Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

will 2011 Quad MBPs support 32GB RAM?

B

bniu

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 21, 2010
1,128
314
Looking at the intel spec sheet at http://ark.intel.com/products/52227/Intel-Core-i7-2820QM-Processor-(8M-Cache-2_30-GHz), it looks like Intel has upped the RAM limit to 32GBs of RAM. Does that mean the 2011 MBPs have the latent ability in their chipsets to support up to 32 gigs of RAM once 16GB SODIMMs are brought to market? Apple uses standard Intel chipsets right?

If so, that'd really extend the lifespan of my 2011 MBP :D. 16GB of RAM this year and 18 months later, 32 gigs!
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Ah *****, I should have included the quote you quoted.
That
is believed to be one of Bill Gates famous quotes back in the day, when MegaBytes where still like a Terabyte today.
Click to expand...
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Gates#Misattributed
640K ought to be enough for anybody.
Often attributed to Gates in 1981. Gates considered the IBM PC's 640kB program memory a significant breakthrough over 8-bit systems that were typically limited to 64kB, but he has denied making this remark.

"I've said some stupid things and some wrong things, but not that. No one involved in computers would ever say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all time … I keep bumping into that silly quotation attributed to me that says 640K of memory is enough. There's never a citation; the quotation just floats like a rumor, repeated again and again."

"Do you realize the pain the industry went through while the IBM PC was limited to 640K? The machine was going to be 512K at one point, and we kept pushing it up. I never said that statement — I said the opposite of that."
Click to expand...
 
applefanboy4739 said:
I don't know why anyone would think that they need more than 4k of RAM. :)
Click to expand...

That's an ignorant statement to make based on your own restricted frame of reference. I, of course, assume you meant 4 GB since my first computer (zx spectrum) had more memory than 4 kilobytes.
 
TheJing said:
Out of curiosity, what exactly do you do on your computer to need 32GB of RAM?
Click to expand...

1080p encoding and processing, tens of safari tabs open, running 30 programs at once, crunching big amounts of data via matlab, and doing all of that simultaneously because I want to.
 
GGJstudios said:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Gates#Misattributed
Click to expand...

That's why I said "believed", but thanks for the "640k" version, as that was the number I remember, as it is printed outside a Mac/Apple Store in Berlin.

----------
bniu said:
1080p encoding and processing, tens of safari tabs open, running 30 programs at once, crunching big amounts of data via matlab, and doing all of that simultaneously because I want to.
Click to expand...

Then you might take a look at the iMac, as the current iMac can support 32 GB of RAM via the 8 GB modules.
 
applefanboy4739 said:
I don't know why anyone would think that they need more than 4k of RAM. :)
Click to expand...

I don't know why anyone would think that they can do computing without visually seeing anything on the screen. :)

That statement was made with the assumption that everyone was okay looking at a wall of texts on a computer. That was where Apple stepped in, and it is from then that we got to this day.
 
bniu said:
Looking at the intel spec sheet at http://ark.intel.com/products/52227/Intel-Core-i7-2820QM-Processor-(8M-Cache-2_30-GHz), it looks like Intel has upped the RAM limit to 32GBs of RAM. Does that mean the 2011 MBPs have the latent ability in their chipsets to support up to 32 gigs of RAM once 16GB SODIMMs are brought to market? Apple uses standard Intel chipsets right?

If so, that'd really extend the lifespan of my 2011 MBP :D. 16GB of RAM this year and 18 months later, 32 gigs!
Click to expand...

I guess we will find out once 32 GB become available, not before. SO-DIMMs are tiny, I don't know how they would fit 16 GB on one of them, but I'm sure they will work it out.
 
thundersteele said:
I guess we will find out once 32 GB become available, not before. SO-DIMMs are tiny, I don't know how they would fit 16 GB on one of them, but I'm sure they will work it out.
Click to expand...

After all, that's what everyone was saying about 8GB a year or two ago.
Personally, it's great that the new intel processors now support 32GB and all, but I can't see anyone who actually needs that much ram.
 
We will get there folks. 32 GB on a portable, multi -terabyte SSDs - the works. Its just not financially practical at this point in time.
 
Ice Dragon said:
As far as I know, only the 2011 iMacs support 32 GB of RAM, not the Macbook Pros
Click to expand...

Since there are no 16 GB SO-DIMM RAM modules, we can't verify that. But the Intel chipset used in 2011 MBPs is able to support 32 GB RAM.
The iMac can use 32 GB of RAM due to the 8 GB SO-DIMM modules out there.
 
thundersteele said:
I guess we will find out once 32 GB become available, not before. SO-DIMMs are tiny, I don't know how they would fit 16 GB on one of them, but I'm sure they will work it out.
Click to expand...
a few years ago nobody would believe 8GB chips :) it won't be long and there will be 32GB ones its pretty crazy

currently I can't imagine needing 32GB of RAM but then again I didn't think I would need 16GB either and using Lightroom / Photoshop + plugins I nearly max that out sometimes now

I remember my first PC (intel chip anyway) 286 when it had a 40MB hard drive with 1MB of RAM I think it was and that was top of the line LOL
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Since there are no 16 GB SO-DIMM RAM modules, we can't verify that. But the Intel chipset used in 2011 MBPs is able to support 32 GB RAM.
The iMac can use 32 GB of RAM due to the 8 GB SO-DIMM modules out there.
Click to expand...

That would be interesting if true. How far along are 16 GB modules in development? Would you or anyone else know?
 
I remember the upgrade to 256mb of ram on an intel 1GHz back in the day... I thought it did everything imaginable. Times will change. I echo the fact that in time 32GB will not sound extreme and 1TB SSD's will ship in entry level notebooks (or whatever they will be called then). Its the world of tech; only requirements are time and money.
 
I remember the 640k limit on DOS.

Was a pain in the ass, because even when you have more, like 8 MB, some stupid applications would insist on running from the first 640k... change autoexec.bat and config.sys and reboot... was so annoying.

I think Win 95 finally got rid of that madness.
 
thundersteele said:
I remember the 640k limit on DOS.

Was a pain in the ass, because even when you have more, like 8 MB, some stupid applications would insist on running from the first 640k... change autoexec.bat and config.sys and reboot... was so annoying.

I think Win 95 finally got rid of that madness.
Click to expand...

Yes. You had to use EMS and XMS. It's no laughing matter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back