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Early 2011 15 inch MBP with > 8gb ram?

P

puremadeup

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 10, 2008
4
0
Hi,

I have just bought one of the new macbook pros. I know the apple supported amount of memory is 8gb but I was wondering if more could be used (as has been possible with some previous models). I don't have any memory to test.

Cheers
Jon
 
Only 8GB ... one time before Apple said the max as 2Gb, but in reality the controller allowed for 3.3Gb (4Gb Physically).

8Gb is a crazy amount of RAM though for a notebook ...
 
Fair enough, if intel say it supports 8 I will stick to that. I am doing some stuff that will easily max it out so I was just curious.
 
we won't really know for sure until 8 GB 204 pin chips start appearing, but it is possible that 16 gb will work.

intel does specifiy 8 gb, but there are some non-mac Sandy Bridge laptops that seem to support more than 8 gb (they have more than 2 RAM slots).

If this turns out to be a hard limit, then that's going to be one of the main problems with this machine in a couple of years. The processor and architecture are pretty fast, and probably somewhat future-proof.

I'd imagine Adobe CS6 is going to be a dog without 8 GB of RAM, though. Having some buffer above that would really be nice...at least as a future upgrade option.
 
benpatient said:
we won't really know for sure until 8 GB 204 pin chips start appearing, but it is possible that 16 gb will work.

intel does specifiy 8 gb, but there are some non-mac Sandy Bridge laptops that seem to support more than 8 gb (they have more than 2 RAM slots).

If this turns out to be a hard limit, then that's going to be one of the main problems with this machine in a couple of years. The processor and architecture are pretty fast, and probably somewhat future-proof.

I'd imagine Adobe CS6 is going to be a dog without 8 GB of RAM, though. Having some buffer above that would really be nice...at least as a future upgrade option.
Click to expand...

You can buy 8GB SO-DIMMs, but they are ~$800 each. The only reason these exist is for insane mobile workstations that pack desktop processors in them. The prices for these sticks should start dropping with Intel support of 16GB for Mobiles since then they will actually have demand. Apple just recently started selling 8GB RAM sticks for the Mac Pro (there are 16GB RAM sticks :eek:).

I would also like to point out that the 2011 iMac will support 32GB of RAM so OWC will probably start selling 8GB SO-DIMMs them

EDIT: DAMN!!!! The HP Elitebooks appear to be able to use 16GB for dual Core i5-i7s and 32GB for quad Core i7s
 
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Just an FYI, I found this laptop:

http://www.frostycomputers.com/GT680R_008US_9S7_16F211_008_p/gt680r-008us 9s7-16f211-008.htm

which can be outfitted with 8, 12, or 16 GB of RAM.

It uses the exact same 2.0 ghz i7 Sandy Bridge processor as the base-model 15 inch macbook pro.

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=52219&processor=i7-2630QM&spec-codes=SR02Y

The intel page for that chip indicates is only supports 8 GB of RAM, and 2 memory channels. The MSI laptop has 4 RAM slots, whereas the MBP only has 2, but there is hardware spec for 2, 3 or 4 RAM slots in Sandy Bridge mobile, so it doesn't make any sense that Intel says only 8GB is possible on this specific chip when MSI is offering 12 and 16 options, unless Intel is just misrepresenting the capabilities on their chipset page. Wouldn't be the first time.

Or I guess MSI could be using some unofficial board that allows more channels, or more RAM per channel, or something like that.

Can anyone clarify this?
 
CaoCao said:
there are 16GB RAM sticks :eek:
Click to expand...

There are 32GB modules too ;)

EDIT: DAMN!!!! The HP Elitebooks appear to be able to use 16GB for dual Core i5-i7s and 32GB for quad Core i7s
Click to expand...

There were some Nehalem laptops with +8GB as well. I asked Intel about this and they still said 8GB is the maximum and the rest of the RAM would not be utilized (might recognize all 16GB but only 8GB would be utilized). I actually made a thread about this back then. I have not seen any concrete proofs (pictures, screenshots) that any mobile CPU could fully utilize +8GB of RAM, yet.
 
Hellhammer said:
There are 32GB modules too ;)



There were some Nehalem laptops with +8GB as well. I asked Intel about this and they still said 8GB is the maximum and the rest of the RAM would not be utilized (might recognize all 16GB but only 8GB would be utilized). I actually made a thread about this back then. I have not seen any concrete proofs (pictures, screenshots) that any mobile CPU could fully utilize +8GB of RAM, yet.
Click to expand...
OMG 256GB RAM in a Mac Pro, I COULD FINALLY USE FIREFOX WITH ADD-ONS!
 
There are only 2 DIMMs in the MBP, so theoretical 16GB is possible but I haven't seen any 8GB PC3-8500 SO-DIMM sticks for laptops on the market yet.

until that time, 8GB is the maximum.

I have 16GB in my windows laptop, but that is only possible because it has 4 DIMM slots.

Hellhammer said:
I have not seen any concrete proofs (pictures, screenshots) that any mobile CPU could fully utilize +8GB of RAM, yet.
Click to expand...

All of the arrandale quad-core (i7-720QM, 820QM, 920QM) mobile cpus can handle 4 DIMMs in a PM55 chipset. all 16GB of the RAM is accessible. I've seen the 8GB comment on the intel i7-2820QM page, but it says the same for the arrandale i7-820QM and I know that 16GB is not a problem for this CPU. I thought the 8GB perhaps referred to the max memory in each DIMM.
 
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