12 gb or 16 gb ram???

[asllas]

hey:
I wanted to order a mac pro 8 core 2.26 with 16 gb ram. But apple told me on phone that 12 gb ram will work better then 16 gb. I am very confused now. Is that true? please help me!!!

Lars

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

hey:
I wanted to order a mac pro 8 core 2.26 with 16 gb ram. But apple told me on phone that 12 gb ram will work better then 16 gb. I am very confused now. Is that true? please help me!!!

Lars

To tell you for sure, we need to know what you're using it for. The Apple person probably said that because 12 GB use tri-channel and 16 GB does not.

 

[asllas]

I will use it for music production with a lots of vst plugins.

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

I will use it for music production with a lots of vst plugins.

I'd go for 16 GB then.

But you won't get the tri-channel effect.

 

[asllas]

thanks for helping. but what is the tri-channel effect???

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

thanks for helping. but what is the tri-channel effect???

It basically gives you more speed because there are groups of 3 like sized modules. Like 3x1 GB is tri-channel, and so is 6X2 GB.

 

[asllas]

Ok. Now I understand. but would you go for a 8 core 2.26 or quad core 2.66? Is clock speed important for my use? I want to have this mac for 3-5 years.

thanks

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

Ok. Now I understand. but would you go for a 8 core 2.26 or quad core 2.66? Is clock speed important for my use? I want to have this mac for 3-5 years.

thanks

I'd go for the 2.66 octocore, but if that's out of budget, the 2.26 octocore.

 

[asllas]

thanks so much for helping. I dont want to bother you, but would you go for ATI Radeon or nvidia? Do you think that i should order with 12 gb ram and upgrade later if i need that or should just order 16 gb now?

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

thanks so much for helping. I dont want to bother you, but would you go for ATI Radeon or nvidia? Do you think that i should order with 12 gb ram and upgrade later if i need that or should just order 16 gb now?

It seems that Apple is going away from ATI, so go nVidia. As for the RAM, I'd get the bare stock configuration and just upgrade the whole thing by myself. You'll save a truck load of money.

 

[asllas]

OK. Thank you so much for your help.

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

OK. Thank you so much for your help.

No problem.

 

[Tesselator]

Probably not needed but maybe someone will ah-ha on this:


Triple Channel

This mode offers the high throughput for real world applications. Interleaving reduces
overall memory latency by accessing the DIMM memory sequentially. Data is spread
amongst the memory modules in an alternating pattern.

Three independent memory channels give two possible modes of interleaving:

• Triple channel mode is enabled when identical matched memory
  modules are installed in each of the three memory channels (blue
  connectors).
• If only two of the blue memory connectors are populated with matched
  DIMMs, dual channel memory is enabled.

​

 

[Boneoh]

This link may be useful.

http://macperformanceguide.com/Reviews-MacProNehalem-Tests-Memory.html#MemoryConfigurations

 

[dr. shdw]

Ok. Now I understand. but would you go for a 8 core 2.26 or quad core 2.66? Is clock speed important for my use? I want to have this mac for 3-5 years.

thanks

Get the 8 core.

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

Check out this article.

http://www.macworld.com/article/139507/2009/03/macpro2009.html

 

[dr. shdw]

Check out this article.

http://www.macworld.com/article/139507/2009/03/macpro2009.html

http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/#grandcentral

Also..

Quad-core: Four memory slots supporting up to 8GB of main memory using 1GB or 2GB DIMMs

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/#grandcentral

Also..

Quad-core: Four memory slots supporting up to 8GB of main memory using 1GB or 2GB DIMMs

We don't have Grand Central yet, and it has been confirmed that you can use 4 GB modules to get up to 16 GB RAM.

 

[dr. shdw]

We don't have Grand Central yet, and it has been confirmed that you can use 4 GB modules to get up to 16 GB RAM.

Yeah SL isn't out yet but it's not like OP is going to trash this computer once SL comes out. Specifically said..3-5 years. So I don't quite understand your logic here..

 

[VirtualRain]

Probably not needed but maybe someone will ah-ha on this:


Triple Channel

This mode offers the high throughput for real world applications. Interleaving reduces
overall memory latency by accessing the DIMM memory sequentially. Data is spread
amongst the memory modules in an alternating pattern.

Three independent memory channels give two possible modes of interleaving:

• Triple channel mode is enabled when identical matched memory
  modules are installed in each of the three memory channels (blue
  connectors).
• If only two of the blue memory connectors are populated with matched
  DIMMs, dual channel memory is enabled.

​

Sadly, what's missing from this documentation is what mode you enable with identical matched memory modules installed in all four of the slots. Is it dual channel? Tri-Channel on three sticks and single on one? As far as I know, no one has determined for sure what happens.

 

[Tesselator]

Sadly, what's missing from this documentation is what mode you enable with identical matched memory modules installed in all four of the slots. Is it dual channel? Tri-Channel on three sticks and single on one? As far as I know, no one has determined for sure what happens.

Yeah it says. 3rd sentence of the document begins it and it goes on to explain more including some rules and stuff.

"Dual channel mode is enabled when the installed memory capacities of both DIMM channels are equal."​

They give this specific example as well:

Dual Channel (Interleaved) Mode Configuration with Four DIMMs

My only concern is that I think this is Intel's reference design and I'm not sure how closely Apple follows it.

EDIT: I guess it's not too far off. Pages 3 and 4 of this document: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Mac_Pro_Early2009_Memory_DIMM_DIY.pdf say basically the same thing - but in Applese. More can be found here: http://support.apple.com/manuals/#macpro

For others reading on, skimming or something, this is only for 2009 Mac Pros. Previous models are different.

 

[nanofrog]

Yeah it says. 3rd sentence of the document begins it and it goes on to explain more including some rules and stuff.

"Dual channel mode is enabled when the installed memory capacities of both DIMM channels are equal."​

They give this specific example as well:

Dual Channel (Interleaved) Mode Configuration with Four DIMMs

My only concern is that I think this is Intel's reference design and I'm not sure how closely Apple follows it.

EDIT: I guess it's not too far off. Pages 3 and 4 of this document: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Mac_Pro_Early2009_Memory_DIMM_DIY.pdf say basically the same thing - but in Applese. More can be found here: http://support.apple.com/manuals/#macpro

For others reading on, skimming or something, this is only for 2009 Mac Pros. Previous models are different.

Apple followed Intel's design. They didn't actually have a choice, as this is how the Integrated Memory Controller in the CPU is designed.