Senior Moment RAM Config ? (Early '08)

[Michael73]

Long story short, replaced my 06 with an early '08 last year and gave me 4 x 1GB of RAM. I just bought 4 x 2GB of RAM from OWC. What's the best RAM config? All the 2GB modules on Riser A and the 1GB modules on Riser B or are like sizes split in pairs between A and B?

Ugh! I know I saw a thread about this ages ago where someone posted a graphic of every possible combination and where to put them. I just couldn't seem to find it.

 

[Rt&Dzine]

This article gives position of RAM and performance for the 2008 Mac Pro. Yours would be the lower graph.

http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Benchmarks/macproearly08ram/article.html

 

[Umbongo]

2GB DIMMs in slots 1& 2 on each riser and 1GB DIMMs on slots 3&4 on each riser.

 

[DualShock]

From Apple's site, RAM installation guide:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/MacPro_Early2008_MemoryDIMM_DIY.pdf

This is for the 2008 Mac Pro ONLY, it's different for the 2006/7 models.

 

[Michael73]

This article gives position of RAM and performance for the 2008 Mac Pro. Yours would be the lower graph.

http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Benchmarks/macproearly08ram/article.html

Too bad Rob-ART didn't bench a 12GB RAM config with 1GB x 4 and 2GB x 4. Clearly, having 4 of the same type is a performance boost. My guess is that according to the calculations my config of 12GB would outperform his. It was basically for this reason that I got the 2GB x 4 rather than 4GB x 2. I'll never say never but I think it'll be quite some time before the MP's performance suffers with 12GB of RAM.

So, it sounds like interleaving is better than all the same size on each riser, eh?!? All I know is that ever since I started my own business which required me to get VMWare and run Windows XP, performance across the board has gone down the tubes.

 

[Rt&Dzine]

Too bad Rob-ART didn't bench a 12GB RAM config with 1GB x 4 and 2GB x 4. Clearly, having 4 of the same type is a performance boost. My guess is that according to the calculations my config of 12GB would outperform his. It was basically for this reason that I got the 2GB x 4 rather than 4GB x 2. I'll never say never but I think it'll be quite some time before the MP's performance suffers with 12GB of RAM.

So, it sounds like interleaving is better than all the same size on each riser, eh?!? All I know is that ever since I started my own business which required me to get VMWare and run Windows XP, performance across the board has gone down the tubes.

Strange, I didn't realize they don't have your 12GB combination. Your combo should be better performance, up there with the top combinations. Follow what Umbongo said or the 2008 Mac Pro manual for placement.