800 MHz RAM

[gpapava]

Hello
Why apple uses 667MHz DDR2 ECC fully-buffered DIMM (FB-DIMM) memory and not uses 800MHz bus speed? I mean 800MHz is faster and mac pro is supposed
to be "the beast"
And i ve read in forums that fully-buffered DIMM actually "slows" the mac pro.
Is that true?

 

[TBi]

It uses 667 because that is what Intel rates the chipset at, just like the iMac and Macbooks. The Mac pro is slowed down because of the buffering, not the speed of the memory itself.

 

[dllavaneras]

So when the new chipsets arrive, will they handle 800Mhz memory?

 

[Umbongo]

So when the new chipsets arrive, will they handle 800Mhz memory?

Nope.

 

[TBi]

So when the new chipsets arrive, will they handle 800Mhz memory?

Depends on how you define new Some time in the future they will. In reality they more than likely can handle 800MHz RAM at the moment but i don't think they'll support it for a while.

 

[phungy]

New chips as in Santa Rose? I believe they are suppose to handle 800Mhz RAM but we'll see

 

[TBi]

New chips as in Santa Rose? I believe they are suppose to handle 800Mhz RAM but we'll see

Santa Rosa isn't for the Mac Pro though.

 

[phungy]

Santa Rosa isn't for the Mac Pro though.

My bad, didn't notice that we were talking about "The Beast"

 

[gpapava]

It uses 667 because that is what Intel rates the chipset at, just like the iMac and Macbooks. The Mac pro is slowed down because of the buffering, not the speed of the memory itself.

If mac pro is slowed down because of the buffering then why they put that kind of memory?

 

[TBi]

If mac pro is slowed down because of the buffering then why they put that kind of memory?

That's because it's the only chipset than intel make for the Xeon's.

 

[combatcolin]

If mac pro is slowed down because of the buffering then why they put that kind of memory?

It has a stupidly low error generating factor, the RAM in your computer and mine generates tiny errors as its working, normally this isn't much of an issue but when your doing massive important calculations any mistake can ruin hours of work.

Plus the Mac Pro is designed to run loads of very demanding programs at the same time, much more than a normal Mac.

Reasons why its so damned expensive.