MP 7,1 New Mac Pro (2020) Is Cheaper RAM better?

[StockTricks]

Hi all,

I shall be dropping 10k on 12-core, new Mac Pro Friday.......
Question: I'm buying 48Gb Ram out of the box, But would you suggest i buy the basic 32gbram, then upgrade to 64gb with the cheaper 3rd party Ram ? like this: https://www.kingstonmemoryshop.co.u...ro-late-2019-3.3ghz-12-core-tower-workstation

Is this DDR4 EEC ram just as reliable?

 

[OkiRun]

Hi all,

I Shall be dropping 10k on 12-core, New Mac Pro Friday.......
Question: I'm buying 48Gb Ram out of the box, But would you suggest i buy the basic 32gbram, then upgrade to 64gb with the cheaper 3rd party Ram ? like this: https://www.kingstonmemoryshop.co.u...ro-late-2019-3.3ghz-12-core-tower-workstation

Is this DDR4 EEC ram just as reliable?

That is what I did but went with NEMIX Ram instead. Check my signature.
Saved a great deal of company funds.

 

[Grumply]

I'd say whatever you do, try and go for a configuration that nets you either six or twelve DIMMs. That'll give you the most speed possible.

I went for the stock 32GB, then added two additional sets of Apple's stock 32GB configuration (that people had traded into OWC for their own upgrades) - which netted me a total of 96GB of Apple's 8GB DIMMs for a great price.

 

[StockTricks]

I'd say whatever you do, try and go for a configuration that nets you either six or twelve DIMMs. That'll give you the most speed possible.

I went for the stock 32GB, then added two additional sets of Apple's stock 32GB configuration (that people had traded into OWC for their own upgrades) - which netted me a total of 96GB of Apple's 8GB DIMMs for a great price.

Thanks Grumply - that is the singlemost concise answer i have got after two days of reading forums.

In my newbie mind, I was initially thinking of selling on eBay the stock 32gb that came with the Mac, and putting two new sticks of 32gb ram I bought myself in the machine for 64gb ram... but I heard this would slow my machine as i'd be only making use of four channels instead of six.

But thanks for clarifying. On a final note, just bought 2 of these badboys

Any good?

 

[StockTricks]

That is what I did but went with NEMIX Ram instead. Check my signature.
Saved a great deal of company funds.

SO you're using just two slots, 64gb ram ??? notice any slwoness in performance?

 

[andrinho14]

SO you're using just two slots, 64gb ram ??? notice any slwoness in performance?

OKI has 384 GB in total. I assume that's 12 slots of 32gb. Currently in the same boat... my Mac Pro is about to arrive tomorrow.

I haven't bought the RAM yet, but I am considering buying two additional 16GB Samsung DDR4 sticks. Would it be better to get two additional 8GB Micron sticks instead (so I have 6 of the same size = 48GB)? I would rather have 64GB from the onset, but not if this slows down the six channel performance.

 

[blackquartz]

If you guys really want to save or aren't really looking to mix and match ram sticks, I purchased two 32GB Mac Pro 7,1 OEM RAM sets off eBay, at $100 each, it did take a while tough, like a month in total time.

 

[DeltaMac]

hmm....
Looks like the third stick in the second set is not seated completely?

 

[blackquartz]

hmm....
Looks like the third stick in the second set is not seated completely?

Thats a nice observation, indeed it wasn't correctly placed, only noticed after taking the picture

 

[randy85]

If you're in the UK then I can personally recommend getting a matched 6 module set from Mr Memory.

I took out the stock 32GB and put in 192GB and it works perfectly. The sticks that arrived were Samsung, so I'm guessing they're decent quality.

The total cost for this config is around £900 (aftermarket) vs £3000 (Apple).

I also like the suggestion of looking for the Apple 32GB kits on eBay as many people will have gone this route!

 

[codehead1]

Many threads on the topic, and I've dumped my knowledge more than once, but the most basic part is very simple:

It's a six-channel memory controller. Memory needs to be in pairs—an even number of sticks. That means, basically, that six yields 100% utilization (3/3), four 67% (2/3), two 33% (1/3).

And if the pairs are different sizes, you need to take that into account. If you take the original four 8MB sticks in the minimum configuration, and add a pair of 32MB sticks for 96MB total, two-thirds of your memory space will be only 2 sticks wide, hence 33% bandwidth. Better to either pull out and sell the four 8MB sticks and put in six 16MB to get 96MB (I did this), or be a buyer of 8MB and expand to 12.

Finally, 12 gives a very tiny improvement over 6, but not a significant amount (something like 3% IIRC, but memory is cached and not constantly accessed, doubtful you'll find a real-world difference even when benchmarking). Just follow the rule of 6 or 12 DIMMs of the same thing (at minimum, make all 6 of each group the same).

 

[triton100]

Many threads on the topic, and I've dumped my knowledge more than once, but the most basic part is very simple:

It's a six-channel memory controller. Memory needs to be in pairs—an even number of sticks. That means, basically, that six yields 100% utilization (3/3), four 67% (2/3), two 33% (1/3).

And if the pairs are different sizes, you need to take that into account. If you take the original four 8MB sticks in the minimum configuration, and add a pair of 32MB sticks for 96MB total, two-thirds of your memory space will be only 2 sticks wide, hence 33% bandwidth. Better to either pull out and sell the four 8MB sticks and put in six 16MB to get 96MB (I did this), or be a buyer of 8MB and expand to 12.

Finally, 12 gives a very tiny improvement over 6, but not a significant amount (something like 3% IIRC, but memory is cached and not constantly accessed, doubtful you'll find a real-world difference even when benchmarking). Just follow the rule of 6 or 12 DIMMs of the same thing (at minimum, make all 6 of each group the same).

what if the configuration is 8 x 8gb or 10 x 8GB for 80, will any of these Configs cause issues? (Sorry am a noob and still trying to get my head around it ). I basically have 48gb that I want to get up to 64 at least or maybe 80 to be on the safe side.

 

[codehead1]

what if the configuration is 8 x 8gb or 10 x 8GB for 80, will any of these Configs cause issues? (Sorry am a noob and still trying to get my head around it ). I basically have 48gb that I want to get up to 64 at least or maybe 80 to be on the safe side.

Well, as I said they need to be in multiples of six to get the full memory bandwidth. If you buy the 48GB configuration, you'll have six. At 8x8, two will have only 33% bandwidth. I think 4x is not unreasonable (two-thirds of ideal), but 2x is only half of that, so that's the main situation to avoid.

I bought the 32GB minimum (4x8GB), bought 6x16GB Nemix RAM. I removed the 8GB DIMM, installed the new RAM for 96GB total, sold the 4x8GB. So $490 + tax ($536.54 total), sold the others for $150 with shipping, so about $380 to upgrade from non-optimal 32GB configuration to an optimal 96GB configuration. Also, the factory 32GB would have been doing some swapping to disk. So that's pretty cheap improvement. I'm normally running a bunch of different things, right now I'm using 65GB and 30GB is being used as cache, zero swapping.

Here's the RAM I bought:

NEMIX RAM 96GB (6X16GB) DDR4 2933MHZ PC4-23400 1Rx4 1.2V 288-PIN ECC RDIMM Registered Server Memory KIT Compatible with Apple Mac Pro Rack 2020 MacPro 7,1

NEMIX RAM 96GB (6X16GB) DDR4 2933MHZ PC4-23400 1Rx4 1.2V 288-PIN ECC RDIMM Registered Server Memory KIT Compatible with Apple Mac Pro Rack 2020 MacPro 7,1

www.amazon.com

 

[triton100]

Well, as I said they need to be in multiples of six to get the full memory bandwidth. If you buy the 48GB configuration, you'll have six. At 8x8, two will have only 33% bandwidth. I think 4x is not unreasonable (two-thirds of ideal), but 2x is only half of that, so that's the main situation to avoid.

I bought the 32GB minimum (4x8GB), bought 6x16GB Nemix RAM. I removed the 8GB DIMM, installed the new RAM for 96GB total, sold the 4x8GB. So $490 + tax ($536.54 total), sold the others for $150 with shipping, so about $380 to upgrade from non-optimal 32GB configuration to an optimal 96GB configuration. Also, the factory 32GB would have been doing some swapping to disk. So that's pretty cheap improvement. I'm normally running a bunch of different things, right now I'm using 65GB and 30GB is being used as cache, zero swapping.

Here's the RAM I bought:

NEMIX RAM 96GB (6X16GB) DDR4 2933MHZ PC4-23400 1Rx4 1.2V 288-PIN ECC RDIMM Registered Server Memory KIT Compatible with Apple Mac Pro Rack 2020 MacPro 7,1

NEMIX RAM 96GB (6X16GB) DDR4 2933MHZ PC4-23400 1Rx4 1.2V 288-PIN ECC RDIMM Registered Server Memory KIT Compatible with Apple Mac Pro Rack 2020 MacPro 7,1

www.amazon.com

thanks for explaining that. Appreciated. I think I may keep the 48gbs I have and buy another set of 6 x 8 to fill 12 slots. I’d be really surprised if I ever need more than 96 and it wouldn’t be for a while if I ever do I’m sure. So this seems to be the most cost effective. Thanks for the link too. I’m in the U.K. but I’ll try and search for an equivalent.

edit: actually you’re idea of selling the set of6 x 8 Gbs and replacing with 6 x 16 is a better idea. Works out to be a similar cost, assuming I’m able to sell it ok, and leaves 6 slots empty for the future. ?

 

[codehead1]

Either is a good plan. And 96GB seems to be an excellent size for most people at this time. The 6x16 plan allows for easier expansion, if the OS and apps are more memory-hungry in a couple years (and another 6x16 will probably be dirt cheap by then). A lot of people want the Apple 8MB DIMMs to fill their slots, so it's probably pretty easy to find a buyer. When I reported my results after putting in the 6x16 in a thread here a few months ago, I mentioned I'd sell the 4x8, and someone messaged me right away and bought them.

 

[triton100]

If you're in the UK then I can personally recommend getting a matched 6 module set from Mr Memory.

I took out the stock 32GB and put in 192GB and it works perfectly. The sticks that arrived were Samsung, so I'm guessing they're decent quality.

The total cost for this config is around £900 (aftermarket) vs £3000 (Apple).

I also like the suggestion of looking for the Apple 32GB kits on eBay as many people will have gone this route!

Never heard of this brand. Are they reliable long term ?

 

[AidenShaw]

Never heard of this brand. Are they reliable long term ?

There are just a handful of companies that manufacture DIMMs - but lots of resellers. MrMemory is just a UK-based reseller - as the post said they are Samsung DIMMs. Look up the reputation of the reseller - since they're almost never the manufacturer. (Crucial is one exception - it's the web store for Micron.)

 

[yurc]

My 7,1 memory upgrade route consist of :

Upgrade others components as needed, but not RAM. Only order stocks 32 GB from Apple. Then added another two sticks 8 GB DIMMs from another 7,1 upgrader who ditching their stocks 32 GB Apple DIMMs (current setup)
I can live with 48GB for now, just for sake running in optimal six channel config.

When I need upgrade more memory, I will ditch entire six 8GB sticks with 32GB one.

 

[choreo]

I bought the 32GB minimum (4x8GB), bought 6x16GB Nemix RAM. I removed the 8GB DIMM, installed the new RAM for 96GB total, sold the 4x8GB. So $490 + tax ($536.54 total), sold the others for $150 with shipping, so about $380 to upgrade from non-optimal 32GB configuration to an optimal 96GB configuration. Also, the factory 32GB would have been doing some swapping to disk. So that's pretty cheap improvement. I'm normally running a bunch of different things, right now I'm using 65GB and 30GB is being used as cache, zero swapping.

I did the exact same thing, but purchased direct from NEMIX