MacBook Pro Memory Question

Wel, for as far as i know MBPro supports dual channel, so you might consider buying a dual channel kit so that you know for sure that you have 2 identical memory modules.

If you'll put in one 1GB module and one 2GB module, if that is what you mean by putting in 3GB, you won't have dual channel and thus probably a slower machine.

I don't have figures on what the actual difference in performance is, though in my experience dual channel is really faster over not dual channel.

 

I thought we were passed that...

Parity RAM?
Isn't that a Windows thing?

I went from 2Gb(2x1Gb)
out of the box to 3Gb(1x1Gb+1x2Gb) & the difference is very apparent.
Especially so when you tell Photoshop to use more of it.

General rule is more RAM the better, matched of not.

 

You don't have a SR machine. The 2.16GHz and 2.33GHz MBP's were pre- Santa Rosa.

Your machine can take 4GB of RAM (2X2GB), but will only recognize 3.3GB of that RAM. If this RAM is matched, then it will run in dual-channel mode.

If you put in 3GB (2GB + 1GB), the system will address all 3GB, but it won't be matched, so it won't run in dual-channel mode.

You won't notice the difference in having matched vs. non-matched RAM.
You might notice the slight speed difference between 3GB and having 3.3GB.

http://guides.macrumors.com/Understanding_Intel_Mac_RAM
http://guides.macrumors.com/Buying_RAM

 

a windows thing?

ram parity

 

Who said anything about Parity?
That has nothing to do with Dual Channel memory access.

Parity RAM (ECC RAM) is only used on the MacPro machines and XServes, and only very rare G5 towers. All other Macs use non-Parity standard RAM

OP: Welcome to MR.
Suggestion: Please read through the Guides and/or do a search on the forums before opening a new thread -- we have covered this topic many, many times before.