MacBook Pro Memory Question

[jamesaberry]

Quoted so I don't hijack his thread, but a relating question. I thought I had a SR MBP (hence signature!) but now not so sure...

I could have asked this on another thread, but it was off subject. So, I was reading a post that hinted that the SR MBP is able to support 8 or more gigs of ram. Is there a limit on the Santa Rosa chipset, or is it that 4gb ram sticks are too much? Thanks for any help!

I have a 2.33Ghz MacBook Pro but Apple tell me it only supports 3Gb, so how do you tell if it is a "Santa Rosa" model and capable of holding more? I've just bought a single 2Gb module to take it to what I thought was the maximum, but I'm a bit worried that the non-matching modules have actually kept the speed the same. Have I added more RAM, but due to the differing sizes, not improved performance? It's hard to tell...!

Can I put more than 3Gb in it after all? I only bought it mid last year. System Profiler gives me the following information :

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro 15"
Model Identifier: MacBookPro2,2
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.33 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 3 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP22.00A5.B07
SMC Version: 1.12f5
Serial Number: 3R6515HUW0H
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

I'm a bit confused.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[jamesaberry]

Found it is rev C

..so only supports 3Gb BUT!

What is better? Two 1Gb matched modules or 3Gb?

Jim

 

[iLLucionist]

..so only supports 3Gb BUT!

What is better? Two 1Gb matched modules or 3Gb?

Jim

Wel, for as far as i know MBPro supports dual channel, so you might consider buying a dual channel kit so that you know for sure that you have 2 identical memory modules.

If you'll put in one 1GB module and one 2GB module, if that is what you mean by putting in 3GB, you won't have dual channel and thus probably a slower machine.

I don't have figures on what the actual difference in performance is, though in my experience dual channel is really faster over not dual channel.

 

[Hierotochan]

I thought we were passed that...

Parity RAM?
Isn't that a Windows thing?

I went from 2Gb(2x1Gb)
out of the box to 3Gb(1x1Gb+1x2Gb) & the difference is very apparent.
Especially so when you tell Photoshop to use more of it.

General rule is more RAM the better, matched of not.

 

[scienide09]

You don't have a SR machine. The 2.16GHz and 2.33GHz MBP's were pre- Santa Rosa.

Your machine can take 4GB of RAM (2X2GB), but will only recognize 3.3GB of that RAM. If this RAM is matched, then it will run in dual-channel mode.

If you put in 3GB (2GB + 1GB), the system will address all 3GB, but it won't be matched, so it won't run in dual-channel mode.

You won't notice the difference in having matched vs. non-matched RAM.
You might notice the slight speed difference between 3GB and having 3.3GB.

http://guides.macrumors.com/Understanding_Intel_Mac_RAM
http://guides.macrumors.com/Buying_RAM

 

[squeeks]

Parity RAM?
Isn't that a Windows thing?

I went from 2Gb(2x1Gb)
out of the box to 3Gb(1x1Gb+1x2Gb) & the difference is very apparent.
Especially so when you tell Photoshop to use more of it.

General rule is more RAM the better, matched of not.

a windows thing?

ram parity

 

[CanadaRAM]

Parity RAM?
Isn't that a Windows thing?

Who said anything about Parity?
That has nothing to do with Dual Channel memory access.

Parity RAM (ECC RAM) is only used on the MacPro machines and XServes, and only very rare G5 towers. All other Macs use non-Parity standard RAM

OP: Welcome to MR.
Suggestion: Please read through the Guides and/or do a search on the forums before opening a new thread -- we have covered this topic many, many times before.