I have a Mac Pro and I'm currently running on two 512 sticks of RAM. This is what it came with. It runs pretty smooth but from time to time I have to force quit programs, mostly Safari or AIM. I am wondering if this is due to the lack of ram? Should I be running on 2 gigs? I mostly use it for editing with lightroom.

1 gig is not enough. I play it safe and have 5 gigs. Get a couple of 2 gig sticks to put in your machine.

Thanks, I just found this site in another post http://www.transintl.com I am looking at the 4GB kit for $144 for the Mac Pro 3GHz 8-Core or Two Quad–Core Intel Xeon [April 2007] This price is so much better than Apples website. Has anyone bought from this site before and can recommend them. Also is this a good kit to buy?

This totally depends on what programs you are running on that bad boy-I have 6 and i have thought about increasing to 10. But I have alot of heavy programs open at once.

But with Mac OSX....512 just isnt enough anymore.

I understand that, and I'm running on a gig not 512. Can anyone recommend the company above, if they buy their ram from them? Also been hearing good things about http://www.crucial.com

I upgraded my friend Jason's Mac pro with 8gb from Transintl and it works great. I was a die hard crucial fan and bought the ram for my mac pro from them, but I've been proven a few times now that transintl is just as good for way less $$.

We've got 13 gigs in ours, it runs like CRAZY!

Thanks guys for the help. I am going to buy the 8gb package from Trans. Now does anybody know how to install it into a mac pro. I heard it was easy.

Depending on your model, check here.
http://www.apple.com/support/manuals/macpro/

Trans International is THE BEST! That being said, they helped me immensely when it came time to purchase RAM for my new 8 core mac pro. How many cores are you running? 4 or 8? (remember it will be something like two dual-cores or four dual cores, totaling 4 or 8)

it's important to remember that the system splits the memory up and distributes it evenly to each core. having a number of gigs that is divisible by the number of cores is optimal, but not entirely necessary. i currently have 10 gigs in my 8 core mac pro, but i may test an 8 gig setup by pulling out the stock 2 gigs that came with it. i've been told by trans international and people at apple that the computer may actually perform better (it already SCREAMS!) with 8 gigs instead of 10.

now, if you're running a dual core, 13 gigs may be a bit funky for the system, but any other even number of gigs should work. in that case, when you do buy more RAM (i'd suggest the 8 gig kit from trans international) pull out your stock 1 gig and store it in a safe place (in static bags and in the boxes from trans international!) and enjoy!

I have the 2 2.66 Ghz Dual-Core Intel Xeon. I already ordered the 4 gig package. I don't think I can change it. I think 4 gigs will be alright for me though, because I don't run a lot of programs at once. Also I am coming from 1 gig, so I think 4 gigs should speed it up significantly. Should I still pull the 2 512 cards if I will be putting 4 gigs in it? or will 5 gigs be alright?

5 gigs will be okay... but remember that the computer has to break that extra gig up to be evenly distributed to the processors, which takes just a bit more time than it would if it didn't have to do the equation every single time.... really all you'd be gaining with that extra gig in there is an extra 256mb per processor, which is pretty insignificant. i'd pull the gig out for best performance, but you can test it both ways.

enjoy! your computer is going to scream with that new ram in it :-)

Thank you. I am looking forward to it. I mostly use it for editing with LR. It doesn't slow down to much in there, but I'd like it to run a bit smoother. I will pull the 1 gig like you said. I read the manual on how to install it, but it is a little confusing because I've never dealt with installing ram before. Can you break down the steps for me and be more detailed on what I do when the ram arrives? I don't want to screw up my Mac Pro.

That's interesting, Trevor. I currently am running 6GB in a dual quad-core machine and was looking to move up to 10GB, but maybe I will try 8GB.

we have 10GB in our Mac Pro 2x 2.8 Quad. It's super fast doing anything.

We got ours at http://www.macsales.com Good Luck!

I really don't understand how I bought my mac pro this past summer, yet when I went to buy my ram it said 2006. DId they sell me an older model than what they were advertising? I bought it on no tax day? were they releasing the newer models the next day? or maybe it was more money to go with the quad core? I dunno

william, it hast to do with when they released the certain model of the system. if they released the system in late 2006, it's probably the one that carried over into summer of 07. but you need to be sure that you've gotten the correct RAM, as it's important that the correct memory is installed in the system.

I'm pretty sure I got the right one. I have the 2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon. Which on transintl site is the second one from the bottom.

you need at least 8 imo.... we have 16gigs runing on our new mac pro quad core and its faster than lighting, but we also like to have a lot of heavy programs running at one time.

I find it's all what you use it for. I bought my mac pro so I could upgrade from my old pc which took 6 hours to export a 1000 images. I then purchased my mac pro to edit images faster and mostly to speed up the process of exporting images. and because mac is better than pc. lol. It's just the truth. It now takes 1 hour to export a thousand images. I don't have a lot of programs opened up at once. When I use my old pc I have photoshop,dreamweaver and flash usually all opened at once and I don't really see any lag, and that's running on 1 gig of ram. I'm not a huge multitasker I find I work better working on one thing at a time, and if I have to re open a program again no big deal. Sure it would be nice to run on 16 gigs, but I find I really don't need that right now. Maybe when I start doing video I will.

thats the nice thing about the mac pro. you can upgrade it whenever you want. well, pretty much any other mac too, but the mac pro allows for the most growth inside one box. the fact that the new ones support up to 32gb of RAM is just awesome, it really leaves a lot of room for expansion no matter what industry you're in.



Yeah, I think that would work quite nice. I have 10 gigs in mine and its FINE, but i'm going to switch my sticks of RAM around soon and see how it performs on 8 gigs. theoretically it's less work for the computer to split up that other 2 gigs, thus making it a bit faster on the lesser of the two numbers.

makes sense to me!

I got my 2/2gigs in today and installed them, my mac now screams. I love it. so much smoother, feels like a real computer now.

so 6 gigs total?

no, just 4 for now. I pulled the 2 512 cards.

excellent. much more balanced. again, it won't hurt to run 6 gigs... throw them in sometime and see how the system performs. remember there's a funky configuration though... make sure you have the sticks installed in the right places, trans international will help you out if you have any questions.

Just got mine, and am running 6GB now. Smokin! Huge upgrade over the iMac. I couldn't believe how easy it was to install it, too. Apple did a great job of designing a good looking, totally function modular system.

You should try installing hard drives in it! Such a breeze, especially if you're swapping drives.... you can get sleds and have drives ready to go, its so nice. The RAM install is super simple though, so much more accessible than ANY other system. Enjoy!

another thing to keep in mind, we have worked with BareFeats (a great mac benchmark website) in the past to help them with benchmarking we ran a benchmark action file using 300MB file in Adobe Photoshop CS3. We observed how much memory was gobbled up during the run. It was the only app running, yet, though we specified only 3GB of memory cache, Activity Monitor reported 13+GB in use (out of our 16)

What's happening is that Mac OS X Leopard has the ability to hand over unused memory to apps for caching when they use up their 3.5GB allocation limit. (Ditto for Tiger.)

enjoy the new upgrade

i just got my mac pro...it is sexy. i upgraded the RAM from macsales.com/owc, too. it's a little cheaper than transintl.com

but...i though the main thing was matched pairs...if the OP has 2 2gb + 2 512...shouldn't he be fine?

that would make for 5 gigs of RAM if my foggy waking up brain serves my correctly. yes, it would be "fine" but the highest EFFICIENCY RAM installation would be one that is evenly divided between the processors.... i've spoken to numerous people at apple about this, so i trust them. however, i'm running 10GB in my 8 core mac pro with no problems. it just isnt as efficient as if I had 16 gigs....