Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Yes...Another question about RAM...Forgive me now.

Hecklerdanny

Hecklerdanny

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 27, 2007
303
0
Hi everyone. I know these questions have been hashed out over and over again, but I have to admit, most of the time I have a hard time following where the threads end up going.

In a few days I'm buying a brand new 2.66GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro.

Is it ALWAYS a good idea to max out the RAM in these machines to 8GB's? It comes with 3GB's. I'm planning on maxing it out to 8GB's unless there's a better option for these machines.

In your "expert" opinions, will 8GB's of RAM make a dramatic difference over upgrading to 6GB's?

Here's what I'll be doing with the system:

LOTS of Aperture
LOTS of Photoshop
Fairly extensive video work - Final Cut - Light iMovie '09

Your thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any information.
 
True limit is 16, using 4GB chips that are expensive. Macsales has them at around 165 each. 2GB chips are only 60 bucks.

There are only 4 ram slots.

If 6 or 8GB is going to fulfill your needs for time to come, get it. However if you think you may need more, it may make sense to get a couple of 4GB modules initially so you aren't stuck with some leftover 2 GB modules.
 
kellen said:
True limit is 16, using 4GB chips that are expensive. Macsales has them at around 165 each. 2GB chips are only 60 bucks.

There are only 4 ram slots.

If 6 or 8GB is going to fulfill your needs for time to come, get it. However if you think you may need more, it may make sense to get a couple of 4GB modules initially so you aren't stuck with some leftover 2 GB modules.
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that the 2.66 Quad-Core supports a limit of 8GB's of RAM, while the 8-Core Mac Pro's max out at 32GB's.

It's very possible that I'm wrong in this.
 
kellen said:
True limit is 16, using 4GB chips that are expensive. Macsales has them at around 165 each. 2GB chips are only 60 bucks.
Click to expand...

Order iRAM from newegg. Their 2GB chips were $40CAD each. Best $120 I spent. I bought that with 3 more HDs and I am very satisfied.

As far as whether 6GB or 8GB is better, it depends if you use it all or not. If you will never pass 6GB, then technically speaking 6GB is faster than 8. If however you will go over 6, than 8 will be much much faster than 6 since even though the 6GB would technically be accessed faster, it will still need to use the HD making it slower.

Getting 8GB instead of 6GB is completely unnecessary in terms of future proofing. Buying 3 sticks now and 1 later VS 4 now is no more expensive, in fact it may even be cheaper later to add that 4th stick as prices fall.

For the max limit, it's at least 16GB. Apple does not say so, but the quad is compatible with the 4GB sticks, apple just uses the 8GB limit as a way to get you to spend 500-1000 dollars more on getting an octo core system. I forget which website (maybe crucial) but it lists that the quad has a maximum of 6XXXMB per slot. So that would technically imply that if 6GB sticks existed you could use them making the limit 24GB, but I have no idea where they got that info from.
 
You can put 4GB x 4 modules in it for 16GBs. They just didn't have them at the time of release.

People on here have 16 in their quads.
 
Rainier42 said:
Apple site says that Quad-core has 4-slots supporting up to 8GB of memory and the Octo-core has 8-slots supporting up to 32GB of memory (see http://www.apple.com/macpro/design.html#memory).
Click to expand...

Limit is 16GB. 100% sure.

My point on buying 4 GB sticks now is that you will have to take the other ram (1GB, 2GB) out later and not use them to max out the ram to 16 later if you choose to using 4 x 4GB, as there is only 4 slots. Prices may drop later, but you still have to factor in that you spent $120 for 3 x 2 GB chips that you can't use.

Just decide how much ram you need and go from there. However I would say the more the merrier with the programs you listed. Especially for running them all at once and multitasking.
 
kellen said:
You can put 4GB x 4 modules in it for 16GBs. They just didn't have them at the time of release.

People on here have 16 in their quads.
Click to expand...

I doubt that was the reason for them not being an option as Apple did have them available on the Octos. Probably to just upsell to 8 core machines as they have a higher margin.

Or maybe even they realised that trying to sell a Quad 2.66GHz with 4x4GB DIMMs for $5550 (going on pricing for 8x4GB) when they also sell an Octo 2.66GHz with 8x2GB for $5200 looks a little odd.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back