More than 4GB in an iMac?

[munckee]

I know there was a lengthy discussion about putting more than 4GB of ram in a Macbook/Pro, but I didn't see anything about doing so in an iMac. I imagine if it works in the MBP, it'll work in the iMac as well...right? (Up to 6GB of course.)

I'm upgrading the ram in my 2.8C2D iMac and I'm trying to decide if I should just bite the bullet and toss 6GB in or go for the originally intended 4GB...

 

[themoonisdown09]

I'm upgrading the ram in my 2.8C2D iMac and I'm trying to decide if I should just bite the bullet and toss 6GB in or go for the originally intended 4GB...

Try installing 6GB of RAM and tell us all how it goes.

 

[munckee]

Try installing 6GB of RAM and tell us all how it goes.

I'll certainly report back if I decide to do so, but until I get some response to whether its even possible, I'm not planning to order it.

 

[mastershakess]

why do you need 6gigs? would you ever max 4gigs out?

 

[munckee]

why do you need 6gigs? would you ever max 4gigs out?

Lots of heavy creative suite work. Parallels, etc. Figured if I'm spending the money to upgrade, I'd weight the option of spending a little more to max it out. But before I consider putting 6GB in, I need to know if it would even work...

 

[AlexisV]

No it won't.

 

[Cave Man]

No it won't.

You're mistaken, in all likelihood.

 

[durija]

4 GB is the max in the Aluminum iMac.
http://www.crucial.com
will tell you all you need to know.

 

[Cave Man]

4 GB is the max in the Aluminum iMac.
http://www.crucial.com
will tell you all you need to know.

Yeah, right. They also say that 4 gb is the max for MacBooks and MacBook Pros when that's clearly not the case. Those MB and MBP have the exact same chipset as do the iMacs. My money's on 6 gb for the iMacs.

 

[geoffreak]

wasn't the 6GB just a software limitation, with the theoretical max up at 8GB?

 

[Cave Man]

The chipset is 8 gb, but Apple has somehow buggered that up. It's somewhere between 6-8 gb. Seven would probably work, but without SO-DIMMs to get there we'll never know.

 

[durija]

Yeah, right. They also say that 4 gb is the max for MacBooks and MacBook Pros when that's clearly not the case. Those MB and MBP have the exact same chipset as do the iMacs. My money's on 6 gb for the iMacs.

I would like to hear from someone who has been able to put more than 4 GB RAM in an iMac and have it actually be recognized. Any takers? I'm a bit skeptical.

 

[Cave Man]

I would like to hear from someone who has been able to put more than 4 GB RAM in an iMac and have it actually be recognized. Any takers? I'm a bit skeptical.

Why are you skeptical? Apple has a history of this. For example, all the Calistoga-based MacBooks, MacBook Pros, iMacs and Mac Minis that shipped with Core 2 Duo processors accepted 4 gb of RAM (3.1-3.3 addressable) despite the fact that Apple listed them as 2 gb only.

 

[durija]

I'm not skeptical that Apple may have imposed some limit. I do not worship at the altar of Apple and the prophet Jobs. I am a pragmatist. I am just skeptical that I could hand my iMac to you and that you would be able to install 6 GB of RAM (without tearing it completely apart and drastically modifying the hardware). Again, I would like to hear from someone who has actually accomplished this. Heck, I would do it myself (although it runs sweet with 4 GB), if I could.

 

[MacForMeOneDay]

why do you need 6gigs? would you ever max 4gigs out?

I'd be interested too. I actually don't do what I would call "heavy lifting" but with Lotus Notes, VMFusion, Safari (this is the one that bugs me the most), Mail, iCal, ssh, Work VPN, ScreenSharing and EyeTV running I can often run up to the boundary. Now if I needed to load up some pics of something to post on ebay (which I actually have to load up Firefox to be able to post), then I'd definitely run over.

What I'm getting at is that none of these tasks is memory intensive, but I'm pushing the limit because of the things that I need to do, with a dash of things I like to do. And maybe a little more headroom would let me do more of what I want to do.

 

[chrisdee]

Anybody who is running ProTools with virtual instruments can tell you that you'll never get enough memory.

 

[Genghis Khan]

IF 6GB works in the MacBook Pro, it'll work in the iMac

my money's on 6GB (4GB DIMM + 2GB DIMM)

 

[desantii]

I just bought a 4gb dimm for my MacBook Pro but decided to try the IMAC first. To my surprise it booted fine with 6gb!! Time to buy another 4gb dimm for me.
I have a 2.4 Core2Dup 24" IMAC, confirmed working wth 6gb (4gb in the left hand side slot, 2 gb in the right hand one)

 

[Cave Man]

That's a good start, but there're a couple of things you need to do.

1. Open Activity Monitor and see how much RAM is actually being used. The screen shot you provide only shows how much RAM is installed, regardless of its usage.

2. If you have an email address, I'd like to email you a small app that you can run from the terminal. You launch it from five different terminal windows and each instance will take 1 gb of RAM and hold it until you quit. The objective is to see if once the 4 gb barrier is breached, does your system remain functional.