Mixing RAM

[sandeepb]

Hi Guys,

I have my dominator's but I also have one 2GB OCZ Reaper 1066Mhz Stick with a modified heatsink on it.

I'm just wondering would I face extreme problems with putting the extra module in?

they all run at the same spec so I should be alright, right?

[jjjc_93]

They should be fine..seemings they all run same specs...but, you won't be running in dual channel anymore, so if you can pick up another 2GB stick aswell to keeps things running in dual channel.

[sandeepb]

Hmm, I won't be able to unless I buy another low profile 2GB stick :s

How much loss in performance will it result in? If it's something like 2% it's alright.

[Mr.Scott]

Mixing ram is a no-no when you overclock. You've been around awhile, you know better than that.

[sandeepb]

Haha I know.

I'm not overclocking via the FSB anyway. All the CPU multi that's it.

Anyway I thought I'd give it a quick try with 6GB at 1066 2.16v 5-5-5-18 and it seems to run ok. I'll let it run for a bit and see what haapens.

Additional Comment:

Ok bad idea wouldn't last vey long and full of memtest errors.

I guess it's back to good ol 4GB and I'll have to wait till next year before I hit 6GB.

Additional Comment:

OK gave it another try.

I thought there's hardly any difference from 1066 5-5-5-15 and 800 4-4-4-12

So I stuck all the RAM at that speed and it's running the same latency.

Ran memtest and left it for about an hour and a half and no errors.

So I'm happy with this, I have 2GB more RAM now I can finally run a virtualbox with more than 1GB Memory Allocation.

[Bonz-eye]

Am I to understand that your original 4GB are PC-6400 and you have one stick of PC-8500? This is a similar situation that I just put myself in, except I have 4 Gb (2x2GB) PC-8500 and another 4Gb (2x2) PC-6400.

Can anyone tell me, is it better, performance wise, to have 4Gb of faster memory or 8 Gb of memory running a little slower?

Hope I'm not thread-jacking, here.

Thanks

[sandeepb]

Originally Posted by Bonz-eye

Am I to understand that your original 4GB are PC-6400 and you have one stick of PC-8500? This is a similar situation that I just put myself in, except I have 4 Gb (2x2GB) PC-8500 and another 4Gb (2x2) PC-6400.

Can anyone tell me, is it better, performance wise, to have 4Gb of faster memory or 8 Gb of memory running a little slower?

Hope I'm not thread-jacking, here.

Thanks

Don't worry it's fine

well they are all 1066 sticks but you can't run more than 2 sticks at 1066. Since there's no complete difference with 1066 5-5-5 and 800 4-4-4 then I thought I might aswell go 6GB 4-4-4 but if the sticks can't do 800 4-4-4 then there's no real point as you may be losing performance.

[moosteve]

Originally Posted by sandeepb

Don't worry it's fine

well they are all 1066 sticks but you can't run more than 2 sticks at 1066. Since there's no complete difference with 1066 5-5-5 and 800 4-4-4 then I thought I might aswell go 6GB 4-4-4 but if the sticks can't do 800 4-4-4 then there's no real point as you may be losing performance.

4 sticks of 1066 CAN be done.

your three sticks won't be running in dual channel. have you run any benches? i am curious as to what performance hit there might be with 6gb single channel at lower speeds as opposed to 4 gb 1066.

[sandeepb]

Originally Posted by moosteve

4 sticks of 1066 CAN be done.

your three sticks won't be running in dual channel. have you run any benches? i am curious as to what performance hit there might be with 6gb single channel at lower speeds as opposed to 4 gb 1066.

not near my system yet. But there isn't much of a big hit in performance. For some reason everest says I am running dual channel. Strange

[moosteve]

try cpuz.
10 char

[sandeepb]

Yep tried both CPUz and Everest and both report Dual Channel 6GB 4-4-4-12 400Mhz (800Mhz)

I would provide screenies but I'm logged in Ubuntu now and working on some stuff so don't really want to move.

[moosteve]

well that is weird. two slots plus one slot should be single channel. so we have no way of knowing?

[sandeepb]

Originally Posted by moosteve

well that is weird. two slots plus one slot should be single channel. so we have no way of knowing?

Attached a screenie of CPUz and Everest stating it's dual channel.

[moosteve]

i would love to understand that.


a screenie from my 940 at 3.6....

[sandeepb]

Sorry but I'm confused at what I'm meant to be looking at on your screenie?

[moosteve]

Originally Posted by sandeepb

Sorry but I'm confused at what I'm meant to be looking at on your screenie?

speeds. faster.

is the extra 2gb really helping that much in performance? i am just curious.

[Bonz-eye]

"well that is weird. two slots plus one slot should be single channel. so we have no way of knowing?"

I previously used an asus MB (a while ago and can't remember which model) that would display on boot-up as Dual Channel, even though there was a 1 GB stick in all three ram slots. That was before I knew about CPU-Z and even that you can't (shouldn't be able to?) run dual channel with 3 sticks.

[moosteve]

Originally Posted by Bonz-eye

"well that is weird. two slots plus one slot should be single channel. so we have no way of knowing?"

I previously used an asus MB (a while ago and can't remember which model) that would display on boot-up as Dual Channel, even though there was a 1 GB stick in all three ram slots. That was before I knew about CPU-Z and even that you can't (shouldn't be able to?) run dual channel with 3 sticks.

i agree. should be impossible.

[sandeepb]

Yeah it's a mystery

Originally Posted by moosteve

speeds. faster.

is the extra 2gb really helping that much in performance? i am just curious.

Since your running 1100Mhz that's the reason your speeds are faster, I'm running 800Mhz so yep.

The extra 2GB is actually helping when I'm running a virtualbox and running fireworks, photoshop, dreamweaver on the host, altogether I then have something like 3GB Ram Left to do whatever else I want.

[moosteve]

Originally Posted by sandeepb

Since your running 1100Mhz that's the reason your speeds are faster, I'm running 800Mhz so yep.

right. i asked because you said...

Originally Posted by sandeepb

Since there's no complete difference with 1066 5-5-5 and 800 4-4-4

it was just a question.

Originally Posted by sandeepb

The extra 2GB is actually helping when I'm running a virtualbox and running fireworks, photoshop, dreamweaver on the host, altogether I then have something like 3GB Ram Left to do whatever else I want.

i see now.