MacBook Pro Supports 16GB Ram

I'm very sure Apple has tested it. For some reason, they just chose not to officially support 16GB of RAM. It sounds like you have an actual problem with your Mac that somehow was ferretted out by the extra RAM. Of course since 16GB of RAM is not "officially" supported, it would be hard to get this problem addressed. My thinking is that you will eventually experience problems even if you leave your system at 8GB. For me, 16GB has worked great. It's now the minimum that I want installed in all of the Macs that I have that will support it. I would suggest taking your system to an Apple authorized service provider with the 16GB installed, and have them run tests on the system. They should be able to figure out what's wrong, and get it repaired for you. They're likely to charge you for the diagnostics if they don't find anything wrong. Apple store Mac Geniuses have to follow the rules a lot more than an independent service tech does. Don't misunderstand me here... Mac Geniuses are great. I used to be one 😎. While working at the Apple store at Willow Bend, I could sometimes be a little unorthodox at times when I was trying to fix something for a customer, but I always had to do it under the radar. Now that I'm an Apple Consultant, working totally independent, I'm free to do what ever is necessary to fix problems for my customers. I'll never go back to working places where I can't be creative when solving problems.

Hi KTGHowie, thanks for this valuable info!...I am also about to upgrade to 16GB of RAM and also replace the HDD to a SSD. Do you mind sharing the info as to the brand of memory you used, and also the brand of the SSD?, links or whatever...thanks alot...i heavily use my macbook pro (late 2011) for industrial design and could def. use the extra juice! Oh, and also someone told me that you can't use the optical drive anymore (space limitations) when you upgrade to a SSD, just wanted to know if this is true.

Thanks, Kharloss

Both the SSD and the RAM used were from Crucial. Just go to Crucial's website, and put in the info about your MacBook Pro, and their site will direct you to what is compatible. There's no reason why you can't use the optical drive since you won't be taking it out. You'll be removing the hard drive, and installing the SSD in its place. With any upgrade like this, I always do a complete fresh install of OS X. I like absolute perfection when I do upgrades like this. If you don't want to do that, I recommend using a tool like Carbon Copy Cloner since it will also help you clone over the recovery partition. Carbon Copy Cloner is no longer free, but it's a great investment.

Mac Book Pro late 2011 Core i5 here, Just upgraded my ram to 16 GB and it dose work like a charm.

The ram I used Elixir DDR3 1600 Mhz. Wired thing is My mac should only support bus 1333 (according to apple and intel) but now that I have this installed, in "Arout this mac" section I see 16GB 1600 Mhz memory.

Maybe this is my lucky day but just wanted to update you guy.

If its a new Mac book Pro it HAS TO BE 1.35volt memory, why didnt anyone here mention that?

More than a few have installed retail store memory at 1.5 volts, ...works for a while, month(s), then ends up causing a serious issue.

That I know of, Apple lists nowhere that you MUST put in 1.35Volt memory inside a NEW macbook Pro (late 2012 and on).

If your Pro gets ruined from wrong memory voltage, Apple wont cover that, since you put in the wrong 3rd party memory.

I think it's very unfair for you to come here, and blame this on the other people responding to this thread. All of the good places to buy RAM (Crucial, Other World Computing, etc.) all have search features that allow you to specify exactly which Mac you have so that you can be matched with the correct memory. I ordered a 16GB RAM upgrade for my Mac Book Pro Late 2011 from Crucial. I got the right RAM, and it has worked flawlessly since I installed it in September 2012. I'm also running my Mac mini Late 2012 with 16GB of RAM also purchased from Crucial. Officially, Apple does not "support" 16GB of RAM in my MacBook Pro, so if I ever have to have warranty work done, I'll just put back the 8GB kit that was originally in the system. No worries there.

In the end, it's YOUR responsibility what you put into your Mac. If you don't do the right search to find the correct memory, and you buy cheap components, the trouble you have as a result is YOUR fault. These support discussions are for us to help each other, but why should we even try to do that if someone is going to blame us for their problems? I'm an Apple Consultant, and I give my customers advice every day about what they need to buy to meet their needs. If they cheap out at the last minute, and buy crappy products, that's their fault, and often, I will refuse to support those crappy products. Blaming me for not following my advice will leave them without an IT consultant.

The lesson to be learned here is to always do your research, and make sure that you buy the correct components from good vendors. Don't let the prices sway you more than getting the correct products. I had no idea how many volts my RAM needed to run on, but I didn't need to know anyway since I bought my RAM from a vendor who I trusted to match my laptop with the right RAM.

Always buy RAM from a Mac-friendly Vendor whose policy is:

"It works in your Mac,

or your money back."

If you are stepping outside what Apple recommends, that is doubly true.

If you set out in your own direction for any reason (including to save a few bucks) you need to be prepared to provide your own support.

Hi, I've upgraded my RAM to 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3 on my late-2011 MacBook Pro (2.4 GHz Intel Core i7) and it works great... I used a Kingston memory. Do you know if it's a good brand to use? I don´t get Crucial in my country (Argentina), so that was the best I could get... The thruth is that I have no complains, but as I see that you all recomend other brands I'm starting to worry haha.

Also, I'm starting to think I could use an 16GB upgrade, so... would you say Kingston is a good memory to use, or should I try to get another brand of memory, even if I have to import it somehow...?

Hi, I upgraded to Transcend 16GB JetRam Series DDR3-1333 and the Transcend 512GB SSD720 on my Macbook Pro (2.2GHz/17"/Early 2011 model) in Dec 2012. For almost 4-5 months everything worked flawlessly but since the last 5-7 weeks the display has been randomly blanking out with a force reboot the only way to get back in. In maybe 1 out of 25 times I will get a kernel panic. The genius bar pros could not notice anything out of the ordinary in the logs.

The pros and the genius bar have done the following to isolate the issue:

- 2 system refreshes (with and without user folder restore from TM backup)

- 2 kingston SSD replacements under warranty (Kingston customer service is fabulous)

- full hardware testing * 5 (1 hour/test)

Nothing was found and they have now recommended that I downgrade from 16GB to 8GB which is the officially supported upper limit.

Checking the Kingston site confirms that the RAM is 1.35V (which was an issue posted by a user earlier in the thread).

Before I quit on the 16GB's of goodness and downgrade to 8GB, I wanted to see if anyone else has had similar issues and a potential workaround that worked for them.

Can you post one of your recent kernel panic logs?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2546

Clinton

Unfortunately the last SSD replacement wiped out the last kernel panic.

The screen just went blank again, so I replaced the Kingston RAM with the original 4GB apple(Hynix) RAM, to see if the RAM is really the problem. If I do see another panic I will certainly post it here.

Thank you for your reply Clinton!

I had to Google Transcend - had never heard of it before. It, and your SSD, are Kingston products? I've never had good luck with Kingston RAM - seems to have problems on most Macs that I've had (even going back to 1987 when I paid $700+ for 1MB Kingston RAM modules for my Macintosh II).

Try another, Mac-centric, RAM, maybe? Crucial, OWC, etc.

Clinton

We have over a dozen of these model MacBook Pros running mission critical projects with 16GB in all of them.

There are several vendors, some worse, some better for the correct RAM. We go with Mac RAM Direct because they have both their Hypervelocity modules plus carry the Apple OEM parts too. I think some of the others like Ramjet may carry the OEM too if you like.

http://macramdirect.com/macbook.html#mb0

http://ramjet.com/collections/macbook-pro-memory/products/macbook-pro-memory-for -models-8-1-8-2-8-3

Most of these vendors including Mac RAM Direct offer return for refund if you have a problem. I know MRD does 30 days refund then lifetime replacement after that.

We have zero issues with any of our machines running 16GB. We also have several 2013 machines running 16GB of the faster DDR3-1600 RAM. Again we bought the 16GB kits from MRD but could have gone with Ramjet as well. We have had various problems with Crucial over the years but mostly in our Mac Pro machines. All in all the Crucial "should" be okay as well I would hope.

Hi,

Just reading some forums and thought I may answer a question or two. When you were talking to about upgrading your HDD to a SDD you mentioned space and optical drive. What was being referenced here was not upgrading but "adding" a SSD. A possible option Apple offers is to install two hard drives in your MBP by removing the optical drive and putting the second drive in its place. Many people add a SSD in this case. "Upgrading" consist of removing your current HDD and replacing it with a SDD. Both SDD's and HDD's for laptops are 2.5" and don't take any more or less room in either case.

You may know this by now and if you do ignore me 🙂 If not, happy to help!

-Stevan

Hello everyone,

First of all I would like to thank you all for this great information (especially KTGHowie). I have a 15-inch, Late 2011, Macbook Pro (currently using 2x2GB DDR3) and wanting to upgrade to 16GB DDR3 for graphic design purposes. After reading all of your messages I did some research about what to buy and this is the best price I could find, and exactly the same specs I currently use in my Macbook Pro. http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC3-10600-204-Pin-Notebook-CT2KIT102464BF1339/dp/B 005LAYH3K/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1391223019&sr=1-3&keywords=crucia l+1333mhz+ddr3

This is what I will order and try. I will get back to you once it's done.

Droog