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pigbat

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 18, 2005
219
0
I have a MBP with 1 GB and was going to upgrade to 2. Is there any benefit in ordering a "matched" pair or should I just get the 1 GB upgrade? Also, I have an older MBP that I think only supports 3GB. Does it matter which slot I put the 2GB chip if I decide to go that route?
 
If it is a CoreDuo machine, it supports only 2 Gb ( 1 Gb + 1 Gb )

If it is a Core2Duo, it supports 3 Gb ( 1 Gb + 2 Gb) or 3.3 Gb ( 2 Gb + 2 Gb )

If it is the newer Core2Duo Santa Rosa, it supports a full 4 Gb.

Matching RAM ( 2 x 1 Gb or 2 x 2 Gb ) provides a modest speed improvement of about 6% - 8% over unmatched RAM -- but the improvement is seldom enough to justify choosing less RAM (2 Gb) over more (3 Gb) More total RAM is almost always better.

There is no difference which slot.

See the Guides tab near the top of this window?
MR Guide to Understanding Intel Mac RAM
 
Actually, since it is a MacBook Pro with it's own seperate, dedicated video card, it doesn't matter if it is matched or not.

Matched ram gives a small improvement for any MacBook or Mac Mini that uses the integrated GMA 950 or GMA X3100 graphics cards.

More ram the better.
 
Actually, since it is a MacBook Pro with it's own seperate, dedicated video card, it doesn't matter if it is matched or not.

Not true. Dual channel memory makes a small improvement to all memory operations. On integrated graphics machines that use main memory for video memory, the improvement is more, because you get a double hit, once when computing and once when displaying.

You could say that dedicated video machine show less of a difference, or even that the difference is not worth spending extra on, but not that there is no difference.
 
The only thing I dont understand is that the Ram bus has upgraded to 800Mhz from 667Mhz (on the new SR Macbook) however you still cannot buy 4gb of 800Mhz ram...am I getting the wrong end of the stick for this? Sorry Im confused :-( Just ordered 4gb of ram for my future macbook :-D... (for audio production reasons) Trying to decide on a 7200rpm HDD now.
 
The only thing I dont understand is that the Ram bus has upgraded to 800Mhz from 667Mhz (on the new SR Macbook) however you still cannot buy 4gb of 800Mhz ram...am I getting the wrong end of the stick for this? Sorry Im confused :-( Just ordered 4gb of ram for my future macbook :-D... (for audio production reasons) Trying to decide on a 7200rpm HDD now.


RAM (667MHz)
Frontside bus (800MHz)
 
If you have 1GB now, doesn't that mean you have 2 x 512mb sticks? You can't just put a 1gb stick in there to make it 2, you'll have to take out a 512 stick and the ram will total 1.5GB
 
If you have 1GB now, doesn't that mean you have 2 x 512mb sticks? You can't just put a 1gb stick in there to make it 2, you'll have to take out a 512 stick and the ram will total 1.5GB

The config on mine is 1x1GB
 
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