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Macbook Pro Ram

ok i cant figure out how to post my question, so sorry for ticking everyone off, but now that the new iMacs have what up to 16gb ram now, could the newest MacBook Pro support 16 gb since its the same size/ kind of ram?
 
ok i cant figure out how to post my question, so sorry for ticking everyone off, but now that the new iMacs have what up to 16gb ram now, could the newest MacBook Pro support 16 gb since its the same size/ kind of ram?

It might if it the MacBook Pro had the same number of slots as well: The iMac now has 4 RAM slots rather than 2, according to the tech specs. That's not the case for the MBP.
 
I don't think its supported, so I can't be sure. But 6GB isn't supported either and people use that:D I'd say it would, but you never know...

According to the MacRumors Guide, *all* WWDC 2009 MacBook Pros support 8GB officially with Apple (these are the current laptops, right?)

ok i cant figure out how to post my question, so sorry for ticking everyone off, but now that the new iMacs have what up to 16gb ram now, could the newest MacBook Pro support 16 gb since its the same size/ kind of ram?

Unfortunately no. The iMac supports twice the RAM because it has 4 RAM slots rather than just 2.
 


oh ok gotcha, i just didnt know if you could use 2 8gb sticks. idkif they even make em yet, but im sure itll come soon. thanks for your reply. :)
 
Since noone replied to my post, I went to my local shop to purchase a single 4GB memory piece to test it on my macbook5,1 (2.4 Ghz). I upgraded to 6GB running snow leopard 10.6.2. My system has been running now for about 4 hours since I installed the RAM and I have not experienced any problems at all.

When I tried this a few months ago, my system would crash shortly after login in.
 
That's excellent news. Have you opened up high-RAM usage apps? I found really 'entropic' behavior if I didn't open up lots of apps and/or huge files to get my RAM usage high. The system seemed to often last for a long time if I just booted it and left it... or just browsed the web. If you have Parallels, assign your VM 5 GB of RAM and open it up.

I look forward to hearing your continued reports; I may try again before long.
 
Since noone replied to my post, I went to my local shop to purchase a single 4GB memory piece to test it on my macbook5,1 (2.4 Ghz). I upgraded to 6GB running snow leopard 10.6.2. My system has been running now for about 4 hours since I installed the RAM and I have not experienced any problems at all.

When I tried this a few months ago, my system would crash shortly after login in.

Has your system been stable with the 6GB upgrade?
 
... 3 occasional crashes? Do you mean kernel panics, where the screen goes dark and the message displays that you need to reboot in a bunch of different languages?

Have you been "exercising" your laptop, i.e. opening enough stuff to use >4GB of RAM? It sounds like you have the problem, to me. You shouldn't have crashes at all unless you are sure they're from something else (i.e. you used to get crashes this often before).
 
... 3 occasional crashes? Do you mean kernel panics, where the screen goes dark and the message displays that you need to reboot in a bunch of different languages?

Have you been "exercising" your laptop, i.e. opening enough stuff to use >4GB of RAM? It sounds like you have the problem, to me. You shouldn't have crashes at all unless you are sure they're from something else (i.e. you used to get crashes this often before).

Yes, kernel panics. I have been exercising my system enough to use > 4GB, but I have been able to correlate > 4GB usage to the crashes.
 
Do you mean "haven't been able to correlate"? Anyway, as a 99.999% rule Macs don't kernel panic unless there's a hardware problem or you're running some seriously messed up software. That's also generally true of Windows these days, in my experience, though it's obviously a lot easier to find that messed up software on that platform.

If you've been running 6 GB for ~1 month with 3 kernel panics, that's probably admirable, but unless you've messed with your computer in some other way or added new software that is potentially suspect, those kernel panics must be related to continued issues with RAM, IMHO.

As an aside, I chanced to get a 256GB Samsung MLC SSD running in my laptop about 3 weeks ago. I dunno if it will slow down in the future, but so far this is a DREAM that's completely conquered any ambitions I have of upgrading my RAM beyond 4 GB. Running a Windows 7 VM is like an afterthought now, it loads and suspends in an instant and is insanely snappy to run--never a single hiccup. I am a total SSD convert. You know, until it fails catastrophically. :D
 
I just upgraded to the 750GB western digital this passed weekend. I can't wait till SSD gets cheaper :)
 
I know this is a very old topic but I just got a macbook 5,1 with 2 gb ram and I would like to upgrade it. The suggestion is 4gb ram but if I can get 6gb or more out of it then that would rock. What do you suggest?
 
What a timely question! I've been meaning to post some news that ought to be very relevant to you.

I have a late 2008 MacBook, and you can read some of my previous experiences with trying to get 6 GB of RAM working in my MacBook. I originally bought a 4GB stick from OWC and planned to use it with one of my existing 2 GB sticks. The result was I got kernel panics after prolonged use, very consistently. Given that others in the thread seemed to be experiencing the same types of issues, I figured there was something more at play and decided not to mess with trying a replacement. I just returned my RAM.

Well, I checked their site last weekend on a fluke, and noticed they had full 6GB kits for under $200, very tempting. The wheels in my head started churning, and I wondered if the panics were the result of some issue with the old 4GB stick not being fully compatible with my Apple 2 GB stick. I decided to give it a shot, and the RAM arrived on Thursday. I promptly ran memtest on it to torture-test as much of the RAM as I could (IIRC it would only give out 4.7GB of RAM with the system up and running, and I was too lazy to boot to the command line to get more). That went great, where before it was a sure recipe for a kernel panic. I also loaded up a windows VM and ran Aperture and Photoshop and a bunch of tabs in Chrome, trying to get it to peg out the RAM and start dipping into swap. I succeeded easily enough and the system was still all good. I've been running my laptop since late on Thursday afternoon without a reboot and zero trouble with the hardware. It's definitely nice to have everything in RAM. With my usage (heavy VM usage and some development tools, Coda and Versions, and of course always 10+ tabs running in Chrome debugging the site I work on) I always found myself after a week or so about 2 GB into my swap space and paying for it when switching apps. The SSD I got mitigated this a lot, but even it has slowed down since I got it (which I need to deal with, stupid lack of TRIM support even though the drive has it).

Anyway I would personally suggest getting a pair of RAM sticks, either the 2x2GB 4GB kit or the 4x2 6GB kit. I think it's pretty affordable now, and I think there's something to be said for using paired sticks of RAM in terms of them being more likely to work together. I could be wrong though--maybe my old 4 GB stick was just a bad stick of RAM and if you get one you'll be fine. YMMV as always!
 
I never had a kernel panic:p Remember it can be nvidia's fault. The chipset revision maybe doesn't support 8gb or apple didn't update it's efi boot rom to support the 8gb.
Now it's weird you guys should really not be having kernel panics, I only had a few while configuring my hackintosh never with my macbook:)
 
I've never tried 8GB in my MacBook, only 6GB. It would seem that the kernel panics I had months ago were from either a bad stick of RAM or a bad pairing of RAM sticks that weren't fully compatible in some way. If could have been 'nVidia's fault,' and probably is either theirs or someone crippling their chipset w/ the 8GB incompatibility, but 6 GB is widely reported to work with my computer, even though several people reported problems with this configuration after Snow Leopard. If it were a problem with the chipset itself being incompatible with the amount of RAM, it would work for no one. Problems that are "spotty" and inconsistent across different machines are usually more from quirky hardware issues. This is surprisingly common with RAM, especially the cheaper stuff.
 
yep apple hardware hates cheap ram. and are very picky about what is written in the spd eeprom of the ram stick. Now i can't sleep my macbook without loosing about 1% per hour of battery I think it's the ram fault. Anyway I only reprogrammed on stick of ram:p

edit: reprogrammed the 2 stick lets see if it makes my battery drain less when sleeping, at least it doesn't have insomnia :D
 
Well, I for one haven't been able to upgrade my Late 2008 MacBook Unibody 2.4 GHZ 13" beyond 4 GB RAM even with Snow Leopard installed. I ordered 2 4 GB RAM modules from OWC and have tried all possible combinations of 6 and 8 GB along with the original 2 GB modules without success. I even tried a clean installation of Snow Leopard from a USB drive and neither the 6 GB nor the 8 GB configuration completed the process without my having to perform a forced shutdown. Does anyone know if there's a preferred slot for the 4 GB module in a 4 + 2 (6 GB total) configuration?

I read that OWC brand memory lacks some kind of addressing thing that exists in more expensive memory. from what I Read in other threads it is totally possible to use it stable with 8gb. I have the same 5.1 as you (no cash for 8gb though) there is a kit from crucial, that in every story it's been installed, it works flawlessly. theres a few other brands that might work. OWC does NOT work with 8gb, the crucial kit does from everything I've read. You just have to be picky with where you get your 8gb
 
Here working perferc with 6gb installed, 1 week without crashes, even playing 3 WOW at same time.
The only bizarre thing is that in the activity monitor I only see 5.75 GB available (with the 2 cards, the discrete or the 9400).
 

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