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6GB in MacBook (Pro); Yes it works. - 8GB... well...

OMG, this machine so freaking sweet with 6GB, user profile starts up so fast. It shows up at 1067 in system profiler, I also setup windows 7 64 in bootcamp to test and is recognized there also. When I quoted the ram it was like 500+ but has dropped down to 389.00 (link to purchase) http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT51264BC1067

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emotta said:
has anyone tried 8gb yet on the unibody???
Click to expand...

8GB doesn't work except on the new Unibody 17" MacBook Pro. It has been proven many times over but no one knows the exact cause. Hardware supports it, but it seems that firmware doesn't.
 
I bought the base model uMBP, but can use all the RAM I can get my hands on. I've got a 2gb stick coming from OWC, so I'll have 3gb total until I can get 6gbs or 8gbs (if that gets sorted for the 15"). I was just waiting (for prices to come down) to get a full 6gb - but I've had tons of page-outs when running photoshop , my html editor, and firefox for testing, so I went a head and bought the 2gb stick.

Could some of the page outs be caused by my slower hdd? I am confused, because even though 2gb isn't that much for what I do, there still was 'plenty' of inactive memory the times I checked. With a gig of page outs by the end of the afternoon, I would have expected there to be no inactive and no free memory.

I'll move up to 6 or 8 gigs when I can afford it, but in the mean time, would a faster internal drive somehow help reduce my page-outs, or does that only have to do with available RAM?
 
InLikeALion said:
I bought the base model uMBP, but can use all the RAM I can get my hands on. I've got a 2gb stick coming from OWC, so I'll have 3gb total until I can get 6gbs or 8gbs (if that gets sorted for the 15"). I was just waiting (for prices to come down) to get a full 6gb - but I've had tons of page-outs when running photoshop , my html editor, and firefox for testing, so I went a head and bought the 2gb stick.

Could some of the page outs be caused by my slower hdd? I am confused, because even though 2gb isn't that much for what I do, there still was 'plenty' of inactive memory the times I checked. With a gig of page outs by the end of the afternoon, I would have expected there to be no inactive and no free memory.

I'll move up to 6 or 8 gigs when I can afford it, but in the mean time, would a faster internal drive somehow help reduce my page-outs, or does that only have to do with available RAM?
Click to expand...

Paging is only because your actual ram is too limited for what you want to do. Paging basically means it is using your hard drive as ram space. Remember, hard drives are hundreds of times slower then ram. For you, more ram would be better then a faster hard drive.
 
Thanks! That's naturally what I assumed, but because when I looked at iStat there was ~ 500mb of inactive memory that it wasn't being fully utilized, or that lack of RAM might not be the issue. Perhaps by the time dashboard initialized the processes that were causing page outs had already returned the memory to inactive? Oh well
 
I'm just thrilled to have 4 gigs of RAM

Just got a new MacBook a couple months ago, and I think having 4 gigs of RAM is amazing, especially since my old iBook had less than 1 gig (I think it was 768). I'm an extremely demanding user and I'm happy with 4 gigs...I'm scared to think what kind of power users people who need 6 gigs must be like. Still, it's good to know this is an option if it ever becomes necessary. Will 6 gigs work in the regular MacBook (2.4" ghz, latest model, top of the MacBook line), or just in the MacBook Pro?
 
democrat2theend said:
Just got a new MacBook a couple months ago, and I think having 4 gigs of RAM is amazing, especially since my old iBook had less than 1 gig (I think it was 768). I'm an extremely demanding user and I'm happy with 4 gigs...I'm scared to think what kind of power users people who need 6 gigs must be like. Still, it's good to know this is an option if it ever becomes necessary. Will 6 gigs work in the regular MacBook (2.4" ghz, latest model, top of the MacBook line), or just in the MacBook Pro?
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It will work in the new Unibody MacBooks. And 4GB of ram is not enough, not even close for me. 6GB to 8GB is a must, but the price is too insane right now. When they dip below $200s, I'd get some.
 
i think the 15" is officially up to 4gigs.. :D
so good luck with that.

from the apple site. macbook pro compare

unibody 15":
2GB (two 1GB) or 4GB (two 2GB) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
Option: Up to 4GB DDR3

unibody 17":
4GB (two 2GB) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
Option: Up to 8GB DDR3

on the side, they also dont offer 256 SSD for the 15" :)
 
ayeying said:
8GB doesn't work except on the new Unibody 17" MacBook Pro. It has been proven many times over but no one knows the exact cause. Hardware supports it, but it seems that firmware doesn't.
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Everyone knows the exact cause, Apple simply but a bios limiter on it, nothing amazing, they're just being annyoing.
 
kastenbrust said:
Everyone knows the exact cause, Apple simply but a bios limiter on it, nothing amazing, they're just being annyoing.
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This is not necessarily true. The only time we know for certain that Apple limited the firmware (Core Solo/Duo-Calistoga Macs) the computer would not even boot with more than 2 gb RAM. In this case, the computer boots just fine, and runs just fine with 8 gb - until you exceed 4 gb of RAM used.
 
Ploki said:
i think the 15" is officially up to 4gigs.. :D
so good luck with that.
Click to expand...

While this is undoubtedly true, it still could be a bug and not a feature. That is to say, while it might be of lowest priority to them for that stated reason, it still might be something they aren't aware of and could view as a problem. Just because they don't officially (or unofficially) support something doesn't absolutely mean that it's not something they won't fix.

Cave Man said:
This is not necessarily true. The only time we know for certain that Apple limited the firmware (Core Solo/Duo-Calistoga Macs) the computer would not even boot with more than 2 gb RAM. In this case, the computer boots just fine, and runs just fine with 8 gb - until you exceed 4 gb of RAM used.
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That's right -- all of our conjecture up to this point has been completely reasonable, but no proof of anything has really been shown.
 
darwinian said:
That's right -- all of our conjecture up to this point has been completely reasonable, but no proof of anything has really been shown.
Click to expand...

I still think the problem lies with the vRAM confusing the system into thinking there's 8.256 (or 8.512) gb of RAM installed, which would put it over the 8 gb limits of the Santa Rosa and 9400m chipsets (which both have 33-bit memory controllers). If I could get my hands on a Santa Rosa MacBook, I could test this hypothesis. You don't see this with Windows-based PCs with SR because Windows subtracts the vRAM from the available system RAM, thus the 8 gb limit is not passed. (It also means there's something "special" about the 17" 9400m MBP.)
 
i doubt they will let the 15" ram go free until the 17" sales go properly up.
thats one of the main differences between the two, apart form more screen real-estate :)
 
yeah, 6 GB works fine, really fine. I can't speak from experience about 8GB, but the people that have tried say that even though the computer boots and recognizes the 8GB, the system does not run smoothly. This thread is really helpful and also one over at mactalk australia.
 
6GB in my new Uni Body Macbook Pro, FAIL

I purchased a 4GB chip from OWC and installed it on my Uni body Macbook Pro (2.53 ) today. The system profile recognized the 6GB, but I immediately had application crashes in Safari, Photoshop and Illustrator. I restarted, zapped the PRAM but the app crashes continued. Finally after the OS crashed I decided to put the original 2GB chip back.

My question is should I ask OWC for a replacement chip and try again, or just ask for my money back?

Thank you in advance for your input.
 
shoreline314 said:
I purchased a 4GB chip from OWC and installed it on my Uni body Macbook Pro (2.53 ) today. The system profile recognized the 6GB, but I immediately had application crashes in Safari, Photoshop and Illustrator. I restarted, zapped the PRAM but the app crashes continued. Finally after the OS crashed I decided to put the original 2GB chip back.

My question is should I ask OWC for a replacement chip and try again, or just ask for my money back?

Thank you in advance for your input.
Click to expand...

1) try switching the DIMMs
2) it could be the finicky nature of the 9400M chipset that we've been hearing about
3) tell OWC exactly what's happening and try to get a replacement.
 
Thanks darwinian. So I put the 4 GB chip on the bottom this time and everything seems stable so far. I did notice that there is a slight lag on start and launching programs. Is that typical when installing more RAM?
 
I'm interested of 6GB ram, but since some users are having problems, I maybe wait for a while. 4GB is enough for now.
 
does OS X have "turbo RAM" Like windows vista, where you could use your flash drive for more RAM?
 
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