Recommended Posts

I want to upgrade an early 2011 Macbook Pro, it's running a little too slow.

It officially supports 8Gb, but some people say it can run 16Gb just fine.

Replacing the RAM after purchase would be a relatively huge hassle for me.

So if anyone has already done this (put 16g in early 2011) on their MBP, I would love to hear your experiences.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1126056-2011-mbp-ram-question/
Share on other sites

I want to upgrade an early 2011 Macbook Pro, it's running a little too slow.

It officially supports 8Gb, but some people say it can run 16Gb just fine.

Replacing the RAM after purchase would be a relatively huge hassle for me.

So if anyone has already done this (put 16g in early 2011) on their MBP, I would love to hear your experiences.

How is it a huge hassle? Its as simple as remove 8 screws on the bottom and swap out the ram chips. Nothing hard about that.

I did mine 3 days ago and its worked great! typing the message on it right now. I went to kingston

http://www.kingston.com/en/memory/search/devices?DevicesType=Desktop

You have to choose notebook from the menu and then it recommends what you need. I only put in the 8 gig in mine, yes it might run 16gb but i would rather stick with a supported configuration. I have had kingston for years, and its been great RAM. You might be able to put 16 gig in it but what happens if you boot into os x and it only shows 8 gig? I would save the difference for coffee!

  • 4 months later...

With "replacing" I meant getting the shop to take back my 16GB and replace them with 8GB in case it turned out my mbp doesn't support them.

Got 16GB of Kingston working for half a year now, great, if the next OS X is not going to be any more memory hungry, then you're right about the coffee.

It's a good thing there isn't much going on in the Mac Discussions, else I wouldn't have found this post.

You MBP will support 16GB fine. I have a Late 2011 15" MBP and it has 16GB in it. even my Late 2009 13" MacBook only officially supported 4GB but I put in 8GB and it worked fine :D

I want to upgrade an early 2011 Macbook Pro, it's running a little too slow.

It officially supports 8Gb, but some people say it can run 16Gb just fine.

Replacing the RAM after purchase would be a relatively huge hassle for me.

So if anyone has already done this (put 16g in early 2011) on their MBP, I would love to hear your experiences.

If you're doing it because it is a 'little slow' then I think you're better off maybe checking the computer, clean install, what applications you have running in the background - maybe investing in an SSD maybe a better investment and then putting the old rotating disk in an external hard disk case (maybe an external hard disk case with Thunderbolt?).

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • Well I've done a grand total of nothing, and it now clocks between 2010mhz and 1995mhz (stock is 1710mhz) and hovers around 80c, warmer than it used to, but tolerable clocks seem to have returned. Thanks for all the advice on this thread. Will review the evidence and make a choice.
    • Audacious 4.6.1 by Razvan Serea Audacious is a lightweight, open-source audio player that emphasizes simplicity, performance, and sound quality. Designed for Linux, Windows, and macOS, it supports a wide range of audio formats, internet radio streaming, and playlist management. Users can customize the interface with Winamp-style skins or modern themes, making it flexible for different preferences. Audacious also includes an equalizer, advanced audio effects, and a plugin system for extending functionality. Its low resource usage makes it especially suitable for older computers or users who value efficiency without sacrificing playback quality. Audacious key features: High audio quality – delivers clean, gapless playback with minimal distortion. Wide format support – plays MP3, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, WAV, WMA, and more. Internet radio streaming – supports Shoutcast, Icecast, and other online streams. Winamp skin support – classic, nostalgic look for users who prefer the old-school style. Modern GTK-based interface – clean, simple UI with a more modern feel. Customizable themes – change appearance through skins and themes. Advanced playlist management – organize, save, and edit playlists with ease. Equalizer – fine-tune audio output with a built-in graphical equalizer. Audio effects – built-in DSP options like crossfade, replay gain, and more. Plugin system – extend functionality with additional components. File metadata support – displays and organizes music based on tags. Drag-and-drop support – quickly add songs or playlists. Global hotkey support – control playback without switching windows. Bit-perfect output modes – bypass system mixers for pure audio output. ReplayGain support – normalizes track loudness automatically. Cue sheet support – play entire albums from a single audio file with .cue. MPRIS2 integration – integrates with Linux desktop environments for media controls. Advanced resampling options – adjust playback quality with different resampler settings. Gapless playback – seamless transition between tracks encoded properly. Crossfade plugin – blend one song into the next smoothly. Last.fm scrobbling plugin – track listening history online. Remote control support – control Audacious via command-line or scripts. Lyrics plugin – display song lyrics if available. Alarm / timer plugin – start or stop playback at set times. SOX resampler plugin – high-quality resampling for audiophiles. Spectrum analyzer / visualization plugins – visual feedback while playing music. Headphone crossfeed effect – simulates speaker listening for headphones. Customizable buffer size – tweak latency and playback smoothness. Audacious 4.6.1 changelog: Use XDG cache dir to store temporary files (#1817) Accept embedded lyrics in more cases (#1818) Bump .so and plugin ABI versions retrospectively (#1819) Include Georgian translation (#1820) Fix build on systems using musl instead of glibc (#1823) Download: Audacious 4.6.1 | 48.2 MB (Open Source) Download: Portable Audacious 4.6.1 | 69.8 MB View: Audacious Website | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • I really wonder if this has to do with the built in VPN or "private DNS" of browsers that trip up legal requirements like cookie consent and Cloudflare (to avoid all the botnet attacks we get). And BTW some botnets still manage to get past Cloudflare, we are constantly having to tweak it to block malicious traffic that ultimately cause a DDoS.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      rolfus earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Leroy Jethro Gibbs earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Conversation Starter
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • One Month Later
      AndreaB earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      agatameier earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      505
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      197
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      142
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      89
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      80
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!