Apple secretly upgraded the memory controller for older macs?
I was upgrading my old 2,1 Macbook White late 2006 to Snow leopard and decided to upgrade my rams from 3GB(2+1) to 4GB(2+2). My mac officially supports 2GB of rams only according to apple, but i know for sure that it can support the (2+1) combo,bringing up to speed to 3GB. I had an extra 2GB ram so i though "well might as well replace the 1GB to this",even though i know for sure the memory controller will bring it down to 3GB but to my surprise its now reading 4GB,its really unbelievable, heres a screenshot
Comments
How much does the Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor) system memory tab say you have?
hmm its says 3GB, thats weird if leopard were to read a 2GB+2Gb pairing it'll show as 3 in the About this Mac,hmm i wonder why?
hmm its says 3GB, thats weird if leopard were to read a 2GB+2Gb pairing it'll show as 3 in the About this Mac,hmm i wonder why?
The "About this Mac" shows the hardware info, the Activity Monitor shows the Ram the OS is able to use. Using 2 x 1GB might be better for graphics performance; if it can't use the extra 2GB in full, the memory probably isn't matched so your integrated graphics may be lower by 25%. You can check by running Cinebench. Intel's integrated graphics are poor anyway so if you're not running any 3D software or games you'll probably benefit more from the extra 1GB Ram.