8GB of RAM and 5,2 MacBooks (Early or Mid 2009)

[CregoryNootinger]

Hello all! I haven't seen much discussion on this, but I wanted to just tell everyone that a 5,2 Early or Mid 2009 MacBook can be upgraded to 8GB of RAM! For me, I didn't need to do anything except take out the old RAM and pop the new dimms in. Any 667 or 800 MHz DDR2 RAM works, whether it came from another Mac or an old PC. It just has to be the small laptop form-factor SODIMM type and I would recommend making sure that both dimms are the same model. I personally am running the @dosdude1 High Sierra patch and 8GB of RAM. The combination goes together very well when running memory-hungry applications. Hopefully I will buy an SSD soon for slightly better performance. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them. I am very happy and willing to help!

Here are some pictures showing my specs:

 

[EugW]

Well, this has been known since about 2011. Maybe even 2010.

The main problem is that it seemed to function best with 6 GB. I don't know if that's still the case.
[doublepost=1511034659][/doublepost]Here is a post from 2011:

https://silverpanther.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/macbook-2009-8gb/

Yes – all of the models that take DDR2 and which we support 6GB on (4GB + 2GB) will allow 8GB installed and show it too.

But – there is a problem… As soon as you actually are using more than 6GB or thereabouts of physical memory active, the performance nose dives. Doesn’t crash, but the operational performance plunges. This is why we have maintained the 6GB maximum. With 6GB installed, it’s within the limits of the controller/chipset and no issues + the slow down that occurs when you start to actually utilize more than 6GB in active app space also gives the benefit to 6GB vs. 8GB anyway.”

 

[CregoryNootinger]

Well, this has been known since about 2011. Maybe even 2010.

The main problem is that it seemed to function best with 6 GB. I don't know if that's still the case.
[doublepost=1511034659][/doublepost]Here is a post from 2011:

https://silverpanther.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/macbook-2009-8gb/

Yes – all of the models that take DDR2 and which we support 6GB on (4GB + 2GB) will allow 8GB installed and show it too.

But – there is a problem… As soon as you actually are using more than 6GB or thereabouts of physical memory active, the performance nose dives. Doesn’t crash, but the operational performance plunges. This is why we have maintained the 6GB maximum. With 6GB installed, it’s within the limits of the controller/chipset and no issues + the slow down that occurs when you start to actually utilize more than 6GB in active app space also gives the benefit to 6GB vs. 8GB anyway.”

I appreciate your help, but I actually did a test with Rember, and I only had roughly 900MB of RAM left during the test. I also saw no system slowdown. I even watched a YouTube video while doing this. I think it might actually have something to do with the patched version of High Sierra I am using. Either way, it really does work. Here is a link to show it working with 8GB of RAM

 

[Project Alice]

Good to know this works, Ive got the same MacBook (though I put mine into a black case) with High Sierra and have been wondering about this. I don't understand why this model had DDR2 as the MacMini of the same time had DDR3.
Have you tested this in windows by chance? I dual boot HS with Windows 10, installed with EFI. Windows of course uses pretty much all of the 4GB installed in this thing.

 

[CregoryNootinger]

Good to know this works, Ive got the same MacBook (though I put mine into a black case) with High Sierra and have been wondering about this. I don't understand why this model had DDR2 as the MacMini of the same time had DDR3.
Have you tested this in windows by chance? I dual boot HS with Windows 10, installed with EFI. Windows of course uses pretty much all of the 4GB installed in this thing.

I have not tried Windows...yet at least. I think it might work. If you do upgrade it, the worst that should happen is that windows might be a little sluggish if you use more than 6gb of the 8gb RAM. Thats what I thought would happen in HS as some websites said, but it worked with no issue. Hope this helps!