Upgrading Macbook RAM

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

I'm looking to upgrade my Macbook 4,1 RAM from 2 GB to 4 GB. Would this change do anything about the RAM accessible by the graphics card (X3100)?

 

[Tyranicus]

In theory, yes.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

In reality?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

In reality?

Expect a visit from the Apple S.W.A.T. team for daring to upgrade yourself. Not to mention, your warranty will be null and void on all Apple products henceforth.




Sorry, couldn't resist. I think it should help quite a bit.

 

[TheStu]

I don't think that it would, but it will make more RAM accessible to the system, and that is just as important. Bear in mind the possible RAM cap of your system (probably 3.3GB from 2*2GB)

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

I don't think that it would, but it will make more RAM accessible to the system, and that is just as important. Bear in mind the possible RAM cap of your system (probably 3.3GB from 2*2GB)

Why would there be a RAM cap?

 

[TheStu]

Why would there be a RAM cap?

The chipset has one, it exists on almost all systems. For example, my existing desktop has a 16GB RAM cap. In the event that 8GB DDR2 DIMMs become affordable, and I felt like buying 4 of them, I couldn't actually get 32GB. Though at this point it would be a like... $1200 experiment on a 2 year old system, so not really likely to be done.

Anyway, the original MacBooks, the Core Duos had a 2GB limit. The next gen did as well I think, the next step went to 3GB official, 3.3GB unofficial (Apple's specs said 3GB, but if you put in 2*2GB you can get 3.3GB). It wasn't for another generation or two that they hit 4GB officially, and it was only the latest (or maybe latest 2 gens) that could do 8GB.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Well that's no fun. Even though the official Apple page says that you can upgrade to 4 GB?

 

[TheStu]

Well that's no fun. Even though the official Apple page says that you can upgrade to 4 GB?

In that case you are fine, I must have gotten the gens out of order.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Hopefully all goes well, Crucial says that the max is also 4 GB. But all in all, the upgraded RAM can't upgrade the X3100 accessible RAM?

 

[TheStu]

Hopefully all goes well, Crucial says that the max is also 4 GB. But all in all, the upgraded RAM can't upgrade the X3100 accessible RAM?

I don't think that it can, I mean maybe, but I don't think so.

 

[Tyranicus]

I may be somewhat mistaken on this, but it has been my experience that in Windows, on systems with integrated graphics, if you launch dxdiag, it shows all the system RAM as available VRAM. I unfortunately don't have access to a working Mac with integrated graphics and Boot Camp to see if it applies to Macs as well, since there seems to be no way to use the 9400 in my MacBook Pro in Windows.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Upgrading the RAM would still of course speed the computer up, just not the X3100.

 

[Tyranicus]

Definitely. 2GB is a bit on the low side for OS X, especially with Leopard and Snow Leopard.

 

[TheStu]

I may be somewhat mistaken on this, but it has been my experience that in Windows, on systems with integrated graphics, if you launch dxdiag, it shows all the system RAM as available VRAM. I unfortunately don't have access to a working Mac with integrated graphics and Boot Camp to see if it applies to Macs as well, since there seems to be no way to use the 9400 in my MacBook Pro in Windows.

The x3100 tops out at 384MB of AVAILABLE RAM, at least according to my quick google search. So, if you have 2GB and are using 1.9GB of it for the OS, then the GPU is only getting .1GB. All this data is from Windows though, I am not sure how OS X does it.