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glynster

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 4, 2016
15
9
I have tried searching the forums but can't find a definitive answer to this that directly relates to my model so I thought I would throw it out to you "Ramologists" out there.

I have a 2010, 5,1, 8 core 2.4ghx (westmere) Mac pro and it had 14 gigs of ram (6x1gb 2 x 4gb) - I create a lot of huge multi-layered files in Photoshop (web design) and occasionally use FCPx and Motion5 so 14gb was not quite going to cut it.

Long story short, I have just purchased 32gb ram as 4x8gb sticks (PC3-10600 1333 MHZ ECC REGISTERED - I got 1333mhz ram as I later intend to change the processors to x5680s so I thought it more future proof)

However, here's my question, I have heard that you really should (must?) occupy the first 3 slots for each processor (x2 in my case) or your ram speed will take a big hit - is that right in my case? Does that mean ideally I should pick up another 2 x 8gb sticks of the same type and have (6 x 8gb) populating the first 3 slots for each processor? I would normally be happy with 32gb ram for my needs but if its going to be disabling/inhibiting performance then I will get another 2 x 8gb sticks of the same type while I still can (i.e. while the seller is still around selling that exact brand)
Many thanks in advance
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
I don't think your workflow is memory bandwidth bottlenecked. So, there should be no performance hit in your case by not fully utilising the triple channel architecture.

Of course, you can still benefit by upgrading the system to 48G RAM, but mainly because of more RAM for cache, but not the increasing memory bandwidth.
 
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