Max amount of memory MBP A1211 and SL

mantle_us wrote:
As noted many times, 64bit OS clearly required to get past 4GB barrier. I guess my question is then, with my hardware configuration ( MBP unibody/ Intel Core 2 duo / 2.66Mhz); will I be able to get more than 4GB RAM?

As noted by who? What barrier? You should check out what's noted _by Apple_, in the specs for your machine. Read the specs for your machine. +*Processor and memory:* 2.53GHz or 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ... two SO-DIMM slots support _up to 8GB_.+

So the answer to your question is yes, you can use more than 4 GB. That was the case the day you bought your machine, with Leopard installed. Snow Leopard makes no difference.

The limitation is hardware. The model can really only take 3 GB of RAM maximum.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/stats/macbook-pro-core-2-duo-2 .33-15-specs.html

goes on to link to:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/faq/macbook-pro-core-2-duo-3-g b-memory-limitation-details.html

the article is right, but the 3gig in the activity monitor is misstated a bit because I think they are referring the memory overlap explanation a couple paragraphs down...

...while when 4 GB of RAM installed, ~700 MB of the RAM is overlapping critical system functions, making it non-addressable by the system.

so the system is only going to address at or just over 3gb for the OS & apps.

it's not how much RAM is installed, it's how much the system will actually use.

It is fair to assume the the article is dated. Even the intel technical datasheet makes constant reference to DDR2; however, my MBP (unibody) uses DDR3. I'm curious if that makes any difference.

I was hoping to hear that SL support for 64bit, would help unlock the limit past 4GB.

cciebob wrote:
So if the Intel board supports 4gig and the software is 64bit, why can't it use it again? Intel should state that it really only has 3 gig support.

As stated above, it's a hardware limitation (the memory controller in the northbridge). SL is software, so why would it help in this case? Why do you care what Intel says about the CPU? That's only one of the chips in the machine. There are many other components, included as part of Apple's design of the machine. Apple states the max RAM for your model is 3 GB. If you need more RAM, you need a newer MBP.

mantle_us wrote:
It is fair to assume the the article is dated. Even the intel technical datasheet makes constant reference to DDR2; however, my MBP (unibody) uses DDR3. I'm curious if that makes any difference.

The article is not 'dated' - it refers to an older model of MBP, and it it is still perfectly relevant to that model. You have a newer model, so it's not relevant +to you+. Your machine can use at least 6 GB of RAM, and possibly 8 GB, depending on the specific model.

As noted many times, 64bit OS clearly required to get past 4GB barrier. I guess my question is then, with my hardware configuration ( MBP unibody/ Intel Core 2 duo / 2.66Mhz); will I be able to get more than 4GB RAM?

brody is right & they don't even make 4GB simms for DDR2 667 for notebooks.

ok, you're right, they do make them, but your Mac can't use it.

Maybe your System Profiler is misreporting the Gestalt number.

yeah, true, but it's apps like photoshop. the current & prior versions will only use 4gb assigned to it. the 64 bit version will change this.