RAM Incompatibility makes no sense.

[Von Bon]

Why are you not able to mix in this game? Its all DDR4. It doesn't make sense that you can't mix brands which are literally just labels, names. And makes less sense that you can't mix size differences within the same brands.

I feel this is incredibly forced, as the devs only put in one type of RAM that I've seen so far in very short amount of playing which is DDR4. But you could easily have different actual real world incompatibilities :
You could have motherboard max RAM limitations, CPU size and speed Limitations for the RAM, you could have different types like DDR3 or Low Power ones, etcetera.

This mechanic feels very forced.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

You are not able to mix ram in this game because this game is attempting to teach "Best practices". Just because you can mix`n`match ram in real life does *NOT* mean you *SHOULD* do it. Even in real life when installing ram everyone should always install 100% exact matching ram modules if at all possible. I know that it is possible to mix`n`match ram but it should never be done in computers to ensure stability and compatibility. So the game is coded to require 100% exact matching ram. Because that's how it should be in real life. The developers will not be changing this because they used to allow us to mix`n`match ram back during early access and then during one update they changed it to require matching ram now. This is how the game works now.

It is forced. It's intentional. And it's how the game is coded. We have to match ram exactly to use it in the game. Same capacity. Same manufacturer and same model.

[Von Bon]

Yeah I get that the devs made it so and aren't going to change it. Sure, it'd be best and optimal if everything matched. But, no, this isn't old hardware. You can mix different RAM sizes. Don't want to mix speed and brands for sake of optimizations, sure why not. But There is no sense for not being able to mix RAM Sizes when the brand and speed matches unless we were dealing with machines from early 2000s and further.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by Von Bon:

Yeah I get that the devs made it so and aren't going to change it. Sure, it'd be best and optimal if everything matched. But, no, this isn't old hardware. You can mix different RAM sizes. Don't want to mix speed and brands for sake of optimizations, sure why not. But There is no sense for not being able to mix RAM Sizes when the brand and speed matches unless we were dealing with machines from early 2000s and further.

All machines that use DDR, DDR2, DDR3, and DDR4 should never be mixed or matched in ram. Even if it "appears to work" when you first turn it on that does not mean that it will be stable over time. It's not about just the raw Mhz speeds. Computer ram has timings too that must match up too. The probability of you finding two different ram sticks from different manufacturers that have exactly the same timings (the 4 primary timings all the way down to all of the sub-timings too) that match is just about impossible. That's why everyone always advises to never ever do that in real life.

[Von Bon]

I never suggested to mix DDR 1/2/3/4 :V

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by Von Bon:

I never suggested to mix DDR 1/2/3/4 :V

Originally posted by Von Bon:

Why are you not able to mix in this game? Its all DDR4.

You literally said that you wanted to mix it up and use mis-matched ram right there in your own message in this thread.

[Von Bon]

Except no I didn't literally say that, go back for context.
But for sake of clarification :
I am meaning mixing *speeds and sizes*.
I only mentioned DDR3 prior for sake of variety due to DDR3 and CPUs that support it being dandy enough for casual computers and casual gaming. You can't go about mixing different DIMM sockets and such, i never suggested such.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by Von Bon:

I am meaning mixing *speeds and sizes*.

That's what I'm referring to in my posts above as well. We shouldn't be doing that in real life either. So yes the game doesn't allow us to do it in-game on purpose. It's not a bug and it's coded that way intentionally.

[Von Bon]

It's perfectly fine to mix speeds and sizes, there isn't going to be any major issues. The fastest RAM will get throttled down to the slowest. This isn't the 90s where you have to watch out for single-sided and double-sided memory and whatnot.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by Von Bon:

It's perfectly fine to mix speeds and sizes, there isn't going to be any major issues. The fastest RAM will get throttled down to the slowest. This isn't the 90s where you have to watch out for single-sided and double-sided memory and whatnot.

Actually that is incorrect. Different speed ram modules will have different timings for their speeds. For example: You might have a 3600 mhz ram stick that will run at 18-18-18-32 for 3600 mhz. But then that same 3600 Mhz stick may need to run at 15-15-15-28 for 3000 Mhz. If you pair it with a 3000 mhz stick of ram that ran at say 16-16-16-30 for 3000 mhz then yes the 3600 mhz stick would down-clock to match the slower ram stick but their timings wouldn't match and the system would be potentially unstable. Also those are only the 4 "Primary timings" there's about 25-40 sub-timings that are unique for each ram module. You would need all of the 4 primary and the sub-timings to all match up 1:1 even for both ram sticks. The probability of anyone managing to get two ram sticks that have exactly the same timings when they are different capacities is nearly impossible in real life.

8GB ram sticks can not run at the same timings that a 4GB stick could for example. So if you mix a 8GB stick and 4GB stick (regardless of what speed they run at) then it's just assumed that they won't match.

Even if it "Appears to be running for now" that does not mean it will be stable long term. Ram should never be mixed`n`matched in real life in any computer for any reason.

Well.. unless you're a masochist at heart and you really do enjoy watching your computer crash and blue screen frequently. Maybe that's your kink.. I won't judge.

[Von Bon]

"just assumed they that they won't match." can't say I liked that bit, but a quick look into it :
You do have a fair point of the ticking speeds, but you forgot that, once again, we live in the modern age and have long since solved this issue (unless you're building a retro rig). DDR3 and 4 DIMM sticks have PROM or EEPROM flash storage built into them with a table format of different timing frequencies, and I already mentioned how they can already change speeds. They can change in ticks too in adjusting for lowering down to match the slowest as I mentioned prior, both DDR 3 and 4 can do this.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by Von Bon:

"just assumed they that they won't match." can't say I liked that bit, but a quick look into it :
You do have a fair point of the ticking speeds, but you forgot that, once again, we live in the modern age and have long since solved this issue (unless you're building a retro rig). DDR3 and 4 DIMM sticks have PROM or EEPROM flash storage built into them with a table format of different timing frequencies, and I already mentioned how they can already change speeds. They can change in ticks too in adjusting for lowering down to match the slowest as I mentioned prior, both DDR 3 and 4 can do this.

Computers only change their physical speed when reducing ram speeds to make ram run in computers in real life. DDR4 and DDR3 do not change their timings to match the lower ram, only the speed. And if the timings for X speed for X stick does not match the timings for X speed in X stick of the slower ram then you end up with incompatibilities. We would have to manually change the primary 4 timings and all of the sub-timings of all of the ram to try and match it. Good luck with the dizzying list of ram sub-timings.

The bottom line is this: It's terrible and should never be done in real life so therefore it's not allowed in the game.

[Von Bon]

Okay can you actually provide me something that would actually showcase this being "terrible" event? You admitted I can show you "appearance of working" but how far until it is 'actually working' while the computer is on?

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by Von Bon:

Okay can you actually provide me something that would actually showcase this being "terrible" event? You admitted I can show you "appearance of working" but how far until it is 'actually working' while the computer is on?

The thing is even if it appears to work correctly today with mis-matched ram, or even a week or a month from now, you'll never know if it's completely stable or not. 2 months from now when you're working on some important project for school, or an important animation render for work it could suddenly decide to start spitting out blue screen crashes completely at random. Because your ram isn't a matched pair then every day you use your computer you'll have to know in the back of your mind that it could crash at any moment without warning. It may never crash or it may suddenly start blue screen'ing repeatedly 15 times over 4 hours and then you won't be able to use the computer for a few hours then it might suddenly start working again.

That's what I mean by "Terrible". Who would ever want to endure such a thing with a computer? Especially when you can just use matched ram instead and never have to deal with any of that. It doesn't make any logical sense for someone to intentionally run a computer in a potentially unstable state like that.

[Von Bon]

I mean can you provide documentation or some study to showcase this?
You've basically given me an impossible standard of measurement of "Yeah, it'll work for now but at some vague random point it'll not-work".

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by Von Bon:

I mean can you provide documentation or some study to showcase this?

No I don't have to.. and I'm done explaining to you too. Computer repair shops IRL only install matching ram. People that build new computers only install matching ram. You're supposed to install matching ram in real life. That's why we're forced to do it in the game. If you some how don't understand this after all these replies then you won't understand it if I reply further.