My March '09 15" uMBP (2.66GHz) reports in System Profiler that it's a 5,1. So this means that I can't run more than 6 gigs of RAM?
John
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1.8 EFI firmware update gives 8Gb possibility to MacbookPro 5.1 ?
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My March '09 15" uMBP (2.66GHz) reports in System Profiler that it's a 5,1. So this means that I can't run more than 6 gigs of RAM?
John
march 09 uMBP can use 8GB ram.
Understood. I've been running 8 gigs of Gskill in my machine and it works great.
My point was that a blanket "5,1 can't run more than 6 gigs" statement is inaccurate without a qualifier for March09 released machines.
John
...according to DAMNiatx?
According to the 8 gigs of RAM I have in my March 09 15".
John
...according to DAMNiatx?
Came on man, thats old news, you can read ayeying thread to know that.
I wish they would release an update where it would go to sleep faster. I dont really like waiting that seven seconds for the hard drive when Im in a hurry.
According to the 8 gigs of RAM I have in my March 09 15".
John
My point was that Apple never officially reported that 8GB was supported by those 5,1 machines. The only "authority" we have on this is OWC as they sell 8GB kits for those versions.
I ordered my 2.4 Ghz model in March, so it why wouldn't it have the same chipset that the 2.66 and 2.93 models were equipped with. Besides that, though, the verdict is still out on whether all of these chipsets run well with 8GB in 64-Bit mode.
It really doesn't make any sense that the same exact chipset would support a different amount of RAM. If it is a firmware issue then Apple should fix it.
If it turns out that its a hardware issue, then I find it unacceptable that a premium computer maker such as Apple would sell faulty chipsets.
Well, Apple also doesn't officially support replacing the optical drive with a 2nd hard drive, but a ton of people have also been successful at that. Apple saying one thing and the empirical data generated by people figuring out what the actual limitations are two completely different things, but both combined give a clear picture of what the capabilities of a given system really are. It never occurred to me that the March09 2.66 didn't officially support 8 gigs, because so many people on this forum had successfully performed that upgrade.
I don't know the answer to your question of whether or not your 2.4GHz machine can address 8 gigs of ram. However, if it doesn't, it's not an isolated incident in which the low end of a product refresh gets left behind. The currently available 8 gig iPod Touch didn't get the hardware refresh that the 32 and 64 enjoyed.
I had also never heard that there was a problem with running the 64 bit kernel on the March09 machines. After I upgraded to 8 gigs I switched my machine's default kernel to 64bit and it was completely stable, at least for what I was using my machine for (browsing, heavy Parallels based VM usage, Photoshop, Lightroom, etc). I didn't have one lockup or kernel panic the entire time I was running in that mode. It wasn't until I started using a DL-195 for a 2nd monitor output that I switched back to 32 bit kernel. The reason for that is that Display Link doesn't have a 64 bit native driver out yet. Once they do, I'll switch it back to 64.
John
Just to clarify: I didn't mean that there was a problem with the 64-Bit kernel. I use it myself and love it. The question is whether the MBP models that don't work well with 8GB in 32-Bit mode, do, in fact, work well with 8GB and using the 64-Bit kernel. At least one user claims that it does (see my earlier post).
That's true, but not really comparable. The 32GB and 64GB versions use completely different hardware (from the iphone 3GS) than that of the 8gig model, which actually uses the same technology used in the old ipod touch.
It's not like the entry-level MBP used the old intel chipset and the NVidia 8600 GPU of the previous generation. It used the same chipset. The only difference was the CPU.
Is the difference between a 2G Touch and a 3G as significant as the difference between an Intel and an nVidia chipset? I thought is was similar architecture with a CPU/GPU/RAM bump. 2G and 3G both use ARM procs and PowerVR gpus.
John
It's not just a speed boost, if I remember correctly. The acceleration technology and the GPU architecture were both upgraded for the third generation. I admit though that the comparison between that upgrade and the differences between Intel and the NVidia chipset is not perfect.
This update really made some alteration in the way the macbook pro treats memory.
Some people are reporting more stable system with upgrade RAM modules after the update. Like after upgrading with OEM modules the system was unable to sleep normally, always going into a deep sleep, now it sleeps normally, and other cases
Some people are reporting more stable system with upgrade RAM modules after the update. Like after upgrading with OEM modules the system was unable to sleep normally, always going into a deep sleep, now it sleeps normally, and other cases
Update: According to the post below at the Apple support forum, with the EFI update 8GB works fine in the late 2008 MBP. The owner says that 8GB on his MBP was unstable before the 1.8 EFI update, but now everything seems to be running smoothly:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2031746&start=45&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2031746&start=45&tstart=0
That's awesome! Now if they could come out with an EFI update that magically made DDR3 4 gig dimms affordable, then everyone could have it!
i just pulled the ram from my 13" and put them in my wife's 15" 2.4 late 08, does not work, works until you hit the invisible 6gb barrier and the system tanks.
slows down
slows down
Didn't the non-unibody MBPs have DDR2 ram instead of DDR3 like the unibodies?
Its your lucky day
Download SmartSleep. http://www.jinx.de/SmartSleep.html and choose Sleep. Good luck!
On Apple's website, it says the system requirements for this update are 10.5.7 or later. I have 10.5.8 and I didn't receive this in my Software Update. Is it really only for those running Snow Leopard?
Late 2008 Macbook Pro may still get to 8gb with stability
Yea i don't think this would work for you because you have the 2.4. the reports of stability with 8gb on macbook pro's occurred on the 2.53ghz and up late 2008 MBP not the 2.4.
Yea i don't think this would work for you because you have the 2.4. the reports of stability with 8gb on macbook pro's occurred on the 2.53ghz and up late 2008 MBP not the 2.4.