPD/XMP data for the different ram sticks you will likely find that none of your sticks match up on the same timings (all timings) for 2666 mhz. The reason that matters is because if your timings don't line up exactly then you run the risk of instability, blue screens, system crashes, etc. It really depends on what you are doing and how important what you do on the computer is. If you're just browsing websites and playing computer games where the occasional crash or blue screen might not be the end of the world to you then yes sure, go mix`n`match ram in your computer and deal with it if it happens.

Some other people however do actual work on their computer and depend on it for their primary income. Like folks that do animation rendering. Or compiling code / programming. Or virtual machines. For those sorts of people they can not risk even the slight possibility of anything crashing in their computer. For people that must have absolute stability at all times they would *NEVER* mix up any ram component and they would always only install 100% identical matching memory modules. Imagine for a moment trying to render an animation that takes 8 days of 24-7-365 time of the CPU crunching the render and then on the last 5% on the 8'th day the system crashes and they have to start over just because their ram didn't match up. That's just one example.

So there are use cases where mixing up different types of ram is okay and would work. But then there are other use cases where mixing up ram is completely not possible and should never be done. In the game they go with the second side and just assume all work done with everyone's computer is important and so they force us to match ram with identical modules in-game.

[Col. Anubis24]

Well basically from what i gathered from you guys - mixing rams is possible, but game is "teaching" and there is a trend on the market - better not to mix/match to ensure the built computer works without a fail. Thank you all for your input.