Is it possible to use pc3 12800 and pc3 10666 Ram on same motherboard?

[Gopala]

I am having a motherboard of Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H. What I am planning currently is to install two ram sticks onto this motherboard. But my doubt is whether it is possible for me to install two different Rams combination on the same motherboard?

I am having pc3 12800 and pc3 10666 memory with me which I purchased yesterday, and now I wanted to install them on this gigabyte motherboard, but not sure whether I can do it or not. So just for the confirmation asking you all people whether should I proceed with the activity or I should not even try it.

[Arun K]

Look it is possible for anyone to install two different Rams on the same mother board but let me tell you that there are many other factors that are to be considered always. One amongst them is the CPU, may I know what processor you are running?

Also there are certain drawback of doing it, you be caused with major instability. For safe side its better to go for the same manufacturer and revision if possible and if you set them to the lowest settings like for e.g. 1333, 9-9-9-24, 1.5v, everything might function well and smoothly.

[raghini]

If asked me I would always go for the same brand and model instead of taking a huge risk. Its always a good practice to go for the simple and the best one. I am not sure with the things but still I doubt whether you will any issue or not, most probably you should have certain problem like one mentioned above i.e. instability and maybe other incompatibility issues.

But other than this if we consider your system specs factor they I must say that you have a good system support and due to only that reason I can allow you to go for a trail of installing those memory on to your board. The board which you are having is one of the best supported board present in the market so definitely you should not have any problem and even if you had surely that might be a minor one.

[V.V.S. Kambli]

I am quite confused with the performance and the quality. I never get what exactly should I consider as the first preference should I consider the Ram or the settings.

Please clear my doubt, what if I run more than one ram on a lower setting system and on the other hand I install just one or two Rams but on a higher setting system. Which one will work better and why? I am totally messed up with such great doubts, and due to these doubts I am never able to go for any R&Ds on my machine.

What about those above mentioned memories, does the speed of the pc3 12800 differs with pc3 10666 at a higher margin?

[Pamina]

The first thing I would like to tell you is that the amount and the speed never matters but the only thing that matter is the rate. You can surely run number of fast Ram or just few slow Rams, doesn’t make a huge difference. About instability, I would say that if you try running a slower Ram at a higher speed definitely it is bound to cause a stability issue. And if you make them run at 1333Mhz 9-9-9-26 timings they should run all right.
And if you want it for a gaming purpose they I would suggest you to 1600Mhz 9-9-9-24 kit without even overclocking.

[Skullnit]

Yeah I do agree, you know once you do that the speed wont differ but remember one thing you notice a deduction in performance with 1333 9-9-9-26 setting over 1333 9-9-9-26.
And if you are a gamer then you should probably not think too much, just go for 8GB, its quite enough for gaming and web browsing. If a video editor then make sure that you run them both at 1333 9-9-9-26, also increase the memory by 2GB.

[LavinaD]

You should be easily able to do a video conversation with a 4GB Ram. Also you can checkout your Ram utility with the help of the Task Manager if using a Windows system and if you ever notice the Ram usage getting higher you need to just install 2GB more then set up the voltage 9-9-9-26 timings and 1333Mhz speed.
If you own a Sandy Bridge processor make sure that you do not go over 1.65v on the memory voltage.

[crook]

Difference in Ram creates problem for the one which is faster. I mean to say that if the Ram is faster that Ram should be able to automatically slow down in order to just match the speed of the Ram. Rest everything is fine, you need not have to do more than that. And for the video conversation, increase in the number of Ram is good but make sure that other than increase in number of Ram you better go for faster processor.
If 1600 Mhz Ram is set in the BIOS all the memory in the board will be taken and run at 1600 mhz, so better make sure that it is always set to 1333 if planning to run them together.