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cMBP RAM Upgrade Question

Ok well what Apple puts in is not "Apple" RAM. Apple doesn't make RAM. It's going to be the same chips used in crucial, kingston, Geil, etc. DDR3L RAM is a standard that will work fine.

bgro said:
Yeah there's definitely conflicting info online and from even Apple themselves.
But a user in this thread popped a stick out and verified 1.5 and another user did the same in this thread (9th post down)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4053548?start=15&tstart=0

I do see that both OWC and Crucial recommend 1.35 so it seems that either one will be fine. Personally, I'd rather use what Apple puts in to begin with but that is just personal preference.
Click to expand...


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Just buy the 1.35v RAM from crucial. They guarantee it to work. What I've done is take the part number off crucial's site and look it up on amazon or newegg. Might save a couple bucks that way. It's the same RAM.

bgro said:
Yeah there's definitely conflicting info online and from even Apple themselves.
But a user in this thread popped a stick out and verified 1.5 and another user did the same in this thread (9th post down)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4053548?start=15&tstart=0

I do see that both OWC and Crucial recommend 1.35 so it seems that either one will be fine. Personally, I'd rather use what Apple puts in to begin with but that is just personal preference.

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Lol at your response. Mjn has actually been the most helpful user in this thread. He/she actually opened the Macbook up and saw what voltage RAM Apple is using. And guess what...it's 1.5. That's pretty useful info in my book. And based on Google search results, alot of users are having the same question because there is conflicting info online. Something you might have found if you had actually googled the issue and not just relied on a recommendation from a third party retailer (although in this case I would put some (but not all) stock on info from Crucial and OWC as they are reputable companies).
Click to expand...
 
From what I can gather from various threads here is my theory:

13" cMBPs are shipping with 1.5v (mostly)

15" cMBPs are shipping with 1.5v IF you purchased pre-config with 4GB RAM, but with 1.35v if you purchased pre-config or BTO with 8GB.

This is not conclusive, but a hunch that I have. What it tells me is that if upgrading to 8GB or more, just get the 1.35v sticks as there will be some kind of heat and power savings. Might be minimal, but it is there and could be all the more crucial (no pun intended!) with larger RAM base.
 
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Found another thread regarding the subject

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1394912/


More conflicting info to mull over lol!

But it does seem that some people have had issues with 1.5 vs noone having issues with 1.35 (at least from what I've read). Seems really strange that Apple would ship 1.5 but recommend 1.35.

Still not sure what to do. I'm going to open my MacBook tomorrow just to see what it shipped with. At this point I'm leaning towards buying 1.35.
 
I would recommend being safe and going for 1.35v. It's not like there will be any noticeable difference in performance between the two.

I bought 1.5v RAM for a 15" 2011 MBP I had and the logic board died. Then I researched it and read that only the 17" MBP's can support 1.5v and all other models only use 1.35v. So I made sure to buy 1.35v when my replacement MBP came in.

The 17" MBP I am using to type this is running 1.35v RAM and it's not like I can tell anyways.
 
Thanks for sharing your experience. Maybe I should go with 1.35v. Let me shop around a little bit.


But this computer definitely can support 1.5 as it's in my machine from the factory.

Annoying. If 1.35 has been free of failure, though, I'll go that route.
 
whdigital said:
From what I can gather from various threads here is my theory:

13" cMBPs are shipping with 1.5v (mostly)

15" cMBPs are shipping with 1.5v IF you purchased pre-config with 4GB RAM, but with 1.35v if you purchased pre-config or BTO with 8GB.

This is not conclusive, but a hunch that I have. What it tells me is that if upgrading to 8GB or more, just get the 1.35v sticks as there will be some kind of heat and power savings. Might me minimal, but it is there and could be all the more crucial (no pun intended!) with larger RAM base.
Click to expand...

This makes sense maybe..? Apple ships basic 4 gigs with 1.5 v knowing it works (they have a bunch of it or something...?), but recommends 1.35 for upgrades knowing their might be heat/power concerns..?
 
Yeah, I want to reiterate though that this is just a guess on my part. I have no direct knowledge of what Apple may me doing, intentionally or not. What I can confirm is that my own 2012 cMBP 15" 2.6/8GB shipped from China BTO (HiRes AG) with 2x4GB 1.35v sticks installed.
 
Confirmed that my 2012 13" cMBP with stock 4GB of RAM came with 1.5v.

That being said, I'm still going to go with the 1.35v as it looks like anyone who factory ordered 8GB+ is getting 1.35 from Apple.

Plus Crucial and OWC are recommending 1.35.

Thanks everyone for their help and I hope this thread might help others in the future.
 
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