MacBook - 2 Gigs or 3 Gigs of RAM

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15" 2014 MacBook Pro, i7 2.5Ghz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD; iPad 3, iPhone 6
OK, I did search the forum about this and there seems to be a bit of confusion both here and on the web at large.

Does the MacBook support 3gigs of RAM or not? I know th ePro does, but I have been reading that the MacBook may also support this. I have the Core Duo version, not the C2D version.

Some sites I have read say you can put 3 gigs in a Core2 Duo only, not the original.

Also there is disagreement on the performance loss of not havnig a matched pair. Some people say it's high (especially on the video chip) and others say it's not significant.

The reason I am asking now is I want to upgrade the RAM to at least 2 gigs for photo work and also some of my Logic tracks are starting to nudge the memory limit and I'm doing some live work in May. But if I can squeeze in 3 gigs, I might as well do that now, assuming a) it's possible and b) it doesn't kill performance.
 
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I've read that if it's a Core2Duo, then you can buy a 2GB stick and a 1GB stick and it will read all 3GB.

Don't base a purchase on this info though.
 
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15.4" MBP Core2 Duo, 2.33MHZ, 160GB HD, 2GB RAM, ATI X1600 256 MB
I don't think the Core Duos will support the 3gig. The Core 2's do, and the MBP's do...best thing to do would be to check with apple directly.
 
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That's what I heard also but if so, why isn't it advertised as a feature like it is with the MBP?
 
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Well your MacBook will definately take the 2Gb upgrade and you might have to settle with that. I agree about the confusion and we all know that what we read on the web isn't necessarily the truth. If you pop in 3Gbs there's the chance that only 2Gbs will be addressed.

As for the matching of RAM, you're right about the video chip needing the matched RAM but otherwise it is a grey area. Apple just say that if you match the RAM you benefit fully from the CoreDuo technology.

And if both slots are loaded with an equal amount of RAM, you can take advantage of the system's dual-channel memory architecture for an additional performance boost. With a dual-channel memory interface, both banks of SDRAM can be addressed at the same time, enabling Intel based Mac systems to reach a memory throughput of up to 10.7 GBps."

You may have already seen the following but I'm providing the link regardless
 
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so if you have 2 1gb sticks that are the same it runns faster than if you had a 2gb and a 1gb as i am intresed it what is faster.
 
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so if you have 2 1gb sticks that are the same it runns faster than if you had a 2gb and a 1gb as i am intresed it what is faster.

Here's a good article at OWC with benchmarks that discusses this very thing:
To Pair or Not to Pair

Also, here is information about 3GB RAM in the C2D MacBooks:
3GB RAM in a C2D MacBook

I personally have 2GB RAM in my BTO C2D 2GHz MacBook, and I don't think I can justify going higher as the performance is already amazing, but if I had only 1GB with the stock two 512s that Apple puts in, I'd probably go to 3GB if I was upgrading it myself.
 

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