Memory Upgrade

I have a 2 White 2.16ghz IMAC's that still have the original 1 gig of Ram in them. Any reason why it only accepts up to 3 gig even if you put 4 in? Will it still perform the DDR memory functions if i put 2 2gig cards in it even if it doesn't use all the memory? What if i did 1 1gig and 1 2gig? Is DDR that benifical to the machine. Me and the wife use them mostly for surfing the nets and playing WOW. 1 gig isnt' cutting it anymore with playing wow, itunes, chat, vent, and surfing the web at the same time.

TIA
Chris

It's a chipset limitation as it can only use a maximum of 3.3GB.

Yes, two 2GB sticks will still function in dual channel mode, for whatever it's worth. Though you're probably better off saving yourself some money and just buying 3GB.

G'day Chris and welcome to the Forums.

3GB is the maximum it will recognize. Like my FW800 which will physically accept 4x1GB sticks of PC3200 memory but still only recognises and uses 2GB limit.

Suggest 2x1GB making a total of 3GB. Have a look at this link to a module marketing company who offer online chat"=

http://www.memorystock.com/memory/AppleiMac216GHzCore2Duo20.html

Cut it out Kash beat me by secionds.......

What do I Gain/loose w/ Dual Channel Mode?

cwhite1234 said:

What do I Gain/loose w/ Dual Channel Mode?

Click to expand...

Some performance. I'm not sure how much, but I'm sure someone with an iMac can give a general idea. Technically dual-channel can work with non-identical modules but your mileage may vary. The general recommendation is matched pairs to have the highest chance of compatibility (generally matched pair means the modules are identical and came from the same batch of memory, but you can still get them to run dual channel if they were different batches. Your chances just decrease some).