Can I have 2x4gb and 2x8 gb of ram to make 24gb of ram?

[Crumbal]

I want to add 2x8 gbs of ram to my current 2x4 gbs of ram but im not sure if this will cause any drawbacks or not. Any answers will be appreciated.

[r.linder]

It's possible, but:

1. If the kits are too different, it may cause stability issues. In cases that it works, the lowest speed and highest latency apply across all sticks, if I remember correctly. For example, if the 2x4 kit is DDR4-2400 CL14 while the 2x8 kit is DDR4-3000 CL15, all sticks will run at DDR4-2400 CL15.

2. Do research on your motherboard. Some motherboards have issues when all 4 RAM slots are populated, especially true with Ryzen Threadripper at launch. Also be sure to populate the slots according to what the manual requires to use dual-channel. For example, having the 4GB sticks in the first and third slot, and the 8GB sticks in the second and fourth slot. Usually thats how dual channel is on most boards, but I do recall that a few out there have it set up so it went A1/A2/B1/B2 instead of the typical A1/B1/A2/B2.

[Brimac]

if just gaming 16gig (2x8) is enough, sell the 2x4g kit

[𝔇ave]

Originally posted by Brimac:

if just gaming 16gig (2x8) is enough, sell the 2x4g kit

this ^

Originally posted by Escorve:

It's possible, but:

1. If the kits are too different, it may cause stability issues. In cases that it works, the lowest speed and highest latency apply across all sticks, if I remember correctly. For example, if the 2x4 kit is DDR4-2400 CL14 while the 2x8 kit is DDR4-3000 CL15, all sticks will run at DDR4-2400 CL15.

and this ^

[[wan-clan.org] Gordy Freeman]

Yes, 24GB is fine and excellent for Flight Simulation, etc.

[tacoshy]

Originally posted by Brimac:

if just gaming 16gig (2x8) is enough, sell the 2x4g kit

why sell the RAM when he can use it?

Originally posted by Escorve:

A1/A2/B1/B2 instead of the typical A1/B1/A2/B2.

Thats typical Asus naming while other brands espacially Gigabyte uses Intel naming like that:

DIMM_4 - DIMM_2 - DIMM_3 - DIMM_1

No Colored Dual Channel #3 

Community Created Artwork for Steam Artwork

By: tacoshy

Moth TR board btw. have 8 slots but so far correct.

[nullable]

My wife's old i5 2500k had 24GB of RAM in that configuration. No complaints there.

[r.linder]

Originally posted by tacoshy:

Moth TR board btw. have 8 slots but so far correct.

Yeah, I forgot that X399 boards usually have 8 slots, not 4. I just remembered that TR4 boards had a common issue with all 8 populated when the first generation released.

[Washell]

Originally posted by tacoshy:

Originally posted by Brimac:

if just gaming 16gig (2x8) is enough, sell the 2x4g kit

why sell the RAM when he can use it?

Because surplus ram doesn't get used, and devalues by the day.

[tacoshy]

Originally posted by Washell:

Originally posted by tacoshy:

why sell the RAM when he can use it?

Because surplus ram doesn't get used, and devalues by the day.

It does as cache beside the obvios fact that Ram gets more expensive by the day and Ram utilization rises constantly too. And there multiple games that can utilize more then 16 GB RAM.

[[☥] - CJ -]

The only downside is
If the kits are too different 1 of the kits may only show as Single Channel instead of Dual Channel

This is highly probable with that kind of mixing

Unless you SPECIFICALLY need 24GB, 16GB is plenty in 99% of cases

[r.linder]

Originally posted by ☥ - CJ -:

The only downside is
If the kits are too different 1 of the kits may only show as Single Channel instead of Dual Channel

This is highly probable with that kind of mixing

Unless you SPECIFICALLY need 24GB, 16GB is plenty in 99% of cases

Kit differences have nothing to do with single vs dual channel. It depends solely on if the slots are properly populated.

[[☥] - CJ -]

Originally posted by Escorve:

Originally posted by ☥ - CJ -:

The only downside is
If the kits are too different 1 of the kits may only show as Single Channel instead of Dual Channel

This is highly probable with that kind of mixing

Unless you SPECIFICALLY need 24GB, 16GB is plenty in 99% of cases

Kit differences have nothing to do with single vs dual channel. It depends solely on if the slots are properly populated.

I beg to differ considering i'm having that same exact problem with my 4x4GB kit because 1 Kit is newer than the other even though they are the same kit(technically the same but not the same now that i read the info again)

The newer kit shows up as Single Channel on CPU-Z
-

Unless "Ranks" means which side the RAM chip is on
Memory tab actually does show Dual Channel

So nevermind my previous

[r.linder]

Originally posted by ☥ - CJ -:

Originally posted by Escorve:

Kit differences have nothing to do with single vs dual channel. It depends solely on if the slots are properly populated.

I beg to differ considering i'm having that same exact problem with my 4x4GB kit because 1 Kit is newer than the other even though they are the same kit

The newer kit shows up as Single Channel on CPU-Z

Then you must have messed up somewhere along the way, because if all four slots are populated, it should be running in dual channel. People run 24 GB in dual channel no problem.

If you're referring to ranks, that's not what it means. Channel # is what you should be looking at.

[Washell]

Originally posted by tacoshy:

It does as cache

The context I was replying in was:

Originally posted by Brimac:

if just gaming 16gig (2x8) is enough

There's no benefit to more cache with such usage, certainly not to the value of 2x4GB of DDR3 (*) on the secondhand market(&).

Originally posted by tacoshy:

beside the obvios fact that Ram gets more expensive by the day

New DDR4, yes. Old, secondhand DDR3, not so much.

* I'm assuming it's DDR3 based on the fact he got 2x4, while 2x8 was already pretty common at the start of the DDR4 era.
& I said the price drops daily, not that it's already valueless.

[XistenZ]

In short, to summarize what has been said:
2x8 is not only enough, but safer because of incompatibility between kits and differing RAM.
Nothing wrong with using both kits, but it's not beneficial and could produce errors.