Transcend Debuts 128GB RAM Upgrades for 2013 Mac Pro

[MacRumors]

Transcend has introduced new RAM updates for the 2013 Mac Pro, allowing users to bring the total amount of memory in their machines to 128 GB, double Apple and OWC's maximum 64 GBs of RAM.

Transcend's DDR3 RDIMMs are available in 16 and 32 GB modules to boost Apple's 2013 Mac Pro machines to 64, 96, or 128 GB of memory, but its 1333 Mhz 32 GB modules run more slowly than the 16 GB 1866 Mhz memory modules it offers, along with those from OWC and Apple.

While the slower speed of the 32 GB modules may be an issue in certain situations, the possibility of bumping RAM to 128 GB will outweigh the speed loss for many power users.

"The new Mac Pro 2013 is advertised to support up to 64GB of memory, and we understand that pro users running applications that place high demands on RAM have a need to meet and most likely exceed this threshold," said Angus Wu, Director of Research and Development at Transcend. "For this reason, we have developed and fully tested higher density modules to give users the option of raising their Mac Pro system memory to the advertised 64GB right up to 128GB."

According to the company, the memory modules are easy to install, guaranteed to work with the Mac Pro, and come equipped with a Limited Lifetime Warranty. Pricing has yet to be announced.

Update 3/17 9:50 PT: Transcend has released pricing for its RAM upgrades, with the 64 GB kit priced at $980 and the 128 GB kit priced at $2480.

Article Link: Transcend Debuts 128GB RAM Upgrades for 2013 Mac Pro

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

That was fast.

 

[pgiguere1]

Well, that's a lot of RAM.

Meanwhile, the entry-level MacBook Air came with 2GB RAM until 2012...

 

[asterizk]

Wow.

 

[bekiil]

Helpful if you run pages and iMovie

 

[luckydcxx]

Makes the 1 GB in the iphone seem just a tad too small.

 

[spoonie1972]

welcome to the capability of the 2009 Mac Pro. (that, only now, can actually utilize all the ram with 10.9).

 

[Mac-Addict]

It's seriously scary how fast technology is moving nowadays, go back 5 years and talk about a computer with 128gb of ram and people would tell you you're chatting rubbish.

 

[flux73]

Wow. 128 GB RAM makes me wish I had a profession that lets me make use of that much memory.

 

[Commy1]

Hooooolllyyyyyyyy Mackinaw!!

I'm happy with 16GB...

 

[chirpie]

It's seriously scary how fast technology is moving nowadays, go back 5 years and talk about a computer with 128gb of ram and people would tell you you're chatting rubbish.

Eh, the 2009 Mac pro has been capable of 128GB for a few years now, although only recently was the 96GB RAM limit up'ed in Mavericks.

EDIT: spoonie1972 beat me to it.

 

[mdridwan47]

Well..

 

[perplx]

While 128GB sounds like a lot you have to remember that the new Xeons supports up to 768GB. The Mac pro only having 4 ram slots is rather limiting.

 

[waterskier2007]

Honest question. What type of profession/task would warrant the use of 128 GB onboard RAM vs. GPU RAM?

 

[dukeblue219]

Honest question. What type of profession/task would warrant the use of 128 GB onboard RAM vs. GPU RAM?

Large three-dimensional engineering simulation tools for one thing. Even if the app supports GPU processing I am not aware of any GPU-based systems that have anywhere near that much RAM.

 

[Sophie.]

Interesting, but what I'm wondering is, how is DDR3 being that dense? Is it buffered or something in some way that normal RAM can't hold that much on each module? I thought increased memory capacity per module was a selling point of DDR4.

Can someone please explain to me how this works?

 

[Lionel Messi]

Only 30 years ago the maximum RAM you could get was 128KB. I'm guessing in 30 years time we'll see 128TB RAM.

 

[Berserker-UK]

Honest question. What type of profession/task would warrant the use of 128 GB onboard RAM vs. GPU RAM?

Virtualisation - you could run 32 virtual systems with 4GB each, without having to overprovision memory (though you'd obviously have to overprovision CPUs).

However, there are undoubtedly cheaper ways of doing this!

 

[prestonkd]

Honest question. What type of profession/task would warrant the use of 128 GB onboard RAM vs. GPU RAM?

Composite video editing where you are stacking layers and layers of video and effects to achieve a result. Most programs use RAM to render these frame by frame for preview and export. The more RAM you have, the larger your buffer is for looking at the result of what you are doing while working and faster render time when you are done.

 

[danbor]

Honest question. What type of profession/task would warrant the use of 128 GB onboard RAM vs. GPU RAM?

After Effects and Photoshop.

 

[SoAnyway]

128GB of RAM makes the 16GB in my iMac seem so puny now.

 

[napabar]

Cool! Now a Mac can have exactly 1 million times as much RAM as the original 128K model!

 

[e-coli]

Honest question. What type of profession/task would warrant the use of 128 GB onboard RAM vs. GPU RAM?

With Pixar's new lighting system, rendering each frame requires 96 GB of RAM.

 

[iRalph]

Makes the 1 GB in the iphone seem just a tad too small.

And it makes the 1 GB of RAM in the iPad Air a joke

 

[hamis92]

Just look about 10 years back and a 120 GB hard drive was considered spacious. Technology has advanced a lot since that. Impressive.