Did my Mac really fail this memory test? (Memtest 4.22)

I have nothing against Corsair - Just had a few of their Mac specific RAM that didn't work in my Macbook - I use Crucial, Patriot Mac Series and Mushkin as my preference.

I think you're fine with 8GB - I'm using my 2012 Macbook Air right now with 4GB and look how many apps I have running in the background and still have almost 1GB of free memory left. So I think, again, my opinion only, you'll be fine with 8GB. But 16GB is even better - for bragging rights.

There are many instances where Apple has released a MBP model where initially the maximum RAM that can be supported has changed after the release. This is usually attributable due to the fact that lager capacity RAM chips were either not available or were not thoroughly tested at the time on order to be considered sufficiently reliable.

In regards to the frequency issue, what Intel says a CPU may be capable of versus how Apple engineers design a given MBP using an Intel RAM chip are not necessarily identical. One must ask why OWC and Crucial sell RAM for Macs for your model with 1333 MHz and do not offer the faster 1600 MHz chips? Any RAM engineer will tell you that the faster the RAM speed, the less stable and less reliable the RAM will be. 'About t5his

As an experimemt, I installed faster RAM from my 2011 MBP into my 2010 MBP and the 2010 MBP did work. However the 'About this Mac' showed that the RAM was 1067 MHZ, not 1333 MHz. I know what your display showed and you are not the first one to experience those results. The question is, is the RAM performing at 1600 MHz or at 1333 MHz and that the display only recognizes that the RAM speed is 1600 MHz? Without a measurement you cannot be certain but since the Mentest failed, I suspect not.

Ciao.

16 GB is acceptable since no suitable 8 GB DIMMs existed at the time of your MBP's manufacture.

Refresh speed is a completely different engineering parameter than capacity. Your Mac's bus speed is 1333 MHz and will forever remain so, even if higher capacity RAM becomes available in the future.

What you have proposed is logical and valid but it does not follow that will be the case. As I have stated before, the RAM capacity for various MBP models has often been increased in the past but the speed or frequency NEVER has been altered. You are dealing with two different elements that are subject to different parameters and constraints.

Ciao.

Yes, that is a possibility, should 16 GB DIMMs become available in the future.

While new machines are likely to use higher bus speeds, the incentive for memory manufacturers to product higher capacity DIMMs at slower refresh speeds diminishes. DDR4 will probably accelerate this when it becomes available later this year.

Hey guys!

I have a 13-inch MacBook Pro (early 2011) and wanted to upgrade from 4GB Ram to 8GB Ram so I bought at Amazon 2 x 4GB Corsair 1060 DDR3 1333Mhz. The specs were exactly like recommended by Apple but I had several memory crashes along the way so I decided to get rid of them and buy directly from Apple which cost me 60% more but since it's'Apple, I thought this was the price for not having to worry about it anymore.

I will give you guys details that might not matter in this case, but I'll tell you any way cause sometimes problems are hidden on very small details.

So I had a long 6 months period of happyness with my new memory set working extremely well with no crashes whatsoever until I upgraded my OS to Mavericks. One day I was importing pics from my iPhone to Aperture and sudenly realized I was importing videos as well. So I decided to stop the process and the machine got frozen. I tried to force Aperture to quit, but it didn't appear on the list of programs currently running. Than the computer showed that gray screen with multiple languages and after 2 seconds restarted by itself.

When the OS was loading, a progress bar appeared on the bottom of the screen but as soon as it reached someting around 20% of its length, it shut down the machine. So I restarted and it happened the same thing over and over (5 or 6 times) until I decided to start with Otion on to engage the disk utility. Once I did, the disk utility said it could not be repaired so I had to back up as many files I could and reinstall the OS-X. Since I had all my data backed up on time capsule, I decided to run a fresh install of Mavericks (I had just upgraded by then). After I did, I went to recover my files from timecapsule and, for my suprise, data got corrupted to I had to run Disk Drill to recover the data. I did, but the computer got all funky, crashing all the time. I ran disk utility for like 3 times and had the same inconsistencies than before, even with tons of permission problems.

I decided to reinstall Mavericks again from scratch and I'm having bad memory results on memoy tests. The disk utility is now ok, so nothing wrong with my disk, but the memory seems to be the problem now. Please give me a light about what am I facing ro some possibilities of what I should do.

Thanks!!

Marcos

Most manufacturers of RAM have a "limited lifetime warranty." I would guess that Apple would, too. So, if I were you, I would take the machine to an Apple Store and have them replace the RAM. They may tell you that you have to go through the original manufacturer - I would raise some flack if they do.

Good luck,

Clinton

Thanks Clinton! I think I don't have this option because there are no Apple Stores in Brazil (just Apple Authorized Resellers) and I bought the memories in an Apple Store in the US.

I will check in one of these local stores though cause it doesn't hurt asking.

Best,

Marcos