I got my new iMac in this weekend. I ordered a 16GB RAM kit from crucial which I installed. The RAM came in as two 8GB sticks. The old RAM was two 2GB sticks. I noticed that the iMac has four RAM slots. Would there be any benefit to putting the original RAM back into my computer so I have 20GB total or is it not a good idea to mix brands of RAM?
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RAM Question
- Thread starter butterwm
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It should be fine. If any problems arise, you can always simply remove the extra RAM.
More memory is always better and as long as you put the memory in the correct slots you will get the best performance possible.
I have almost the same question. I want to upgrade my 2011 21.5 iMac with an additional 8GB. Is it better to buy one 8GB or 2 x 4GB with dual channel? They are both around 50,- so the price doesn't make a difference. And do I need to pay attention to something to make them work with the default 2 x 2GB?
Cheers!
Cheers!
You get a slight performance improvement by using matched pairs. Yes, you can install 2x4GB along with your existing 2x2GB.
MR Guide to Matched RAM on Intel Macs
thanks for your response.
According to the article from the link you provided there is an improvement around 5%. I think I'll go with the 8GB module because that leaves one slot open for future expansion. I think it's not nessecary, but currently I'm doing some video stuff mainly in After Effects, some VJ'ing and I will probably start doing real 3D stuff soon and you never know what else will come.
According to the article from the link you provided there is an improvement around 5%. I think I'll go with the 8GB module because that leaves one slot open for future expansion. I think it's not nessecary, but currently I'm doing some video stuff mainly in After Effects, some VJ'ing and I will probably start doing real 3D stuff soon and you never know what else will come.
Thanks for the responses. I went ahead and put those two 2GB modules back in and everything appears to be working fine. The about this MAC screen shows 20 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 installed. Hopefully the slight loss from non-matching pairs is made up with the additional 4GB of RAM--not that I really need it though.
I just upgraded my 27" iMac with 32gs of gskill ram, time to do some wheelies and take some jumps! It fired right up after installing and everything seems to be working fine. I did a little test rendering 720p footage in after effects while encoding the same in media encoder and opening photoshop, illustrator, bridge, and premier, smooth as butter 