mixing up ram

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
mb c2duo, 10.6.4 1gb ram (wifes white macbook)

went to crucial they want a pair of "matched" 1gb ram for 54$ their recommendation

does it really matter just to add a "non matched" single 1gb ram can save some $$$



thanks

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,322moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NOFEER View Post


    mb c2duo, 10.6.4 1gb ram (wifes white macbook)

    went to crucial they want a pair of "matched" 1gb ram for 54$ their recommendation

    does it really matter just to add a "non matched" single 1gb ram can save some $$$



    thanks



    In the Macbook, you could lose up to 25% of your graphics performance by not using matched RAM as the GPU uses that memory too.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    nofeernofeer Posts: 2,427member
    thanks i will get matched ram
  • Reply 3 of 7
    ...and if your wife does a lot of 3-D gaming, she might actually get to that 25% difference. Most likely though, is that she'd see NO difference whatsoever.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    futurepastnowfuturepastnow Posts: 1,772member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by KingOfSomewhereHot View Post


    ...and if your wife does a lot of 3-D gaming, she might actually get to that 25% difference. Most likely though, is that she'd see NO difference whatsoever.



    Yeah, the benefit of dual-channel RAM to most applications is in the range of 0-5%.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,322moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by KingOfSomewhereHot View Post


    ...and if your wife does a lot of 3-D gaming, she might actually get to that 25% difference. Most likely though, is that she'd see NO difference whatsoever.



    On modern systems the real-world gains can be insignificant for every day tasks but still, it doubles your memory bandwidth, which helps if you have a lot of RAM intensive processes. Integrated graphics just benefit the most and the cost I don't think is significant.



    To qualify as matched, they don't have to be the same brand, just the same size so if the Macbook had a 1GB chip, buying another 1GB chip should be ok. If it was 1GB + 512MB then it would drop to single channel and have half the memory bandwidth.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    nofeernofeer Posts: 2,427member
    no games, just internet and itunes, and some reading

    movies, netflix streaming
  • Reply 7 of 7
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NOFEER View Post


    no games, just internet and itunes, and some reading

    movies, netflix streaming



    Then "matched" ram will make no (noticeable) difference to you. That doesn't mean you shouldn't get it if you want... no telling what your future needs might be.
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