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I have actually a motherboard Gigabyte h61m-d2h-usb3 with 2x4Gb in the white slot.

1) Now I would like to add 1x4GB in the blue slot, it is this can possible or I must put 2x4GB instead?
2) Put only 1 it has any downgrade performance (3x4GB)?
3) And for install 4x4GB the manual specifies "If four DDR3 1333 MHz memory modules are installed, the maximum memory speed will be limited to 1066 MHz." Is this bad?

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    PS ` - text here` for bullet points. Or ` 1. text here` for lists with numbers. And two wite space instead of BR's
    – Hennes
    Commented Dec 4, 2017 at 15:31
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    (Ignoring point 4 because that is a product recommendation and thus off-topic. But almost any DDR3 1066 or -1333 will do).
    – Hennes
    Commented Dec 4, 2017 at 15:34

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I have no experience with this specific motherboard, but in general you can add more DIMMs and either:

  1. List item
  2. The whole setup falls back to single channel mode (in your case 3x single channel).
  3. Or (most seen) the motherboard will happily access the first two DIMMs in dual channel mode and the third DIMM in single channel mode.

A classic example of this were Intel firsts I7 motherboards with 4 memory slots, the first three of which were useable up to tripple channel mode. The fourth was alone.

Now I would like to add 1x4GB in the blue slot. It is this can possible or I must put 2x4GB instead?

Normally this is no problem at all. You will have 12GB useable memory.

Put only 1 it has any downgrade performance (3x4GB)?

On average dual channel memory inproves performance by about 5%.
On average having not enough memory slows the system down by way more then 5%.

Based on those two points: If your system can actively use the memory then add a your third DIMM. And if it does not often actively use it for programs then it stll gets used to cache things and this usually means a faster system.

And for install 4x4GB the manual specifies "If four DDR3 1333 MHz memory modules are installed, the maximum memory speed will be limited to 1066 MHz." Is this bad? 4) Wich new RAM do you reccomend me buy for this motherboard?

The memory controller on your board can only drive a limited number of ranks. On most consumer motherboards this is either 4 ranks at max speed, or 8 ranks at a lower speed. Most DIMMS are dual rank, so adding a third rank pushes this over the limit and the speed drops.

You might not even notice this exect if you are memory bound rather than CPU bound of GPU bound.


Summarising as a general answer:

Get more memory. 1x4GB will do. And more memory usually beats less but faster memory.

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    I would agree with Hennes comment about more slower memory compared to a lower amount of faster memory. You would be hard pressed to measure the actual impact on performance if your memory was running at 1066 MHz instead of 1333 MHz outside of a bechmark.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Dec 4, 2017 at 15:43
  • Im sorry, point 2 is not very clear to me, I want the new ram for play games more confortable, and have ssd disk (if this does it matter something).
    – SilverSurfer
    Commented Dec 4, 2017 at 15:43
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    You would be hard pressed to actually notice a difference in system performance if your system was running single channel vs dual/triple channel. The statement with regard to how the motherboard will work is clear. All modules will run in single channel mode, or only the singular module will run in single channel and all other modules will run in dual channel. If you are worried about an impact on system peformance then fill all slots with similar modules.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Dec 4, 2017 at 15:47
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    For generic games the speed impact is probably not noticeable. Most of them are GPU bound.
    – Hennes
    Commented Dec 4, 2017 at 15:55

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