Too much ram or faulty stick?

For a while, well since iv'e built my rig ive been running 2 x 4gb of CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B, no issues what so ever (at least 100hrs or more game play). This week I finely got my second kit fitted of the same memory, although everything loads fine there is always a feeling that something isn't right. During my first game with all 16gb fitted, I got an error which was like an error line in the picture. Second error was more severe, was in game play about 10 mins into play I had a massive pause where the screen flickered/ stuttered with a horrid noise (through speakers) then within a second came back & carried on as if nothing happened. I then removed one of the module's so running at 12gb, and have played for 5 hours with none of the above faults and feeling more like when I just had 8gb fitted. I have run memtest with all modules and 1 at a time but no errors and all within there same mem slot on the motherboard. I only run the 16gb for around 3 hours because of the above problems. So is 16gb too much or do I have a dodgy stick?

It's never recommended to mix kits as there's no way to guarantee compatibility and stability without testing it.

 

Run with just the new memory as a test. More than likely it'll be fine.

So your saying that I have bought 2 exact same kits from the same seller within a month that the kits are somehow different? how? are corsair bad at making ram?

No, memory sticks can be made with different ICs, and even ICs from the same batch may not play well with each other (hence the testing).

So from what you are saying then, if I have a 2011 motherboard and wanted to run 8 sticks, I can't as nobody does an 8 stick kit? I am a bit put out as I have spent a lot of money on these and don't have the time/ money to lose selling my kits. why does it work fine with 3 sticks and not 4?

8 stick kits do exist, e.g. CMZ32GX3M8X1600C9

 

It's all down to how finicky the memory controller is. 3 sticks = less stress / work for the memory controller than 4.

Sorry to be a pain/ noob, is the memory controller on the motherboard, cpu, or within the ram. at the moment with the 12gb it runs brilliantly, but as soon as I run with 16gb it all turns to dog mess, even changed the batteries in my mouse as pointed doesn't run accurately.

the memory controller resides on your CPU.

Sorry to be a pain/ noob, is the memory controller on the motherboard, cpu, or within the ram. at the moment with the 12gb it runs brilliantly, but as soon as I run with 16gb it all turns to dog mess, even changed the batteries in my mouse as pointed doesn't run accurately.

 

I would give ASUS a call and ask them about this. This sounds like there may be something wrong with that MB.

 

You may also want to try bumping the memory controller voltage .2vabove defaults to see if that wont help. I'm suspecting not, but it's worth a try.