Can you mix ram speeds in the same PC

trinaz · 22 Dec 2015

Ended up with two extra sticks of DDR3 4 gig sticks of memory after two PC upgrades to Win 10. Question is can I mix DDR3 ram sticks on the same board if the speeds are different...?

What do I have to match/look for in order to use 2 ea different ram sticks/speeds in the same box if they are both DDR3 sticks

Thanks...TiminAz

BunnyJ · 22 Dec 2015

From my understanding the voltages and the latency have to match or the PC will be unstable.

bobkn · 22 Dec 2015

BunnyJ said:

From my understanding the voltages and the latency have to match or the PC will be unstable.

Sounds right.

It may help to manually configure the RAM's voltage and timings. Your BIOS may not automatically pick values compatible with both sets.

I vaguely recall that I got it to work, but it was years ago (when RAM was more expensive).

BunnyJ · 22 Dec 2015

bobkn said:

Sounds right.

It may help to manually configure the RAM's voltage and timings. Your BIOS may not automatically pick values compatible with both sets.

I vaguely recall that I got it to work, but it was years ago (when RAM was more expensive).

I never had luck doing this. It's far better to get all of the memory at the same time to make sure it's going to work together.

LMiller7 · 22 Dec 2015

In theory any combination of RAM modules should work. But things don't always work that way in the real world. Any mismatch in RAM size, specifications, or even manufacturer can cause problems. For best results it is best to use matched memory modules.

The effective RAM speed will be that of the slowest module. If it works.