matching ram on imac

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Hi
Is there any problems related to having unmatched ram on imac, let's say a 1g and a 2G bar?

thanks
 
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24" 2.4GHz (AL) iMac+
Don't know much about it but I read that it shouldn't be a problem as long as it's from a reliable company. I only use Kingston RAM.

My other iMac's are matched but since Canada Computers only had 1 2GB Kingston RAM available I didn't have a choice, I'm running 3GB on my 24" 2.4GHz.
 
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I'm also very interested in this, since Im about to buy a mac and I was thinking of buying a 2 GB kingston ram for the same price of a 1 GB (apple's choice).

So if someone could explain the consequences on perfomac e having 1 + 2 gb ram, I'd really appreciate it!
 
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MacBook Pro
From Primate labs:
http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/2007/06/matched-ram-performance/

Conclusion

Overall, it doesn’t look like matched RAM offers a huge performance difference over unmatched RAM (save for the Stream benchmarks which measure raw memory bandwidth, in which case matched RAM is slightly better); if you have to choose between more RAM or matched RAM, I’d argue that you’re better off choosing more RAM (especially if you’re using Aperture).

Conclusion: Just buy an extra 2GB stick and you'll be fine :).
 
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17 inch 2 GHz C2D imac (5,1) with 3GB DDR2 RAM, X1600 (128MB memory) GPU - OSX 10.6.3
Thanks heaps for this. Cause I have a white imac and am really thinking is 2 or 3 GB better. But I think you answered my question :).

Btw on the white imacs would you get the matched pair effects of ram for 2 x 2GB sticks of ram even though only 3 GB total can be addressed? or would it act like a 2 GB and a 1 GB stick?

And say you did get the matched pair effects, is the extra 1GB of expence worth it? Would the performance boost be worth the cash?
 
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I think installing 4GB (2x2GB) of RAM in your MacBook would be useless because (as you said yourself) it can only address 3GB. And maybe it wouldn't even work if you put 2 2GB sticks in it, I'm not sure about that though.

To answer your second question. When you don't use more than the total amount of RAM you have, adding more RAM will not improve your performance. However if you do use more RAM than you have, the computer will use your HD for the extra memory and that will slow it down. So you should only buy more RAM when you really need it.
 

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