16gig or 48gig RAM?!

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Level 1

10 points

16gig or 48gig RAM?!

I have a Mid 2010 2.8ghz quad-core Intel Xeon and I'm researching RAM to upgrade soon, however, OWC posts on their site, "

*Apple officially supports 16 GB of RAM in this model, but as first noted by OWC, it actually could support 32 GB of RAM. Later, OWC bumped this unofficial maximum RAM to 48 GB." So, I have four RAM slots, but should I stick with upgrading to 16gb or should I for 32 or more? Does Lion support more than 32gb of RAM and if so, will it support 1333mhz DDR3 instead of 1066mhz? I'm asking on this forum because getting a response from Apple tech will take way too long. Thanks

MacBookPro Dual Core 15", Mac OS X (10.6), MacPro 2.8 Nehalem

Posted on Oct 27, 2011 7:16 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 27, 2011 8:07 AM in response to tedtv

What work do you do on your Mac?

You need to commit to a DIMM size. 8GB and 16GB DIMMs will not "mix-and-match", BUT... the penalty for running two modules or four modules instead of the optimum three is very low, in the neighborhood of five percent.

So if you think you might someday need 24 to 32GB (8*3 or 8*4) you could install 8*2 today and add the third and possibly fourth module later.

If you will eventually need more that 32GB, you may need to install two of the more expensive 16GB modules now, and add the third (fourth is not an option with 16GB modules) later.

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Answer 2

tedtv Author

Level 1

10 points

Oct 27, 2011 11:50 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I'm doing full HD video editing with Final Cut X. So I decided to buy 8.0GB PC8500 DDR3 ECC 1066MHz 240 Pin modules, but can you insert a 8gb module along with a 4gb and two 1gb modules? or do all modules need to be exact for each DIMM slot and not mixed?

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Answer 3

X423424X

Level 6

14,265 points

Oct 27, 2011 12:05 PM in response to tedtv

You cannot mix them. If you look about two-thirds down the page of the charts on the OWC site for the memory you will see:

*Sets of 8GB Module Sets require that all installed modules be of the same p/n OWC 8GB module. 8GB modules do not mix with other density (1GB, 2GB or 4GB) module types.

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Answer 4

Nov 20, 2012 2:25 AM in response to tedtv

for myself, i would go with the 48GB option, and buy 3 x 16GB for my "mac pro quad 2,8 2010".

i have bought 3 x 8 GB = 24GB initially, when i bought the mac pro 2010, but now i figured out, when using 16bit images in photoshop cs6, (which i use), it produces layer files which are around 16-32GB huge, therefore i am planning to buy 48GB RAM. you can have never enough...

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Answer 5

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Nov 20, 2012 6:12 AM in response to peppermint

CS is totally different needs than video.

The recommendations are also based on what was true "then" and this is a YEAR OLD THREAD that does not need to be reopened.

www.macperformanceguide.com has stressed using as much RAM as possible --- for CS5/6 users.

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