Should I max out at 16GB of RAM in my MacBook Pro?

[thundersteele]

Really? How does the early model take it though not the late model? Maybe people were having issues with 1600MHz RAM?

Did you read my post? They use a different CPU, although it has the same MHz.

The Sandy Bridge use i3, i5, i7 to distinguish the low/mid/high end CPUs. But there is a finer distinction. The i7 comes with model numbers 26XX, 27XX and 28XX.

26XX: 1333 RAM, limit 16 GB, 6 MB L3 cache
27XX: 1333/1600 RAM, limit 32 GB, 6 MB L3 cache
28XX: 1333/1600 RAM, limit 32 GB, 8 MB L3 cache

Apple uses the 26XX in the low end 15'' and the 27XX in the high end 15'' and 17'' models. The 28XX is used for the built to order CPU upgrade. For the early 2011 models the lineup was 2.0/2.2/2.3, now it is 2.2/2.4/2.5.

This has nothing to do with people having problems with 1600 MHz RAM.

 

[Asterix DH]

I would go with www.crucial.com/uk

The ram you linked to won't work. It's 240 pin desktop ram. On the mini sub forum another user from the uk was asking about 16 GB with a link to the exact ram you need.

Edit: here you go

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/par...rue&AID=10273954&PID=4169666&SID=i5o9i9shz6ks

Thanks for the help, I've found this on another forum thread but no-one verified whether it was the correct type or not.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-...)-204-pin-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-9-9-9-24-15v

I've compared all the details and they seem identical except for the voltage 1.35/1.5. Will these be ok in my MBP? they're £80 cheaper so would help if they was need this upgrade VERY soon, paging out way too many Gb's!!

 

[theSeb]

Thanks for the help, I've found this on another forum thread but no-one verified whether it was the correct type or not.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-...)-204-pin-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-9-9-9-24-15v

I've compared all the details and they seem identical except for the voltage 1.35/1.5. Will these be ok in my MBP? they're £80 cheaper so would help if they was need this upgrade VERY soon, paging out way too many Gb's!!

That will work fine as well.

 

[rw3]

You should max it out on RAM and get an SSD....

 

[Asterix DH]

You should max it out on RAM and get an SSD....

Yeah i've looked into this but the prices just astonish me. How much did you pay for yours and what size is it if you don't mind me asking?

 

[rw3]

Paid under $150 for the 16GB and under $200 for my 128GB Corsair Performance Pro SSD.

 

[sapporobaby]

Paid under $150 for the 16GB and under $200 for my 128GB Corsair Performance Pro SSD.

I contemplated putting 16 gigs in my Late 2011 MBP 15 inch but opted for two SSD's instead. Running with 8 gigs of ram, I do not think that I would see any major performance advantages. To confirm this I called Apple and asked would there be an advantage of 16 gigs over 8 gigs and they said I would not see anything significant. The SSD's are the real performance enhancers though.

 

[theSeb]

If you're paging out then more ram will be much more of a performance enhancer than even 4 SSDs.

 

[sapporobaby]

If you're paging out then more ram will be much more of a performance enhancer than even 4 SSDs.

Good point but how many apps do you have that page out that much? Either way my MBP works very well with 8 gigs and I am running Aperture, Photoshop, and a few other massive hogs. If I felt the need to add more ram I would.

 

[Pentad]

Yes, you should upgrade.

Given the price (cheap) and the performance you gain, it is the single best investment I've made in a long time.

Now, I am a heavy user that will have two VMs, Photoshop, Eclipse, Word, Excel, Safari, FF, Chrome, Navicat Lite, and Xcode all running together and 16GB has made my life much better.

I think that 4 GB is just unusable for Lion even in the most basic situations. Safari is a memory hog and Lion eats a fair amount of memory too.

8GB made Lion snappier but is no where near the performance gain of 16GB.

I would like to add an SSD but space vs price is the biggest issue. I would like a 1TB SSD but could settle for a 512GB one if price wasn't so outrageous. I admit SSDs are fast but not THAT fast to justify the cost currently.

-P

 

[153098]

Well, if you have more than 1 VM running at a time then I'd say definitely max it out. I only have 1 VM running in parallel and 8GB is enough but sometimes I'll run out of RAM but that's only if I'm doing intensive tasks on Lion and my VM at the same time. Right now I have my VM up and 3GB RAM free out of 8GB.

 

[416049]

Well, if you have more than 1 VM running at a time then I'd say definitely max it out. I only have 1 VM running in parallel and 8GB is enough but sometimes I'll run out of RAM but that's only if I'm doing intensive tasks on Lion and my VM at the same time. Right now I have my VM up and 3GB RAM free out of 8GB.

it also depends on the operatingsystem in the vm and how much you assign to it, i have 8gb and windows 7 ultimate and can survive with 4gb ram on each side, however if i were doing heavy multitasking i would need a lot more, in the one the rendering is done in,

In the end if you have the money for 16gb go for it!

 

[153098]

it also depends on the operatingsystem in the vm and how much you assign to it, i have 8gb and windows 7 ultimate and can survive with 4gb ram on each side, however if i were doing heavy multitasking i would need a lot more, in the one the rendering is done in,

In the end if you have the money for 16gb go for it!

Oh yea I forgot to give details I'm also running windows 7 ultimate on 1GB assigned out of my 8GB RAM but only use parallels for simple tasks. If I need to do more intense taks on windows I'll reboot into bootcamp. Even with only 1GB assigned, the parallels app can take up more than the assigned RAM on the OSX side and I can find myself running low on RAM sometimes so I agree and say go for the 16GB RAM especially if you are running more than 1 VM at a time.

 

[sapporobaby]

To all of you VM'ers, my hat goes off to you. I am not running any VM's so for the most part ram is never an issue. However, if you guys are doing some heavy lifting then 16 gigs might be needed. For my paltry Photoshop/Aperture, Safari (the pig) needs, 8 gigs is plenty. As I mentioned previously, what has made a dramatic difference is the addition of the 2 SSD's. I love my 11 second boot times.

Another consideration would be, if you go out and purchase 16 gigs of ram there is no guarantee that it will be usable in the next generation MBP. Didn't Apple jump from 1067 MHz to 1333 MHz between MBP generations? Wouldn't the make previously purchased ram null and void?

 

[416049]

To all of you VM'ers, my hat goes off to you. I am not running any VM's so for the most part ram is never an issue. However, if you guys are doing some heavy lifting then 16 gigs might be needed. For my paltry Photoshop/Aperture, Safari (the pig) needs, 8 gigs is plenty. As I mentioned previously, what has made a dramatic difference is the addition of the 2 SSD's. I love my 11 second boot times.

Another consideration would be, if you go out and purchase 16 gigs of ram there is no guarantee that it will be usable in the next generation MBP. Didn't Apple jump from 1067 MHz to 1333 MHz between MBP generations? Wouldn't the make previously purchased ram null and void?

I think it would just be slower as the ram would have slower clockspeed, however if apple makes a jump like they did from ddr2 to ddr3 the ram becomes unusable.

 

[nullbarcode]

Mac RAM

I concur. I checked myself and found no evidence to support a 16GB RAM upgrade.

That is because 8GIG kits were the highest available when that logic board was developed. Therefore that is all Apple could legally claim it would take.

NBC

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To all of you VM'ers, my hat goes off to you. I am not running any VM's so for the most part ram is never an issue. However, if you guys are doing some heavy lifting then 16 gigs might be needed. For my paltry Photoshop/Aperture, Safari (the pig) needs, 8 gigs is plenty. As I mentioned previously, what has made a dramatic difference is the addition of the 2 SSD's. I love my 11 second boot times.

Another consideration would be, if you go out and purchase 16 gigs of ram there is no guarantee that it will be usable in the next generation MBP. Didn't Apple jump from 1067 MHz to 1333 MHz between MBP generations? Wouldn't the make previously purchased ram null and void?

You are correct. This is for heavy lifters only. I purchase a 8GB kit for 39.00 from crucial today the 16gb kit was 222.00. I can verify it works though because I just installed for a client. The funny thing is they don't even need it and it just sits. I think they just wanted to say they have it for their editing.

NBC

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Yes, you should upgrade.

Given the price (cheap) and the performance you gain, it is the single best investment I've made in a long time.

Now, I am a heavy user that will have two VMs, Photoshop, Eclipse, Word, Excel, Safari, FF, Chrome, Navicat Lite, and Xcode all running together and 16GB has made my life much better.

I think that 4 GB is just unusable for Lion even in the most basic situations. Safari is a memory hog and Lion eats a fair amount of memory too.

8GB made Lion snappier but is no where near the performance gain of 16GB.

I would like to add an SSD but space vs price is the biggest issue. I would like a 1TB SSD but could settle for a 512GB one if price wasn't so outrageous. I admit SSDs are fast but not THAT fast to justify the cost currently.

-P

I added a 128GB 3rd gen intel SSD and it is great. I wish I could have afforded larger but it has been an excellent upgrade. I installed OSX in 9min w 4gb of ram. I install VM's of seven in about 11 min. I am in the process of upgrading to 8gb for 29.00 and when the prices come down for the 16gb I will take the plunge.

 

[FlyingPie]

G.Skill 16GB kit for $149.99 from Newegg

I recently put this G.Skill 16GB RAM kit ($149.99) in my late 2011 MacBook Pro:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231533
I've had it in there for several days so far, and it has been working great.