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Anyone else notice apples change in RAM for the quad?

A

Abidubi

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 13, 2009
329
0
Montreal
Remember when the Quad core was released and it only supported 2GB sticks? Well it was found out pretty fast that 4GB sticks would work fine, but some people were saying "oh but if apple doesn't support it it's not a good idea".

Has anyone else looked at the apple store lately? You can configure the quad with 16GB (4X4GB) directly from apple now as BTO. When did this change? Though it does cost $1800, lol.

And lol, it still says just above it that the quad can be configured with up to 8GB of RAM. Somebody forgot to update the text.
 
Maximum memory supported depends mostly on the memory controller - although Apple wouldn't say if the Quad could handle 4 GB DIMMs at the time, there was nothing holding it back. If Apple had decided to impose a limitation on RAM similar to that of the Mini, for instance, Apple would lose sales on the Quad and thus their massive margin on each unit sold for the next popular variant, the 2.26 Octo (while still costing a tonne, the 8-core's profit margin is less then the 4-core's, IMO).

Also, at Macsales, 4 GB DDR3 RAM for the MacPro is dirt cheap. Check the Chart. $640 for 4x4GB
 
Well Apple knows there is a market for it, so why not offer the configuration. I just wish they offered a 24GB configuration; the funny part is at the time of purchase since I didn't buy it from Apple, I didn't notice the premium I paid for RAM; now when I'm browsing for RAM on OWC, I'm having a hard time with paying a lot less for 24GB.
 
I can't remember if it was Barefeats or OWC that confirmed the Mac Pro (2009 Nehalem) supported 4 GB density RAM.

Actual vs. what Apple states can vary wildly.
 
I believe they now offer the option because they lowered their price for 32GB on the dual socket Mac Pros.

Before it was $6,100 for 32GB on the octo. With that pricing a quad 2.66GHz Mac Pro with 12GB or 16GB of memory would cost $500 more than an octo 2.66GHz with the same amount in 2GB DIMMs. I always felt even Apple thought that was too bizzare and that was the sole reason they didn't offer it. They could have got around it by charging a reasonable price for 4GB DIMMs of course, but well it is Apple.
 
Dr.Pants said:
Maximum memory supported depends mostly on the memory controller - although Apple wouldn't say if the Quad could handle 4 GB DIMMs at the time, there was nothing holding it back. If Apple had decided to impose a limitation on RAM similar to that of the Mini, for instance, Apple would lose sales on the Quad and thus their massive margin on each unit sold for the next popular variant, the 2.26 Octo (while still costing a tonne, the 8-core's profit margin is less then the 4-core's, IMO).

Also, at Macsales, 4 GB DDR3 RAM for the MacPro is dirt cheap. Check the Chart. $640 for 4x4GB
Click to expand...

Right exactly.

People who say things like: "oh but if apple doesn't support it it's not a good idea" are probably the same folks who are afraid of germs, believe the government's flu propaganda, think drinking fluoride is good for you, and are seeing a shrink about that nervous twitch in their face. Luckily some of us were born with powers of decrement and don't need to believe the BS when it's obvious BS. :D
 
I believe the W35XX chips support 24GB max. I am not sure about the X55XX, but I imagine they are also 24GB max, but per chip. So I wouldn't be too surprised if 8GB chips would work. 3X8GB in the quad cores and 6X8GB in the octo cores.
 
im just curious what you are doing with your macpro that utilities 16GB+ RAM?

i feel like that computer should be able to solve all of al gores made up climate crisis problems...
 
bman0408 said:
im just curious what you are doing with your macpro that utilities 16GB+ RAM?

i feel like that computer should be able to solve all of al gores made up climate crisis problems...
Click to expand...

Hehehe, common sense will do for that. But I know from my own experience that 12GB is much better than 8GB which is much better than 4GB, just for simple Photoshop editing sessions. Sessions meaning doing it for 3 hours or more. For editing video I could totally see making use of all 48GB of RAM - and even still wanting more! There are some motherboards on the market now for around $500 that can take 144 GB of ram. I can totally see wanting to max one of those out for video editing. Flip-book HD previews - oh yeah! :)
 
bman0408 said:
im just curious what you are doing with your macpro that utilities 16GB+ RAM?

i feel like that computer should be able to solve all of al gores made up climate crisis problems...
Click to expand...

My mac is currently using about 12GB. I've been busy this weekend trying to rationalize backups directories. Turns out I have a lot more duplicated files, photos, etc than I had expected.

Unfortunately, in the process of moving files around, I have filled up my time machine :) Files moved around get copied again. My oldest backup is now only last March.
 
Tesselator said:
Right exactly.

People who say things like: "oh but if apple doesn't support it it's not a good idea" are probably the same folks who are afraid of germs, believe the government's flu propaganda, think drinking fluoride is good for you, and are seeing a shrink about that nervous twitch in their face. Luckily some of us were born with powers of decrement and don't need to believe the BS when it's obvious BS. :D
Click to expand...

oh, the best of all: chemtrails.. google it :)
 
Abidubi said:
I believe the W35XX chips support 24GB max. I am not sure about the X55XX, but I imagine they are also 24GB max, but per chip. So I wouldn't be too surprised if 8GB chips would work. 3X8GB in the quad cores and 6X8GB in the octo cores.
Click to expand...

Xeon 5500s do not have a memory limit listed. 16GB DIMMs still aren't available in supply channels and 32GB still seems to be "yeah we can do it". So the current maximum is 72GB per processor.
 
Umbongo said:
Xeon 5500s do not have a memory limit listed. 16GB DIMMs still aren't available in supply channels and 32GB still seems to be "yeah we can do it". So the current maximum is 72GB per processor.
Click to expand...

Actually I looked and they specify 144GB max. I don't know if that is per processor or if it's the limit for 2 (since they are designed to be working in pairs).
 
Abidubi said:
Actually I looked and they specify 144GB max. I don't know if that is per processor or if it's the limit for 2 (since they are designed to be working in pairs).
Click to expand...

The numbers are likely all marketing and what is officially supported rather than being technical limitations. The marketing maximums at the moment are 6x4GB for Core i7 and Xeon 3500 and 18x8GB for a dual Xeon 5500 setup. When 16GB DIMMs become readily available it will be 12x16GB on a dual Xeon 5500.
 
bman0408 said:
im just curious what you are doing with your macpro that utilities 16GB+ RAM?

i feel like that computer should be able to solve all of al gores made up climate crisis problems...
Click to expand...

Data modeling and architecture stress testing for clients. I basically turn my workstation into the beefiest database server that I can then beat the piss out of it. I've got a Q8200 with 8Gigs of ram that I use for lite work, she does the best that she can :D
 
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