Mac Pro: Only use RAM from same manufacturer?

[dLight]

Hi,
I'm about to order a Mac Pro, and have recently heard that it's important to use RAM from the same manufacturer (per riser) In Mac Pros. In other words, if the Mac comes with Crucial RAM, it's advisable to add only Crucial RAM within the same riser.

Is there any truth to this?

[aibo]

no

[fandsw]

My MP was 4 different manufacturers worth of memory, 4x512MB & 4x2GB. Works like a champ.

[bigbird]

Hi,
I'm about to order a Mac Pro, and have recently heard that it's important to use RAM from the same manufacturer (per riser) In Mac Pros. In other words, if the Mac comes with Crucial RAM, it's advisable to add only Crucial RAM within the same riser.
Is there any truth to this?

Not true. I have 3 different makes of RAM in my MP. They are all recognized and functional. What the RAM needs to be is matched in size, not by manufacturer. Do a search on here for riser fill. It's been discussed many, many times.

[dLight]

Not true. I have 3 different makes of RAM in my MP. They are all recognized and functional. What the RAM needs to be is matched in size, not by manufacturer. Do a search on here for riser fill. It's been discussed many, many times.

Thanks. I got this information from a guy at the Apple Store who apparently was supposed to be one of the better informed guys there, but like I thought, his info seems to be incorrect. What he said that RAM from different manufacturers could have differently sized cahces, which would mean that even if they would work, the chances that one would would get speed boosts from increased amounts of RAM would be higher if one made sure they came from the same place.

But then of course, he was a sales man, and for what I know, he would earn more money if he could sell me more of Apple's expensive RAM.

Does anyone here by chance know what manufacturer Apple use for their current Mac Pro RAM?

[fandsw]

Thanks. I got this information from a guy at the Apple Store who apparently was supposed to be one of the better informed guys there, but like I thought, his info seems to be incorrect. What he said that RAM from different manufacturers could have differently sized cahces, which would mean that even if they would work, the chances that one would would get speed boosts from increased amounts of RAM would be higher if one made sure they came from the same place.

But then of course, he was a sales man, and for what I know, he would earn more money if he could sell me more of Apple's expensive RAM.

Does anyone here by chance know what manufacturer Apple use for their current Mac Pro RAM?

Well, they wouldn't have different caches, but if it's from a quality manufacturer who certifies that it is MP compatible, then they should be identical in quality as well as in things such as heatsink, ECC, CAS, and latency. The issue come in when one tries some generic memory made for generic PCs, well then you can have some issues as Apple is specific about some requirements of the memory.

As for the present Apple manufacturer, that can vary from day to day on any of the OEM Apple parts manufacturers. Heck even buying memory from someone like Crucial can get you Samsung chips one week, and some other manufacturer the next.

In other words, any quality MP certified will work fine, i.e. OWC, Crucial, Transcend, etc., and with any, don't be surprised if one runs into a bad stick every now or then. Even Apple will plug a bad one into their Macs every now and then.

[dLight]

Thanks.

Slightly off topic... but look here:

Low Latency Memory Performance on Apple MacBook Pro (http://www.corsair.com/_productbriefs/Low_Latency_Mac_Memory_Performance.pdf)


These results demonstrate that you can save up to 28% in processing time with the
VSA4GSDSKIT667C4 RAM versus the default 1GB (2x512MB) RAM and up to 19%
versus a standard 4GB (2x2GB) memory configuration.


The results clearly show you can save up to 20% in time with the low latency
VSA4GSDSKIT667C4 memory versus the default 1GB (2x512MB) RAM and up to 9%
versus a Standard CAS5 4GB (2x2GB) RAM configuration.



The testing of multiple memory configurations in the MacBook Pro made it very clear
that overall system performance is heavily influenced by the memory configuration. Two
aspects of the memory subsystem had a critical impact on performance: the amount of
memory in the system, and the performance settings of that memory. By designing the
VSA4GSDSKIT667C4 with memory settings that are optimized for current Apple
platforms, Corsair has enabled a new level of Mac system performance.

If this is correct, it seems that at least for MacBook Pro, it's better to NOT use the RAM that Apple delivers...

[BuzzLightyear]

Does anyone here by chance know what manufacturer Apple use for their current Mac Pro RAM?
My Mac Pro, delivered the first week of March, had two 1GB Micron FB-DIMMs.

You can also see this post (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=450522).

[bigbird]

Does anyone here by chance know what manufacturer Apple use for their current Mac Pro RAM?

Mine came with Hynix.

[CanadaRAM]

dlight - the Corsair low latency test results are bogus. The 28% and 20% figures are the best case results from comparing 4 GB of CL4 RAM with 1 Gb of CL5 RAM - not fair at all. The real comparisons were quite a bit more modest - 0.5% to 9% with one result at 19%.

If all of the RAAM is 100% compatible, then there should be no issue at all mixing brands.

One note: Apple never has and never will install Crucial RAM. Crucial is a retail brand, Apple buys their RAM wholesale from Samsung, Hynix and Micron, mostly. Micron owns Crucial, but there is no assurance that the Crucial modules are the "same" as what is in the Mac

[dLight]

Thanks!

[rpaloalto]

Heck even buying memory from someone like Crucial can get you Samsung chips one week, and some other manufacturer the next.

Wait, crucial ships other brands of ram? I thought they were owned by micron.
Only shipping micron ram. This is something the proudly advertise on their website. I don't think they mention any were that their ram may be made by other manufactures.

[CanadaRAM]

Wait, crucial ships other brands of ram? I thought they were owned by micron.
Only shipping micron ram. This is something the proudly advertise on their website. I don't think they mention any were that their ram may be made by other manufactures.

Nope, Crucial rebrands Samsung, Elpida and Hynix when they run out of stock, or when Micron doesn't make compatible modules (as in the AlBook G4 1.0 and 1.25 GHz machines). Crucial is just a reseller.

[krunk]

Yes and no.

This is what you call a "rule of thumb" that many go by in hardware repair/maintenance. The odds of any problems arising due to mixing ram are fairly slim, but if you stick with the same manufactures you eliminate an unknown.

Some others you may have heard are don't upgrade unless there's a compelling reason to do so, it's best to design your network as homogenous as possible if you can, use the same model drives in raid arrays, and so on.

That being said, I mix ram frequently in my home machines and have no issues. Though in the past, I have seen issues come up once or twice.