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Can the Late 2009 27" iMac handle 32GB of RAM?
- Thread starter gatortpk
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Thank you very much to those in here who initially confirmed that the Late-2009 i-Series iMacs can address 32GB of RAM. Those reports have made the rounds of Mac blogs here in Japan as well.
For those in Japan with Late-2009 iMacs, I can confirm that CFD Elixir (Nanya) W3N1333Q-8G work fine. The lowest price online is currently about $84 (￥8400) for two 8GB DIMMs but I found some refurbished for $70 (￥6980) a piece on Yahoo Auctions.
Indeed, it works perfectly:
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For those in Japan with Late-2009 iMacs, I can confirm that CFD Elixir (Nanya) W3N1333Q-8G work fine. The lowest price online is currently about $84 (￥8400) for two 8GB DIMMs but I found some refurbished for $70 (￥6980) a piece on Yahoo Auctions.
Indeed, it works perfectly:
32GB RAM in my iMac - IT WORKS!
I purchased four modules from Amazon at £40 each
8GB Module - DDR3 1333MHz
Part Number: KTA-MB1333/8G
I fitted them last night and checked the system and it was ALL OK!
TBH, watching the System Memory usage in the Activity Monitor, the _kernel used to consume around 400MB with most of the applications (chrome with several tabs, iTunes, Picasa, Dreamweaver, iMovie) consuming around the 500MB mark and the pretty little pie chart indicator used to mainly be yellow with a dash of red, blue and (if i was lucky) green but now the _kernel consumes around 1GB and the pie chart is mainly green with a dash of yellow. So i am guessing/hoping less swapping will occur and this will speed up some application performance. I did not take any notice of the page ins and page outs but lets see if i notice any great performance difference!
I do know Amazon are selling more of these modules with an increased price of around £47 each. Now to get rid of my four 2GB Hynix modules...
I purchased four modules from Amazon at £40 each
8GB Module - DDR3 1333MHz
Part Number: KTA-MB1333/8G
I fitted them last night and checked the system and it was ALL OK!
TBH, watching the System Memory usage in the Activity Monitor, the _kernel used to consume around 400MB with most of the applications (chrome with several tabs, iTunes, Picasa, Dreamweaver, iMovie) consuming around the 500MB mark and the pretty little pie chart indicator used to mainly be yellow with a dash of red, blue and (if i was lucky) green but now the _kernel consumes around 1GB and the pie chart is mainly green with a dash of yellow. So i am guessing/hoping less swapping will occur and this will speed up some application performance. I did not take any notice of the page ins and page outs but lets see if i notice any great performance difference!
I do know Amazon are selling more of these modules with an increased price of around £47 each. Now to get rid of my four 2GB Hynix modules...
A note of warning / a question regarding stability
Following the advice in this thread I bought four sticks of the Kingston RAM recommended and tested by davidnui: KVR1333D3S9/8G
Coming from 8GB, the new RAM has made Lightroom's develop module much more responsive, and now I can easily have a few Adobe apps open with large files at the same time as I'm developing a website on a remote server.
However, whilst I haven't had any stability issues when I'm using the computer, I am finding that the computer frequently refuses to awake from sleep.
Please note that I'm not necessarily claiming that the frequent failures to wake from sleep are caused by the new RAM, but there certainly appears to be a correlation which I think it's worth telling other potential upgraders about, and which I'm keen to get to the bottom of.
Is this something that could likely be traced back to the new RAM? If so is it worth trying to run just two 8GB sticks (thus sticking to Apple's published maximum)?
Any other suggestions on trying to determine what might be the cause?
Following the advice in this thread I bought four sticks of the Kingston RAM recommended and tested by davidnui: KVR1333D3S9/8G
Coming from 8GB, the new RAM has made Lightroom's develop module much more responsive, and now I can easily have a few Adobe apps open with large files at the same time as I'm developing a website on a remote server.
However, whilst I haven't had any stability issues when I'm using the computer, I am finding that the computer frequently refuses to awake from sleep.
Please note that I'm not necessarily claiming that the frequent failures to wake from sleep are caused by the new RAM, but there certainly appears to be a correlation which I think it's worth telling other potential upgraders about, and which I'm keen to get to the bottom of.
Is this something that could likely be traced back to the new RAM? If so is it worth trying to run just two 8GB sticks (thus sticking to Apple's published maximum)?
Any other suggestions on trying to determine what might be the cause?
Sorry you are having this issue. Have you tried running a memory test to verify that the new memory is good? I haven't had this issue, but I had kernel panics. Then I ran the memory tests to find out that my first batch of memory was bad. Once I swapped with good memory, the issue went away.
I hadn't, so thanks for the suggestion.
I just ran Rember, which other forum members had talked about in this thread, and all tests were passed.
I started it whilst I had other apps running though, so only 22GB of my 32GB were available. So I'll run it again overnight after having booted up 'clean' and see how it goes then.
UPDATE: Ran Rember again on a Guest account after booting up in Safe mode, and it was able to access over 30,000MB of memory. Passed all tests.
Of course since I first posted about my computer's occasional failure to wake from sleep it hasn't happened since.
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Hello everyone! My first post here, im getting nervous here!
I have a Late 2009 iMac myself and I have been wondering the same thing for the longest time, saved up some cash, and splurged for two 8GB memory sticks. Originally I had 2GB sticks in all four memory slots (8GB total). I took two of the 2GB sticks out and replaced them with the two 8GB sticks and... CHANGEO PRESTO!! 8+8+2+2= 20GB!!! It worked! Computer started up in under 18 seconds as usual and no errors have taken place! No reason I could replace the other two slots with 8GB if I already broke the 16GB barrier that everyone is skeptical of, 20GB is plenty for now, but only thing is my *GB sticks are 1333Mhz and my other two 2GB sticks are 1066mhz. With that being said the computer runs at 1066mhz not 1333mhz, selecting the lower of the two. But I believe if all four slots are replaced with 1333mhz it will run at 1333mhz. Alas, 20Gb of Ram will do me just fine for now! Hope this helps!
I bought it on ebay right here, SUPER CHEAP! Only $89.99 for two 8GB's!!!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/250961364716?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
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I have a late 2009 27" iMac i5 and I purchased this same memory upgrade. However, I did not have as much luck as you did. :-(
My iMac has 4 slots, all of which were filled by Apple for a total of 8GB of memory (4x2GB). I was hoping that I could do the same as you and just replace two of the Apple chips with the two 8GB chips from the upgrade. However, for some reason, my iMac does not like having both types of RAM chips mixed.
For example, if I install the two 2GB chips on top banks and two 8GB chips on bottom banks, it only recognizes 4GB total memory. So I thought maybe I had my banks improperly paired. So I installed the two 8GB chips on the same side and the two 2GB chips on the other side. No go.
No matter how I matched them up, the most my iMac would recognize was 10GB. Strangely, it would recognize of the 8GB chips and one of the 2GB chips.
The only thing I could do is completely remove the Apple chips and put the two 8GB chips side by side. Now my iMac recognizes a total of 16GB of memory. SO at least my iMac is recognizing the new chips, but it looks like I can't mix and match them like you did.
Just to make sure, how did you arrange the chips in your iMac? When laying my iMac down (screen facing down), I have a total of 4 slots (2 on each side).
Now I'm wondering if I order another set of 8GB chips if I can get a total of 32GB or if I should just stick with 16GB? Is there a difference between the i5 and i7, was thinking maybe that had something to do with it?
I'm pretty sure you shouldn't mix different ram. Your stock Apple ram is a different speed, so pairing it with 1333 is causing the issues. I would stick with the 16gb, and order the same ram as you did previously.
Well, I initially thought that as well, but there were several reports in here from those who successfully mixed the ram without issue... so I thought it was worth a try. At any rate, I've been running the 16GB without issue since I removed the stock ram. I think it should be plenty and will probably just stick with that.
With 8GB, my iMac was often slowing down when running Lightroom and iMovie/Final Cut, but now things are running smoothly.
I have a Nov. 2009 27" i7 iMac. After reading all three pages of this thread, it would appear that 1333MHz 8GB RAM sticks will function properly and reliably in the long term on my machine. But to be sure of this, I would like to know if the specs of this OWC RAM (currently $150 for 2 sticks of 8GB) are truly compatible with my 2009 iMac?
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/1333DDR3S16P/
Thank you!
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/1333DDR3S16P/
Thank you!
Anyone know of a cheaper place to get 1333 8GB sticks? OWC ends up being $75 a stick, I found a few on eBay a lot cheaper that are Crucial/Patriot but not sure I trust the eBay route.
I bought these. They are $59 each stick. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148468
Thanks for the link, I may go with that especially if it worked in your late 2009 iMac. That would end up being $240 for 32Gb vs $300.
I found a good deal on this, $40 per 8GB stick. it's Patriot Memory.
PC3-10600 (1333MHz) CL9 DDR3 SODIMM Patriot Mac Series Laptop RAM
All that matches up with the specs on the one you listed and OWC, so it should work right? There's not anything else I'm missing? Do you have any experience with Patriot?
Thanks so much for all the input!
Well, I don't live in the US (where OWC is located), which is why I posted here, so I could get feedback from people who have used that exact memory in a late 2009 iMac i7. Despite the great OWC return policy, the fact is I must pay international shipping (to Japan) both ways. I'm only going to buy if I have a near guarantee a give set of SIMMs are going to work.
As to the subsequent posts placed after my post about cheaper prices on EBAY, I am obviously game for a cheaper price, but I need to know that RAM is definitely going to work in a late 2009 27" i7 iMac before I buy it. You guys in the US have it easy because return shipping is cheap. But we Americans living outside the US have to be more cautious.
So if there's anyone with experience using those RAM SIMMs in a late 2009 iMac, I would love to hear from you.
Thanks.
See my post above (#52), this CFD Elixir RAM works perfectly. I bought mine refurbished on Yahoo Auctions and have had zero problems. The retail price has risen slightly in the last few weeks.
I recommend buying from Amazon Japan if you're worried about returns. Refunds and exchanges are quite easy with them. That said, again, this RAM works on the Late 2009 i7 iMac.
You are the man! I purchased the 16GB kit (the one specified in your link) from Amazon Japan. It worked out to be about US$100 equivalent, and shipping was free. The 16GB kit arrived today. Prior to installing it I ran GeekBench. I then ran GeekBench again after the 1333MHz 16GB RAM was installed. The additional RAM speed boosted my overall score over 10000. Have a look:
8GB RAM @ 1067MHz
http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/2020903
16GB RAM @ 1333MHz
http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/2020945
Thanks again!
Just to be extra sure before buying
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LAYH3K/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
two of these for 32G will work on iMac 27, late 2009 core I7 2.8G (iMac11,1)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LAYH3K/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
two of these for 32G will work on iMac 27, late 2009 core I7 2.8G (iMac11,1)
Hi, I know this is an older post but could someone help me answer this question? From what I've learned from this thread - the following RAM should work (late 2009 iMac). Can anyone confirm or deny? http://www.ebay.com/itm/16GB-DDR3-P...hash=item56478216ab:m:mnf3C3_ldVAnK8cITlxQBag
Yes, that ram will work with your machine. Just an FYI. I would test the ram once it is delivered. Once that is clear, then take note of any odd occupancies in OSX. Just so you can exchange the ram promptly if you have issues. If you have any further questions, you can PM me.
All I can say is that the 1333MHz RAM I put in my Nov. 2009 QuadCore 2.8MHz iMac has been running fine from June 2013 until now. Makes no sense to use slower RAM when the 1333MHz stuff works and gives a tiny boost too, without any overheating problems at all.
Hello. I'd like to max out the RAM on my late 2009 iMac 27" 2,8 GHz Intel Core i7. Currently have 12 Go 1067 MHz DDR3 from when I bought it. I've read that @ECJ used Crucial memory that has no shipping cost from France. Could you kindly check that those would work http://www.crucial.fr/fra/fr/ct8g3s1339mceu ? Should I buy 1 first and test it before buying the other 3? Thanks
That model you have listed will work. I would test 1 then purchase the other three. That model is the updated version of model I bought a few years ago.
Apple's website tells you how to install RAM in iMacs:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191#2
"These computers will not start up if only a single DIMM is installed in any bottom slot; these computers should operate normally with a single DIMM installed in any top slot. Core Duo iMac computers should operate normally with a single DIMM installed in any slot, top or bottom. ("Top" and "bottom" slots refer to the orientation of the slots in the pictures below. "Top" refers to the slots closest to the display; "bottom" refers to the slots closest to the stand.)"
So according to Apple, the display-side slots should be considered first, then the stand-side slots should be filled second.
However, on my 2010 iMac, the stand-side slots are shown first in About This Mac and System Profiler as DIMM0, and display-side slots are shown as DIMM1. I suggest you put the 8GBs in the stand-side slots and note which DIMM they are shown as in System Profiler. For your scenario, 8GBs should be in DIMM0 while the 2GBs should be in DIMM1.