Hey. I just ordered a new 2GB ram stick for my MacBook got it for 2.99 off amazon so I only bought one not even realizing the MacBook has 2x1GB sticks in it. Is it going to be an issue runnin 1 GB AND 1 2 GB for a total of 3 GB in performance. I'm mostly doing this to run world of Warcraft better. It has the 9400m video card in it. Whenever I run wow I'm at almost a full 2GB of ram being used. Will I see a performance increase with the extra 1GB being free or will the unmatched GB type hinder the performance of wow? I read different views on this that it will only be a minescule performance decrease that I won't even notice, others say its a big deal. What are any of you smart hardware guys thinking about this for performance in wow.
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3GB ram late 2008 MacBook
- Thread starter xmarcuswildx
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All 2008 non-unibody MacBooks support up to 6GB of RAM. Unibodies, 8GB.
You can find specs on all Apple products, including maximum RAM:
- By visiting EveryMac.com: Actual Maximum RAM
- By selecting your model on the Crucial Memory Advisor Tool to find RAM information
- By using Mactracker
- By entering your serial number here to find specs for your model.
(Be aware that some models can use more RAM than Apple shows. Check EveryMac to verify actual usable RAM.)
The slight improvement from using matched RAM is not as significant as the improvement from using more RAM.
MR Guide to Matched RAM on Intel Macs
Your Mac can have up to 8 GB RAM (with updated Boot Rom), which nowadays cost around 50 USD and less.
Yeah. I know it takes 4 I didnt realize it until my ram came in. I only bought one at the time cause it was $2.99 had a gift cert to amazon so I got an awesome deal. I know about the dual channel etc thank you, but how will that affect performance for world of warcraft. Will I see a performance increase with the extra gb being free rather then being maxed out and eating up virtual memory?
It can use 6GB (non-unibody) or 8GB (unibody). See my earlier post.
To determine if you can benefit from more RAM, launch Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab at the bottom to check your page outs. Page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so the best way to check is to restart your computer and track page outs under your normal workload (the apps, browser pages and documents you normally would have open). If your page outs are significant (say 1GB or more) under normal use, you may benefit from more RAM. If your page outs are zero or very low during normal use, you probably won't see any performance improvement from adding RAM.
Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
I always forget about the updated firmware that allows 8GB. Even though it can take 8GB, some people have reported that it is a bit unstable with that amount.
Yup I confirm it is a little bit unstable, using 8gb of ram. Just watching the olympics on my safari. Cause a lot of beachball. Which never happen just using 4gb of ram.