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Do all RAM's on a board have to be identical

frybluff

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Posted July 14, 2012 at 12:04PM

If two slots on mobo are spare, and you want to add RAM, does that second pair have to be identical to the original pair, or can you "mix an match", without creating problems. If not, do they have to be completely identical (GB, freq, timings)

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KRONOS the First

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Posted July 14, 2012 at 12:32PM

You must be very sure that the clock speed and voltage that the RAMs run at are the same. Do not mix a 1066MHz card with a say 1444MHz for example. Doing so will result in an overall slow down of ALL the RAMs to 1444MHz. i.e. the slower clock timing is always used.

At the same time, different voltage requirements could result in system instability. This is why it is highly recommended that you use RAMs from the same brand, and why people try not to mix the brand of RAMs.

If you mix sizes, your RAM is forced to operate in single-channel mode. For dual-channel mode to work, all of the installed RAM must be the same size/speed (i.e all sticks must DDR3 PC3 10600 or PC3 12800).

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