We know it works but is 3 gb worth it? Matched vs non matched

nl74 · Aug 9, 2007

It would seem that despite the specs that a core 2 duo macbook is infact capable of running with more ram than the 2gb recommended by apple.

I have seen an article on this site http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Ma...ory_Benchmarks and whilst I have no reason to doubt it's accuracy I am aware that it is the only place I have seen this said and also that it is a commercial site that sells ram. I do a lot of photoshop/lightroom and no video work or games.

My main questions are

1) Is there a real benefit or is the whole paired vs unpaired issue make going to 3gb un-feasible?

2) If it does deliver real benefits would 4gb be better than 3? i.e. even though it can only recognise 3 will having 4 installed mean the MB will see it as matched?

I have seen lots of theory on the net but not much from people who have actually done this. Considering how well the MB's have sold I'm assuming it won't be long before proper tests spring up.

Thanks

Kash · Aug 9, 2007

1. If you can actually use 3GB of RAM, the benefits of dual channel are little to none.

2. No point in wasting money on 4GB of RAM when the Macbook is only going to recognize 3.3GB of it. Plus, like I said, dual channel doesn't offer much of a boost except in synthetic benchmarks.

Overall, if you have a compelling use for 3GB, then by all means, go for it. If not, then just save yourself the money and go for 2GB.

nl74 · Aug 14, 2007

In the end I decided to go for 3gb. Crucial were out of stock so I went for Kingston (not their value range) a 2gb module to go with one of my 1gb ones. It was only going to play on my mind until I did it. Plus both crucial and Kingston's prices dropped over the weekend anda 2gb module is now under £100 fro both brands. I have done some photoshop and lightroom timings with 2gb and will update anybody that is interested once I install the new ram.

Another thing which hopefully someone can help with - I ran activity monitor when using photoshop and was getting a lot of page outs, strangely though I always had a high amount of inactive ram (750mb-over 1gb) which struck me as strange? Being a relative mac novice though I'm sure there is an explanation, can anybody help?

Thanks

Nemesis-rox · Aug 14, 2007

nl74 said:
It would seem that despite the specs that a core 2 duo macbook is infact capable of running with more ram than the 2gb recommended by apple.

I have seen an article on this site http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Ma...ory_Benchmarks and whilst I have no reason to doubt it's accuracy I am aware that it is the only place I have seen this said and also that it is a commercial site that sells ram. I do a lot of photoshop/lightroom and no video work or games.

My main questions are

1) Is there a real benefit or is the whole paired vs unpaired issue make going to 3gb un-feasible?

2) If it does deliver real benefits would 4gb be better than 3? i.e. even though it can only recognise 3 will having 4 installed mean the MB will see it as matched?

I have seen lots of theory on the net but not much from people who have actually done this. Considering how well the MB's have sold I'm assuming it won't be long before proper tests spring up.

Thanks

Are you actually using a Macbook, or are you just curious? If the former, do you have 2GB installed? If yes, do you have something like iStat Pro installed?

if "yes" to that, are you noticing a lag at present?

If "no", then I wonder why you are concerned.

<Context: I just got my MB today and loaded it with 2GB Ram. 2GB seems thus far like a luxury, more than a need (I presently have Azareus, Photoshop, Indesign, MS Word, and Safari running -- and have about a gig sitting idle).

nl74 · Aug 14, 2007

I do have a MB with 2gb of ram.

If you see my most recent post in this thread I am not totally unhappy with the performance but I am getting lots of pageouts when using photoshop (cs3) even though I have a large amount of inactive memory.

We know it works but is 3 gb worth it? Matched vs non matched

nl74

Kash

nl74

Nemesis-rox

nl74

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