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Macbook 2.16GHZ, 2GB or 3GB of ram?

W

Wanderer509

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 28, 2007
100
0
hi all, i am now considering upgrading my macbook's ram, but am tied between 2GB n 3GB.

to my understanding, if i do 3GB total ram i wont get dual channel right? so would it be wiser to just leave it at 2GB? i do not use heavy applications, i usually just msn, surf the web and maybe play some games that arent that graphic intensive.

anyways, 2GB or 3GB?

pros for 2GB:
-cheaper than configuring for 3GB
-dual channel

pros for 3GB:
-faster than 2GB (haha is this a no brainer?)

anyways i read the very useful understanding intel mac ram guide already, so just wondering what is better (considering my needs)
 
obeygiant said:
will the macbook 2.16 even recognize over 2gb of ram? I thought only the newer 2.2 macbook could have 4gb of ram.
Click to expand...

ya it recognizes up to 2GB, i was surprise myself when i first found out

wow u guys respond fast, great community =)
 
The more RAM the better, whatever the case. Even though you won't be using dual-channel, OS X will still use all the RAM it has access too. Look at the bottom of this BareFeats page: http://www.barefeats.com/mbcd6.html

I'm planning on putting 3GB in my 17" C2D MacBook Pro. You can find a 2GB stick for $73 now at OWC.
 
mmendoza27 said:
The more RAM the better, whatever the case. Even though you won't be using dual-channel, OS X will still use all the RAM it has access too. Look at the bottom of this BareFeats page: http://www.barefeats.com/mbcd6.html

I'm planning on putting 3GB in my 17" C2D MacBook Pro. You can find a 2GB stick for $73 now at OWC.
Click to expand...

that is what i am thinking. so regardless of what i am doing with my macbook, if i have 3GB on my mac, it will use all 3GB of it right? i wish barefeats did an overall speed increase test comparing 2GB n 3GB
 
obeygiant said:
will the macbook 2.16 even recognize over 2gb of ram? I thought only the newer 2.2 macbook could have 4gb of ram.
Click to expand...

The 2.16 is a Core2Duo
It will support 2 + 1 Gb
or 2 + 2 Gb, but will only allow the OS to use 3 Gb of the 4 Gb total.

i wish barefeats did an overall speed increase test comparing 2GB n 3GB
Click to expand...

Slight misconception here -- the performance increase from 2 to 3 GB depends more than anything on the programs you are running. If you are just running Mail, there will be little or no improvement 2 Gb vs. 3 Gb because you are not exceeding the 2 Gb level, so there's no advantage.

But if you are multitasking heavily and switching frequently between more than 2 Gb worth of programs, or have iPhoto with 1000's of photos, or doing digital audio or video, then the 3 Gb will pay off. Photoshop and a few other programs manage their own scratch disk space, and can address up to 3 Gb of memory, so they will show speed increases.
 
More MacBook benchmarks with various RAM configurations. Note how little difference dual channel makes. For the money, 3 GB seems to be the sweet spot. You can actually install 4 GB, but only about 3.3 GB will actually be used due to a lack of available registers, or something like that.
 
thanks for the reply guys! wow 3GB looks impressive... so tempting now! now its just to persuade myself that i really do need 3GB... hahaha
 
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