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JohnR9Z

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 2, 2020
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Toronto
I'm curious, would anyone know if a Corsair 16gb (2x8gb) for 2011 1333Mhz DDR3 would work on a late mac mini 2012 (RAM upgrade)?

Thanks.
 
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Thanks for that information. I noticed that I'm trying to equalize:

PC3-10600 DDR3 204-pin SO-DIMMs (Mid 2011) @ivnj [thanks for the links] :)
(1600 MHz) PC3-12800 DDR3 SO-DIMMs (Late 2012)

@1madman1 Can you give any more clarification to what you said.

It will work, but you will run with a ~10% reduced memory bandwidth. That may or may not matter depending on how you use the system.

I'm looking to run primarily Adobe Creative Suite and programs like GIMP, Inkscape.

Thanks for the response, which has peaked my curiosity.
 
In nearly all cases, modern computers will let you use slower clock speed rated RAM so long as it's physically and electrically compatible. The computer will just reduce the access speed to match the value as defined in the module's SPD.

The effective synthetic benchmark difference showed a little over 10% between 1333MHz and 1600MHz when I last experimented with it. The actual theoretical value is 25.6GB/sec for dual channel DDR at 1600MHz, vs 21.3GB/s for dual channel DDR at 1333MHz.

What that translates into in the real world will vary depending on what you're doing. Most of the time it'll probably be somewhere between 1% and 3% outside of situations where you're specifically bottlenecked by RAM speed - for example, really old games running at high display resolutions on an IGP. Having a larger physical RAM pool would completely negate the bandwidth issue and then some if you're running into swapping though.
 
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In nearly all cases, modern computers will let you use slower clock speed rated RAM so long as it's physically and electrically compatible. The computer will just reduce the access speed to match the value as defined in the module's SPD.

The effective synthetic benchmark difference showed a little over 10% between 1333MHz and 1600MHz when I last experimented with it. The actual theoretical value is 25.6GB/sec for dual channel DDR at 1600MHz, vs 21.3GB/s for dual channel DDR at 1333MHz.

What that translates into in the real world will vary depending on what you're doing. Most of the time it'll probably be somewhere between 1% and 3% outside of situations where you're specifically bottlenecked by RAM speed - for example, really old games running at high display resolutions on an IGP. Having a larger physical RAM pool would completely negate the bandwidth issue and then some if you're running into swapping though.

Thanks for that @1madman1
 
What's the usual life term of a third party RAM upgrade such as Timetec Hynix, Corsair, Kingston or Crucial, etc.? Are there brands out there that are faster than the others or perform better? Performance comparisons?
 
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There are fluke failures, but for the most part it's not something that really dies in normal circumstances. "Lifetime" warranties are common with name brand memory modules.

There are timing differences, but the actual performance these days between a fancy "gamer" module with fast timings and a generic OEM whitebox part is so small that you can pretty much ignore it. Long gone are the days of FP and EDO memory where it could make a 20% difference in everything.
 
There are fluke failures, but for the most part it's not something that really dies in normal circumstances. "Lifetime" warranties are common with name brand memory modules.

There are timing differences, but the actual performance these days between a fancy "gamer" module with fast timings and a generic OEM whitebox part is so small that you can pretty much ignore it. Long gone are the days of FP and EDO memory where it could make a 20% difference in everything.

Thanks @1madman1 for that. Experience counts for a lot. Do you have a preference personally between brands?

This is probably out of the forum's scope, but I also need modules for an older model Panasonic laptop. I was considering purchasing modules from a single brand for both the 2012's needs as well as the Pan. Eg. Corsair or Kingston.
 
I've found other brands: Samsung and OWC sticks. Some of them recommend them for the mini (Late 2012). However, they have a DDR3L vs PC3L rather than a DDR3 / PC3 which I've read shouldn't be a deal breaker. Your thoughts? Thanks.
 
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DDR3L (1.35v) is backwards compatible with DDR3 (1.5v). The reverse is sometimes not.

I wouldn't worry about brand, most of them dont make their own product anyway. I would just get whatever is cheapest so long as its from a reputable vendor.
 
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