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

Stridder44 said:
Awesome thread. :D Good info!

I'm sure this has been covered already, but I had read that using 8 GB of RAM has caused weird problems with some people's MBP's (and using 6GB fixed it and everything would run fine). Is this still the case? I've been considering putting 8 GB in my Penryn MBP.
Click to expand...

It's specific to what models. Newer systems run 8GB fine, older (including Penryn) seems to have trouble with 8GB. Not sure if the 64-bit kernel or Snow Leopard has fixed these issues. I don't have a MBP anymore so I cannot test.
 
ayeying said:
It's specific to what models. Newer systems run 8GB fine, older (including Penryn) seems to have trouble with 8GB. Not sure if the 64-bit kernel or Snow Leopard has fixed these issues. I don't have a MBP anymore so I cannot test.
Click to expand...

i have a Penryn available to test, but no funds to purchase the memory. if anybody wishes to donate i would gladly test :p :cool:
 
mathov said:
Hello i have exactly same macbook pro but with 6GB so can you confirm if i bought other one 4gb my macbook pro both on 64bit he work with 8GB?

Thanks
Click to expand...

it seems but kiss goodbye Bootcamp. I was considering updating to 8gb in a Penryn 2,4 MBP too. But after seen this trouble i ain't gonna do it. Perhaps 6gb. I do use Bootcamp,

Mathov, you can confirm that a 4,1 MBP works well under bootcamp with 6g RAM?
 
Mumstalker said:
it seems but kiss goodbye Bootcamp. I was considering updating to 8gb in a Penryn 2,4 MBP too. But after seen this trouble i ain't gonna do it. Perhaps 6gb. I do use Bootcamp,

Mathov, you can confirm that a 4,1 MBP works well under bootcamp with 6g RAM?
Click to expand...

Why would Boot Camp be an issue with 8GB or whatnot? I can confirm that 4,1 MBP works with 6GB. I originally had a 2.4GHz/6GB/8600GT 256MB 15" MacBook Pro. I still have the 6GB ram, it's in the iMac.
 
Mumstalker said:
it seems but kiss goodbye Bootcamp. I was considering updating to 8gb in a Penryn 2,4 MBP too. But after seen this trouble i ain't gonna do it. Perhaps 6gb. I do use Bootcamp,

Mathov, you can confirm that a 4,1 MBP works well under bootcamp with 6g RAM?
Click to expand...

i can t confirm because i dont use bootcamp but 6GB on snow leopard work really well so maybe 8gb is ok because its a efi 64 and with 8gb i will have dual channel
 
Alright, i've read about 17-18 pages and now I'm just gonna post...
I have 2.6 ghz Macbook Pro 17" (not unibody).
I want to install at least 6gb...
the only kit that i see is at macsales.com
but i am reading a lot about Crucial.
Should I just opt for the 6gb or go with something from crucial?
if so which ones do i get?
thanks.
 
ayeying said:
Why would Boot Camp be an issue with 8GB or whatnot? I can confirm that 4,1 MBP works with 6GB. I originally had a 2.4GHz/6GB/8600GT 256MB 15" MacBook Pro. I still have the 6GB ram, it's in the iMac.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm confused by this too. Why/how would this affect Boot Camp in any way?
 
desertintheshap said:
Alright, i've read about 17-18 pages and now I'm just gonna post...
I have 2.6 ghz Macbook Pro 17" (not unibody).
I want to install at least 6gb...
the only kit that i see is at macsales.com
but i am reading a lot about Crucial.
Should I just opt for the 6gb or go with something from crucial?
if so which ones do i get?
thanks.
Click to expand...

You can get it anywhere... provided its a 200-pin, DDR2 667MHz SO-DIMM.

btw, I just remember that I used to use Boot Camp with 6GB before. It works. I still don't know why it won't work according to that user.
 
ayeying said:
You can get it anywhere... provided its a 200-pin, DDR2 667MHz SO-DIMM.

btw, I just remember that I used to use Boot Camp with 6GB before. It works. I still don't know why it won't work according to that user.
Click to expand...

I never said 6 GIGS won't work in bootcamp. 6 GB of RAM will probably work.. 8GB of RAM in a MacBook Pro 4,1 (non-unibody with 2.5GHz Penryn) will not work with bootcamp.
 
LkBurn said:
I never said 6 GIGS won't work in bootcamp. 6 GB of RAM will probably work.. 8GB of RAM in a MacBook Pro 4,1 (non-unibody with 2.5GHz Penryn) will not work with bootcamp.
Click to expand...


if you boot camp with windows xp 64 bit no problem i think but i know xp 64bit isnt stable
 
ayeying said:
Why would Boot Camp be an issue with 8GB or whatnot? I can confirm that 4,1 MBP works with 6GB. I originally had a 2.4GHz/6GB/8600GT 256MB 15" MacBook Pro. I still have the 6GB ram, it's in the iMac.
Click to expand...

yup, same model here, 6 GB is lightning fast, 8 GB however was a pain. I haven't tried 8 GB since updating to SL as I don't have the other 4GB stick.
 
LkBurn said:
I never said 6 GIGS won't work in bootcamp. 6 GB of RAM will probably work.. 8GB of RAM in a MacBook Pro 4,1 (non-unibody with 2.5GHz Penryn) will not work with bootcamp.
Click to expand...

6GB doesn't probably work, it does work. It's been proven and tested many times over.

8GB is not an issue with Boot Camp, especially for the 4,1 Penryn. That's a firmware issue and has problems within OS X and Windows. Boot Camp is nothing more but a partitioning tool and a set of drivers for Windows. The firmware controls the EFI/BIOS emulation.

Furthermore, PAE isn't enabled on XP or XP Professional on default and I never successfully used PAE on XP. If you want a 32-bit PAE enabled OS, use Windows Server 2003 Standard.
 
ayeying said:
6GB doesn't probably work, it does work. It's been proven and tested many times over.

8GB is not an issue with Boot Camp, especially for the 4,1 Penryn. That's a firmware issue and has problems within OS X and Windows. Boot Camp is nothing more but a partitioning tool and a set of drivers for Windows. The firmware controls the EFI/BIOS emulation.

Furthermore, PAE isn't enabled on XP or XP Professional on default and I never successfully used PAE on XP. If you want a 32-bit PAE enabled OS, use Windows Server 2003 Standard.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Boot Camp is just a fancy GUI partitioning tool.

Also, PAE is retarded. Do things the right way and go 64-bit.
 
ayeying said:
6GB doesn't probably work, it does work. It's been proven and tested many times over.

8GB is not an issue with Boot Camp, especially for the 4,1 Penryn. That's a firmware issue and has problems within OS X and Windows. Boot Camp is nothing more but a partitioning tool and a set of drivers for Windows. The firmware controls the EFI/BIOS emulation.

Furthermore, PAE isn't enabled on XP or XP Professional on default and I never successfully used PAE on XP. If you want a 32-bit PAE enabled OS, use Windows Server 2003 Standard.
Click to expand...

Okay, there is no need to hold your nose high in the air. I said 6GB probably does work with OS X and Windows because I personally haven't tested 6GB of RAM. I've only had 8GB. Now, Bootcamp with successfully partition your HD, but once you try to boot into a windows install or partition, then it will lag insanely bad. This is from personal experience, I couldn't even get it to display menus to setup windows xp/vista/7. Now 8GB works fine and dandy in OS X with a 64 bit kernel. So, hoo-rah! It does not work otherwise trying to boot into another OS. kthx
 
Mbp 5,1 6gb

I have 6GB in my Late 2008/Early 2009 5,1 2.53 Macbook Pro. I tried multiple Hynix modules from MacSales/OWC and no luck. They were great to work with and finally sent me Micron and I have no problem since. I run 10.62 and boot to 64bit.

Running large VMs it would be great to have 8GB but it seems there are very mixed reports/opinions on that.
 
to synthesize what I've read in this entire thread...

OK before I go out any buy anything, I want to make sure my understanding on this is up to date:

I have a 4,1 penryn 15" 2.4GHz MBP. Currently with the stock 2GB, and in the last 24 hours I caught it swapping 2GB and performance wasn't even that bad compared to what it has been in the last 6 months... definitely need an upgrade.

the issue with the penryns and 8gb is presumably firmware, and to date no firmware updates have been released that fix the problem. So even in 10.6.2, if I install 8GB, when it addresses >4 everything's going to freak. So I should probably just buy 1 4GB stick for a total of 5?

two questions:
1) I occasionally bootcamp into XP, I don't know what version but I'm pretty sure it's entirely 32-bit. Should still be fine with 5GB, or should I swap ram sticks so I only ever have 2GB when I'm using XP?

2) Will there be any performance advantage to getting 800MHz ram instead of the 667 that the MBP calls for? would it even work, or just stick with 667? (on newegg right now the 800MHz 8GB kit is actually $10 cheaper than the 667MHz...)

Thanks guys,

Brian
 
bsizz234 said:
OK before I go out any buy anything, I want to make sure my understanding on this is up to date:

I have a 4,1 penryn 15" 2.4GHz MBP. Currently with the stock 2GB, and in the last 24 hours I caught it swapping 2GB and performance wasn't even that bad compared to what it has been in the last 6 months... definitely need an upgrade.

the issue with the penryns and 8gb is presumably firmware, and to date no firmware updates have been released that fix the problem. So even in 10.6.2, if I install 8GB, when it addresses >4 everything's going to freak. So I should probably just buy 1 4GB stick for a total of 5?

two questions:
1) I occasionally bootcamp into XP, I don't know what version but I'm pretty sure it's entirely 32-bit. Should still be fine with 5GB, or should I swap ram sticks so I only ever have 2GB when I'm using XP?

2) Will there be any performance advantage to getting 800MHz ram instead of the 667 that the MBP calls for? would it even work, or just stick with 667? (on newegg right now the 800MHz 8GB kit is actually $10 cheaper than the 667MHz...)

Thanks guys,

Brian
Click to expand...

I don't know if 5 works, although I don't see why it shouldn't. 6 does, 8 doesn't really. You might not need any more than 4.

1. It should be fine, but Windows will only see 3.25gb

2. 800MHz won't be any faster, but it should work. Look for RAM with lower latency instead if you can (although I don't know if that is recognized either).
 
bsizz234 said:
OK before I go out any buy anything, I want to make sure my understanding on this is up to date:

I have a 4,1 penryn 15" 2.4GHz MBP. Currently with the stock 2GB, and in the last 24 hours I caught it swapping 2GB and performance wasn't even that bad compared to what it has been in the last 6 months... definitely need an upgrade.

the issue with the penryns and 8gb is presumably firmware, and to date no firmware updates have been released that fix the problem. So even in 10.6.2, if I install 8GB, when it addresses >4 everything's going to freak. So I should probably just buy 1 4GB stick for a total of 5?

two questions:
1) I occasionally bootcamp into XP, I don't know what version but I'm pretty sure it's entirely 32-bit. Should still be fine with 5GB, or should I swap ram sticks so I only ever have 2GB when I'm using XP?

2) Will there be any performance advantage to getting 800MHz ram instead of the 667 that the MBP calls for? would it even work, or just stick with 667? (on newegg right now the 800MHz 8GB kit is actually $10 cheaper than the 667MHz...)

Thanks guys,

Brian
Click to expand...

1) You'll see more like,y 2.98GB instead of 3.25GB. Its really a 32-bit limitation. Don't bother with XP 64-bit, its a disaster. If you want 64-bit, go with at least Vista or above.

2) It probably won't work. I'm not 100% sure. I tested with 667MHz modules and I still have the 4GB with me in the iMac. They both use 667MHz instead of 800Mhz. You'll probably want to fork out the extra 10 dollars just so it works.

Furthermore, the laptop you have, Penryn 4,1 2.4GHz is the same one I had when I tested this a while back.
 
m85476585 said:
I don't know if 5 works, although I don't see why it shouldn't. 6 does, 8 doesn't really. You might not need any more than 4.

1. It should be fine, but Windows will only see 3.25gb

2. 800MHz won't be any faster, but it should work. Look for RAM with lower latency instead if you can (although I don't know if that is recognized either).
Click to expand...

ayeying said:
1) You'll see more like,y 2.98GB instead of 3.25GB. Its really a 32-bit limitation. Don't bother with XP 64-bit, its a disaster. If you want 64-bit, go with at least Vista or above.

2) It probably won't work. I'm not 100% sure. I tested with 667MHz modules and I still have the 4GB with me in the iMac. They both use 667MHz instead of 800Mhz. You'll probably want to fork out the extra 10 dollars just so it works.

Furthermore, the laptop you have, Penryn 4,1 2.4GHz is the same one I had when I tested this a while back.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice guys. Sounds like I'll have to be content with swapping a 1gb stick for a 4gb stick until I'm ready to get a new machine... famous last words.
 
You can also swap one of the 1gb for a 2gb if you need even more, but if you only have 2gb right now, you probably don't need much more than 4gb.
 
m85476585 said:
You can also swap one of the 1gb for a 2gb if you need even more, but if you only have 2gb right now, you probably don't need much more than 4gb.
Click to expand...

I was thinking that... but buying that stick is basically $40 for 1 more gig, which you're right, I probably don't really need... I'll just save that $40 for an i5 mbp. :rolleyes:
 
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