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when will we see 16GB RAM in MBP?

B

bniu

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 21, 2010
1,128
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I know that 8GB SO-DIMMs aren't really on the market yet, but I'm wondering, what is the progress on them? 8 Gig kits are now already $99 on amazon and I'm surprised that no 16Gig laptop kits even exist.

Would it be possible if Apple removes the ODD to also add two more RAM slots onto the motherboard as well? My work requires me to process lots of data and even 8 gigs of RAM is often not enough. I'm really hoping for 16GB RAM systems to come out soon so I can upgrade to that.
 
marshallbedsaul said:
who knows honestly
I would say when we need it, but prob not cause we really dont need 8gb now.
Click to expand...

I upgraded to 8GB on my 2009 MBP so I can give 4GB to a Windows XP VM. My stock drive is 5400 rpm. I'm going to upgrade to either a std 7200 or the Seagate hybrid. 8GB comes in handy when multiple applications are up. I haven't met the computer that is fast enough. Fast enough is always just out of reach. //smile
Glad you have one that fits you perfectly.
 
Considering the heat and the speed, I think that if we need 16GB RAM it is probably better to run the applications on a desktop Mac.
 
marshallbedsaul said:
who knows honestly
I would say when we need it, but prob not cause we really dont need 8gb now.
Click to expand...

GGJstudios said:
It would be interesting to see Activity Monitor screen captures to illustrate that.
Click to expand...

Right now I have Adium, Google Chrome, iTunes, MacVim, iTerm and a rails server running and I'm showing 2.59GB used. If I need to do any work in xcode or PS there goes another 1+ GB used depending on the project I open. I also work with .net using a win7 VM...another 2GB gone.

8GB is the minimum amount of RAM I can get by with right now given my type of work.
 
mdatwood said:
Right now I have Adium, Google Chrome, iTunes, MacVim, iTerm and a rails server running and I'm showing 2.59GB used. If I need to do any work in xcode or PS there goes another 1+ GB used depending on the project I open. I also work with .net using a win7 VM...another 2GB gone.

8GB is the minimum amount of RAM I can get by with right now given my type of work.
Click to expand...
My comment was directed to the OP, who claimed that 8GB was not enough. From your post, it appears 8GB is sufficient for your needs. Again, posting Activity Monitor screen shots would be helpful. I'm not suggesting that no one needs more RAM than 8GB, but there are many who misunderstand system memory usage readings in Activity Monitor and think they need more RAM, when they don't.
 
mdatwood said:
Right now I have Adium, Google Chrome, iTunes, MacVim, iTerm and a rails server running and I'm showing 2.59GB used. If I need to do any work in xcode or PS there goes another 1+ GB used depending on the project I open. I also work with .net using a win7 VM...another 2GB gone.

8GB is the minimum amount of RAM I can get by with right now given my type of work.
Click to expand...

2.59+ 2 for photo shop + 2 for vm = 6.59 ? lol even having a ton of stuff open it seems like your just fine with 8gb.

As said before, if you need more then 8 you should be using a desktop.
 
When there is a market need that outweighs the cost of developing and changing over from 8GB max to 16GB. Most of the people using that amount of resources currently seem to be using programs that are more sensible to run on something such as a Mac Pro and external display screen.

How hot does your computer run? That is nuts as I 'upgraded' to 8GB of RAM only to realize that I rarely ever use it lol
 
will said:
Intel's spec sheets show the current Core i5/7 CPUs only support 8GB of ram. For example the Core i7-640M:
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=49666&processor=i7-640M&spec-codes=SLBTN,SLBZU

I haven't seen the official spec sheets for the new dual-core Core i5/i7 2xxx CPUs (Sandy Bridge), but so far there's been no mention of support for 16GB of ram. We'll find out for sure in a few weeks when they launch at CES.
Click to expand...

Just to comment, the spec sheet is for the Mobile version. Desktop versions can access 24GB ram.
 
Ever though of buying an SSD? Page outs will be significantly faster with an SSD than they are with a spinning drive.

It isn't the perfect solution but is better than relying on a slow hard drive to handle the page outs.
 
wilsonhaven said:
I upgraded to 8GB on my 2009 MBP so I can give 4GB to a Windows XP VM. My stock drive is 5400 rpm. I'm going to upgrade to either a std 7200 or the Seagate hybrid. 8GB comes in handy when multiple applications are up. I haven't met the computer that is fast enough. Fast enough is always just out of reach. //smile
Glad you have one that fits you perfectly.
Click to expand...
I upgraded my MBP's RAM from 2GB to 6 in order to be able to get it to satisfactorily handle Windows 7 and a number of Windows apps in a VMware Fusion VM, running in Unity mode. My old Santa Rosa MBP can handle no more than 6GB of RAM but that has turned out to be enough. I almost never have any page outs. I have 3GB of RAM and 1 processor core dedicated to the VM and it has worked well. When I had only 2GB of ram in the MBP, Fusion regularly brought it to its knees. It was unsatisfactorily slow and unstable, to boot.
 
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BJB Productions said:
Soon.

Sent from my iPad.
Click to expand...

LOL!
 
Dell already has it available for the XPS 17, so it could be pretty soon. However, it will be pricey if a 8GB upgrade from 4GB is around $400 or so from Apple...
 
SmoothJ said:
Dell already has it available for the XPS 17, so it could be pretty soon. However, it will be pricey if a 8GB upgrade from 4GB is around $400 or so from Apple...
Click to expand...

Considering Apple is ripping people off and you can get the same 8GB or better ram for $99 It should be around $240-260 for 16GB and i'd gladly upgrade for VMWare and Photoshop alone.
 
If 8gb sticks were available, would they even work in the current i5/i7 MBPs? I know on the official data sheet it says it isn't officially supported, but is it possible at all that the RAM would be recognized? My old HP only officially supported 2gb but you could still put more RAM in it and it would be recognized.
 
marshallbedsaul said:
we really dont need 8gb now.
Click to expand...

Maybe you don't. I use every bit of my 8 GB and could really stand to go to 12.

I know 8 GB SO-DIMMs are coming; as soon as they are readily available, the next generation of chipset will probably go to 16 GB capacity. I doubt we'll ever see a laptop with four SO-DIMM slots.
 
NickZac said:
How hot does your computer run? That is nuts as I 'upgraded' to 8GB of RAM only to realize that I rarely ever use it lol
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High RAM usage does not necessarily imply high processor usage.

Two VMs and the apps you want open to code and test in all three OSes will make 8 GB feel very cramped. The processor is rarely overtaxed, though.
 
I upgraded to 8GB OWC and my free RAM is already getting squeezed out - I have had up to 5 or 6 Gb of page outs for Photoshop scratch. 16Gb would be perfect but a SSD would also do the trick but for much more money and much less storage
 

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AdamRock said:
what are you doing to need 16GB ram?
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We could have said the same years ago!

"Why in the world do you need 1GB of RAM?", or how about "Who needs 512 MB??"

As operating systems and applications get more complicated, they are going to need more RAM! Lion already sounds like it will require a lot more RAM because of the new features (the autoresume feature).

I wouldn't be surprised if 8GB becomes standard in the next 2 or 3 years!
 
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