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Core2Duo (Merom) Ram Fake out?

M

Mepappas

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 17, 2008
16
0
Tacoma
With it's 667 FSB this Core 2 Duo states it will only "see," 3 GB of ram even if 2-2GB memory chips are used. In the old days we used to be able to tweak buss speeds, over clock chip speeds, and remap available ram allocations using firmware updates, and jumpers on the motherboard.
I'm toying with upgrading to Lion on this notebook, but have heard the minimum requirements is 4 GB of ram.
Short of buying a new MBP, is their any firmware updates for this motherboard to be able to use more ram?
Thanks Folks
 
Mepappas said:
With it's 667 FSB this Core 2 Duo states it will only "see," 3 GB of ram even if 2-2GB memory chips are used. In the old days we used to be able to tweak buss speeds, over clock chip speeds, and remap available ram allocations using firmware updates, and jumpers on the motherboard.
I'm toying with upgrading to Lion on this notebook, but have heard the minimum requirements is 4 MB of ram.
Short of buying a new MBP, is their any firmware updates for this motherboard to be able to use more ram?
Thanks Folks
Click to expand...

I think the mac will be able to use 3.33GB of ram if you put 4GB in. There's no way to make it use more ram.
 
Nope there's nothing you can do to "fake out" the computer to seeing more ram. If memory serves me, tts an issue of the chipset more then anything else.

I'd say given the demands of Lion, you'll be better served with a newer box with a lot of ram.
 
Its a hardware limitation of the logicboard. Apple chose an Intell chipset that only allowed 32-bit ram access. Thus, the creation of the 3.3Gb limitation.
 
Core2Duo (Merom)

That was quick!
Thanks for your post backs and help with my conclusion:
Start saving for a new MBP and keep Snow Leopard until the big cat croaks.
Ah, progress!
Thanks again.
 
Intell said:
Its a hardware limitation of the logicboard. Apple chose an Intell chipset that only allowed 32-bit ram access. Thus, the creation of the 3.3Gb limitation.
Click to expand...

CPU designates 32-bit or 64-bit not the chipset. The problem with the early intel Macs are that they will only accept a 2GB chip and a 1GB chip. Not two 2GB chips. So they are limiting you to 3.0GB, not 3.3GB. Intel never had a chipset or CPU that only allowed 3GB of RAM, they went form 2GB to 4GB. Only Apple some reason put a firmware limitation at 3GB.

Its similar to the false 4GB limitation they had on the Aluminum MacBook for a while till they released an update to fix it to allow 8GB.
 
altecXP said:
The problem with the early Intel Macs are that they will only accept a 2GB chip and a 1GB chip. Not two 2GB chips. So they are limiting you to 3.0GB, not 3.3GB. Intel never had a chipset or CPU that only allowed 3GB of RAM, they went form 2GB to 4GB. Only Apple some reason put a firmware limitation at 3GB.
Click to expand...

My mid-07 Blackbook seems to prove that wrong. I put 2x2Gb sticks in it. Somethings read it as four, but the system uses 3.33Gb of it (before 64mb is removed for video memory) and it runs just fine. It isn't just an Apple thing, my junky 64-bit Core2Duo Dell laptop will only use 3.33Gb as well, despite Vista/7 saying it has 4Gb.
 
Intell said:
My mid-07 Blackbook seems to prove that wrong. I put 2x2Gb sticks in it. Somethings read it as four, but the system uses 3.33Gb of it (before 64mb is removed for video memory) and it runs just fine. It isn't just an Apple thing, my junky 64-bit Core2Duo Dell laptop will only use 3.33Gb as well, despite Vista/7 saying it has 4Gb.
Click to expand...

The Black book does not have that problem. it operated as it should since it was sold with a 4GB option if I remember right. The Core Duo MacBooks have the issue.

I wasn't referring to the 3.3GB issue being an Apple problem. Thats a limitation of a 32bit OS. I was referring to the 3.0 vs 3.3 problem.
 
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