Q: 15-inch Mid 2012 MacBook Pro max RAM?

Your MB P will work with 16GB.  Apple just doesn't offer it.

My late 2011 has 16GB installed.  But on the apple spec sheet says 8GB Max.

Crucial offer 16GB;

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=MacBook%20Pro%202.6GHz%20Intel %20Core%20i7%20%2815-inch%20DDR3%29%20Mid-2012&Cat=RAM

as does OWC;

http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?sort=pop&model=452&type=Memory

If I've selected the wrong models, just start the search again.

I've been running this 16GB Corsair Vengance RAM on my 2012 - 15" i7@2.6Ghz MBP for about a month already with No problems.... haven't really noticed any major improvements so far from the 8GB Hynix that came with it. I have dedicated 8Gb to Parallels 8 / Windows 7 64bit and it does work faster. I still have to run benchmarks for overall performance.

My question is... Is it worth the extra $20 on this "Perfromance" memory or should I just exchange it for regular Ram and save some money?

http://www.corsair.com/us/vengeance-8gb-high-performance-laptop-memory-upgrade-k it-cmsx16gx3m2a1600c10.html

This is my other option.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239390&nm_mc=KNC-Google Adwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-NA-_-NA

So does this mean that there are two slots for RAM? So if I were to install it myself and wanted to max it out, I should make sure to get 2 8 GB RAM chips?

Yes, two slots for RAM. You need two 8GB modules to bring you up to the full 16GB. Crucial has some very good pricing on 16GB kits just now. It's very good RAM.

Clinton

Have you run into any issues yet? I'm looking into this as well.. 16 or just 8? Please let me know.

It's up to you - if you've a 2011 or 2012 model, then you can hold up to 16GB of RAM. I installed 16GB shortly after I bought my new MacBook Pro in March, and I actually use up to about 14GB at times. So the OS will use the memory. 2 x  8GB modules are so cheap now that it's a great time to buy.

Clinton

Are you suggesting buying a brand new macbook pro,

And hacking it open and putting some third party

RAM into it?