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  • 3GB RAM for Mac Mini

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    last edited
    OWC is offering a 3GB memory upgrade (1GB + 2GB) for the the Mac Mini, although the Mac Mini officially supports only 2GB RAM.

    This article says that installing matched pairs of RAM only results in a minimal performance gain compared to the same amount of memory installed as an unmatched pair. But none of the tests performed there refers to real-time applications.

    So do you think it's a good idea to use a Mac Mini upgraded to 3GB as a VSL slave? Could someone familiar with RAM technicalities chime in?

    Cheers
    Pitt Funck

  • the issue behind is the following: GM950 chipset grafic is using 64 MB RAM, so called shared RAM from the installed memory.
    ther chipset also supports dual channel RAM (means basically both RAM sticks can be accessed simultaneously which results in double speed/throughput) - this works only if both sticks are of the same size ("matched RAM")
    not sure now if the macMini is accessing RAM with 533 or 677 MHz, but without matched RAM this will be the limit if memory is not in pairs. 32 bit x 533 MHz would result in 2.132 Mbyte per second ... should be enough even for streaming. gamers would probably be less happy because (as explained above) this also affects grafic performance, which is less important for music making i'd say ...
    christian

    ps: subtract grafic throughput from the number above ... as rule of thumb 370 MB/s for 1600x1050@60Hz ... and some overhead of course

    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.