RAM upgrade - keep old?

[Sal]

Hi,

Can anyone help with this upgrade question? I have recently bought 2 new sticks of 4GB RAM, 1333 mhz and upgraded my PC. I am wondering whether I could get it up to 12GB by putting the old one back in DIMM3, or whether having an old one in there will actually hold things up or if having it asymmetrical will be worse than just leaving it with 8. Both new and old RAM are 4GB each and 1333mhz, but the old stuff is about 6 years old.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Zelig]

It would probably work - the key point is whether your platform supports dual channel RAM. If so, dual channel will be disabled if you run with three sticks, which roughly halves the memory bandwidth. And then, the amount of memory you typically use matters - if you typically use >8gb, you're better off with 12gb, even if it does run more slowly.

 

[cardgame]

Do you actually need 12GB? Also your old stick - is it DDR3 or DDR2? If it's DDR2 it will slow your system down if you're using less than 8gb, if it works at all

 

[Zelig]

Do you actually need 12GB? Also your old stick - is it DDR3 or DDR2? If it's DDR2 it will slow your system down if you're using less than 8gb, if it works at all

There are pretty much no PCs that support multiple physically different types of ram.

 

[Sal]

Thanks for the advice. It is all DDR3, but rather than have to work out if it is going to be better with 8 or 12, I have bought another 4gb so I will have 16 and still keep parallel sticks.