Ram, total 4GB or 6GB

[Aaron Neitz]

Well that’s easy. always put as much as you can afford in it.

[Jeremy Garchow]

RAM should be installed in matching pairs when using FCP. Be sure to keep that in mind when upgrading. Check this out for details:

https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304492

Jeremy

[Gary Alan]

I already knew knew about matched pairs. I am just wondering if 6GB is not that useful over 4GB in the system I mentioned. I have seen posts/articles in the past that said something about 4 being the sweet spot. I was wondering if that might still be true.

Gary

Mac Pro Intel Quad, 2GB RAM, 30″ Apple Display
MacBook Pro 17″ matte screen, 2GB RAM

[Jeremy Garchow]

[GaryAlan] “something about 4 being the sweet spot.”

I think that was between cost and performance and based on 8 GB total of RAM in a G5. Now, MacPros can hold 32Gigs. Crazy. I’d say get as much as you can, with 4 being a minimum, preferably from the same vendor (you don’t have to get Apple’s).

Jeremy

[Dave Jenkins]

If you look at the article Jeremy posted it also talks about the ram adding up to 2, 4 or 8 gigs. We have four gigs in our machine and I wanted to add more but the next step for optimum performance is 8 gigs.

[Gary Alan]

Dave,

What article are you talking about? Jeremy made reference to a link for Apple on Ram and it says nothing about using 6GB. Just the matched pairs. Which is why I only have 2GB in my MacBook Pro 17″ I bought last January instead of the 3GB max.

Possibly you are referring to some article not in this thread or I am missing somehow? What is the reason why someone would make a 4 GB leap in performance sweet spot over 2 GB as an addition? 6 GB are matched pairs. If it is the fact because there are four cores, then why would 2GB be considered as a sweet spot?

Gary

Mac Pro Intel Quad, 2GB RAM, 30″ Apple Display
MacBook Pro 17″ matte screen, 2GB RAM

[Dave Jenkins]

Well unless your installing 2 x 512 chips of ram I can’t see how you can add up to 6 gigs of ram. I have 2 x 1 Gig in Riser A and 2 x 1 GIG in Riser B = 4 Gigs. So unless my math is incorrect which it may well be, according to that chart I should add the same ram set up for optimal performance which would equal 8 Gigs. Doesn’t that make sense or am I reading that chart incorrectly?

[Gary Alan]

I have a system with 2GB ram using matched pairs. I can add another set of 1GB matched pair (2GB) to get 4GB total or I can add another set of matched pair 2GB (4GB) to get 6GB total.

G

Mac Pro Intel Quad, 2GB RAM, 30″ Apple Display
MacBook Pro 17″ matte screen, 2GB RAM

[Bradley Hopper]

I am in exactly the same situation, have you found an answer yet? I have two 1GBs installed, one in Riser A DIMM1, the other in Riser B DIMM1. I’m looking at buying 4GB (2 x 2GB), but would this offset the pairing of the existing ones? Or do I have to remove the 1GBs and just install the new 4GB?