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How Important is Matched Ram

Which RAM option

  • 4GB+4GB

    Votes: 16 72.7%

  • 8GB+2GB

    Votes: 6 27.3%
  • Total voters
    22
AppleTecFan

AppleTecFan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 7, 2009
411
3
N/A
Looking at http://eshop.macsales.com/

Wanting to purchase more ram for my current 2012 15" MacBook Pro, with at the moment 4GB of RAM.

My choices for upgrading is purchasing a 4GB+4GB option leading to 8GB
or
Buying a 8GB stick and using the current 2GB stick in my MacBook equalling 2GB+8GB - But this I am not too sure about with mismatched RAM situation

What would be the better solution

How important is matched ram?

UPDATE:
I went out and bought a single 8GB stick from a local computer store, cost $70 including tax

Supplied from Kingston

c0d60cab1299438541f76e5e46f54058.png
 
Last edited:
AppleTecFan said:
Looking at http://eshop.macsales.com/

Wanting to purchase more ram for my current 2012 15" MacBook Pro, with at the moment 4GB of RAM.

My choices for upgrading is purchasing a 4GB+4GB option leading to 8GB
or
Buying a 8GB stick and using the current 2GB stick in my MacBook equalling 2GB+8GB - But this I am not too sure about with mismatched RAM situation

What would be the better solution
Click to expand...
Mismatched RAM loses dual channel ability which means a roughly 15% RAM performance hit. Whether that's noticeable is debatable, but there you have it.

From there, it's your pick.
 
I know it's not an option in your poll, but have you considered 2x8 gig sticks? It's "relatively cheap" and always good to use a matched set.
 
Dweez said:
I know it's not an option in your poll, but have you considered 2x8 gig sticks? It's "relatively cheap" and always good to use a matched set.
Click to expand...

Its not really in the question, I think 16GB is overkill but it is somewhat cheap
 
This is my personal opinion and experience:

The mismatched ram thing is an internet-echo-box phenomenon.

I hemmed and hawed over waiting to get a RAM upgrade, because I didn't want to just buy 4+4 when I really wanted 8+8 eventually. (that's "throwing away" my 2+2, then 4+4, right?)

Because everybody on the internet says, "Don't forget to match your RAM!!" I'm not trying to dig on anyone in this thread -- I mean, really, almost everybody on the internet says this.

Well, I finally just bought an 8GB stick and my computer performance has been GREAT. I maxed out my 4GB from the factory and my surfing, apps were slowed down, etc. Now I'm at 10GB with "mismatched RAM" and I still enjoy the performance boost months later.

Don't worry about it at all.

I'm on a early 2011 mbp 13", 4gb RAM from factory.

Another thing, I remember so many people saying that 4GB would be enough for the casual user. I built and OC'ed a PC for video editing, so I know what heavy usage is, and I consider my mbp to be for casual use. 4GB simply wasn't enough to have MS Word, a couple of YouTube tabs open, email, and calendar. Clogged right up.

I'd buy the 8GB - as long as it's compatible with your logic board, you won't regret.
 
townsend2005 said:
This is my personal opinion and experience:

The mismatched ram thing is an internet-echo-box phenomenon.

I hemmed and hawed over waiting to get a RAM upgrade, because I didn't want to just buy 4+4 when I really wanted 8+8 eventually. (that's "throwing away" my 2+2, then 4+4, right?)

Because everybody on the internet says, "Don't forget to match your RAM!!" I'm not trying to dig on anyone in this thread -- I mean, really, almost everybody on the internet says this.

Well, I finally just bought an 8GB stick and my computer performance has been GREAT. I maxed out my 4GB from the factory and my surfing, apps were slowed down, etc. Now I'm at 10GB with "mismatched RAM" and I still enjoy the performance boost months later.

Don't worry about it at all.

I'm on a early 2011 mbp 13", 4gb RAM from factory.

Another thing, I remember so many people saying that 4GB would be enough for the casual user. I built and OC'ed a PC for video editing, so I know what heavy usage is, and I consider my mbp to be for casual use. 4GB simply wasn't enough to have MS Word, a couple of YouTube tabs open, email, and calendar. Clogged right up.

I'd buy the 8GB - as long as it's compatible with your logic board, you won't regret.
Click to expand...

so did you see a reduction in performance after using the mismatched ram
 
I've been using the 16GB Corsair Vengence kit since November and it's been great.
 
Get 4+4 unless you are really sure you're going to use 8GB. I have 8GB in my iMac and haven't used it all yet. I could get 16GB (4x4GB) but I'd rather spend the $75 on beer.
 
I recently bought 2X8 for my mid 2012 13 inch Pro. I also considered that it would be overkill but now I am using nearly 16 on a regular basis and the computer works much better. So I am very happy that I got 16. If you have the money I would go for 16 even if you don't need it right now, you may need it in the future especially if you intend to keep the computer for a few years.
 
Laco said:
I recently bought 2X8 for my mid 2012 13 inch Pro. I also considered that it would be overkill but now I am using nearly 16 on a regular basis and the computer works much better. So I am very happy that I got 16. If you have the money I would go for 16 even if you don't need it right now, you may need it in the future especially if you intend to keep the computer for a few years.
Click to expand...

what do you even do on your computer to use up 16gbs of RAM
 
AppleTecFan said:
what do you even do on your computer to use up 16gbs of RAM
Click to expand...

Mostly word processing and data analysis. I need to allocate about 5gbs to my statistics package and I need to have numerous very large word processing files open at one time, many of which contain large pictures. In addition I like to have dozen tabs open in Safari, have Skype and Itunes open. Right now this adds up to about 13.5gbs.
 
is there any proof of benchmark tests that show mismatched ram reduces performance?

and the dual channel capacity that the #2 poster is talking about is you must use 2 channel at the same time....it doesn't say you must use two of the same company.

i think its still a myth til proven wrong.


current im using 6gb...(2gb from factory, 4gb from kingston)...no problems here. as far as performance, i cant tell. everything opens up so fast. and the factory set up opened stuff fast too.
 
From my experience......

Go for the 8GB plus the already installed 2 GB. If you want to go up to 16 GB one day, the option is there.

My early 2009 Mini came with 1 GB of RAM. When I wanted to upgrade to Mountain Lion I asked the shop to install 4 GB, expecting them to remove the 1 GB and replace it. They simply installed the 4 GB along side the 1 GB, so now it has 5GB and it seems to work just fine.

If I want to go up to 8 GB at some time in future I can just pop out the 1 GB and replace it.
 
kensic said:
is there any proof of benchmark tests that show mismatched ram reduces performance?

and the dual channel capacity that the #2 poster is talking about is you must use 2 channel at the same time....it doesn't say you must use two of the same company.

i think its still a myth til proven wrong.


current im using 6gb...(2gb from factory, 4gb from kingston)...no problems here. as far as performance, i cant tell. everything opens up so fast. and the factory set up opened stuff fast too.
Click to expand...

So you think I should just buy the 8gb and combine it with my 2gb
 
kensic said:
sure why not. and if more later if u still think u need 16gb.

unless u find 16gb for cheap now.
Click to expand...

I doubt I'd ever need 16gbs, I still dont know what to get

I really want to know what happens if I dont have matched RAM
 
Last edited:
Talked to a OWC sales rep, gave me the answer
OWC Sales said:
[1:53:15 AM] If you were only doing 8GB a matched pair of 4GB chips will operate faster and operations will complete sooner with those vs a single 8GB chip installed. If you install 10GB with an 8GB and 2GB chip the additional 2GB of ram will outperform the pair of 4GB chips, though the unmatched chips are not in dual channel mode. They have higher performance and will complete operations faster due to having the extra physical ram avaialble to use.

Steven: [1:54:39 AM] ok good that really sums up
[1:54:53 AM] more ram= good nontheless of matched or not
[1:54:58 AM] yes?

OWC Duane: [1:55:05 AM] Right
Click to expand...

sounds correct to me
 
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