1600 MHz RAM in iMac 2011 ?

[CHSeifert]

Just read a thread in the MBP forum, where people had installed 1600 MHz Kingston HyperX ram in their MBP 15 and conclusion was that especially quad core 2.2 and 2.3 ghz CPU could actually make use of the 1600 MHz ram.

The same should apply for an iMac 2011 with a quad core 3.4 ghz - so I'm contemplating upgrading to 16 GB 1600 MHz Kingston HyperX ram.

Anyone have actual experience with this ?

 

[RichardBeer]

Well as that thread says, it would work but what would be the point? Macs in my experience generally match the mhz potential of the RAM with the frequency of the front side bus, this means that if the FSB is 1333mhz, then even if you put in 1600mhz RAM, it's potential will be capped because it's going to only run at 1333mhz.

Mhz on RAM isn't the speed of the RAM, it's simply the maximum speed of the FSB that it can support. RAM speed is measured in ns access time.

 

[Vylen]

It'll work... but would be the same as putting 1333Mhz modules into your iMac.

The memory type is dictated by a few things but primarily by the CPU - which are currently designed to support 1066/1333 type modules.

 

[CHSeifert]

Well as that thread says, it would work but what would be the point? Macs in my experience generally match the mhz potential of the RAM with the frequency of the front side bus, this means that if the FSB is 1333mhz, then even if you put in 1600mhz RAM, it's potential will be capped because it's going to only run at 1333mhz.

Mhz on RAM isn't the speed of the RAM, it's simply the maximum speed of the FSB that it can support. RAM speed is measured in ns access time.

If you read the thread in the BNP forum they still measure an improvement on quad core cpu's even though the cpu & chipset only supports 1333 MHz......so just wondering

And yes faster ram will always also have faster support for FSB, so Yes! faster MHz is a proven way of differentiate the faster from the slower ram. I'm a PC builder.

Just curious about the numbers in the MBP thread.

Even though the logicboard, cpu and chipset does not officially support more than 1333 MHz, this still indicates there is a speed improvement.