• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.
  • The forums have been upgraded with support for dark mode. By default it will follow the setting on your system/browser. You may override it by scrolling to the end of the page and clicking the gears icon.

Mixing sets of DDR4 on X470 / B350

Millennium

Millennium

Joined
Jun 18, 2005
Messages
639 (0.09/day)
Location
London, UK
System Specs
System Name this_is_so_leet_it_needs_no_name
Processor Intel I5 2500k @ 4.5Ghz
Motherboard Asus P8 P67-M Pro
Cooling MUX-120 with Dual Fan
Memory Samsung Memory DDR3 2133 Overclocked (non LP)
Video Card(s) XFX ATI/AMD 5870 1gb @ [tbc]
Storage 2*2tb Samsung Raid 0 + 64gb Kingston SSD
Display(s) BenQ G2420HDBL LED monitor
Case Lian Li PC-60 old skool alu case
Audio Device(s) Asus Xonar DX/XD PCI-Express (great)
Power Supply Corsair 650 TX
Software Win 7 64bit
Hi there

I have a set of 2 * 8 GB G.Skill FlareX memory I am running at the moment - it is 3200 MHz CL14 spec. It was really expensive stuff, cost me over £200, that was back in the day when a lot of Ryzen memory was expensive.

These days kits are coming on the UK market for around £62 delivered @ 3200, obviously not CL14 but still. I don't game any more and I am looking for more RAM as I would like to experiment with Primocache and see better workstation performance.

I want to run my current FlareX with a second set of cheaper 2*8GB. I have two sets of memory to choose from (I will sell on the other kit probably, though I was planning another build I won't probably be doing that due to lack of gaming). They are:


The speed at which I want to run would be 3200 CL16 if I keep the 1st kit, or perhaps I can clock my B die at 3600 also when I run the second kit and run at it's XMP timings. My question is that I have no experience of mixed 4 dimms on Ryzen platforms - Ryzen can be tricky with memory - will mixing kits like this even work? Anyone tried this before and got a stable working system?

I am not bothered if I have to loosen timings a little - I would like to get a high MHz on my DDR4 since infinity fabric on a Ryzen 1 matters but that's the extent of my wishlist. And stability.

Help welcome!
 
Mixing kits doesn't have the best results, you might find a set of timings that's compatible with both but not likely. Even if you match dual channel kits from the same manufacturer they might not work together. Best option is to buy a 32gb kit as the modules are tested to work together. If that isn't an option the best chance is a kit with identical timings and even then you might still have to loosen them to get them all to work.

Last time I mixed ram successfully was ddr2 I mixed a gskill kit with an ocz with no issues (both had same timings), tried with ddr3 on my previous build and wasn't able to make it work even with kits from same manufacturer with same timings.
 
Thank you. I have cancelled the order for the Patriot Viper 4, which Amazon haven't sent out yet.
I will try and see if I can get 2 different sets of B die memory working together nicely, I don't hold out much hope though as I've tried all 4 together quickly and I had a lot of instability.

Has anyone else tried this? Perhaps Trident Z with Flare-X or another manufacturer's B die? 2 sticks of each - it should work, right?
 
Millennium said:
Perhaps Trident Z with Flare-X or another manufacturer's B die? 2 sticks of each - it should work, right?
Click to expand...

Mixing memory is a no no and goes as far back as google's birth itself.
However---
The best chances of this working is finding modules that are near of the same date, voltage and timing specs. So you'd want to research that during your travels.

Other than that, nobody here is going to tell you it should work.
 
I've run mixed DDR4 kits on a few different boards and found that you can generally still enable XMP and get the clocks, but definitely lose out on timings. It's a bit of a gamble whether you can manually tune them back down. The worst torture test I've done so far is X370 with Zen 2 running a single Samsung with an older Micron DIMM both rated at 3200MHz. The system works at 3200 and even 3466, but with 16-19-19-53 timings. It's barely even in measured performance (using AIDA64's memory benchmark) with a tighter 2933 14-14-14-34 kit.
 
Fouquin said:
I've run mixed DDR4 kits on a few different boards and found that you can generally still enable XMP and get the clocks, but definitely lose out on timings. It's a bit of a gamble whether you can manually tune them back down. The worst torture test I've done so far is X370 with Zen 2 running a single Samsung with an older Micron DIMM both rated at 3200MHz. The system works at 3200 and even 3466, but with 16-19-19-53 timings. It's barely even with a tighter 2933 14-14-14-34 kit.
Click to expand...

Umm.... Please don't encourage him. Please I beg you.
You guys are literally ~just~ mixing and matching memory!! It's crazy! It's madness!!

Even better off to buy a set 4 of the cheapest sticks of memory on the planet and probably achieve better timings than that.

3000Mhz Cas 15 at the loosest guys, You sacrifice that performance there.

I'm not trying to offend here! Just saying, this is the example as to why not to mix match memory stickages....
 
It's not 1995, we're not running synchronous fast page RAM that needs to 100% match in density and bank width. You can mix RAM and be okay, it won't explode. You might lose a few percent on average.

What I was sharing is an absolute worst case of mixed DRAM, and it's really not that bad. It's still faster than 2133/2400 bargain bin stuff.
 
Running loose this evening. 1529.7Mhz Cas 14-15-15-15-35 - Will do same freq. at 13-15-15-15-32

And that is on Corsair 1066mhz IS "bargin bin stuff" as you so eloquently put it lol!

Awesome. Should be Cas 14 @ 3500Mhz +/- depending on other variables.... Such as the memory controller and motherboard compatibility so forth.
 
ShrimpBrime said:
Mixing memory is a no no and goes as far back as google's birth itself.
Click to expand...

It worked for my 486 DX2/80! So I guess you are right - Google wasn't around back then.
I'm pretty sure I have tried it since, probably DDR SDRAM on Athlon 64. I think it worked. I just wanted to get an idea of the current state of this idea so I guess it's a non-starter, even with the same ICs.
 
Millennium said:
Hi there

I have a set of 2 * 8 GB G.Skill FlareX memory I am running at the moment - it is 3200 MHz CL14 spec. It was really expensive stuff, cost me over £200, that was back in the day when a lot of Ryzen memory was expensive.

These days kits are coming on the UK market for around £62 delivered @ 3200, obviously not CL14 but still. I don't game any more and I am looking for more RAM as I would like to experiment with Primocache and see better workstation performance.

I want to run my current FlareX with a second set of cheaper 2*8GB. I have two sets of memory to choose from (I will sell on the other kit probably, though I was planning another build I won't probably be doing that due to lack of gaming). They are:


The speed at which I want to run would be 3200 CL16 if I keep the 1st kit, or perhaps I can clock my B die at 3600 also when I run the second kit and run at it's XMP timings. My question is that I have no experience of mixed 4 dimms on Ryzen platforms - Ryzen can be tricky with memory - will mixing kits like this even work? Anyone tried this before and got a stable working system?

I am not bothered if I have to loosen timings a little - I would like to get a high MHz on my DDR4 since infinity fabric on a Ryzen 1 matters but that's the extent of my wishlist. And stability.

Help welcome!
Click to expand...

Do not do it unless if you want to have headaches.
Save up
Get another set of flarex that matches yours
 
Well here's the problem. Back then.... It wasn't your rig now... All the ram was probably all identical to spec... and you had maybe 3 choices lol at best.

Now, you want to run 2 cheap sticks along with you nice expensive sticks... at a performance loss, no matter how small you say it is... LOSS, and then have to go through all the trouble to test and make changes, possibly blue screens, corrupt your drive.....

Now those are possibilities, Yea, you could be cheap and buy some cheap ram and run lower frequency......

or perhaps I can clock my B die at 3600
Click to expand...

Yea, that to me seems like the way to go..... with 4 identical sticks. I dunno.

Put your money where you want, I gave my two cents man.

GLHF!
 
ShrimpBrine thank you for the advice. I think my best option is to wait for a second hand, tested set of identical Flare-X to come up on UK eBay and nab that. It's not all that much money any more - and people are upgrading to 3600 kits for their Ryzen 3s.

Advice appreciated.
PS Love Chicago!
 
You're welcome!
Love London. Wish some day to visit!

For now, clock 3600Mhz ;)
oh... btw, I have 2 different sets of Trident-Z and I've never once tried mixing them. And probably won't try .

Also, I'd like to point out that XMP is not the same as DOCP which would be for AMD.
So when you see memory specs in XMP, that's for Intel platforms.
In other words, there's no promise on AMD rig, will achieve XMP frequencies.
just a heads up there ;)
 
As someone mentioned, mixing RAM isn't going to make your computer explode or malfunction. It's most likely going to be a headache and you're going to lose out on performance, but it'll most likely work. Obviously having the same memory ICs would help a bit. However, if you want to try and run mixed kits at anything outside JEDEC spec, you might not be having too much luck.
I've had several computers, especially notebooks in the past, with mixed RAM, but this is on systems were you can go outside JEDEC spec, or often don't set anything related to the RAM in the BIOS/UEFI.
 
Vycyous said:
Highly unlikely, but I've definitely been wrong before. I'd guess Hynix CJR/C-die, but there are now apparently (formerly terrible) Hynix MFR/M-die kits running at 4000 MT/s CL18 @ 1.35 V, so what the hell do I know?!
Click to expand...
I can confirm the memory is SK Hynix, not Samsung. Shit.
 
TheLostSwede said:
As someone mentioned, mixing RAM isn't going to make your computer explode or malfunction. It's most likely going to be a headache and you're going to lose out on performance, but it'll most likely work. Obviously having the same memory ICs would help a bit. However, if you want to try and run mixed kits at anything outside JEDEC spec, you might not be having too much luck.
I've had several computers, especially notebooks in the past, with mixed RAM, but this is on systems were you can go outside JEDEC spec, or often don't set anything related to the RAM in the BIOS/UEFI.
Click to expand...

Mixing ram has made rigs not boot or get other errors, exploding is a exaggeration lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top