Why only 8GB of RAM?

[BAC5.2]

Why is there an 8Gb limit to RAM in my late-2010 15" MBP?

Is that an actual limit, or could I eventually upgrade to 16Gb?

 

[snaky69]

Why is there an 8Gb limit to RAM in my late-2010 15" MBP?

Is that an actual limit, or could I eventually upgrade to 16Gb?

The chipset cannot accept more, it's a hardware limitation, nothing more to it. Upgrading to 16gb is still well over a grand, I'd wait and buy a quad core instead, you'd probably notice more bang for your buck.

 

[DustinT]

Ya, if you run apps that really require 16g ram you'll probably want to upgrade to a 2011 model (or newer, when they come out) since the additional performance of the newer CPU will help you out as well.

 

[Mobius 1]

apple needs 4 RAM slots.

looks like they're bottlenecking the MBP's

 

[calderone]

The chipset cannot accept more, it's a hardware limitation, nothing more to it. Upgrading to 16gb is still well over a grand, I'd wait and buy a quad core instead, you'd probably notice more bang for your buck.

Not anymore.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/1333DDR3S16P/

Fell $50 today and $100 over the weekend.

 

[snaky69]

Not anymore.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/1333DDR3S16P/

Fell $50 today and $100 over the weekend.

Still way too much when you consider the same upgrade for a desktop is around 300 bucks. But that's just me.

 

[gorskiegangsta]

Not anymore.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/1333DDR3S16P/

Fell $50 today and $100 over the weekend.

Oh wow, went down to $930 from $1250 in under a week. By the end of the year it might actually be affordable.

 

[BAC5.2]

So there is a physical limitation preventing the running of two 8Gb sticks?

16Gb would let me devote 8Gb to Windows in VMWare Fusion.

 

[snaky69]

So there is a physical limitation preventing the running of two 8Gb sticks?

16Gb would let me devote 8Gb to Windows in VMWare Fusion.

Yes. There is a physical limitation, like I said in my very first post.

If you want to run 16gb, you'll have to cough up for the latest MBP's as well.

 

[altecXP]

So there is a physical limitation preventing the running of two 8Gb sticks?

16Gb would let me devote 8Gb to Windows in VMWare Fusion.

Pre-SandyBridge Intel Memory controllers can only support 4GB of RAM per DIMM slot. That limit was changed in SandyBridge, it can take 8GB per DIMM slot.