Q: can i put only 1x8gb stick in MBP?

Yes, you may use 1 as long as your 8 GB memory meets the specs. It is always good to buy in pairs. If, down the road, you wish to go full 16 GB, stick to the same brand you have. Mixing does not work well among different brands.

Apple link:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201165

Apple Support Community Topic link:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7294882

Cheers!!

My apology. I made a mistake. You must use a pair. Filling both memory slots. So you would use 2 ea. 4 GB for a total of 8 GB and so on. I found a really good price of a pair of PNY and upgraded my Mac Mini (late 2012) to the full 16 GB. Makes an incredible difference. Considering the on board video depends on system RAM.

Cheers!!

Crucial, Kingston and PNY. You may find good prices on 16 GB for Mac. I bought my PNY from Best Buy.

I somehow knew in my gut I was wrong when I hit reply telling you one was OK.

Cheers!!

Hi, the worst that can happen is it beeps at you upon boot up, or, you'll get glitches. You won't damage it. Just make sure it's in the first slot. Just my opinion:

I thought the same when upgrading. I went full 16 GB and haven't regretted it. Again, just make sure your 8 GB stick meets the specs.

Cheers!!

RAM works in dual channel mode that means that by using two ram sticks you can pump twice the data through (if i remember this correctly) and this means an increase in RAM performance especially under load. You can also run a 2 and 8 gb stick for a total of 10 gb. I however agree with jndupuis1 that is would be most useful to use two same size ram sticks.

Hope this helps!

Not recommended to do different sizes. 16 GB kit not as expensive as buying single sticks. Checkout Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-DDR3-1600-PC3-12800-CT2KIT102464BF160B-CT2CP102464 BF160B/dp/B007B5S52C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447093609&sr=8-1&keywords=ddr3+204+ pin+16gb

There are other places that sell 16 GB upgrade in this price range.  Look around besides Amazon. I paid $89.00 USD at Best Buy for 2 X 8 PNY. I should have looked more harder.

Cheers!!

craym0nd wrote:

 

i am planning on doing the 10gb option as buying another 8gb is going to be expensive. i guess it's not recommended to combine the 8 and 2gb ram sticks together

With a 8 GB and a 2 GB RAM modules installed, will result in a performance decrease of 10%-15% compared to two matched RAM modules of the same capacity.  Your MBP WILL function and WILL be mon  efficient that having only 4 GB RAM.

Ciao.

craym0nd wrote:

 

running mbp 2012 mid year model and currently have 2x 2gb but I've already bought a 1x 8gb stick.

 

does anyone know if this is safe? i may upgrade to 16gb but i don't see the point.

Yes it is safe.  OGELTHORPE is the voice of reason in this thread.

Might as well use all that you have. If the Machine does not like the mix matched pairs it will give you a kernel panic at worst. Then you know how to proceed, use only the 8GB in a single bank.

The machine of course runs more efficiently with dual channel.  That is why it is always recommend to to use matched pairs, matched brand, preferably bought at the same time for a matched batch.

Mac's can be finicky about RAM

Lets say you have a bad bank and can only run one stick of RAM no matter what- same thing no harm done.

Personally I would buy another matched 8GB—you won't be disappointing.  If you don't ask a lot out of your machine then you may well be happy with your 8GB and a slight hit in performance of that single channel.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan(10.11.1), i7 480GB SSD 16GB RAM iPhone5 iOS9.1, Parallels10.0.2

Put the 8GB chip and a 2GB chip in, you can change the 2 to another 8 if you feel the need.

Hi,

Don't see a difference between the two Crucial links at all. Both meet the specs.

Cheers!!

John