[X4U] Do you REALLY need matching memory in a Mini?

[B. Kuestner]

> The Mac Mini appears to support dual-channel operation, which does  
> indeed seem to be the same as "interleaving".

They are not. Both features can work independently in a machine and  
be combined.

So in the past you had machines that were only interleaving (old Macs  
and some old PCs, mostly servers).

Starting with newer RAM-technology, PC-makers introduced dual- 
channels between RAM and CPU. This technology has a significantly  
larger impact. In many circumstances (larger transfers from RAM)  
bandwidth is effectively doubled. (Which is nowhere near the case for  
interleaving.)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-channel>

So from the link that Philip provided we know that the Mac Mini can  
handle interleaving. But it also has dual-channel RAM access.

The test I originally referred to was a PC of almost similar or  
better specs than the Mac Mini (Think MHz for the same Core Duo CPU).  
But in many benchmarks it did worse and even significantly worse than  
the Mac Mini. Main reason: The slower RAM bandwidth effectively  
throttled both the CPU and the GPU.

Björn