I am considering buying the new Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo that was announced a couple of days ago. One of the configurable options is to load it up with max DDR2 RAM of 3 GIG in 1x2Gig and 1x1Gig arrangement.

I heard about the dual channel memory benefit of accessing in full 128 bit mode when the RAM are installed in pairs.

So my question is if I upgrade to the above configuration, would that wipe out the benefit of 128 bit access?

Thanks very much.

Yes it would. Get 2GB in a 1GBx2 configuration i.e. one 1GB stick in each slot and it will enable u to use dual-channel mode for increased performance.

I do believe Intel has implemented a method to keep using a proper dual channel configuration even with uneven amounts of Ram. I had read about it around the release of the i865/i875 chipset, I suppose they've improved on it & computer makers such as Apple now use it.

Otherwise I would find it weird that Apple would allow memory configurations that result in a performance penalty. I'm still looking for info on the matter.