new mbp ram question:

[mattsajay]

Does the low end MBP i.e the 2.2 GHz one have : (a) santa rosa chip? (b) 800 Mhz FSB? am i right?

In everyones experience, running which applications will I feel a perceptible difference between this chip and the older C2D 667 FSB chip ? eg. photoshop? mathematica?

Also, the MBP is upgradable to 4Gb Ram but the MB to 2 or 3 Gb. am i right?

 

[aaronw1986]

Yes, the lower one should be Santa Rosa and have those specs. And yes, the MBP can now have 4 GB's of RAM, while MB is still 3.

 

[mattsajay]

hey guys, i did some reading on the web and am confused now: apple (and this forum says that the new MBPs ram can be expanded to 4 gb.

however, please have a look at this site:

http://www.datamemorysystems.com/AMM15.asp

the last three links are the newly released MBPs. this is what it says:

The MacBook Pro is built with the Intel Core 2 Duo Processor. It has two memory sockets and can be upgraded to 3GBs maximum. Even though it is physically possible to install 4GBs, the MacBook Pro will only use 3GBs

any comments???? which should i go by?????

 

[CanadaRAM]

hey guys, i did some reading on the web and am confused now: apple (and this forum says that the new MBPs ram can be expanded to 4 gb.

however, please have a look at this site:

http://www.datamemorysystems.com/AMM15.asp

the last three links are the newly released MBPs. this is what it says:

The MacBook Pro is built with the Intel Core 2 Duo Processor. It has two memory sockets and can be upgraded to 3GBs maximum. Even though it is physically possible to install 4GBs, the MacBook Pro will only use 3GBs

any comments???? which should i go by?????

RAM sellers are busy updating their sites. Remember, we don't get NDAs or preannouncements, we find out at the same time as you do.

The final answer is: The MBP Santa Rosa machines can take the full 4 Gb RAM install. We presume, because Apple hasn't mentioned a limitation, that all 4 Gb will be usable to the OS.

 

[darkcurse]

I still don't get it how the MB is "limited" to 3GB while the new MBP's can utilize all of 4gigs of RAM since according to Intel's site, all the chipsets that apple uses support up to 4GB of RAM. Weird :S Is Apple somehow building a limiter in its logic boards to spcifically limit it? And why would they do so?

 

[Sbrocket]

I still don't get it how the MB is "limited" to 3GB while the new MBP's can utilize all of 4gigs of RAM since according to Intel's site, all the chipsets that apple uses support up to 4GB of RAM. Weird :S Is Apple somehow building a limiter in its logic boards to spcifically limit it? And why would they do so?

The current MacBook models are not running the Santa Rosa chipset, and as such they don't support the full 4GB of RAM. They only support 3GB max because that's what the old Napa, Intel 945 chipset. The new Santa Rosa, Intel 965 chipset in the MBPs is what brings them up to 4GB capacity.

 

[Seidoger]

RAM speed.

Now I wonder why the RAM in the new MBP isn't PC2-6400 (800Mhz) to match the frontside bus of the Santa Rosa spec, instead they threw in PC2-5300, which runs at 667Mhz.

I guess it didn't have that much of an impact on system performance.. (or cost 5x more for the little extra it gave)

 

[darkcurse]

They use the exact same chipset I believe. Go look it up on Intel's site. If you find something different feel free to let me know. I took mine from here...

I compared the "previous" non Santa Rosa chipset with the "current" Santa Rosa chipset.

 

[Sbrocket]

Now I wonder why the RAM in the new MBP isn't PC2-6400 (800Mhz) to match the frontside bus of the Santa Rosa spec, instead they threw in PC2-5300, which runs at 667Mhz.

I guess it didn't have that much of an impact on system performance..

I'm not sure if the memory controller in the new SR MBPs supports DDR2-800, even though the Santa Rosa does have a 800MHz FSB. I think it's yet to be seen, but I believe I read someplace that the memory controller didn't support it yet.

 

[MGLXP]

They use the exact same chipset I believe. Go look it up on Intel's site. If you find something different feel free to let me know. I took mine from here...

I compared the "previous" non Santa Rosa chipset with the "current" Santa Rosa chipset.

The previous Macbook Pro with the Core 2 Duo Processor used the Intel 945PM chipset. The new Macbook Pro uses the new Intel PM965 chipset.

 

[Sbrocket]

They use the exact same chipset I believe. Go look it up on Intel's site. If you find something different feel free to let me know. I took mine from here...
<snip>
I compared the "previous" non Santa Rosa chipset with the "current" Santa Rosa chipset.

The processors in the MacBooks are a completely different socket from the MacBook Pro's processors, even though they are both still technically Merom processors. It isn't the same chipset. The MacBook update from weeks back did not include Santa Rosa.

 

[darkcurse]

The previous Macbook Pro with the Core 2 Duo Processor used the Intel 945PM chipset. The new Macbook Pro uses the new Intel PM965 chipset.

Yes yes I know, but if you bother looking at the screenshot i posted you would notice that BOTH support up to 4GB Max System Memory. So, why are the MB's and previous gen MBP's only limited to 3GB since this is definately NOT Intel's limit?

Edit: Processors have nothing to do with Max RAM since 32-bit procs are limited to 4GB's anyway.

 

[Sbrocket]

Yes yes I know, but if you bother looking at the screenshot i posted you would notice that BOTH support up to 4GB Max System Memory. So, why are the MB's and previous gen MBP's only limited to 3GB since this is definately NOT Intel's limit?

The memory controller (which is dependent on the chipset) is what determines how much RAM will be recognized by the machine, not some hardcoding on Apple's part. If the chipset actually supported 4GB of RAM then it would recognize that much, but I don't believe there are any reports of this. It could be that the linked chart is incorrect, not sure where you originally got it from.

The 3GB limit on the previous-generation MacBook Pros supposedly was a result of the Napa chipset. Apple gets such components straight from Intel, so it would be some limitation imposed on Intel's side rather than Apple's.

 

[MGLXP]

Yes yes I know, but if you bother looking at the screenshot i posted you would notice that BOTH support up to 4GB Max System Memory. So, why are the MB's and previous gen MBP's only limited to 3GB since this is definately NOT Intel's limit?

I know they both support 4GB according to Intel. I just said that the new macbook pros are using a different chipset from the old ones. I've been upset about my 1st generation Macbook Pro which has the 945PM chipset only supporting 2GB (with 3GB not working), while the generation after that with the identical chipset supporting 3GB.

 

[darkcurse]

Ah so its been tried and it didn't work eh. Good to know I guess. So the memory controllers are on the proc itself and they don't support 4GB's? Sounds funny to me since both AMD and Intel have supported >4GB's of RAM in their desktop processors since 64bit came out. Sigh... So 3 GB's is really the limit huh

 

[Sbrocket]

I believe the limitation has something to do with the non-full 64bit nature of the memory addressing on the Napa chipset, but I'm not exactly fluent in the whole 64bit/32bit addressing thing so don't expect me to explain it. I could be describing the problem wrong. Either way, the Napa chipset in the last-gen MBPs doesn't support a full 4gb but the new Santa Rosa does.

Might find more info here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-231186.html

 

[darkcurse]

Hmm yeah but the Comp Sci student inside me wants more details lol. Oh well, I guess if apple doesn't say so then it is so...

 

[zioxide]

Yeah the Macbooks are still running on the Napa platform with the Intel 945 chipset which is 32-bit. The new Santa Rosa platform runs on the Intel 965 (Crestline) chipset which is 64-bit.