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RAM and Mac Pro Question

A

AnthonyG

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 19, 2008
20
0
So I got my new 2.8 x 8 mac pro about a week ago. I got it all stock because I can get RAM way cheaper 3rd party and I wanted better hard drives than the stock ones. I also stayed with the stock graphics card because the 8800gt performs worse in graphic intensive programs. It is only better in games and I already have a PC for gaming. So right now I have have only 2x1gig which is horrible. I was thinking of just getting 6x1gig to fill the rest of the rinser slots because I thought it would be cheaper than getting 2gig sticks. I thought it would be ok because I would never use more than 8gig of memory. But here is 2x2gig for $199 and free shipping http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820349019 vs 2x1gig with shipping for $110 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820349020. So that means I can get bigger sticks for cheaper per gigabyte. That is great so I would get 3x2gig for an extra 6 gigs plus the stock 2gig. Then I would have slots open still for future expansion if I somehow find a way to use it all. BTW I am doing video and photo editing.

The real question though is would there be any slowdowns or incompatibilities with the 1gig sticks and the 2gig sticks. I read the RAM guide and it said I should pair the 1gig sticks and then pair the rest of the 2gig sticks. So if that works would it be faster to have all the slots full with the same 1gig sticks or have half the slots full with a mix?

Thank you for reading such a long question :D
 
I've done a fair bit of reading into this issue. In the end I got four x 2gb sticks instead of filling it with 1gb sticks.

On the speed test you will be actually on a setup of 8 x 1gbs, see tests:
http://www.barefeats.com/harper3.html
http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Benchmarks/macproearly08ram/article.html

One day soon I may upgrade so that's why I opted for the 2gb stick option.

Not many would admit to it cause a lot of people seem to like splashing out money to get a high RAM count but the tests show the best and cheapest RAM setup is all 1gb sticks.
 
I'm also kind of hoping adding 2x 2gb won't slow down if I add to the 2 x 1gb stock.
But I saw the iRam, is that actually any good?
 
8 x 1 GB sticks is slower than 4 x 2 GB sticks. For optimum performance you would leave the 3 and 4 slots empty in each riser, because the 3 and 4 slots have a higher latency than the 1 and 2 slots.

I don't really recommend buying additional small modules. Go for the 2 GB Modules now, they are cheaper per GB than the 1 GB modules.

There is only a tiny speed penalty to not having a matching quad -- not worth buying additional 1 GB modules IMO.
 
Just so you know, I saw you mentioned 3 x 2 for 6 Gb, but the Mac Pro's FBDIMMS have to in matched pairs, so it would need to be 4 x 2 for 8 Gb, if I'm interpreting your post correctly. If possible, go for the largest capacity memory module available that would be cost efficient for you, just for the sake of having more room for more RAM.
 
CanadaRAM said:
8 x 1 GB sticks is slower than 4 x 2 GB sticks. For optimum performance you would leave the 3 and 4 slots empty in each riser, because the 3 and 4 slots have a higher latency than the 1 and 2 slots.

I don't really recommend buying additional small modules. Go for the 2 GB Modules now, they are cheaper per GB than the 1 GB modules.

There is only a tiny speed penalty to not having a matching quad -- not worth buying additional 1 GB modules IMO.
Click to expand...

this is wrong info look at barefeats for more info
 
Suggestion, look at the two tests, don't rely on anecdotal theories.

The tests from OWC and Bare Feats say that the best set up it is to fill all the slots.

Tum te tum.
 
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