Max RAM

[h9826790]

I have a question about max RAM.

No matter W3520 or W3690, both clearly state that they only support 24G of RAM, why my Mac Pro 4,1 Quad can run 32G of RAM or even more?

Is that just a max demostrated result from the factory, but the not real limit?

Otherwise, I couldn't undertand why my machine can handle more RAM than the CPU limit.

 

[MH01]

I have a question about max RAM.

No matter W3520 or W3690, both clearly state that they only support 24G of RAM, why my Mac Pro 4,1 Quad can run 32G of RAM or even more?

Is that just a max demostrated result from the factory, but the not real limit?

Otherwise, I couldn't undertand why my machine can handle more RAM than the CPU limit.

64gb for single CPU , 96Gb for dual CPU.

My understanding is the OS limit is 96gb, not sure if that has been changed in mavericks.

 

[AidenShaw]

I have a question about max RAM.

No matter W3520 or W3690, both clearly state that they only support 24G of RAM, why my Mac Pro 4,1 Quad can run 32G of RAM or even more?

Is that just a max demostrated result from the factory, but the not real limit?

Otherwise, I couldn't undertand why my machine can handle more RAM than the CPU limit.

Sometimes the specs reflect what was possible when the system or CPU was released, but later higher density but compatible DIMMs come out and larger memories work. The specs aren't updated, because that requires testing and validation.

I'm typing from a Dell XPS 435MT with 24 GiB of RAM, even though the specs still say that is supports a max of 12 GiB. Some time after the system was released with 6 slots at a max of 2 GiB/slot some compatible DIMMs of 4 GiB came out. I have twelve of those 4 GiB DIMMs.

 

[flowrider]

You may want to read this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1698707/

and

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1701517/

Lou

 

[h9826790]

Thanks for all the answers and links, now I have a brief idea of the WHY