2GB of DDR 800 or 4GB of DDR 667 - Which is better?

[ozziegn]

Okay, check this out. I recently picked up my new iMac (specs in sig) and I immediately ran a Geekbench run just to see what it would do. It showed something like 3983 on the stock 2GB DDR 800 memory.

I then swapped out the 2GB DDR 800 memory for 4GB DDR 667 memory that I had in my MacBook Pro. I then ran the Geekbench test again and this time my score went down to like 3800. Why in the world would the score go down instead of up? could it be because the stock memory is running at a faster BUS speed than what my laptop memory (DDR 667) was running at? if so, what should I do?

should I put the stock DDR 800 memory back in or just keep the 4GB of DDR 667 in and be happy with that?

 

[ozziegn]

okay, so I put my stock memory back in and now the Geekbench number went to like 4030. this obviously tells me the DDR 800 works better.

this is great. now I get to spend even more $$$ on different memory.

 

[daneoni]

okay, so I put my stock memory back in and now the Geekbench number went to like 4030. this obviously tells me the DDR 800 works better.

this is great. now I get to spend even more $$$ on different memory.

You can sell the 4GB kit to offset the cost and yes the 2GB 800MHz kit will be faster because it has a faster RAMBus

 

[Evangelion]

Use the slower RAM. The difference between DDR800 and DDR667 is miniscule in real-life usage. But you WILL see the difference between 2 and 4 gigs, when the data/app/content you are working on does not fit 2 gigs anymore....

Why did Geekbench go down? Probably because the test fits in to 2GB, and does not really get any benefit from 4GB.

 

[nick9191]

You will not notice a difference, keep the 4gb.

 

[fhall1]

Agree with the other posters....in real-world use you'll benefit more from the extra 2G of RAM than the slightly higher speed of the lesser amount of RAM

 

[mreg376]

Okay, check this out. I recently picked up my new iMac (specs in sig) and I immediately ran a Geekbench run just to see what it would do. It showed something like 3983 on the stock 2GB DDR 800 memory.

I then swapped out the 2GB DDR 800 memory for 4GB DDR 667 memory that I had in my MacBook Pro. I then ran the Geekbench test again and this time my score went down to like 3800. Why in the world would the score go down instead of up? could it be because the stock memory is running at a faster BUS speed than what my laptop memory (DDR 667) was running at? if so, what should I do?

should I put the stock DDR 800 memory back in or just keep the 4GB of DDR 667 in and be happy with that?

I assume that you bought a 3.06GHz Imac because you wanted the fastest Imac available, Considering what you just spent on this machine, why in the world would you want anything less that 4GB of DDR 800 RAM n the thing?