Captain Nellie Posted September 24, 2007 Share Posted September 24, 2007 I just got a new macbook, 2.16 ghz I have 4 gigs of memory in it and a 250gb harddrive in it The mac detects the 4gb istat says i only have 2.7gb free.. which makes me think leopard is a 32 bit operating system.. kind of like how xp only detects 3.3gb With a 64 bit linux distro it detects and says i have 3.8gb free of memory so it seems to detect it all.. is there any way to install a 64 bit mac operating system? or a way to make it so it will detect the 4 gb of memory? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/64250-4-gb-of-memory-in-a-macbook/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddicus Posted September 24, 2007 Share Posted September 24, 2007 I just got a new macbook, 2.16 ghz I have 4 gigs of memory in it and a 250gb harddrive in it The mac detects the 4gb istat says i only have 2.7gb free.. which makes me think leopard is a 32 bit operating system.. kind of like how xp only detects 3.3gb With a 64 bit linux distro it detects and says i have 3.8gb free of memory so it seems to detect it all.. is there any way to install a 64 bit mac operating system? or a way to make it so it will detect the 4 gb of memory? At the risk of sounding stupid, I think the OS will see all 4 GB but only 64-bit apps will see all 4 GB. OS X handles 32 and 64-bit apps differently, the OS is 64-bit but also has native 32-bit librarys for 32-bit apps. So, if iStat was written and compiled for 32-bit, it wouldn't see all the RAM. This is speculation, so I'm not saying I'm right. And I could be getting features of leopard confused with what tiger already has and doesn't have... now I've confused myself, good luck! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/64250-4-gb-of-memory-in-a-macbook/#findComment-454778 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Posted September 24, 2007 Share Posted September 24, 2007 The current MacBooks and Mac Minis just cant handle that much ram. Stick with 2GB and be happy. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/64250-4-gb-of-memory-in-a-macbook/#findComment-454783 Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddicus Posted September 24, 2007 Share Posted September 24, 2007 The current MacBooks and Mac Minis just cant handle that much ram. Stick with 2GB and be happy. Reading the first post over again, I see it's a MacBook and not a MacBook pro, didn't see that at first. The MacBook Pros are using the santa rosa chipset, the MacBooks are not, they're not ready for 4 GB of ram and there probably isn't support in OS X for 4 GB in a MacBook. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/64250-4-gb-of-memory-in-a-macbook/#findComment-454786 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Nellie Posted September 24, 2007 Author Share Posted September 24, 2007 aww. that stinks, well i got the 4 gb for free, i was excited when the os detected all 4 gb, but yeah it doesn't look like the OS reads it. maybe in the future. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/64250-4-gb-of-memory-in-a-macbook/#findComment-454790 Share on other sites More sharing options...
glassJAw Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 If Leopard was installed would it be able to use all 4 gbs? I have a Macbook and I would like to get 4 gbs for Leopard. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/64250-4-gb-of-memory-in-a-macbook/#findComment-458180 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhalls Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 i think its a hardware limitation of the chipset, like the intel 945 chipset that can only work with 3 GB. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/64250-4-gb-of-memory-in-a-macbook/#findComment-458189 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Nellie Posted September 28, 2007 Author Share Posted September 28, 2007 not sure about that, becuase like i said i installed 64bit ubuntu and it detected over 3 gb free of memory.. just looks like either a mac restriction, or something else OS related. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/64250-4-gb-of-memory-in-a-macbook/#findComment-458201 Share on other sites More sharing options...
netkas Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 Reading the first post over again, I see it's a MacBook and not a MacBook pro, didn't see that at first. The MacBook Pros are using the santa rosa chipset, the MacBooks are not, they're not ready for 4 GB of ram and there probably isn't support in OS X for 4 GB in a MacBook. lies ! OSX, actualy xnu, is 32-bit kernel, with a little 64-bit part to handle 64-bit binaries need to map somehow videocard memory and etc (mmio) to 32-bit memory space, so, it takes adresses at end of address space, and 32-bit apps sees 3.2 instead og 4gb Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/64250-4-gb-of-memory-in-a-macbook/#findComment-458204 Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquidCombo Posted October 2, 2007 Share Posted October 2, 2007 Yeah I'm wondering about this too. Would Leopard allow us to go up to 4GB of RAM? I could test it if one of you guys is willing to lend me 2x2GB sticks. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/64250-4-gb-of-memory-in-a-macbook/#findComment-461743 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Nellie Posted October 4, 2007 Author Share Posted October 4, 2007 i don't think thats the case, as you can see I have 4gb in my macbook, but the mac is only seeing about 3 gb Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/64250-4-gb-of-memory-in-a-macbook/#findComment-462982 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azurael Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 945 chipsets (all variants) support up to 3.3GB of RAM. That is a hardware limitation, and no OS update can ever change that. Apple say they support up to 3GB for a reason. Be happy with that, and buy a laptop with a better chipset next time Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/64250-4-gb-of-memory-in-a-macbook/#findComment-462985 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Nellie Posted October 4, 2007 Author Share Posted October 4, 2007 well like i said in my original post, it does utilize all 4 gb of memory in a true 64bit operating system, just not in any mac osx. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/64250-4-gb-of-memory-in-a-macbook/#findComment-462988 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azurael Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 No, it doesn't. Fact. Any OS that claims to be using all 4GB is lying. The i945 simply cannot address more than 3.3GB. It's a bug in the silicon and no software will ever be able to do anything about it. This isn't about 32 vs. 64-bit. In fact, a 32-bit OS with PAE support could easily address all 4GB (and as much as 64GB) if the chipset supported it. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/64250-4-gb-of-memory-in-a-macbook/#findComment-463008 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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