TR Forums

Can OSX see 4GB of RAM?

Usacomp2k3 wrote:

Can OSX see 4GB of RAM?

Leopard - yes
Tiger - no

Just like with Windows, it's really only going to make a difference if you were paging alot previously.

I know I could use 4GB - sometimes Logic Express will use 1.25GB or more of memory on its own if I'm using alot of tracks and also trying to use the Jam Pack software synths. Then again, I'd need a Mac that can see 4GB (Leopard doesn't help the 945GM chipset's problem with seeing only 3GB).

So the short answer is I don't think it'll be as big of a deal in Leopard as it is in Vista, and it depends on what you're doing, but if you're seeing paging issues now, doubling the RAM should drop that considerably.

PerfectCR, Make sure you keep the original RAM handy just in case you need your MBP serviced. Some places wont service it if "something" was changed by the consumer and undocumented in Apple's Database. I ran into that when I wanted a larger HD. I had to go dig around for the original 2gb. I was also told that if i ever had to send it to Apple that it would be refused without original parts or documentation.

I guess it depends on who does the repair. Like with my Mini's logic board, it was done by an Apple-authorized shop, and they were nice enough to take the RAM that I'd purchased and install it for me while they had it open. They just said that if something happened that the memory was bad, Apple wouldn't cover it (nor would I expect them to).

But I have heard of people being bitten by what tanker mentioned, so it's definitely a good idea to hold onto the original RAM (which I've done in my Mini's case as well).

that's kind of what we all figured, I guess. What's your workload in OS X like?

PerfectCr wrote:

This is Vista 32. Games in Vista didn't see any huge increase either.

Does bootcamp (or whatever you use) support the 64-bit version?

Yes, at least now it does. The 10.5.2 disc that shipped with my Mini has Vista 64 drivers, and Apple has an updated driver pack available:

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/ ... sta64.html

Stupidly, though, for some reason it requires the original disc with boot camp v2.0 with Vista 64 support to be in the optical drive. PerfectCr's should probably support 64-bit Vista too.

It seems to me that at Leopard's initial release, it did *not* support 64-bit Vista and therefore Leopard retail discs and possibly early Leopard OEM discs don't have 64-bit drivers and therefore can't use this update. I might be wrong on that tho.

Thanks

The sooner everyone moves to 64-bit, the better. (cf Win16-Win32 transition).

Of course, the benefits to the end-user are minimal. Although x64 exposes more registers, Core 2 Duo has some architectural limitations when running 64bit code, like uop fusion being disabled, so the net gain is not always as great as expected*. Still, the sooner the industry moves to 64-bit, the better.

I've been using XP x64 as my main OS for two years now, even before I had more than 4 GB of RAM (currently running 8 GB on my desktop).

* Nehalem fixes this shortcoming iirc.

I guess I should make that updated in quotation marks ("updated" driver pack)...I didn't realize until now those drivers are from APRIL. Geez.