[Gamoe]

I recently came across this from OWC. It's a 3 GB RAM upgrade consisting of one 2 GB RAM module and a 1 GB RAM module. I didn't even know 2 GB RAM modules of this kind were out, much less that the MacBook could use them.

However, is there any consequence to this, and why can't is simply be two 2 GB modules to bring it up to 4 GB of RAM. Also, with the unequal RAM amounts, what happens to the dual-channel memory advantage? Would it simply not use this feature?

[Simon]

2 GB SO-DIMMs have been out for a while now. The ones the MB uses are exactly the same type you find in the MBP: PC-5300.

The Napa chipset supports 4 GB, but software can't address ~800 MB of the last GB. Therefore people usually update to 3 GB rather than to 4 GB. You would be paying a whole lot of money for those 200 MB.

Dual-channel memory access shows benefits on Macs with shared VRAM. So on a MB you will probably measure a difference if you look at 3D games or apps that rely on GPU performance. If you benchmark CPU-limited tasks the gains form dual-channel memory access are basically zero. However, if you are suffering from a performance decrease due to a lack of RAM (lots of page-outs), adding RAM is going to help a lot regardless of dual-channel memory access. BareFeats has looked at this in the past.

Much of this stuff has been discussed already on this board. Try a forum search for more information.

[chabig]

...or just read further down the OWC page:

http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Ma...ory_Benchmarks

[Gamoe]

I just wasn't even aware of the 2 GB modules. I suppose their not as common because of the software address issue. Thanks.