That's right. You're not seeing things - the MacBook Core 2 Duo and Mac mini Core 2 Duo can address up to 3GB of RAM!

Apple "strongly recommends" you add memory in matched pairs, and that's why they don't offer a 3GB factory configuration. The integrated GMA950 graphics chipset runs at it's fastest when it has matched memory, because it can address RAM using it's dual-channel memory controller.

BUT...

In our own internal testing with every possible iteration of RAM in the Core 2 Duo MacBook and mini, it's just not a big enough difference to limit yourself to only 2GB of physical RAM. You can break the 2GB barrier in a MacBook or mini and not lose enough performance to worry about. Check out our test results here.

Take a peek at the screenshots below showing a MacBook running 3GB of OWC memory.

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A screenshot of the Apple System Profiler showing the 2GB memory module installed in slot #1, and a 1GB module installed in slot #2 for 3GB of total system RAM.

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A screenshot of Activity Monitor showing the total usage of 3GB of physical RAM - this is during a run of Rember (Memtest) testing all physical RAM.