Can I use Single Ranked RAM in one Channel and a Dual Ranked RAM in a separate Channel?

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Probably, yes, but it won't be in dual channel any longer...

 

Should have made your own thread if you took the time to sign in here...

[Steven P. Administrators]

Yes I am pretty sure dual channel is disabled entirely when a mix of different RAM type is used, it is the same for mixed RAM speeds, they will default to the slowest for all modules.

 

Anyway the motherboard manual is pretty clear in these cases with supported RAM types. If you let us know which board it is we can confirm.

[Dave_t_uk]

Thank you!

 

I bought 8gb of single rank crucial ram to go with the 8gb dual rank crucial I already had. It is in a gigabyte h370 HD3. I didn’t bother reading any instructions or guides, so it’s on me if it doesnt work. But I’m happy with that risk.

 

Oh, and why not my own thread? Because this one has a high google rank that deserves a helpful answer.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

The answer is that it depends on the chipset and the firmware engineered to go with that chipset.  I have had SDRAM- and RDRAM-based systems in the distant past that would not allow you to mix single- and double-ranked RAM even if they were in their own channels.  For DDR-based systems, I think that limitation started to go away sometime in the DDR3-era.

 

The simplest answer seems to be to not risk, and get a set of properly-matched RAM with identical rankings and timings, preferably of the same model from the same vendor.  That's not a universal panacea, though, as some manufacturers have changed DRAM packages  and board designs over time so you may end up with some "value RAM" that has the same manufacturer and part number but is incompatible, but that is rarity.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[Dave_t_uk]

It worked.

 

No problems.

 

I’m happy with my decision to not spend lots of time on it.

 

 

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

11 minutes ago, Dave_t_uk said:

It worked.

 

No problems.

 

I’m happy with my decision to not spend lots of time on it.

 

 

It may "work", but I doubt it's in dual channel. And speeds are turned down to the lowest one.

 

While it works, I doubt to it's highest potential.