Is this the correct combination of ram and how to upgrade?

[melllvar]

Hi guys,

Ive bought a Mac Pro 2009 with 2x2,93 Ghz Quad Core processors.

There are 8 Gigabyte of ram installed. Can you guys tell me, if those are correct pairs of ram?
Two of them say 2rx8 pc3 10600r and the other two say 2rx8 pc3 8500r. This seems to be a little odd to me.

Thanks!

 

[thats all folks]

they are working now? what are your upgrade plans?

 

[melllvar]

They do work, but the computer seems to be pretty slow. I'm suspecting that the ram might be at fault.
Even light photoshop tasks without any other programs running lag pretty hard.

The specs are:
2x2,93 Ghz
8GB Ram as mentioned above
GTX970
2xSSDs (at SATA Ports unfortunately)

 

[thats all folks]

how is the RAM installed? Should be in first two slots off of each CPU. although the optimum configuration is 6 matched sticks installed as groups of 3. also, you can use the AHT to test the RAM,
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257

if you want more RAM (you didn't say) easy enough.
if you want a vendor,
http://www.transintl.com/24gb-kit-3x8gb-ddr3-1333mhz-ecc-pc10600-dimm.html

or if you are comfortable with eBay, I recently bought this for my machine,
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171834238837
did a Make Offer of $106.

[EDIT] OWC is now price competitive on RAM
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/85MP3W4M24GK/
[doublepost=1468530606][/doublepost]

Even light photoshop tasks without any other programs running lag pretty hard.

which OS, which Photoshop?
have you checked all the settings within Photoshop for RAM, GPU, etc. to make sure they match your situation? is your GTX flashed? are you running the right drivers?

 

[melllvar]

Thanks for your help!

I should definitely upgrade the ram. Would it make sense to ditch the old sticks and just get 1333 MHZ ram or would it be wiser to get 2 additional, bigger sticks of ram? Something between 16-24 gigabytes should be okay.
If I decide to go with 1333 MHZ ram, I'd have to flash to 5,1, right?

I'm using the latest el capita with the latest nvida web drivers installed.
The card is an ASUS GTX 970 Gaming.

I'm getting 47 FPS in Cinebench R15. That seems pretty low.
and the cpu gets 950 cb. If that's any indication.

 

[thats all folks]

I would get the 1333 as it doesn't cost any more (I posted the wrong link)
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/1333D3W4M24K/
and for guaranteed compatibility and best case performance, I would go ahead and replace it all
you can do the 5,1 update, your CPU will then run the RAM at 1333.

I can't speak to your performance test results. try to run a test for which you can find results online to compare against. maybe there is something wrong that has nothing to do with RAM. I'd start with the hardware test I linked to earlier.

 

[melllvar]

Unfortunately the hardware test doesnt work with my GPU. The FPS should be much higher according to some youtube videos where people run the same test with a similiar setup and the same card.

I would get the 1333 as it doesn't cost any more (I posted the wrong link)
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/1333D3W4M24K/
and for guaranteed compatibility and best case performance, I would go ahead and replace it all
you can do the 5,1 update, your CPU will then run the RAM at 1333.

I can't speak to your performance test results. try to run a test for which you can find results online to compare against. maybe there is something wrong that has nothing to do with RAM. I'd start with the hardware test I linked to earlier.

ng to

 

[h9826790]

Thanks for your help!

I should definitely upgrade the ram. Would it make sense to ditch the old sticks and just get 1333 MHZ ram or would it be wiser to get 2 additional, bigger sticks of ram? Something between 16-24 gigabytes should be okay.
If I decide to go with 1333 MHZ ram, I'd have to flash to 5,1, right?

I'm using the latest el capita with the latest nvida web drivers installed.
The card is an ASUS GTX 970 Gaming.

I'm getting 47 FPS in Cinebench R15. That seems pretty low.
and the cpu gets 950 cb. If that's any indication.

CineBench is a well known "CPU single core performance benchmarking software", but totally fail as a GPU benchmarking software.

 

[kschendel]

Since a couple vendors have been mentioned, I'll add Data Memory Systems, quality stuff at good prices, a number of people on here have used them.

 

[leon771]

Wasn't there a thread here where SoyCaptain was sating that Nvidia web drivers and unsupported cards caused lagginess un Adobe apps?
Moving to 680 card fixed this.

 

[scott.n]

Two of them say 2rx8 pc3 10600r and the other two say 2rx8 pc3 8500r.

The 10600R sticks are already 1333 MHz. They're downclocking to 1066 MHz because of the other two sticks.

I don't think RAM speed is the issue. (Or rather, I don't think that going to all 1333 MHz sticks will improve Photoshop performance noticeably.) Slow IO from the SATA II ports and an old processor architecture with relatively slow clock speed are the likely bottlenecks IMO.