Macbook Pro 13 1333mhz Memory question / advice

Question

Level 1

0 points

Macbook Pro 13 1333mhz Memory question / advice

Hello !

So im on my 5th macbook, 2nd 13 inch unibody, cant love more the design and battery capacity.

I got the 2.26ghz model, upgraded to 500gb hard drive, and also i bought some 3rd party memories with samsung Chips.
I didnt notice that this memories were 1333mhz instead of the 1066mhz the macbooks use.

Well it happens that this memories wont boot in my Late08 unibody macbook, they will only boot if there is a 1066 memory and a 1333 memory along, the computer will set both at 1066mhz, but if i insert 2 1333mhz memory it wont boot, same history with my friend Macbook PRO 15 Late08.

So i forgot about those memories and bought the new macbookpro13, i decided to check if they would work ... for my surprice, the computer boots with both 1333mhz 2gb dimms, the system information even shows them running at 1333mhz!!! I bet this is great for the graphics chip and can make some difference in everyday computing, big deal if you consider this chips cost the same as 1066 memory.

My question is ...

There was an EFI upgrade in the new macbooks that can reconize higher speed ram?
Is ok and safe to run 1333mhz ram in my macbook pro 13 ?
There is any performance gain or penalty by doing so ?
Will my battery life suffer ?

Thank you very much !

Macbook PRO 13, Mac OS X (10.5.7), 2.26 upgraded to 4gb and 500gb

Posted on Jun 30, 2009 9:26 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Sep 1, 2009 1:19 PM in response to PATo355

I am also wondering the same thing. I am under the assumption that it will run the memory fine not sure if it actually clocks it at 1333 vs 1066.
I'm sure the battery life will not suffer enough to notice. You might want to run more programs b/c you think you have a faster/more powerful machine.

Could someone please comment on the memory DDR3-1333 PC3 10600 memory?

Reply

Answer 2

a brody

Level 10

82,941 points

Sep 1, 2009 2:00 PM in response to PATo355

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Installing any RAM other than 1066 MHz PC3-8500 DD3
may work, but it may also fail to work after certain software updates.
Best to stick to known specs:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/stats/macbook-pro-core-2-duo-2 .26-aluminum-13-mid-2009-sd-firewire-800-unibody-specs.html

See additional reasons why here*:

http://www.macmaps.com/badram.html

- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Reply

Answer 3

Nov 24, 2009 11:19 AM in response to PATo355

Same here wtih my MBP 13"

Since the MacBook Pro would rather read the Mhz out of the memory, than utilizing a bios-like approach, mine run @ 1333Mhz as well.

I have 2 Transcend JM1333KSU-2G, which I got very cheap at a sale (€31,99 about 47-48$ each) and finally my system runs below 50% of CPU an RAM; no loss of batterie life thus far, rather the opposite, cause the fans need less power. (Since Leopard, Apple should always have shipped Macs with 3-4gigs of RAM…)

The stock RAM was Corsair, not Hynix, by the way…

I didn't do the EFI update, because I have an energy saving 400GB HHD installed (and I heard some reports of issues with non Apple hard drive suppliers), so I wouldn't know about that, but the update was for the 1.5/3.0 Gbit/s SATA HDD bus only, so I guess it wouldn't matter.

Plus I haven't had any kernel panic or app crashing issues, yet, like here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2237058&tstart=0

Since a long time I'm somewhat satisfied with a Mac 😉 (hmm, MBP is now the 4th, and the other one was the first and I was thrilled by the Mac OS experience, for a while at least…)

Reply

Answer 4

maxias

Level 1

0 points

Nov 26, 2009 4:52 AM in response to strippedsun

hey there

i got the Patriot SO-DIMM 4 GB DDR3-1333 Kit 2x2GB memory. running like a charm in my macbookpro 5,5 13".

Speed is great
shown in about my mac
Speicher-Steckplätze:

ECC: Deaktiviert

BANK 0/DIMM0:

Größe: 2 GB
Typ: DDR3
Geschwindigkeit: 1333 MHz
Status: OK
Hersteller: 0x8502
Teilenummer: 0x505344333247313333333253000000000000
Seriennummer: 0x00000000

BANK 1/DIMM0:

Größe: 2 GB
Typ: DDR3
Geschwindigkeit: 1333 MHz
Status: OK
Hersteller: 0x8502
Teilenummer: 0x505344333247313333333253000000000000
Seriennummer: 0x00000000

cheers

Reply

Answer 5

Dec 30, 2009 8:01 PM in response to PATo355

I just purchased 2 4GB modules for my MBP 17" Unibody at $604.00 out of desperation while doing both Windows and iPhone development on the same machine at the same time. I lost about 2 hours but here is what I found out.

1. If I installed both 4GB modules, the memory bus speed moved to 1333 and my system became unstable and eventually crashed.

2. If I installed 1 2GB (1067) and 1 4GB (1333) the bus speed went to 1067 for both slots and the system worked fine.

Is there a way to lower the bus speed by configuration so that the 1333 potential speed is underclocked to 1067? I want to use both modules.

I am, however, happy to get 6GB of memory. That caused everything to run faster. Maybe I can sell the other module if I can't get a solution to this problem.

Reply

Answer 6

eww

Level 9

53,028 points

Dec 30, 2009 8:12 PM in response to diamondminder

Why not sell them both and buy two proper 1066MHz modules, and have 8GB?

Message was edited by: eww

Reply