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I have a gigabyte 880 GA-ud3h rev 2.2 motherboard which I know supports up to 16 GB of ram, installed with it is a 64-bit Windows 7. On this mother board there are 4 slots for memory, on the first 3 slots I installed a corsair xms3 4gb (2x2gb) memory stick and on the last ram a different brand of stick but only has 2gb, other than the brand and size difference, all the other aspects of the 4 sticks are the same, like frequency and stuff like that.

All in all, I should be running with 14gb of memory.

What is puzzling me is why the first 3 sticks are only giving me 2gb each, which is weird because on the surface of the sticks there are stickers and that's where all the information are printed and it's clearly printed there "Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB). But when I checked using EasyTune 6, CPU z and PC Wizard, it says all 3 only amounts to only 6gb combined and 8gb in total if you include the 4th stick..

And I'm not talking about "usable" memory, I'm talking about this.

enter image description here

Slots 1 to 3 show the same "2048" mb report.

enter image description here

I'm really starting to think that I've been scammed. But I want to acknowledge all the possible alternatives before concluding this.

Are there any other ways that a supposed "4 gb" stick will only give 2gb? I've already updated the BiOS but no luck. Does 4gb (2x2gb) actually mean only 2gb?

And this is not just happening with one stick, all 3 corsair sticks are only giving me 2gb.

At this point, what should I do?

Of course in the end I could just go to the merchant and have my products refunded, but I don't want to end up buying a different stick of the same size but still only receiving 2gb because in the end there was a problem after all with my computer and how it handles memory and it would just be a massive time waster in the end.

So, in conclusion, any ideas?

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    Your screenshot's "Max module size" and "Max memory size" don't really match what you say about the motherboard...
    – u1686_grawity
    Jul 30, 2018 at 23:56
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    4GB (2x2GB) means you get 4GB total. Each stick is 2GB in size. To me it seems like you have 4, 2GB sticks. I'm a bit confused how you're coming up with your 14GB total. Can you update your answer and list each stick spec?
    – DrZoo
    Jul 31, 2018 at 0:02
  • The only mathematical way to come to 14 GB is to have a 2 GB module.
    – Ramhound
    Jul 31, 2018 at 0:09
  • @DrZoo I have included and described the memory slots of my mobo and the sticks that occupy them in my post.
    – Johnsy
    Jul 31, 2018 at 0:16

3 Answers 3

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Your mainboard supports Dual-Channel memory, which works by using matched pairs of RAM that can then operate in tandem to produce and effective doubling of the throughput.

So, the 2 4GB sticks are working together just fine in a dual-channel pair, and the 2GB stick pretty much caps its paired 4GB twin at its own size.

Replace the 2GB stick with a 4GB stick, or mess around with your BIOS settings to see if you can disable dual channel mode for the memory.

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  • Wouldn't that total 4 + 4 + 2 (out of 4) + 2 = 12? The OP says it totals to 8. (I know this is an old answer, and it might very well apply to other readers.)
    – Arjan
    Dec 21, 2019 at 7:42
  • OP is using 3 x 4GB and 1 x 2 GB ram modules,and recording a total of 14 GB usable.
    – music2myear
    Dec 21, 2019 at 16:16
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Some computers don't support dual channel memory on a single module. There is a difference between dual channel support (takes 2 memory modules) vs dual channel on the memory module (single module) I know, it splits hairs, but the main difference is that you can get dual channel support with just a single memory module, but the motherboard has to support it.

The memory module clearly says "2x2GB", which means it requires a slot that will handle a single dual-channel module.

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  • Nice, this seems to be the only answer to match both the OP's on the surface of the sticks there are stickers and that's where all the information are printed and it's clearly printed there "Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB)" and all 3 only amounts to only 6gb combined and 8gb in total if you include the 4th stick.
    – Arjan
    Dec 21, 2019 at 7:47
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"2x2GB" doesn't mean 4 GB.

It means that the memory came as a kit of two 2GB modules -- 2 x 2GB. It seems that you have one and a half of these kits in your computer.

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  • The OP writes on the surface of the sticks there are stickers and that's where all the information are printed and it's clearly printed there "Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB)". So, it's not some packaging holding two modules that says this, but each module is identified as such?
    – Arjan
    Dec 21, 2019 at 7:45

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