MacPro ram

[Gary Adcock]

RAM in the Intel Towers requires that it be installed in matched pairs-

you RAM config will cause numerous problems..

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

[Mark Maness]

AND…

RAM must be installed in matching pairs across risers. So, if you installed 2 gig into Riser A, you have to install 2 gig into Riser B to get a memory config of 4 gig.

Your best bet is to see if you can swap out the memory for four 512 meg bars and install them across the risers.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com

[Bret Williams]

That’s not true at all. They simply need to be installed in matched pairs. But NOT across risers like he’s doing. He’s got his matched pair of 1 gigs on separate risers. Seems logical enough, but no.

It should’ve come with 2 512s on the top, and 2 512s on the bottom. Following the clear instructions on the computer door, the 2 1 gigs that were purchased now go on the top riser.

This…

Top Riser
Slot 1 – 512
Slot 2 – 512
Slot 3 – 1GB
Slot 4 – 1GB

Bottom Riser
Slot 1 – 512
Slot 2 – 512
Slot 3 – empty
Slot 4 – empty

Make sure the risers are seated all the way in and that the RAM is seated and you should be good to go.

[Mark Maness]

I still had issues doing this. The only solution that I found was to make them all match. Rendering got faster but I had to render everything. There was no relatime support until all of my memory matched in size.

That’s just my system, maybe… but look out for this.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com

[Bret Williams]

You had some bad RAM would be my guess. or you had them installed incorrectly as he did. Getting them to be all 512s would of course fix that problem accidentally. Kinda like deleting preferences.

[Scott Howard]

Thanks for the help! I have them installed to Bret’s configuration and they show up in the profile now. The only question now is, are the 2x1GB doing me much good. My initial confusion was from someone saying that FCP works best with RAM matched across risers – partially correct – it should be matched pairs across risers. I’ve also heard 8x512s works better than 4x1s.
So whether my config is going to do me much good, I’m not sure.

[Nathanh]

According to Apple’s suggestions, “…memory dimm pairs should be installed evenly on both risers.”

Here’s the link: https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304492

They also list each optimal configuration. I would stick with the recommended configurations.

Best,

NathanH

[Jeremy Garchow]

Another Ram doc

https://manuals.info.apple.com/en/MacPro_MemoryDIMM_DIY.pdf

[Bret Williams]

Yeah, right, and that’s why my mac came with 1 gig. Two 512s on one riser. The instructions are right there inside the machine. All the resellers sell it configured that way as well. And it works.

[Bret Williams]

I looked at Jeremy (Apple’s) document and it’s exactly what’s on the door. There’s no mathing risers or mathing sizes mentioned. Apple doesn’t follow that, and neither does the resellers.

Scott, glad you got it working. If it sees the ram, it’s working. But as far as I can tell, FCP can only access 1 gig of RAM. However, you still need say 500mb for system and overhead, and at least another 500mb to run other apps at the same time like mail, safari, livetype, motion, after effects, photoshop, whatever. I’ve got 3 gigs and it never even hiccups. Even while running parallels. For heavy rendering, I shut down all other apps.

Download the istat nano widget and you can get a decent quick look at what the ram is doing.