So the late 08 2.8 owners got hosed?

[puma1552]

No future ability to expand to 8 GB of RAM according to someone at Apple, citing the logic board itself as the bottleneck to being able to go beyond 6 GB of RAM.

Fantastic Apple, way to hose your early buyers of the most premuim model.

 

[wheezy]

No future ability to expand to 8 GB of RAM according to someone at Apple, citing the logic board itself as the bottleneck to being able to go beyond 6 GB of RAM.

Fantastic Apple, way to hose your early buyers of the most premuim model.

Hosed with 'only' 6GB of RAM? Poor guy...

 

[djinn]

No future ability to expand to 8 GB of RAM according to someone at Apple, citing the logic board itself as the bottleneck to being able to go beyond 6 GB of RAM.

Fantastic Apple, way to hose your early buyers of the most premuim model.

Maybe blame yourself..... You should've waited.

 

[MKnight]

I don't get these kinds of complaints...

I bought a Santa Rosa based MBP in Aug 2007 and have mine maxed at 4GB of ram. I'm pretty happy with it, but would I like the ability to go to 8GB? Sure I would but I live with it.

Technology always changes and products will always be revised so there is no point in getting upset about things like this.

You buy what you need at the time and make great use of it for a couple years and then buy the next best thing when your computer just can't run modern apps and OS's.

 

[puma1552]

Maybe blame yourself..... You should've waited.

I did wait. I and thousands of others waited for a full and imminent redesign.

now I can buy a 2.8 today that's effectively no different than mine, same body style, just a couple months apart, but that one can expand to 8 GB while mine can't?

Bogus.

 

[harcosparky]

I don't get these kinds of complaints...

Maybe we should give out a little cheese to go along with the whine threads? :lol:

Apple didn't hose anyone - nobody was forced to buy anything.

Sheesh .... oh I almost forgot, here's your cheese! :lol:

 

[CPD_1]

It's not bogus. The machine you own now is the machine you knew you were buying when you bought it. Apple didn't advertise it as being compatible with 8 gigs of memory, and you were fine with it then. Apple doesn't advertise the new MBP as compatible with 16 gigs. Should they issue apologies to buyers when the inevitable happens?

You've got a great machine, enjoy it. The next model will always have some feature yours doesn't.

 

[yetanotherdave]

I did wait. I and thousands of others waited for a full and imminent redesign.

now I can buy a 2.8 today that's effectively no different than mine, same body style, just a couple months apart, but that one can expand to 8 GB while mine can't?

Bogus.

What did Apple say the 08 2.8 would go to? If they said 8Gb then you have a valid complaint, but they didn't, they said 4 gig max.

 

[puma1552]

you dont think it was reasonable to expect that the new design which will be used for 2-3 years would/should support 8 GB in the next 2-3 years? I love what I bought and I realized what I bought, but it certainly wasn't out of line to expect 8 GB of RAM support two years from now.

Especially when they changed the logic board six months after release.

A board full of Apple apologists, as always.

 

[PhixionFilms]

i have the 9600m Gt with 512mb vram. I also have 4 gigs of ram. I can run FCS2 and any of the adobe applications seamless at the same time.

 

[CPD_1]

It's not being an Apple apologist. I wouldn't expect Dell or HP to not outpace a laptop I bought 6 months after I bought it. I've got an old Dell on my table right now that I'm upgrading for a family member. They bought it two years ago, and it doesn't support four gigs of ram. That was all it was advertised at, and that's all that should ever have been expected.

My TV only has 1 HDMI port. I bought it, and six months later, the company who manufactures my TV released a rev. B model that had three HDMI ports and used the new HDMI profile. I was able to update my TV to use the new profile, but I wasn't able to magically have two more HDMI ports. It would be one thing if Apple refused to offer you software updates, but that's not the case. As a matter of fact, for all intents and purposes, you have a huge performance bump coming with Snow Leopard. But they don't have to, and shouldn't, halt the ever growing hardware features on their machines to keep you state of the art.

 

[puma1552]

Right but it's not the fact that the technology wasn't there.

The technology was there, Apple just chose not to utilize it, hosing the early buyers.

You can tell me all about planned obsolescence, but that doesn't make Apple's decision any less ethical IMO.

 

[eXan]

I did wait. I and thousands of others waited for a full and imminent redesign.

now I can buy a 2.8 today that's effectively no different than mine, same body style, just a couple months apart, but that one can expand to 8 GB while mine can't?

Bogus.

More like 8 months apart.

Did you seriously expect technology to stall once you've purchased a computer? >_>

And what type of stuff do you do on your MBP that 6 GB isn't enough, while 8 GB is?

 

[puma1552]

More like 8 months apart.

Did you seriously expect technology to stall once you've purchased a computer? >_>

And what type of stuff do you do on your MBP that 6 GB isn't enough, while 8 GB is?

Two years ago, what did you do on your computer where 2 GB wasn't enough, while 4 was?

 

[eXan]

Two years ago, what did you do on your computer where 2 GB wasn't enough, while 4 was?

I don't quite get what you mean there. Its not a valid comparison - thats a 50% decrease in RAM capacity, while 6 vs 8 is only 25%.

And 2 years ago I didn't have a machine that was capable of having 4 GB and was running on 1 GB just fine.

All in all, you're just trolling I suppose...

 

[CPD_1]

Well, I don't know that he's trolling. I think he's just frustrated and looking for a place to vent it. I can't say I haven't done the same thing myself.

 

[puma1552]

I don't quite get what you mean there. Its not a valid comparison - thats a 100% increase in RAM capacity, while 6 vs 8 is only 25%.

And 2 years ago I didn't have a machine that was capable of having 4 GB and was running on 1 GB just fine.

All in all, you're just trolling I suppose...

If you want to get technical, basic math would show you that 6 GB to 8 GB is a 33% increase.

The point is that before AppleCare expires a lot more applications are going to need and utilize 8 GB of RAM. Some of us like to buy a computer knowing it's expandable and knowing we can use it for three years before having to pay the Apple Tax again.

The point is, when they released a new body style, they should've been looking forward in one fell swoop, releasing a whole new line of laptops with new capabilities and that would all have the ability not to come with 8 GB of RAM from the factory, but to be expandable to 8 GB in time. Of course the offerings in specs improve every six months, but to actually release a whole new line of laptops, and then mere months later in the same design cycle, early in the design cycle, decide "OK now we will allow 8 GB of RAM", that's not planned obsolescence, that's not technology not being previously available, that's just plain low.

Trolling? Please.

 

[eXan]

If you want to get technical, basic math would show you that 6 GB to 8 GB is a 33% increase.

The point is that before AppleCare expires a lot more applications are going to need and utilize 8 GB of RAM. Some of us like to buy a computer knowing it's expandable and knowing we can use it for three years before having to pay the Apple Tax again.

The point is, when they released a new body style, they should've been looking forward in one fell swoop, releasing a whole new line of laptops with new capabilities and that would all have the ability not to come with 8 GB of RAM from the factory, but to be expandable to 8 GB in time. Of course the offerings in specs improve every six months, but to actually release a whole new line of laptops, and then mere months later in the same design cycle, early in the design cycle, decide "OK now we will allow 8 GB of RAM", that's not planned obsolescence, that's not technology not being previously available, that's just plain low.

Trolling? Please.

Seriously though, if you're purchasing such an expensive peace of technology you are supposed to do a little research about it in order to make sure you get the right thing.

Its common knowledge that its not recommended to buy rev. A of any Apple device. There are plenty examples why (FW in uMB, core shutdown in MBA, freezing in alu iMacs with 2600, deepened headphone jack in iPhone, yellowing of white MB's palmrests, etc, etc).

On the RAM front the discussed issue is not something new either. Rev. A MBP was limited to 2 GB, the rev. B to 3.3 GB, rev. C to 4 GB, rev. E to 6 GB (which was discovered only later). So you should have guessed that changing the design doesn't warrant the chipset that will support everything in 3 years time.

So sit quite and be happy that you still have your 3 Gbps SATA and an ExpressCard slot

 

[mikes70mustang]

Thats what you get for buying first gen. Having to have it now now now, instead of waiting till they get it tweaked to make it better. Reallly, this thread is like saying. What the power book owners get hosed! My PB is only 5 years old and now i cant update. Y cry about this, you got what you were looking for, there is no future proof guarantee. I would say sell it and get a new one, but yours is selling for as much as mine right now lol

 

[LedCop]

I just wanna say I kinda lean towards where the OP is coming from.

I mean, it's public knowledge that the nVidia chipset supports 8GB of RAM and SATA 3gb so when we get a laptop with that chipset from Apple we'd reasonably expect a laptop that has the capabilities of the chipset implemented fully. Any less and it honestly seems that Apple is cutting corners on their expensive Macbook PROS. And even planned obsolescence.

But Apple has in the past specified max ram that turned out to be less than what the machine could eventually support (I think) because the RAM chips weren't available in those capacities.

And for those of you saying "deal with the advertised specs", would you say the same thing to the 1.5gb sata owners? Yeah, Apple explicitly never advertised 8GBs as supported but neither did they advertise 3gb/s SATA on the new MacBook Pros. All you had was a reasonable expectation. And those of your saying 6GB of RAM is "enough" I guess the transfer rate of 1.5gb/s sata is also "enough" since most people have mechanical hard disks.

Has anyone tried 64-bit Windows Vista on 7 on those MacBook Pros for the world to see? If Windows can't use the 8GB of RAM then I wouldn't have high hopes for Snow Leopard. But if the limit hasn't been similarly shown in Windows, I believe there's still a chance. Maybe Apple hasn't bothered to write Leopard PAE drivers/extensions for the old MBPs.

 

[sal]

it bothered me at first. But have you seen the prices for 8gigs? Even if I could upgrade to 8gigram right now, I wouldn't...too expensive

I figure by the time 8gigs becomes affordable for me, it will be time to buy a new laptop anyway, which most likely come preloaded with 8gigs of ram.

I am not concerned or bothered by it anymore.

 

[puma1552]

Seriously though, if you're purchasing such an expensive peace of technology you are supposed to do a little research about it in order to make sure you get the right thing.

And Apple owes it's shareholders and consumers a roadmap just like every other manufacturer.

 

[hodgeheg]

A board full of Apple apologists, as always.

Frankly, I'm no Apple apologist. After my recent experience they are about my least favourite computer company on the planet.

But the other posters are, imho, correct. I thought it was a bit crap that the 15" MBP didn't support 8GB RAM when plenty of cheaper PC laptops were beginning to BUT.... I *knew* it didn't support 8GB RAM.

It didn't promise to support 8GB RAM - it quite specifically said 4. There was no reason to expect it to support 8GB RAM. Similarly I know my current laptop supports 8GB but I also know it came with a 32bit OS (Vista) so that I would have to spend money on replacing that if I want to take advantage of the 8GB capacity, and I made an informed decision based on that. I will not now complain if Toshiba start selling solely 64 bit Windows versions with their laptops. At most I might decide "oh, should have waited" but that's unlikely - I needed the laptop and it was a good buy. And even if I do decide "should have waited" that's feedback for me and my future decision making - not a complaint against the manufacturer.

You bought your MBP knowing it supported 4GB. It was not unreasonable to expect 8GB support in the near future, but it was not reasonable, given that RAM limitations are usually hardware based (given the Macs already have 64bit OS), to expect that support to retroactively appear in an older machine. If you didn't realise that, I'm sorry, but it's NOT Apple's fault, as much as I currently loathe them.


Re the point someone made about the chipset supporting 8GB, yes, but presumably there was a reason Apple weren't saying "8GB" when their competitors were and if one bought it on the basis that some components could support 8GB you took a CHANCE knowing it was a chance, it didn't pay off - factor into next round of decisionmaking. Yes this may have been cheap on Apple's part. Yes I do think they're shafting their customers by cutting tiny corners, and this is a worryingly consistent trend afaict and one of the reasons I'm no longer convinced their products are worth the price. But they delivered what they promised in *this* case.

As for the SATA thing, yes, it's crap. I agree totally, because you didn't/couldn't know. This is therefore a totally different situation. If they update their specs page to clearly state 1.5Gbps SATA1 then the comparison will be valid. It would still be crap, but you would know. This is how I felt about the 4GB limit - it was crap, but you knew.

Also, yes Apple has been known to under-specify RAM limits in the past - another reason to dislike their way of operating - and I myself wondered at the time whether they might well actually support 8GB but had 8GB support been a requirement I would not have bought one, or I would have bought one and expected that I might need to sell/replace it soon. I sympathise with and can understand the OP's situation, but it is one they put themselves in. But again, it was a CHANCE. A decision made in the full knowledge that you didn't *have* full knowledge. You every right to be disappointed, but the disappointment is the result of your choice. If they'd advertised 8GB, or even if they'd advertised an 8GB-capable chipset then said nothing about the actual capacity of the machine, I would be with you all the way (it would be the same situation as the SATA appears to be).

 

[hodgeheg]

And Apple owes it's shareholders and consumers a roadmap just like every other manufacturer.

I have to agree a roadmap would be nice. And I dislike Apple's secrecy. However it seems to be serving their shareholders well, and many people keep buying their products, and it is their choice.

I don't like Apple's secrecy, but again, *I KNOW* about it and I still chose to buy, so did you.

So when I've bought Apple products I've known that there was a chance they would get replaced the day after (it's even happened once), but that was part of the list of things I 'bought' along with the decision to buy Apple (not a decision I personally expect to replicate). The point is to buy a product that meets your needs, and your laptop still does everything it did the day you bought it, and you bought what it *was*, not what it might (but wouldn't be likely to) be.


P.S. on the other hand, yours has SATA2 and an expresscard slot!

 

[NRose8989]

What exactly are you doing that would require you to need 8GB at this very moment? Or in the future? I'm still using a 2.4ghz Santa Rosa MBP w/4GB of ram and I rarely exceed that (only when using a VM). From my personal experience, the only apps I've found to really utilize a lot of ram is Motion and After effects, mainly because they use ram to preview what you are doing. Photoshop may use some ram too, but I'm not a heavy photoshop user.

There are still a lot of users using 1.5 to 2GB of ram in their PB G4's and they get along just fine using Pro Apps. So I really don't see any validity in your argument other than you won't be "that cool guy" with 8GB of ram.

You obviously bought a MBP knowing that it only supported 4GB of ram.

which implies that:

- You knew that your not going to need any more ram in the future.

OR

- You knew that someday your going to have to buy another MBP when you needed 8GB of ram.


So now we can conclude that:

- You were just fine with having only 4GB of ram until Apple released something better and somehow making you inferior because you didn't get your fair share of being on the cutting edge.

OR

- You knew that someday you were going to have to buy another machine down the road. Knowing the consequences, you decided not to wait hereby accepting the fact that you were already willing to purchase a new machine anyways. Just because Apple released a more capable machine 8 months later (or even a year and a half later) makes no difference. You decided on the day your bought your MBP that 4GB would last you long enough.