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My information is still very incomplete, but I mentioned above some other potential options I've seen with higher clock speeds, such as the G.SKILL 3000MHz and the Crucial Ballistix Sport 2666MHz CL16 (which also has higher latency than the HyperX so it may be slower for many applications). Geekbench shows tests with even higher speeds above 3000MHz, but I haven't yet seen any such products. The highest Geekbench score used 3000MHz RAM, so I'd like to know what product that was.
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I thought matching sticks were specifically supposed to be in slots 1 and 3 (and then 2 and 4).


it might have been coincidence. or I might not have not seated them correctly twice. started working though after I did the move of the defaults.
 
I must be cursed, after returning my HyperX for dragging down my stock to 2133mhz, my Crucial kit just arrived from Amazon. Anyone spot the problem?! Lol!
 

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I ordered the non iMac specific crucial ram (16gb x 2) from BH that others have mentioned on this thread. Plugged it in and it's working fine. Ran memtest and no issues.

Crucial part no is CT2K16G4SFD824A. Much cheaper than OWC ($240 vs $320). The iMac specific ram is CT2K16G4S24AM and is out of stock everywhere.

I also ordered this kit and installed immediately when I set up my new iMac yesterday. No issues here either!
 
The iMac specific ram is CT2K16G4S24AM and is out of stock everywhere.

Not only is it out of stock everywhere, but it went up $14 on Crucial.com and on Amazon.com yesterday. Delivery times at Amazon.com went from 2-3 weeks to 1-4 weeks too.
 
Don't really want to scan 14 pages...

Is there a memory tool download that will check for the interleaved or not mode with my current memory?

should i run Geel Bench before and after?
 
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Is there a memory tool download that will check for the interleaved or not mode with my current memory?

I don't know of any way to confirm that RAM is running in dual channel mode in MacOS via software. If you have BootCamp you can use CPU-Z.

In MacOS, if you have matching DIMMS in matching banks then dual channel is automatically enabled. In About This Mac > Memory, the matching banks are represented horizontally:

About%20This%20Mac.png


The top row is DIMM0 (Bank 1 and Bank 2) and the bottom row is DIMM1 (Bank 1 and Bank 2). In the memory compartment at the back of the machine, however, the matching banks are alternating slots.

This information is also available under Memory in System Report.
 
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I also ordered this kit and installed immediately when I set up my new iMac yesterday. No issues here either!

Cool, I was debating if it was worth the price hike and wait, but it seems the A series (non-Mac) is just fine and nothing to be concerned over.
 
In the coming weeks, I am buying the top-tier 27 iMac (a long awaited upgrade from my entry level 2009 21.5 iMac)- and I am very happy to discover you can install the ram yourself, and quite easily. They even have YouTube videos where they show you how adding ram is as easy as putting batteries into a case.

QUESTION on the table- which ram brand should I buy? I am opting for 32GB of ram (2 X 16GB sticks)

I was close to getting the OWC, which comes to $317.00 plus tax

On Amazon, I found Corsair Vengeance for only $239.99 plus tax

That's about $80 - $100 in savings. Why is Vengeance so cheap? Is it just luck, or does quality come into play? I am considering it also because it was the ram the YouTube uploader put in his iMac 27 for the demonstration.

I have heard through the grapevine that Crucial Ram sometimes doesn't play well with Apple's preinstalled ram. And I plan on just adding the 32GB to the computer, so I have a total of 40GB to play with.

Suggestions?
 
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I have heard through the grapevine that Crucial Ram sometimes doesn't play well with Apple's preinstalled ram.

What grapevine was that? :p

I haven't seen a single report of incompatibility with Crucial. The Kingston Hyper-X clocks back to a slower 2133MHz when combined with Apple RAM if it will even boot at all.

All of the answers to your questions are in that thread you were linked to above.
 
What grapevine was that? :p

I haven't seen a single report of incompatibility with Crucial. The Kingston Hyper-X clocks back to a slower 2133MHz when combined with Apple RAM if it will even boot at all.

All of the answers to your questions are in that thread you were linked to above.

Im looking through it- it's a big thread. But I still want to know why there's almost a $100 price difference with the brands I mentioned. I'm not being lazy, Im truthfully inquiring. So far no one has answered.
 
Im looking through it- it's a big thread. But I still want to know why there's almost a $100 price difference with the brands I mentioned. I'm not being lazy, Im truthfully inquiring. So far no one has answered.

This is just my personal opinion, but I believe the OWC is considerably overpriced.
 
This is just my personal opinion, but I believe the OWC is considerably overpriced.

Thanks - yeah it seems to be. I know some will say it's because its more Mac certified, but that doesn't make sense because after more research it seems Crucial also has better reviews then I first searched. And since Apple uses third-party ram, I'm not sure "mac certified" counts lol.

Have you heard anything about Corsair?
 
Wow this thread is enough to give anyone a headache! Geek benchmark wars, single vs. dual ram sticks, skyrocketing prices with no explanation, screenshots of people saying "take out the factory installed ram, and reinsert them into X and X slot instead". Like whoa. At this point, I'm rethinking installing it myself, and just getting Apple to handle it. A lot of us just want concise, clean answers :)

Now- I watched a YouTube Instruction video where a guy installed ram he bought Corsair Vengeance here: https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance-Performance-Unbuffered-CMSX32GX4M2A2400C16/dp/B01G26166W/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8#HLCXComparisonWidget_feature_div

Here is his YouTube video:

According to him, you LEAVE the factory ram as is- and he just pops the NEW sticks right in. His computer booted up fine :) Not sure why so many are saying to take the sticks out, and reassemble them so that "you can get slightly faster" performance. You're just confusing people. It shouldn't be this messy.

The thing I like about Corsair is the PRICE. It's nearly $100 cheaper then OWC. And someone else said HyperX Ram was even better- but when I went to the website, there are four (4) DIFFERENT types of memory apparently to choose from (Predator, Fury, Savage, Impact). I didn't realize it mattered. It looks slick, but it's not very clear on why it matters which type you choose. And again, the price is higher. Crucial also just raised their's for no reason other then greed, obviously.

The reviews for Corsair are excellent. I'm leaning this way. Anyone hear otherwise?
 
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A lot of us just want concise, clean answers :)

There are tools for finding information in these forums. In longer threads, try a search for a keyword, like "corsair" limited to this thread and you will see that there are eleven posts that mention it in addition to your own.

According to him, you LEAVE the factory ram as is- and he just pops the NEW sticks right in. His computer booted up fine :) Not sure why so many are saying to take the sticks out, and reassemble them so that "you can get slightly faster" performance. You're just confusing people. It shouldn't be this messy.

Some users want to experiment with the RAM in different slots to see if it makes any difference in performance and very kindly posted their results with different configurations. There is nothing messy about it. Seek and ye shall find the information you desire.

That said, see my post #408 above. So long as matching sets are installed in the DIMM0 and DIMM1 slots, all will be well. The Apple stock RAM comes installed in the DIMM0 slots. If you buy another set to add to the Apple RAM then, yes, you just pop the new RAM into the empty slots.

The reviews for Corsair are excellent. I'm leaning this way. Anyone hear otherwise?

I have no personal experience with Corsair but some other respected members of this community have and not all opinions are positive.

I don't think you can go wrong with Crucial. Crucial is the consumer division of Micron. The Apple RAM in my 2017 iMac is Micron. As mentioned earlier in this thread I added 2x16GB of Crucial Ballistix Sport RAM and it is working perfectly. The "Certified for iMac" Crucial is also excellent (although reportedly limited in availability) as is the PC4-19200 Crucial with the same specs that is not Mac certified.
 
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It's all anecdotal of course but I've run Corsair in a MBP and it worked well. Then again, I've run OWC and a number of other brands too and they've all been fine. What swayed me towards Crucial for this round were a) middling cas latency--more conservative can sometimes mean more reliable than something pushed for performance, b) that latency being same as stock for max compatibility, and c) a number of people on the web talking about corsair's comparatively higher failure rates.
 
Corsair is mentioned on almost every page of the thread we've both linked you to. So is Crucial, G.SKILL, and a bunch of others and it even has part numbers and links to where to buy.

That thread even talks about the "Mac certified" and Apple using 3rd party ram.
 
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Something else I've noticed from Onionbobo's post with link to various GeekBench 4 results besides the odd clock speeds (Either higher or lower than 2400mHz) is the fact that I have yet to see a single one of those test results with 65536 MB (64 GB) of RAM. The highest I've seen listed is 32768 MB (32 GB), and I'm wondering if those erratic clock speeds are the result of GeekBench compensating for a potential inability for GB4 to recognize the full 64 GB of RAM. Maybe that, or mayb people found a way to OC the CPU on this new iMac?
 
Something else I've noticed from Onionbobo's post with link to various GeekBench 4 results besides the odd clock speeds (Either higher or lower than 2400mHz) is the fact that I have yet to see a single one of those test results with 65536 MB (64 GB) of RAM. The highest I've seen listed is 32768 MB (32 GB), and I'm wondering if those erratic clock speeds are the result of GeekBench compensating for a potential inability for GB4 to recognize the full 64 GB of RAM. Maybe that, or mayb people found a way to OC the CPU on this new iMac?
Mine is showing correctly:

https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/3314528
 
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