RAM Upgrade - Best Configuration?

[sblasl]

Just got a Mac Pro 2.66GHz. It came with 2GB in a 4x512 configuration. I want to add an additional 4GB of RAM. Should I purchase 4x1GB or should I purchase 2x2GB?

I am being a little nearsighted in my purchasing as I believe this is what I will live with for awhile so I am wanting to make the configuration to get the best performance for the foreseeable future working with the current 2GB with the addition of the 4GB's.

Your thoughts?

 

[tehsuck]

Just got a Mac Pro 2.66GHz. It came with 2GB in a 4x512 configuration. I want to add an additional 4GB of RAM. Should I purchase 4x1GB or should I purchase 2x2GB?

I am being a little nearsighted in my purchasing as I believe this is what I will live with for awhile so I am wanting to make the configuration to get the best performance for the foreseeable future working with the current 2GB with the addition of the 4GB's.

Your thoughts?

http://www.barefeats.com/quad09.html

8x512mb will fully utilize your bus.

 

[richpjr]

http://www.barefeats.com/quad09.html

8x512mb will fully utilize your bus.

From that article:

DUAL CHANNEL vs QUAD CHANNEL
In order to get the full benefit of the Mac Pro's 256 bit memory data path, you'll want to populate both memory riser cards, each with at least one matched pair. If you put your memory on only one riser, you are dropping from quad channel to dual channel mode. See Apple's Mac Pro memory notes for more this.

Does this translate into faster real world speed? Not always. Though the Xbench memory fill rate test showed a 34% gain, it doesn't necessarily translate to faster application speeds. We ran some typical tests from our suite of real world tests (iMovie render effect, Final Cut Pro render clip, Cinebench CPU render, Motion render RAM preview, iMaginator Core Image morph). None of them showed any gains from Quad Channel mode.

Anandtech did some testing with real world apps using dual and quad channel memory configurations, too. Of their 15 real world tests, only 2 showed any gains from Quad channel configuration.

It appears as if the dual vs quad channel argument is kind of overblown.

 

[CanadaRAM]

http://www.barefeats.com/quad09.html

8x512mb will fully utilize your bus.

What? And 4 x 512 + 4 x 1 Gb won't? That was the OP's question, 4 x 1 Gb or 2 x 2 Gb in addition to the 4 x 512.

The 4 x 1 Gb may be marginally faster than the 2 x 2 Gb configuration - the main difference is if you want to go beyond the 6 Gb. With the 4x1 configuration, you would need to start pulling out RAM. the 2x2 configuration allows you to go to 10 Gb before removing modules.

 

[sblasl]

When you say "marginally faster", is there any value? Like I said, a little nearsighted, & will live this with awhile. I am going to sit on the fence until the prices drop.

What? And 4 x 512 + 4 x 1 Gb won't? That was the OP's question, 4 x 1 Gb or 2 x 2 Gb in addition to the 4 x 512.

The 4 x 1 Gb may be marginally faster than the 2 x 2 Gb configuration - the main difference is if you want to go beyond the 6 Gb. With the 4x1 configuration, you would need to start pulling out RAM. the 2x2 configuration allows you to go to 10 Gb before removing modules.

 

[CanadaRAM]

When you say "marginally faster", is there any value? Like I said, a little nearsighted, & will live this with awhile. I am going to sit on the fence until the prices drop.

Marginally means very little -- the test scores in artificial benchmarks show up to 30 some %, but those benchmarks are notoriously unrelated to real world performance.

I would estimate on 8 out of 10 programs you run you wont see a difference realworld, and on 2 out of ten you may see 2% - 10% difference.

 

[sblasl]

2x2GB is the correct answer than I will assume.

Marginally means very little -- the test scores in artificial benchmarks show up to 30 some %, but those benchmarks are notoriously unrelated to real world performance.

I would estimate on 8 out of 10 programs you run you wont see a difference realworld, and on 2 out of ten you may see 2% - 10% difference.

 

[Help!]

Does this mean that I could safely add 2x1gb to the stock 2x512 without any problems?