New MacBook Pro Does Not Support 8GB RAM (for now)

[Cave Man]

Have you tried putting 8 GB of RAM in your MBP since 10.5.7 came out? Just curious.

No, but I probably should give it a try. I doubt it does anything, but who knows?

 

[akutz]

No, but I probably should give it a try. I doubt it does anything, but who knows?

One can hope. Please let us know either way! To be clear, you have a 2.53 GHz late-2008 Unibody, correct?

 

[Cave Man]

One can hope. Please let us know either way! To be clear, you have a 2.53 GHz late-2008 Unibody, correct?

No, I have the 2.4 gHz SR MBP.

 

[akutz]

No, I have the 2.4 gHz SR MBP.

Pardon my ignorance, but SR? Well, even if it doesn't work for you, I'm still hoping that 8 GB will eventually be supported in the Late-2008 uMBP 2.53 GHz models.

 

[Cave Man]

Santa Rosa (chipset prior to the current models' nVidia 9400m).

 

[MacG]

With Snow Leopard's release tomorrow, it would be good to come back to this thread to see if anyone can get the late 2008 MBP's running SL to be stable with 8GB RAM.

 

[doctoree]

With Snow Leopard's release tomorrow, it would be good to come back to this thread to see if anyone can get the late 2008 MBP's running SL to be stable with 8GB RAM.

Yes, the early 08 models are also interesting again with SL. I already gave up my hope but seeing that Apple now started to support the multitouch gestures in these notebooks maybe they finally also support the 8 gigs of ram...

 

[tempusfugit]

Unfortunately, I think all of these little tidbits are building to become the 'value' in snow leopard.

The dual video cards, the max ram... possible only available if you shell out $129 for snow leopard.

More like $29, genius. Personally I'm getting for $10 with apple's up to date program.

Ah, one more reason to remain with Tiger and skip over Leopard to Snow Leopard!

Because thats going to be beneficial at all....

do you even know anything thats going on? upgrade discs for SL require leopard....

not like a machine geared for tiger would really benefit at all from SL

 

[MacG]

upgrade discs for SL require leopard....L

Actually they don't. But strictly by the EULA books you must install SL on top of leopard or buy the box set. But technically that's not required and SL will install on top of tiger.

 

[Sehnsucht]

I iz in ur forumz, bumpin ur old thredz

 

[doctoree]

I iz in ur forumz, bumpin ur old thredz

Yeah, I'm Sehnsüchtigly awaiting more RAM dude!

 

[Sehnsucht]

Yeah, I'm Sehnsüchtigly awaiting more RAM dude!

 

[stevemiller]

while i'm sure apple would have touted 8gb ram support in SL if it existed (just like the 4 fingered gestures), i do at least wish we knew the actual limitation barring late '08 mbps from accepting more ram. i mean if someone could just definitely say the limitation was hardware, we could all move on!

 

[McGiord]

Had anyone conducted a test? 8GB + SL and late 2008 MBP?

 

[McGiord]

The answer I got from a RAM seller tech support person:
"The limitation is hardware based and even with 10.6 is still 6 GB."

 

[alent1234]

it is hardware based, it's a limitation of the chipset

 

[katiepitt]

Fairly surprised to read about this limitation, I thought 8GB would be reasonable for people wanting to do video editing on a MBP.

 

[alent1234]

read it again and it looks like the OS. SL is still a 32 bit kernel and Leapard was as well.

 

[AidenShaw]

it is hardware based, it's a limitation of the chipset

That's odd, since the 9400M chipset supports 8 GiB in the iMac and newer MacBook Pros.

 

[polaris20]

That's odd, since the 9400M chipset supports 8 GiB in the iMac and newer MacBook Pros.

Most likely firmware then, ya think? Why else would my late '08 only be 4GB (6GB unofficial) and my mid '09 is 8GB, all with the same 9400m chipset?

Seems dum. Dee You Em dum.

 

[CQd44]

6 GB seems like an arbitrary limitation.

 

[ayeying]

it is hardware based, it's a limitation of the chipset

Its firmware so its software.

read it again and it looks like the OS. SL is still a 32 bit kernel and Leapard was as well.

Doesn't matter.

6 GB seems like an arbitrary limitation.

We don't have 3GB single sticks to try 7GB.

 

[suleiman]

So no one has tried this yet? I am anxious to do so. Maybe I will pickup some ram from BestBuy then return it when it doesn't work on my system.

 

[McGiord]

Well, based on this thread and other internet sources we have identified the following statements:
1) Hardware limitation advocates: for late 2008 model NVIDIA Chipset:
- Apple official supports 4 GB
- RAM vendors support 6 GB
- some users suggest to try 7 GB
2) Hardware capability advocates: NVIDIA Chipset for late 2008 model is capable to support 8 GB
- late 2008 is the same as the 2009 model so the Hardware is not the issue
- the limitation lives in Leopard due to is 32 bit kernel...or...
- the limitation lives in the Chipset firmware, and can be eliminated with a firmware update
- with Snow Leopard 64 bit capability the limitation could be removed, we need to test this or have credible test results from a good source:
+ we need to check if the current Snow Leopard release as of today provides support for the 8 GB of RAM
+ if the current version of Snow Leopard is not supporting 8 GB of RAM, can it be supported in a following update?
* Is willing to do that?
* will it be a winding road like it was for the AirPort Extreme Base Station and the AirDisk and TimeMachine support?
* will start officially supporting the 8 GB of RAM?
* will it be working but without the support from ?


This is my attempt to summarize the info and questions without mistakes, and as of Today I am not sure how to define if they are right or wrong.
Please make any corrections or additions to continue this discussion and hpefully we can come up with a positive final conclusion.

 

[Brien]

FYI, chipset isn't the same. The early '09 revision has a newer revision of the 9400M chipset (iFixIt has pictures, IIRC, where the numbers on the chips are different).