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macbook memory question

cheekybobcat

cheekybobcat

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 26, 2007
533
0
U-S of A
I searched Google but I found some pretty confusing reports about the max. RAM for my MacBook.
What is the max. RAM I can put into my MacBook? I have 2GB and from my understanding, the MacBook I have only can have 4GB. Am I right or would I be able to buy a 4GB stick to make mine a total of 6GB?
 
cheekybobcat said:
I searched Google but I found some pretty confusing reports about the max. RAM for my MacBook.
What is the max. RAM I can put into my MacBook? I have 2GB and from my understanding, the MacBook I have only can have 4GB. Am I right or would I be able to buy a 4GB stick to make mine a total of 6GB?
Click to expand...

Yes, the max amount you can have depends basically on how old your MB is - early ones can do 2; newer can do 4. That may have been the source of your confusion.
 
total of 4gb like everyone else mentioned.... i've also seen in a lot of places where its reccomended to add 2 dimms of the same amount for best performance so 2 x 2GB is your best option.
 
bigjnyc said:
total of 4gb like everyone else mentioned.... i've also seen in a lot of places where its reccomended to add 2 dimms of the same amount for best performance so 2 x 2GB is your best option.
Click to expand...

This is only on Windows PC's. The way the Windows operating system works, the RAM will work faster if you put in matching sets of RAM (like 2 X 2GB, 2 X 1GB, etc.). However, OS X will always use the RAM to the best of its abilities, and putting in matching sets doesn't change anything. You can do 2 X 1GB sticks and 1 X 2GB, and it will work just like 2 X 2GB sticks.
 
LightDemon69 said:
This is only on Windows PC's. The way the Windows operating system works, the RAM will work faster if you put in matching sets of RAM (like 2 X @GB, @ X !GB, etc.). However, OS X will always use the RAM to the best of its abilities, and putting in matching sets doesn't change anything. You can do 4 X 1GB sticks, and it will work just like 2 X 2GB sticks.
Click to expand...

4 X 1GB is matching.

OS X does work faster with matched pairs of ram. Look at benchmarks on barefeats.
 
LightDemon69 said:
This is only on Windows PC's. The way the Windows operating system works, the RAM will work faster if you put in matching sets of RAM (like 2 X 2GB, 2 X 1GB, etc.). However, OS X will always use the RAM to the best of its abilities, and putting in matching sets doesn't change anything. You can do 2 X 1GB sticks and 1 X 2GB, and it will work just like 2 X 2GB sticks.
Click to expand...

It isn't an OS thing, it is Hardware dependent. Running matched pairs, especially on a system with integrated graphics *cough* MacBook *cough* is good and helpful and does speed things up.

And since it is probably cheaper to buy 2*2GB than 1*4GB (if those even exist right now) he should get the matched pairs

And this is a MacBook, only 2 RAM slots.
 
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