OWC Intros 1GB, 2GB MacBook, MacBook Pro RAM Upgrades
OWC Intros 1GB, 2GB MacBook, MacBook Pro RAM Upgrades
by , 12:50 PM EDT, May 24th, 2006
Other World Computing (OWC) on Wednesday introduced 1GB and 2GB RAM upgrade kits for MacBook and MacBook Pro owners. Each of the kits features a matched-size memory pair, which is what Apple recommends for optimal system performance. The 1GB version is US$109 and the 2GB one is $249.
Observer Comments
Thu May 25, 2006 1:56 pm Subject: So, do you REALLY have to buy two???
According to the OWC website, to upgrade my 2Ghz MacBookPro from 1GB (On a single module..what it showed up with from Apple) to 2GB, I have to buy two "matched" 1GB modules. Is that really nessesary? Can't I just buy another 1GB module and plug it in? Will I take that big of performance hit?
Sun May 28, 2006 4:41 am Subject: Re: So, do you REALLY have to buy two???
Quotemactoid wrote:
According to the OWC website, to upgrade my 2Ghz MacBookPro from 1GB (On a single module..what it showed up with from Apple) to 2GB, I have to buy two "matched" 1GB modules. Is that really nessesary? Can't I just buy another 1GB module and plug it in? Will I take that big of performance hit?
Matched means the same type of memory of the same size in both slots. The reason this is necessary is for dual-channel architecture to get the maximum bandwidth, it needs both slots filled. It can then act as though it has a 128-bit bus instead of a 64-bit bus.
If your DIMMs or SODIMMs are of the same memory capacity and have the same timing characteristics, you'll be fine. If they aren't matched, it will affect the performance of the computer because memory transfers to and from the cpu will be slowed.
This is completely incorrect. The *MacBook Pro* does not experience any decrease in performance when using a single SODIMM, as it has its own GPU and dedicated video memory. The *MacBook* does technically lose some performance when using a single SODIMM, since its graphics memory is shared with system memory. However, most benchmarks show this performance decrease to be very minor.
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