2x4gb and 2x2gb In Same System? For 12gb Total?

I ran 12GB on dual channel for a while. It definitely worked. I ended up selling the two 4G sticks and bought 2 2G sticks to have 8 instead of 12 and I sold the 8G kit.

But it should work with no issues. Just to be safe, you should have the same exact RAM when you do it. So when I did it all of my RAM was G.Skill Ripjaws X 1333 DDR3. The only difference should be the speed of the RAM. And when you have it set up in your motherboard do it so each channel has the same amount of memory, so each one with 6GB. So put a 4GB and 2Gb stick in each channel.

I wasn't rude. And how is it everyone's issue. There been people running 16gb with 3 graphics cards. I am currently not having any issues. You can't tell people that they will have an issue no matter what.

I'm sure Intel wouldn't release a chipset where using all the memory sticks and using multiple graphics would cause crashes constantly. Sandy Bridge had a minor problem with SATA and they recalled every single board.

I don't understand why you wish that I have problems when currently I'm not. I'm running 100% stable and the 2x2gb RAM kit that I was having troubles with earlier when running alone seems to be working much better with the 8gb kit right next to it.

Way to be an ***. Have fun with your problems

BigTerminator said:

I wasn't rude. And how is it everyone's issue. There been people running 16gb with 3 graphics cards. I am currently not having any issues. You can't tell people that they will have an issue no matter what.

I'm sure Intel wouldn't release a chipset where using all the memory sticks and using multiple graphics would cause crashes constantly. Sandy Bridge had a minor problem with SATA and they recalled every single board.

I don't understand why you wish that I have problems when currently I'm not. I'm running 100% stable and the 2x2gb RAM kit that I was having troubles with earlier when running alone seems to be working much better with the 8gb kit right next to it.

Way to be an ***. Have fun with your problems

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2 seperate intel i5 750's.
2 seperate boards (eVGA P55 FTW, and DFI T3eh9).
5 seperate GTX 2x0's used to test, including using a 280 NOT in sli, with a 260 in there also.
tried less drives, more drives etc.
3 seperate kits of RAM (cruciall ballistix, crucial sport, and ripjaw) (to clarify, all 2gb sticks except the ripjaws, which were 4gb sticks, which were the solution)
2 seperate power supplies.
3 seperate installs of windows.
pulled every non critical device.

I reproduced this with 2 wholly different computers after RMAing every part in my system.

Those who ran those with success either didn't care about the issue, blamed it on something else, or were LIKELY running a board with NF200/hydra.

I have wholly confirmed it's an issue with loading down the QPI (if I understand the architecture right, but basically too much RAM and too much PCI-E so leads me to believe something between the imc and pciec and the cpu) too much, and no amount of VTT would resolve. This happened at stock, overclocked, etc.

Also, to further my point, almost every platform ever released has had some form of issues with using up all the memory slots. AMD 939 for example, couldn't run all 4 sticks at 1t timings, when you could with 2. No amount of voltage or tweaking would get it working. This issue isn't very different from that, and in MOST cases, it's generally FINE to run 4 sticks, as long as the rest of your system is sparse. Single GPU with an x1 sound card? 1156 is fine with 4 sticks, but as soon as you start loading down the PCI-E controller AND the IMC, you're going to have issues. When you do, I'll be happy to have advised you to pull those 2 2gb sticks. In general, MOST intel chips require a VTT bump to get 4 sticks working right. So again, your logic may seem rational, but it's incorrect to think this. 4 sticks of RAM is a LOT of work for an IMC.

Now, I'm using 2 GTX 460's, and a GTX 430 for physx and my 2 side monitors (3 total, center on SLI). I'm also using an X-Fi titanium. 2 sticks, no problem. 4, nvidia drivers crash FREQUENTLY.

And again, there's only one thing you can point at here: the cpu, which I changed out for a new one. So again, we're left believing it's something wrong with the CPU. It's not a design flaw so much as intel not putting enough nuts and bolts into the IMC (it's like saying an impreza is flawed because the WRX is faster/better in every way). Arguably, the same thing can be said about the integrated PCI-E controller, which might I add only supports 16x total (I mean seriously, why not 32x lol, which oh by the way wouldn't support 3 cards unless 2 were running at 1x seeing as how you can split it at 16, 8, 4, or 1 electrically)? Usually the third slot and the 1x slots are handled by the PCH, if I understand that part correctly, so you're fine with the 2 major slots, with the others being ran by the PCH, so you're still at 16x, but that's the upper limit. As another car analogy, it's like the inherent design issues with FWD, you only have so much friction: Acceleration, or handling. Pick 1 and master it with the two wheels you choose for it. That's why most truly high end cars are RWD, front wheels steer, rear power. WHen you start doing everything pretty much at the limit, you hit a wall. In this case, the nvidia drivers end up crashing which trust me, sends you scurrying in ALL the wrong directions.

Trust me, there are a LOT of issues with this, and it would take an insufferable amount of tweaking to get it working.

For you to say it's just MY issue is an insult to my intelligence, I just said if you go SLI pull the 2x2's out. So again, when the time comes and you do that, and you have issues, I honestly hope you'll have forgotten what I advised you of so that you go through JUST AS MUCH TROUBLE as I did, because seriously, who'd think an nvidia driver crash would occur because of RAM instability when you can stability test your RAM, CPU, and GPU seperately for days on end without issue?

Not this guy, or really anybody for that matter... which is probably why a lot of people never came to that conclusion. I fixed my problem, I was only trying to help you avoid the same fate and you were rude. lol

To be clear, it's POSSIBLE you wont' have the issue due to the lucid hydra providing extra PCI-E lanes. But still, it's MORE likely to cause issues than solve any, and 8GB is overkill anyway. 12GB is just short of pointless unless you are running RAM drives, so still a suggestion to pull them. do what you will with that, but don't insult my intelligence by suggesting an issue I troubleshot very extensively is just an issue with me. It couldn't possibly be if two computers side by side did it.

Stop guys... seriously. I also dont believe BT wasnt insutling anyone's intelligence (why so quick to take that same defensive stance Aynjell? Its not me! ), so dont take his post personally.

Just as this could be an issue for the masses it could be just a random issue. I havent heard anyone else complain about it (though its very possible I just havent seen it). And if it is such an issue for the masses, I would have expected to see this issue be mentioned more here, or TPU, or XS or... any other place I frequent.

That said, I had P55/i7 860 and X58/ i7 920 on P55 FTW, and UD3R with 2 Nvidia cards and 4 sticks of ram. I did not experience the issue (those boards dont have NF200 though so is that why?). Granted my expsoure to such a configuration totalled 2 weeks but those systems did go through synthetic and gaming benchmarks. Im not sure what to tell you about the issue, I certainly believe you Aynj, but I can tell you that I dont like the direction this is going. Dont let it go that way.

EarthDog said:

Stop guys... seriously. I also dont believe BT wasnt insutling anyone's intelligence (why so quick to take that same defensive stance Aynjell? Its not me! ), so dont take his post personally.

Just as this could be an issue for the masses it could be just a random issue. I havent heard anyone else complain about it (though its very possible I just havent seen it). And if it is such an issue for the masses, I would have expected to see this issue be mentioned more here, or TPU, or XS or... any other place I frequent.

That said, I had P55/i7 860 and X58/ i7 920 on P55 FTW, and UD3R with 2 Nvidia cards and 4 sticks of ram. I did not experience the issue (those boards dont have NF200 though so is that why?). Granted my expsoure to such a configuration totalled 2 weeks but those systems did go through synthetic and gaming benchmarks. Im not sure what to tell you about the issue, I certainly believe you Aynj, but I can tell you that I dont like the direction this is going. Dont let it go that way.

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The issue is really hard to track down to memory configuration. It wouldn't happen on 1366, only on 1156, where everything is on the chip. I7 had the pci-ec on the board, not the chip, so it's an issue more related to the 1156 platform. I doubt 1155 would experience it as it's a more fleshed out platform with a lot better stability at even higher clocks.

Again, the issue is probably plaguing many many people without them even realizing it. If you're using 4 sticks of RAM and sli and getting frequent driver crashes, try pulling some sticks. I should try 4 sticks with the 460's. It very well could have been isolated to 200 series, which would make the issue even harder to track down/isolate. ALSO, nf200 likely reduces the likelyhood of having the issue. If you don't have the P55/860 setup anymore, then there's not much use in testing it. If you're rocking that i7 920 and now the 860 then there's really no way you can test/etc. For me, the issue MOST OFTEN occurs while opening a flash video or playing league of legends, though it happened semi regularly elsewhere, it was most often likely to happen there. In fact I could see it starting to chop before it flat out crashed. You basically couldn't complete a game of lol without it. Also, the issue seemed 10 times worse using evga cards vs BFG, so again.... we're talking some really goofy hard to track down shat here. You can't say it was my cards because I replaced both of 'em. You can't say it was just MY chip because I replaced it. You can't say it was the board because I replaced it with an evga p55 ftw, and same issue. Can't say it was my drives because I tried using any combination of my drives. Same issue. It was really hard to track down, but in a nut shell, 1156, like so many other platforms seriously prefers 2 sticks to 4. If you can rock 4 wthout issues, godspeed, but if you start seeing your drivers crash, try pulling those 2gb modules and see what happens.

I will say that my 755 e5300 gracefully handles 4 sticks of DDR2 just fine, with an evga 260. NO issues at all there. It just seemed to be 1156, where no matter what I did, if I had 2 gpu's in the 8x slots and 4 sticks of ram, I was gonna have issues.

Trust me, reproduced with two similar builds with completely different hardware (see above, there's 2 computers worth of hardware in my list of RMA'd/replaced hardware). If I had another persons 1156 box that didn't have hydra or nf200, I bet I could reproduce it in 24 hours flat. Also, the nvidia driver crashing is exactly that, it's really really easy to confuse with an overclocking instability. Then you revert to stock and bam, same issue.

Weirdness...sorry its happening broham.

(been on SB however for a few months, so I cant help test)

Aynjell, I wasn't trying to be rude, and I'm not even sure why you brought up this topic on this thread. I have a single AMD card to start off with. My board has a Hydra chip and I'm not sure that issue you are having is hitting the masses as Earth Dog stated. Why would Intel recall all the boards for a weird SATA issue but design a board and CPU where it can't handle 4 sticks and multiple video cards. It could also be an Nvidia issue.

My problem came from the RAM itself, not anything besides it. The 2x2gb kit gave me problems when I bought them. I might RMA them as I did get an RMA number. I'm going to go back to just 8gb because I have been getting some random crashing. And 8gb is plenty right.

BigTerminator said:

Aynjell, I wasn't trying to be rude, and I'm not even sure why you brought up this topic on this thread. I have a single AMD card to start off with. My board has a Hydra chip and I'm not sure that issue you are having is hitting the masses as Earth Dog stated. Why would Intel recall all the boards for a weird SATA issue but design a board and CPU where it can't handle 4 sticks and multiple video cards. It could also be an Nvidia issue.

My problem came from the RAM itself, not anything besides it. The 2x2gb kit gave me problems when I bought them. I might RMA them as I did get an RMA number. I'm going to go back to just 8gb because I have been getting some random crashing. And 8gb is plenty right.

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Again, your logic is flawed (again, one would think that if the slots are there you should be able to fill them). Please see above. It's not uncommon for a platform to NOT be capable of handling so much addin boards and RAM. When you have 3 GPU's, 1 sound card, 4 sticks of RAM and 5 of the 6 sata ports in use... it puts a terrible strain on everything. I wish you the best of luck, and again, I am 100% confident that any board and cpu combo on 1156 can reproduce this issue with multiple gpu's (providing the board doesn't have NF200 or hydra, but I haven't tested a board that does have these so they may have the same issues). It's possible ati's drivers may handle this more elegantly, but it's a hardware issue, not a software issue.

Basically, just because the slots are there doesn't mean the board and cpu can handle ALL of them being filled. it's a flexibility offering, not a max capability offering.

Also, I again brought this up because A) I DONT want you to have this issue, and B) if you do experience it, troubleshooting it is a hell of a burden and none of the errors suggest RAM.. so again, if you start having wonky issues, try pulling the 2x2 sticks. If it fixes it, great, if not, it didn't hurt to start there.

Lastly, if you still seriously doubt what I'm saying, go ahead and do some research. A LOT of platforms had issues running more than 2 sticks of RAM. so far, 2 of the 4 I've used have (754 didn't even support dual channel, 939 did, but you could only use 2 sticks without sacraficing a LOT of speed, and 775 worked fine, but 1156 however has some seriously hard to track down stability issues).

Have fun, again if it works, great, if it doesn't, try my suggestion first. It will likely save you a great deal of time.

What I said above was that I did not have this issue on my 1156 platform...In order to run 4 sticks in that platform, it was a simple Vtt bump, depending on the speed of the ram.

Thanks for the information.