Hey there! I'm looking to upgrade my PC's memory. I've currently got 2x8GB of DDR4 RAM running at 3200MHz with timings of 16-18-18-36. I'm considering adding another 2 sticks to bring my total up to 32GB. I found a kit that's also 3200MHz but has slightly looser timings (16-20-20-38). My motherboard is a B550 Plus WiFi II and I'm using a Ryzen 7 5700X CPU. Will adding these 4 sticks work well together, or could it negatively impact my system's performance?
2 Answers
Mixing RAM can be iffy. I had a similar setup with my last build where I tried using two identical kits, but they were different die types, and that caused stability issues. Getting them to run at a higher speed required a lot of BIOS tweaking, even though they were the same model. So expect a drop in speed and possible manual voltage adjustments. But since your setup is AM4, it’s a bit more forgiving than newer platforms, so it might still work well enough for you!
It's really a mixed bag here! It's not as simple as a yes or no. Sometimes it works out perfectly, but you might have to tweak the speeds or timings to get everything stable. Generally, if you mix different RAM kits, the system will default to the lower performance specs, which could be the timings from the looser kit. So there's a chance you might not get the full potential of your new setup.
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