[X4U] RAM Memory - What's the max?

[System Admin]

Hi:

You have to watch the terminology here or you can get bitten.

CoreDuo MacBook Pros can only address 2GB of RAM. I have the original
1.83GHz Core Duo MacBook Pro and tried to put 3GB in it and it won't see it.
It only sees a max of 2GB even if you buy a 2GB RAM stick and put it in
there with another 1GB stick. I have confirmed that this is indeed a
limitation of these machines.

The pre-Santa Rosa Core2Duo (Core2 not Core) MacBook Pros will address up to
3GB RAM. If you put two 2GB sticks in there, the OS will only show 3GB. This
is, as has been stated, a limitation of the Intel chipset. Note... WinTel
vendors have been marketing machines with the same chipsets as 4GB max RAM
when, in fact, they can only address slightly above 3GB even if you put 4GB
in them. False advertising if you ask me. Once again Apple takes the high
road and gets no credit in the media.

The newest Core2Duo MacBook Pros with the "Santa Rosa" architecture can
actually see and provide for system use up to 4GB of RAM.

By the way (and on another note)... I am about 99.999% certain that this is
why Apple went with the Xeon based processors in the Mac Pros (desktops) and
the Intel XServes as the chipsets in these can address much more RAM than 3
or 4GB. Unfortunately, the RAM for these suckers is incredibly expensive
with no advantage speed-wise over "regular" DDR2 RAM. Otherwise I think they
would have went with the desktop Core2 processors that use much less
expensive RAM.

... e


On 7/22/2007 11:14 AM, "Eugene" <list-themacintoshguy at fsck.net> wrote:

> On Sat, Jul 21, 2007 at 05:24:17AM CDT, Ronald Steinke <ronsteinke at mac.com>
> wrote:
>> On 20 Jul, 2007, at 3:18 PM, Stroller wrote:
>>> 
>>> I was surprised to read the Apple Store recommending 3gig, but it appears
>>> they are correct:
>> 
>> MacTracker also agrees with this. Max RAM for the core duo MBP - 3Gb (4 Gb
>> {2x2Gb} can be installed but only 3Gb will be recognized). No explanation
>> given for the unrecognized 1Gb.
> 
> Blame Intel.  It's a limitation of the 945PM chipset.
> 
> <http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/faq/macbook-pro-core-2-duo-
> 3-gb-memory-limitation-details.html>
> 


Eric