Jump to content
Corsair Community

Can I run two different speed memory kits at the same time with XMP?


Wicz

Recommended Posts

As per the title, a friend of mine has just obtained a set of CMY8GX3M2A1600C9B and he wants to run them with his current set of CMY16GX3M2A2400C11R in his Asus M6H.

 

Now I know from experience that the memory will default to run at the speed of the slowest stick.

 

However, what neither of us is sure about is whether or not we can use the XMP profile for the 8GB kit with both kits installed and have the second 16GB kit adopt the same timings from the 8GB kit XMP profile.

 

Is this possible, and if so does it matter which slots which kit is in ( beyond keeping the pairs in the same pair of slots ), and is there anything special we have to do?

 

Is it simply a case of sticking both kits in and choosing the correct profile?

 

:confused:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First of all using XMP with two (very) different kits installed is usually neither supported nor recommended. In addition to that the chances for the CMY8GX3M2A1600C9B to hit DDR3-2400 at any timings or voltages are very slim to none. Some very specific IC versions might be able to do it, like Ver4.1x or Ver5.1x, but you would probably have to manually set the primary and secondary timings.

 

My recommendation would be to either just use the CMY16GX3M2A2400C11R or have both kits run with AUTO settings; probably at DDR3-1333 or DDR3-1600 then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Emissary, I appreciate that!

 

I had never expected the 1600 kit to run at 2400, just the 2400 kit to run at 1600 with the same timings ( via XMP ) as the 1600 kit. Edit: I just noticed my mistake with referring to the wrong kits in my OP and have corrected it.

 

I suppose setting to Auto/1600Mhz and then manually entering the timings will be ok too?

 

Tbh he doesn't even need the extra memory. I think he just wanted to make use of it rather than stick it on ebay.

 

We'll see how things go with auto, thanks again!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For the primary timings both kits should be able to hit DDR3-1600 at 9-9-9-24 with the default memory voltage. The Secondary timings will be limited by how tight the higher density kit, the CMY16GX3M2A2400C11R in this case, can go . So if you can't get them to work together at DDR3-1600 with full AUTO settings, you probably have to manually dial in the AUTO secondary timings for the CMY16GX3M2A2400C11R before adding the other kit.

 

The primaries will probably default to 11-11-11-28 on auto, but you can tighten them down bit by bit once you got everything stable. That is were the custom BIOS profiles come in handy, so you always have a fall-back and don't need to start over from the beginning if the system suddenly does not POST for whatever reason. However the necessary memory stability testing between the adjustments will take quite some time, so decide for yourself if that is really worth it...

 

ps: Happy new year ::pirate:: :laughing:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...