I recently bought a prebuilt PC that comes with 16GB (2x8GB) of DDR5 RAM. I was originally thinking I might upgrade in a few months, but now that RAM prices have skyrocketed, I'm wondering if I should just stick with what I have. I've heard conflicting advice about mixing different RAM sets or whether using all four slots might cause issues. Is it really that bad, or should I go ahead and pay a premium for a set of 2x16GB sticks?
4 Answers
Using four sticks of DDR5 can slow down your speeds depending on your motherboard, potentially dropping to as low as 3600MHz. If you really need 32GB and find a good price on a 16GB kit, it might be a smart buy. Just avoid overpaying for those 8GB sticks—they're likely to drop in price post-shortage.
I’ve tried mixing different RAM brands and even older kits without major issues. But first, ask yourself if you really need more than 16GB right now. If your current setup works fine for gaming, it might not be worth the hassle. Personally, I've had no problems running 16GB with my setup in most games.
Your success with four sticks might depend on whether you have an AMD or Intel setup. Intel systems generally handle four sticks better, while AMD setups can be more finicky.
You might get 4x 8GB to work with different brands, but try to place each kit on separate channels (like XXYY instead of XYXY) for better results. In my experience with 4x 32GB DDR5, I struggled to hit advertised speeds and ended up switching to 2x 64GB for simplicity. It’s a gamble on performance versus cost.
Mixing RAM sets can be a dicey game and lead to system boot failures, so keep that in mind!