Hi

Now that my MacBook woes are settling, I'm thinking of boosting the RAM in the new machine so I can start using my music bits again... the spec list states that it can take a max of 8gb RAM, but Crucial offer a 16gb kit, with reviews to say it works.

Is this right? Will the Mac actually run it as 16gb or just ignore the extra and treat it as 8gb? Not sure how this works!?

Thanks!

Ben

I'm running 16GB in my 2011 Macbook Pro.

Works great

Cool - think I'll go for it. Did a live chat with Crucial, and they "guarantee" it works, so may as well max it if I can!

Should help with all those award winning compositions I will be writing...

Had this in the basket (eventually) to buy today, but thought I'd ask on here first to see if my system sounds normal... I've got the 17" 2.4ghz i7 MBP with 4gb currently... at home I usually have a few apps open at once... AI/PS (often but not always together), Safari, Suitcase, Twitter, Overflow... I also have a few toolbar things running - Jumpcut, Dropbox, Disk Drill and one being 'Memory Clean'.... which usually shows that (with that typical sample of apps) my RAM is pretty much used up... but then when I open MC to check, the window usually indicates around 1.5gb or 'Inactive' RAM... and 'Free' as, say, 25mb... (when really low).

What is the 'Inactive' RAM and why's it not being used?? Just wanted to be sure before I spend out on new RAM that there's nothing amiss here... will most likely buy more anyway soon to help with some planned music projects, but it just seemed weird as 4gb isn't that lacking in power, is it?!

Thanks!

Inactive RAM is memory not in use, but has data in it. If it's needed, it will be used and what was previously stored will be list. What may happen is that data will be tossed out to HD if the app us still open but in the background. If brought to the front it will be reloaded. This paging of RAM to HD will slow your system down, so maxing out RAM means this will happen less, and your machine should run more smoothly.

I've just put 16GB in my Mac mini and it's made all the difference to memory hungry software.

It has also all changed with mavericks. Memory management seems a lot better now.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

All kinds of fun like memory compression and the like. Reminds me of RAM Doubler.

Wow, I remember we had that installed on our PowerMac 8100 at work back in the 90s - that was in the days of having 64Mb RAM! What fun, disabling extensions to get an extra few Mbs of memory.

Wow! You were rich! I think the most any of our studio Macs ever had was 32Mb.

Like Paul, I've tricked out my Mac mini with 16GB. It flies. Aperture is a dream to use now, and I never worry about having umpteen applications running at the same time. I did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation, and totted up that all my own Macs - since the PowerMac 6100 - have never had as much RAM in total as I have in the mini sitting here. Scary thought.

Ha... thanks guys. May as well just go for it then. No sense in shutting apps to keep it under control. There's a 5% of code you can use at the moment at Crucial too - VOUCHER5 I believe.... not a massive discount, but every little helps...

Our first Mac at work had 512KB,which was a big step up from the 64KB of the machine it replaced.

Glad I didn't pay the extra for the next day delivery.... came next day anyway on free delivery option! That's my night sorted then.