Mismatched ram speed loss?

[Itchy]

Hi

How much speed loss am I going to be looking at if I use mismatched memory? (Note I've not kept up with computers for nearly a decade. I still remember when DDR and 48mb of ram was a lot! )

The note book I have invariably has 2x1 GB memory sticks in it. Matched pairs are supposed to have some sort of speed increase to them right? So what kind of speed decrease will occur if I remove one of the 1GB sticks and put in a 4GB stick? For a total of 5GB? (64bit windows 7)

Or is it one of those things which the difference will be so incredibly minute that I won't notice any real difference and the buy matched paires of memory things = something to get you to buy a pair of them? (4GB sticks are somewhat expensive!)

Thanks.
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[CarlosCBR]

How much is the motherboard designed to take? Best bet i would say is to do a memory scan online, it will tell you the recommended memory to put in aswell as what you have now.

EDIT: I used Crucial to do my scan. Good prices and excellent service too.
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[el_oso]

problem with this is that is quite hard to tell. depends on a number of things including the programs that you are going to be using, the OS, motherboard, processor.
first check what memory the laptop can support. crucial works.
why not try using 2x3Gb sticks and sell the old RAM on ebay?
The gain from having 5Gb would be higher than the losses from using mis matched RAM.
i have run mismatched RAM before in a very old cheap desktop. it did make the computer usable for itunes and web browsing as before could only just about load a single web page before becoming so slow that regular mail would have been faster than the time it took to boot up the machine and open a webpage and then write the e-mail and send it.
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Duke 390
Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

[Itchy]

[el_oso]

so it is. no one seems to do 3gb sticks.
as long as you use RAM of the same speed you should fine. when i upgraded my gf's RAM with mis-matched pairs, i had no issues. if i remember correctly installing the larger module in the primary slot is the common thing to do with mismatched pairs.
other option you have is getting 2x2Gb sticks and then sell the old RAM.
to me, large amounts of RAM on a laptop is useless. the processor would usually run out of steam before RAM gets filled up. don't think i have ever used more than 2Gb of RAM on my laptop.
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Duke 390
Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

[Mark65]

No real speed loss, however if you use a lower speed on one stick and higher on the other the pc will run al the memory at the lower speed.

mark
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[Ingah]

[el_oso]

you don't have to be using 2Gb of RAM until the OS starts dumping stuff onto the hard drive. no idea what the limit before the OS does this.
honestly i think that 4Gb of matched pairs would be faster than the the 5Gb purely because they can run at the speed they were meant to with no compatibility problems. i also don't think that you would use anywhere near 4Gb of RAM on a laptop let alone 5Gb, thus making the extra 1Gb useless. depends on what programs you are running of course, but i never encountered a program that i have run on my laptop where lack of RAM has caused my system to slow down.
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Duke 390
Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

[Itchy]

Its windows 7 though. My home machine doesn't slow down much, but I ask very little from it. My work machine though sitting on the desk top sucks up 1GB of ram, heaven forbid if you open any of the programs by IRIS, it slows down to a crawl although it is 32 bit.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.