upgrading ram - Overclock.net

nafljhy · 08-29-09

i know how to upgrade the ram but my concern is about quantity.

supposedly my mac can only take up to 2GBs or so Apple had stated.. is that true it is only limited to that amount?

my next question is.. since snow leopard is 64bit.. would i be able to up my amount of ram to say 4GB?

i've never really bothered with this before as i just followed what was said as recommended for apples anyway.

Tator Tot · 08-29-09

What "Mac" is it?

iMac? MacBook/Pro?

And when was it made?

Some of the older Macbooks can only do 2GB of RAM because of the use of an older chipset, while some can do more than 2GB because they use newer chipsets, it all depends on when it was made.

Same goes for iMac's.

eflyguy · 08-29-09

Go to apple specs page: http://support.apple.com/specs/#
Type in your serial number (available in System Profiler)
Click on your model, and go down to supported memory configuration.

If you are limited to 2x1GB sticks, there is no way around that - just like I am limited to 2x2GB sticks on my Early 2009 MacBook. Larger sticks simply won't work, the hardware does not support them..
..a

nafljhy · 08-29-09

bah.. them i'm stuck with 2GB.

The Hundred Gunner · 08-29-09

I don't think 2GB is the cap for the models that don't support 4GB. I think it's 3.75 or something like that. And if you do get 2x2GB, even if you're capped at 3.75, you still get the benefits of dual channel.

KamuiRSX · 08-29-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Hundred Gunner

I don't think 2GB is the cap for the models that don't support 4GB. I think it's 3.75 or something like that. And if you do get 2x2GB, even if you're capped at 3.75, you still get the benefits of dual channel.

....it's a chipset capacity thing bud. It has nothing to do with OS support. His chipset can probably only handle 2 x 1GB sticks.

Here's my suggestion to you bud. If it's easily upgradable, find a friend with 4GB of ram in his laptop and take one of his sticks out and put it in yours. If it recognizes 3GB of RAM, then your max supported should be 4GB.

The Hundred Gunner · 08-29-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by KamuiRSX

....it's a chipset capacity thing bud. It has nothing to do with OS support. His chipset can probably only handle 2 x 1GB sticks.

I didn't say it has anything to do with the OS support

If you're basing the 2GB cap off of this thing:

http://support.apple.com/specs/#

Then it's BS. I punched in my serial number, and it says "Max RAM supproted: 2GB." And that isn't true, because I'm running 2.5GB as we speak.

Like I said, I believe the cap on the models that can't do 4GB is 3.5 or 3.75.