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6GB in MacBook (Pro); Yes it works. - 8GB... well...
- Thread starter ayeying
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Anyone in the UK managed to buy 8GB RAM for a Late 2008 uMBP (5,1) that works perfectly? Any links?
I'm looking too - I've got the same machine as you (late 08 uMBP, ExpressCard, dual Nvidia, currently at 4GB) and would definitely be up for trying 8GB.
Can someone confirm whether the following RAM spec should work in my machine? (I't's basically the same as the 4GB spec, just with denser chips -- I *think* it should work, but always good to get a second opinion.)
2x 4GB PC8500 DDR3 1066MHz SO-DIMM 204-pin
...such as this kit from Crucial (http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT2KIT51264BC1067)
I just received 8GB (2x4GB DDR3 1066MHz Mushkin SODIMMs)
I just received Mushkin 2x4GB DDR3 1066MHz SODIMMs and a friend has the late 2008 unibody MacBook (not Pro, the only aluminum MacBook without firewire Apple ever made). I'll try putting 8GB in that, and I'll report back.
I just received Mushkin 2x4GB DDR3 1066MHz SODIMMs and a friend has the late 2008 unibody MacBook (not Pro, the only aluminum MacBook without firewire Apple ever made). I'll try putting 8GB in that, and I'll report back.
Happy to report 8GB works perfectly!
I installed 8GB (2x4GB) in the late 2008 13" Unibody MacBook 2.0 GHz. (Identifiers: Late 2008/Aluminum - MB466LL/A - MacBook5,1 - A1278 - 2254). It's the only Aluminum MacBook (and without FireWire) Apple ever made (except for the 2.4 GHz version too). I opened every app my friend had and it still only used 2.8 GB, so I ran Rember, it ran a single process "memtest" that used 6.11 GB right away and tested the memory. It passed. I have plenty of screen shots I copied to my Mac from his.
Here's some screen shots (Window shots). A shot of Rember, a memtest app, and a window shot of System Profiler with the Memory Tab selected. The pretty "About This Mac" image showing "8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3". And finally the two Activity Monitor shots, one running many apps (but the memtest process running less than 6GB), another with memtest at 6.11GB. Yes, I did remove my friends user name with "user", sorry it's not a perfect copy and paste using "Preview", but examine the rest of the .png images and you'll see they're genuine.
Of course many of you know that only 7.75 GB total memory is reported because the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M shares 256 MB from the 8 GB total. Of course it's proof that 8 GB are in there.
I installed 8GB (2x4GB) in the late 2008 13" Unibody MacBook 2.0 GHz. (Identifiers: Late 2008/Aluminum - MB466LL/A - MacBook5,1 - A1278 - 2254). It's the only Aluminum MacBook (and without FireWire) Apple ever made (except for the 2.4 GHz version too). I opened every app my friend had and it still only used 2.8 GB, so I ran Rember, it ran a single process "memtest" that used 6.11 GB right away and tested the memory. It passed. I have plenty of screen shots I copied to my Mac from his.
Here's some screen shots (Window shots). A shot of Rember, a memtest app, and a window shot of System Profiler with the Memory Tab selected. The pretty "About This Mac" image showing "8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3". And finally the two Activity Monitor shots, one running many apps (but the memtest process running less than 6GB), another with memtest at 6.11GB. Yes, I did remove my friends user name with "user", sorry it's not a perfect copy and paste using "Preview", but examine the rest of the .png images and you'll see they're genuine.
Of course many of you know that only 7.75 GB total memory is reported because the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M shares 256 MB from the 8 GB total. Of course it's proof that 8 GB are in there.
Attachments
8GB kept crashing my MBP. Might've been a faulty chip though, but currently running 6GB and it's working great.
Which MBP?
This is a MacBook that I tried it in, not a MacBook Pro, however I would think the MBP would do even better than the MB. It was Mushkin Essentials that I used and the Essentials brand doesn't even use the highest quality chips. The Proline does.
This is a MacBook that I tried it in, not a MacBook Pro, however I would think the MBP would do even better than the MB. It was Mushkin Essentials that I used and the Essentials brand doesn't even use the highest quality chips. The Proline does.
I must be an idiot, I don't understand the discrepancy and no body seems to be answering it in this thread. I could very well be overlooking the obvious.
OP says
but then goes on to say:
So which is it? My macbook pro 15" is Rev. D (mid 2007) and the about page clearly says MacBookPro3,1 under model identifier.
Also, at the time the OP said this was a firmware issue. Has a patch been released for the firmware?
I'm asking, does mid-2007 work with 8gb or not? Its cheaper to buy 2x4 kit than a 4gb and a 2gb separately.
OP says
but then goes on to say:
So which is it? My macbook pro 15" is Rev. D (mid 2007) and the about page clearly says MacBookPro3,1 under model identifier.
Also, at the time the OP said this was a firmware issue. Has a patch been released for the firmware?
I'm asking, does mid-2007 work with 8gb or not? Its cheaper to buy 2x4 kit than a 4gb and a 2gb separately.
8Gb on MBPro late 2008; Yes it works fine
My MacBook pro late 2008 (MacBookPro5,1) works fine and is stable with 8GB. My tests have been done by booting SL in 64-bit.
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6.6 (Build 10J567)
Model: MacBook Pro (Late 2008)
Motherboard: Apple Inc. Mac-F42D86C8 Proto
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz
Processor ID: GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 6
Processors: 1
Threads: 2
Cores: 2
Memory: 8.00 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Processor Frequency: 2.40 GHz
Bus Frequency: 1.06 GHz
L1 Instruction Cache: 32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache: 32.0 KB
L2 Cache: 3.00 MB
L3 Cache: 0.00 B
BIOS: Apple Inc. MBP51.88Z.007E.B05.0905051508
iFreeMem reports 7.75 GB total memory. This is because (as stated by gatortpk) the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M uses 256 MB from the 8 GB total.
My MacBook pro late 2008 (MacBookPro5,1) works fine and is stable with 8GB. My tests have been done by booting SL in 64-bit.
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6.6 (Build 10J567)
Model: MacBook Pro (Late 2008)
Motherboard: Apple Inc. Mac-F42D86C8 Proto
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz
Processor ID: GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 6
Processors: 1
Threads: 2
Cores: 2
Memory: 8.00 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Processor Frequency: 2.40 GHz
Bus Frequency: 1.06 GHz
L1 Instruction Cache: 32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache: 32.0 KB
L2 Cache: 3.00 MB
L3 Cache: 0.00 B
BIOS: Apple Inc. MBP51.88Z.007E.B05.0905051508
iFreeMem reports 7.75 GB total memory. This is because (as stated by gatortpk) the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M uses 256 MB from the 8 GB total.
Attachments
MPB5,1 should only take 6gb of RAM. Have you run the piggy app that saturates your RAM? Typically, in this machine with 2x4gb, once your breach the 4gb of RAM used the machine comes to a crawl.
I've used rember app for my tests. Here are the results:
Rember Test Results
All tests passed!
Total built-in memory: 8 GB
This is the total amount of physical memory that the computer has installed. If this figure is not showing the correct amount of memory there may be a problem with one or more installed DIMMS.
Available memory: 6346 MB
Available memory is the amount of physical memory that is currently not in use by any other processes. All available memory will be used for testing when the "All" option is selected. To increase the amount of available memory, you can restart your computer before testing. If you are familiar with the command line (CLI), you can run memtest (the core of Rember) in single-user mode. See Rember help, or http://www.memtestosx.org for more information.
Requested amount: All MB
The total amount of memory requested for testing by the Rember application. Not all requested memory can be allocated for testing. See information on "Available memory" for more information.
Memory allocated for testing: 6346 MB
This is the total amount of memory that memtest was able to allocate for testing. See "Available memory" section for more information.
-------
Loops selected: 1
Total loops selected by user for testing. All loops should complete when testing is successful. Test failure when the "Continue on Error" preference is selected will cancel tests before this number of loops has been completed. Users can also cancel testing before this number is reached.
Loops completed: 1
Total loops completed by memtest. Note that the Rember is not always able to identify how many loops ran. If there are discrepancies between this and the loops selected, the log should be examined to determine exactly how many loops were performed.
-------
Total execution time: All tests passed! Execution time: 6280 seconds
This is the total amount of time that it took to execute the selected tests. Execution time may vary from system to system, and is provided as a guide for determining how long users can expect tests to run based on the amount of memory installed on the system.
Testing start time: 2011-01-14 15:54:17 +0100
Testing end time: 2011-01-14 17:39:01 +0100
Rember version: 0.3.7b Memtest version: 4.22
and here is rember's log:
Memtest version 4.22 (64-bit)
Copyright (C) 2004 Charles Cazabon
Copyright (C) 2004-2008 Tony Scaminaci (Macintosh port)
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 only
Mac OS X 10.6.6 (10J567) running in multiuser mode
Memory Page Size: 4096
System has 2 Intel core(s) with SSE
Requested memory: 6346MB (6654427136 bytes)
Available memory: 6346MB (6654427136 bytes)
Allocated memory: 6346MB (6654427136 bytes) at local address 0x0000000101000000
Attempting memory lock... locked successfully
Partitioning memory into 2 comparison buffers...
Buffer A: 3173MB (3327213568 bytes) starts at local address 0x0000000101000000
Buffer B: 3173MB (3327213568 bytes) starts at local address 0x00000001c7514000
Running 1 test sequence... (CTRL-C to quit)
Test sequence 1 of 1:
Running tests on full 6346MB region...
Stuck Address : setting 1 of 16 ok
Linear PRN : setting 1 of 16 ok
Running comparison tests using 3173MB buffers...
Random Value : \ ok
Compare XOR : ok
Compare SUB : ok
Compare MUL : ok
Compare DIV : ok
Compare OR : ok
Compare AND : ok
Sequential Increment: ok
Solid Bits : setting 1 of 64 ok
Block Sequential : setting 1 of 256 ok
Checkerboard : setting 1 of 64 ok
Bit Spread : setting 1 of 128 ok
Bit Flip : setting 1 of 512 ok
Walking Ones : setting 1 of 128 ok
Walking Zeroes : setting 1 of 128All tests passed! Execution time: 6280 seconds.
As you can see 6346 MB have been allocated for testing. The rest was used by OS and deamon processes.
Is there any other application I can use to saturate RAM?
Cheers.
Rember Test Results
All tests passed!
Total built-in memory: 8 GB
This is the total amount of physical memory that the computer has installed. If this figure is not showing the correct amount of memory there may be a problem with one or more installed DIMMS.
Available memory: 6346 MB
Available memory is the amount of physical memory that is currently not in use by any other processes. All available memory will be used for testing when the "All" option is selected. To increase the amount of available memory, you can restart your computer before testing. If you are familiar with the command line (CLI), you can run memtest (the core of Rember) in single-user mode. See Rember help, or http://www.memtestosx.org for more information.
Requested amount: All MB
The total amount of memory requested for testing by the Rember application. Not all requested memory can be allocated for testing. See information on "Available memory" for more information.
Memory allocated for testing: 6346 MB
This is the total amount of memory that memtest was able to allocate for testing. See "Available memory" section for more information.
-------
Loops selected: 1
Total loops selected by user for testing. All loops should complete when testing is successful. Test failure when the "Continue on Error" preference is selected will cancel tests before this number of loops has been completed. Users can also cancel testing before this number is reached.
Loops completed: 1
Total loops completed by memtest. Note that the Rember is not always able to identify how many loops ran. If there are discrepancies between this and the loops selected, the log should be examined to determine exactly how many loops were performed.
-------
Total execution time: All tests passed! Execution time: 6280 seconds
This is the total amount of time that it took to execute the selected tests. Execution time may vary from system to system, and is provided as a guide for determining how long users can expect tests to run based on the amount of memory installed on the system.
Testing start time: 2011-01-14 15:54:17 +0100
Testing end time: 2011-01-14 17:39:01 +0100
Rember version: 0.3.7b Memtest version: 4.22
and here is rember's log:
Memtest version 4.22 (64-bit)
Copyright (C) 2004 Charles Cazabon
Copyright (C) 2004-2008 Tony Scaminaci (Macintosh port)
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 only
Mac OS X 10.6.6 (10J567) running in multiuser mode
Memory Page Size: 4096
System has 2 Intel core(s) with SSE
Requested memory: 6346MB (6654427136 bytes)
Available memory: 6346MB (6654427136 bytes)
Allocated memory: 6346MB (6654427136 bytes) at local address 0x0000000101000000
Attempting memory lock... locked successfully
Partitioning memory into 2 comparison buffers...
Buffer A: 3173MB (3327213568 bytes) starts at local address 0x0000000101000000
Buffer B: 3173MB (3327213568 bytes) starts at local address 0x00000001c7514000
Running 1 test sequence... (CTRL-C to quit)
Test sequence 1 of 1:
Running tests on full 6346MB region...
Stuck Address : setting 1 of 16 ok
Linear PRN : setting 1 of 16 ok
Running comparison tests using 3173MB buffers...
Random Value : \ ok
Compare XOR : ok
Compare SUB : ok
Compare MUL : ok
Compare DIV : ok
Compare OR : ok
Compare AND : ok
Sequential Increment: ok
Solid Bits : setting 1 of 64 ok
Block Sequential : setting 1 of 256 ok
Checkerboard : setting 1 of 64 ok
Bit Spread : setting 1 of 128 ok
Bit Flip : setting 1 of 512 ok
Walking Ones : setting 1 of 128 ok
Walking Zeroes : setting 1 of 128All tests passed! Execution time: 6280 seconds.
As you can see 6346 MB have been allocated for testing. The rest was used by OS and deamon processes.
Is there any other application I can use to saturate RAM?
Cheers.
Adding my voice to the chorus - I have a mid 2008 2.4 Pro 5,1. Just added 8GB of Kingston this morning with no issues. Ran multiple VMs with 2GB each, one with 4GB and iTunes/Handbrake/Firefox (with ten tabs open, three youtube videos and Netflix included) running at the same time. No slowdown. As of this post I'm using 7.24 GB of RAM and its stable. I'm thinking one of te sub versions of 10.6 allows this. I'm also booting in 64 bit by default, if that matters.
8GB works with Screen Shots above with 32-bit Snow Leopard
I forgot to mention that I was running Snow Leopard in 32-bit kernel mode. It is obvious in the Activity Monitor window shots where the kernel process only says "Intel" instead of "Intel (64-bit)".
I think 32-bit would work fine on any Mac that can support up to 32GB of RAM. After that 64-bit Kernel is required like for 64GB in a Mac Pro, which seems to be the only way to get it to work. The PAE-36 uses 36 bits (2^36 bytes is 64 GiB) and things seem to always want that extra bit to work, so PAE-36 will only use 35 bits for 32 GiB of RAM, I guess maybe the other 32GB is actually mapped out in negative integers? I remember that from the old days of 16 bits is only good for 32,768 bytes instead of 65,536 bytes because half of the integers were '-' negative, you know -32,768 to +32,768 = 65,546 total address space)
I forgot to mention that I was running Snow Leopard in 32-bit kernel mode. It is obvious in the Activity Monitor window shots where the kernel process only says "Intel" instead of "Intel (64-bit)".
I think 32-bit would work fine on any Mac that can support up to 32GB of RAM. After that 64-bit Kernel is required like for 64GB in a Mac Pro, which seems to be the only way to get it to work. The PAE-36 uses 36 bits (2^36 bytes is 64 GiB) and things seem to always want that extra bit to work, so PAE-36 will only use 35 bits for 32 GiB of RAM, I guess maybe the other 32GB is actually mapped out in negative integers? I remember that from the old days of 16 bits is only good for 32,768 bytes instead of 65,536 bytes because half of the integers were '-' negative, you know -32,768 to +32,768 = 65,546 total address space)
Gatortpk and MrMyth - PM me your email addresses and I'll send you the piggy app to test your MBP with 8 gb.
I've tried the link http://rapidshare.com/files/431137304/Piggy_by_CaveMan.zip I found in another post, but it isn't available anymore...
As a newbie, I'm not allowed yet to send PMs. Don't you mind to publish your piggy app download link again?
Thanks.
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Respectfully decline. It appeared stable but the setup managed to bork one of my important VMs. Took a look at Console and saw errors I've never had on my Pro before. I pulled the 8GB before any serious damage was done. It still stalled on reboot and I had to restore my TimeMachine backup from before the 8GB install.
During use you couldn't tell anything was wrong, but it was clear the filesystem was ******** the bed in the background.
That's a bit scary
Thanks for the info, the 8GB did appear to work fine, I even had a memtest process use 6.11 GB (in one thread) and so I know that an app can use more than 6GB alone. I took out one 4GB DDR3 and put a 2GB DDR3 back in anyway, it's my friends MacBook (not Pro) and he has trouble even using 4GB. So I'm glad I just left him with 6GB, and I'll just leave it at that.
However, I somehow use over 8 GB all the time on my iMac. I'm glad I have 16GB in this machine. I just hope I can put 4x8GB DDR3 in this 27" iMac when 8GB SODIMMs become reasonably priced. The Snow Leopard 32-bit kernel should handle that just fine, but nothing over 32GB.
Does anyone know if the new iMacs can do more than 16GB when 8GB SODIMMs become common?
Thanks for the info, the 8GB did appear to work fine, I even had a memtest process use 6.11 GB (in one thread) and so I know that an app can use more than 6GB alone. I took out one 4GB DDR3 and put a 2GB DDR3 back in anyway, it's my friends MacBook (not Pro) and he has trouble even using 4GB. So I'm glad I just left him with 6GB, and I'll just leave it at that.
However, I somehow use over 8 GB all the time on my iMac. I'm glad I have 16GB in this machine. I just hope I can put 4x8GB DDR3 in this 27" iMac when 8GB SODIMMs become reasonably priced. The Snow Leopard 32-bit kernel should handle that just fine, but nothing over 32GB.
Does anyone know if the new iMacs can do more than 16GB when 8GB SODIMMs become common?
I tried that rapidshare link myself.
I'd like to try the Piggy app too, if you could upload it again, it wasn't there.
Also, it says I'm a newbie, but I can send PMs. I'll have to see if I can change my status.
I'd like to try the Piggy app too, if you could upload it again, it wasn't there.
Also, it says I'm a newbie, but I can send PMs. I'll have to see if I can change my status.
MPB4,1 17" 2.6GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo 2x2GB DDR2 SDRAM 667mhz
Would LOVE to boost my RAM since it has become an issue in particular with Photoshop. The newegg links on the first post say the G.Skill are "Deactivated and may not be restocked" I went through the Crucial system scan and it would only offer me 2x2gb which I already have.
Is there another option?
Kind of esoteric config since I was in that gray area end of year (2008) where my small biz had to spend some cash or send it to the tax man so purchased this which was just a couple weeks later deprecated by the latest and greatest. Was great to get this machine delivered but mixed with some regret that I received it just as the new model was available for new orders... So that's my sob story. Today I was excited to see Buy.com having 8gb package only to be deflated to figure out that I need DDR2 instead of DDR3.
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.6 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP41.00C1.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.28f3
Serial Number (system): W88500HQ3R9
Would LOVE to boost my RAM since it has become an issue in particular with Photoshop. The newegg links on the first post say the G.Skill are "Deactivated and may not be restocked" I went through the Crucial system scan and it would only offer me 2x2gb which I already have.
Is there another option?
Kind of esoteric config since I was in that gray area end of year (2008) where my small biz had to spend some cash or send it to the tax man so purchased this which was just a couple weeks later deprecated by the latest and greatest. Was great to get this machine delivered but mixed with some regret that I received it just as the new model was available for new orders... So that's my sob story. Today I was excited to see Buy.com having 8gb package only to be deflated to figure out that I need DDR2 instead of DDR3.
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.6 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP41.00C1.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.28f3
Serial Number (system): W88500HQ3R9
Your system can handle 6GB. Just order a single 4GB PC2-5300 SODIMM, it's about the most common DDR2 around. You can get one for about $89. It seems the price for DDR2 is going back up? Anyhow, that's not much more than 2x2GB for 4GB at $70.
It's nice you got the 2.6 GHz speed increase option for $250.
thanks gatorpk
I am going to give it a shot. Quick scan on Newegg they have a 4gb Patriot for $69.99
I am going to give it a shot. Quick scan on Newegg they have a 4gb Patriot for $69.99
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Be careful! $69.99 is a price for 2x2GB and not a single 4GB stick!
$69.99 is a great price, but that's the going price for 2x2GB. Make sure that 4GB isn't a KIT!!!! It would really suck for you to order that and get two more 2GB sticks when that's what you already have in your MacBook Pro!
You need to make sure that you order a SINGLE 4GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SODIMM and not a 2x2GB or KIT or 2 modules, etc.
$69.99 is a great price, but that's the going price for 2x2GB. Make sure that 4GB isn't a KIT!!!! It would really suck for you to order that and get two more 2GB sticks when that's what you already have in your MacBook Pro!
You need to make sure that you order a SINGLE 4GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SODIMM and not a 2x2GB or KIT or 2 modules, etc.
here's the link to the 4mb on newegg in case it is useful to anyone else. I ordered it and I'll post an update on how it goes:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220495
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220495
Look's good! Like a single 4GB SODIMM!
Looks good, finally a single 4GB SODIMM for the price of 2x2GB SODIMMs. Nice find, let me know how it went. 4GB DDR2 is getting up there, I don't think there will ever be an 8GB DDR2 SODIMM, everything is going DDR3 now.
Some of the DDR2 Macs that I know of can take up to 6GB, and of course with two slots a 4GB SODIMM is needed, but no computer I know of will ever have 16GB of DDR2 SODIMMs in two slots, so again, I don't think I'll ever see a 8GB DDR2 SODIMM. (Though there are 8GB DDR2 DIMMs for a little less than twice the cost of 2x4GB DDR2 DIMMs)
Looks good, finally a single 4GB SODIMM for the price of 2x2GB SODIMMs. Nice find, let me know how it went. 4GB DDR2 is getting up there, I don't think there will ever be an 8GB DDR2 SODIMM, everything is going DDR3 now.
Some of the DDR2 Macs that I know of can take up to 6GB, and of course with two slots a 4GB SODIMM is needed, but no computer I know of will ever have 16GB of DDR2 SODIMMs in two slots, so again, I don't think I'll ever see a 8GB DDR2 SODIMM. (Though there are 8GB DDR2 DIMMs for a little less than twice the cost of 2x4GB DDR2 DIMMs)