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6GB in MacBook (Pro); Yes it works. - 8GB... well...
- Thread starter ayeying
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Just a quick question -
I'm looking to upgrade a mid 2009 4GB 2.8GHz 5,2 17" MBP
to 6GB initially, then 8GB when I can afford the other 4GB. I've got Snow Leopard on, with a Windows 7 VM (64 bit) and Windows 7 64 bit on bootcamp
(for now).
Can
a) my OS X take 6GB - what's the performance hit for having unbalanced?
b) the 64 bit WIndows 7 VMWare VM see say 4-5GB of the 8GB of RAM?
c) Can the bootcamp 64 Bit Win7 see the full 6GB/8GB when fully updated?
Final question - is it worth getting someone to install the RAM, or can someone who's not done it before swap out and in the RAM?
Thanks
I'm looking to upgrade a mid 2009 4GB 2.8GHz 5,2 17" MBP
to 6GB initially, then 8GB when I can afford the other 4GB. I've got Snow Leopard on, with a Windows 7 VM (64 bit) and Windows 7 64 bit on bootcamp
(for now).
Can
a) my OS X take 6GB - what's the performance hit for having unbalanced?
b) the 64 bit WIndows 7 VMWare VM see say 4-5GB of the 8GB of RAM?
c) Can the bootcamp 64 Bit Win7 see the full 6GB/8GB when fully updated?
Final question - is it worth getting someone to install the RAM, or can someone who's not done it before swap out and in the RAM?
Thanks
I will 2nd that statement (+ without doing proper searches, hence MacRumors is cluttered with pretty much the same question being asked over and over again).
Just a quick question -
I'm looking to upgrade a mid 2009 4GB 2.8GHz 5,2 17" MBP
to 6GB initially, then 8GB when I can afford the other 4GB. I've got Snow Leopard on, with a Windows 7 VM (64 bit) and Windows 7 64 bit on bootcamp
(for now).
Can
a) my OS X take 6GB - what's the performance hit for having unbalanced?
b) the 64 bit WIndows 7 VMWare VM see say 4-5GB of the 8GB of RAM?
c) Can the bootcamp 64 Bit Win7 see the full 6GB/8GB when fully updated?
Final question - is it worth getting someone to install the RAM, or can someone who's not done it before swap out and in the RAM?
Thanks
A) yes, less than 1% change in performance because of asymmetric dual channel.
B) That's way too much for a VM (unless you have a good reason to need that much RAM in the VM).
It's very easy to install RAM.
Just a quick question -
I'm looking to upgrade a mid 2009 4GB 2.8GHz 5,2 17" MBP
to 6GB initially, then 8GB when I can afford the other 4GB. I've got Snow Leopard on, with a Windows 7 VM (64 bit) and Windows 7 64 bit on bootcamp
(for now).
Can
a) my OS X take 6GB - what's the performance hit for having unbalanced?
b) the 64 bit WIndows 7 VMWare VM see say 4-5GB of the 8GB of RAM?
c) Can the bootcamp 64 Bit Win7 see the full 6GB/8GB when fully updated?
Final question - is it worth getting someone to install the RAM, or can someone who's not done it before swap out and in the RAM?
Thanks
a) You'll see a boost, not a performance hit... depending on your applications.
b) You can if you want to. VMware Fusion and Parallels can support up to 8GB of ram in a virtual machine
c) Yes.
Ram is extremely easy to install. Just remove the screws on the bottom panel and you'll have complete access to the ram slots.
Like I've said before in this thread a couple other times...
Go to macsales.com and call their toll free 800 number and ask them. They have excellent technical support and probably the best deals on mac memory. They even have a video at their site showing you how to install the memory in your MBP. Its super easy to install - and with that video - even a monkey could do it.
By the way; I installed 6gb in my mbp. The improvement is like night and day. As I write this, on the Mac side I have 16 browser windows open in firefox, a pdf open, about 8 documents open with Smultron and on the Windows side, I'm running Windows XP at the right now with 1 firefox browser window open and my html website building program Xsitepro. Anything less than 6gb for me would be a joke and a waste of a good computers potential.
Steve
Go to macsales.com and call their toll free 800 number and ask them. They have excellent technical support and probably the best deals on mac memory. They even have a video at their site showing you how to install the memory in your MBP. Its super easy to install - and with that video - even a monkey could do it.
By the way; I installed 6gb in my mbp. The improvement is like night and day. As I write this, on the Mac side I have 16 browser windows open in firefox, a pdf open, about 8 documents open with Smultron and on the Windows side, I'm running Windows XP at the right now with 1 firefox browser window open and my html website building program Xsitepro. Anything less than 6gb for me would be a joke and a waste of a good computers potential.
Steve
So I think I'll give this a go with the newegg ram on my MBP 4,1 Penryn 15" 2.4GHz. I recently updated my HD, and things have been running slow, and Aperture 3 is a hog, so hopefully this helps.
Any news whether Snow Leopard has affected the 6GB installation, or whether they've even allowed to go 8GB?
Any news whether Snow Leopard has affected the 6GB installation, or whether they've even allowed to go 8GB?
Yeah, I 've seen some vague reports that it has worked, but they were on CTO builds, and it wasn't priorly addressed in activity monitor and so forth.
I've also heard of some issues with the early unibody MBP running 6GB under SnowLeopard (supposedly related to the GPU selected), but was just wondering if it was good to go for 6GB for the penury's under Snow Leopard.
Thanks.
Don't know, but under 10.5, 8GB was just a big mess and not recommended. I haven't tried it under 10.6 since I never owned both 4GB ram sticks, my friend sold his, and I don't want to buy another one just for testing. If you end up trying it, please let us know of the results. 6GB works fine.
Actually, the chipset supports 8GB, I still think it's a firmware issue but I'm not 100% positive.
if thats the case then there never will be an actual 8GB limit. apple wont change it!.
if thats the case then there never will be an actual 8GB limit. apple wont change it!.
Well, I'm using a Core Duo right now... so my limit is 1/4 of that 8GB lol
It's actually not too bad. I get random lags and beachballs when I run 3 virtual machines on the iMac with 6GB but no lag or slow downs when I run it on the MBP with only 2GB, not sure why.
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seriously? Have you given the two computers the same amounts of ram? That's so odd. My mbp runs pathetically no matter what I do, VM or not. I'm a heavy user though I guess.
Had 25gbs of page ins on my imac the other day (4gb ram, hoping to upgrade to 12gb)
ayeying said:
seriously? Have you given the two computers the same amounts of ram? That's so odd. My mbp runs pathetically no matter what I do, VM or not. I'm a heavy user though I guess.
Had 25gbs of page ins on my imac the other day
(4gb ram, hoping to upgrade to 12gb)
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seriously? Have you given the two computers the same amounts of ram? That's so odd. My mbp runs pathetically no matter what I do, VM or not. I'm a heavy user though I guess.
Had 25gbs of page ins on my imac the other day
Same amount of ram for the virtual machines. Infact the virtual machines run off an 500GB external hard drive, so it's USB bottled-necked on both systems, but I get no beachballs or slowdowns running it off the MBP.
The 3 VMs are: Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 Standard (x2). Enterprise has 384MB ram while the other two has 512MB dedicated.
I guess I could up the ram when I'm working on the iMac but I usually just suspend the VMs instead of shutting them down... just because I'm too lazy to click Start > Shutdown
Page-Ins are fine. Page-Out aren't. I'm at 1.1GB Page-In, 75MB for Page-Out, running my Vista Boot Camp Partition in VMware Fusion too.
Anyone want to donate me a 4GB stick and your MBP?
I only have 1x 4GB stick in the iMac
let's do it the other way around, I have 1x1GB and 1x4GB in my 4,1, 2.4 GHz right now (runs like a charm) and if you want to mail me a 4GB stick I'll pop it in and see how it goes...
on second thought, if the guy who resurrected this thread wants to donate a 2GB stick after upgrade, I'd happily replace my 1GB (I donated my old 1GB to a friend running 2x512MB in a white macbook- pay it forward!)
edit: ps running 10.6.2
Same amount of ram for the virtual machines. Infact the virtual machines run off an 500GB external hard drive, so it's USB bottled-necked on both systems, but I get no beachballs or slowdowns running it off the MBP.
The 3 VMs are: Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 Standard (x2). Enterprise has 384MB ram while the other two has 512MB dedicated.
I guess I could up the ram when I'm working on the iMac but I usually just suspend the VMs instead of shutting them down... just because I'm too lazy to click Start > Shutdown
Page-Ins are fine. Page-Out aren't. I'm at 1.1GB Page-In, 75MB for Page-Out, running my Vista Boot Camp Partition in VMware Fusion too.
so 384 + 1024mb is assigned to your VMs in total for both computers. thats 1408MB! and you only have 2048MB RAM on your MBP? how does that work. surely OSX cannot work efficiently off of 640MB of RAM?
i normally run one at a time because the computer gets WAY to slow - i do multiple things from it. ps3 media server, itunes, safari (+20 tabs most of the time), mail, adium, etc. then i have my 1GB RAM osx server open. if i then opened up 2008 server (1GB RAM for it too), the computer would go into melt down!
whats the actual usage in activity monitor of each of the virtual machines? maybe it bypasses it completely? osx server says 962MB currently.
i use parallels btw.
Well, the Enterprise server doesn't do anything except for hosting a few files, DHCP, DNS and Active Directory for the other two servers. It usually remains idle in the background so I guess most of the ram in there is thrown into swap. But yeah, the VMs take up 1.4GB of ram, and 0.6GB of ram for Snow Leopard is great. It runs better on the MBP then the MBA because I actually have that extra 256MB of ram instead of the 256MB being used for shared video ram.
I haven't had a chance to take a screenshot yet, I'll get one the next time I'm working on the servers. The only part I do know is that I use up 4GB of swap with about 3GB of page outs.
thats insane that OSX even responds with that amount of RAM. i honestly dont know how you DONT have slow downs in any of the OS's. initially when i start up a VM on my MBP (only giving 512MB RAM) it will go slow, but once its going then its fine.
that all makes sense. swap size is normally the same size as the RAM, there are instances where swap will be 1.5x larger (that i normally hit lol), 3GB page outs scary but nothing too bad.
can somebody explain swap vs. page outs vs. page ins for me? I thought I knew what they all were but now I'm thinking I don't... RAM 101?
I do understand that they all have to do with needing more RAM than you have and therefore writing to the HDD, just don't know the difference between the 3.
I do understand that they all have to do with needing more RAM than you have and therefore writing to the HDD, just don't know the difference between the 3.