That’s because the problem size for the diglloydMedium benchmark used here approaches 16GB. If the MacBook Pro could accept 16GB memory, times would likely drop another 50% or so.A solid state drive provides a compelling benefit for performance when memory is too low.Too little memory, e.g., 4GB, just kills performance: it’s a threshold effect.General observations apply to other Macs. Therefore, results with 4GB are also shown. But the MacBook Air is limited to 4GB (an upgrade at the time of ordering only), so a reasonable inference can be made as to the severe limitations for serious work with the ’Air. Memory prices have plummeted for the 2010 MacBook Pro, so it’s foolish to even consider a 4GB configuration for a MacBook Pro.

I do not in general recommend just any solid state drive as some have issues. I used the OWC 8GB memory kit and the OWC solid state Mercury Extreme Pro and Pro RE drives for this test. As a proxy for all these tasks, the diglloydMedium benchmark was used as a reliable way to test the limits of drive speed and memory. How to get BIG performance gains by upgrading the memory and drives in your MacBook Pro.įocus here is on demanding tasks, such as Adobe Photoshop editing, Lightroom 3 and video. If you load Windows 7 onto the MacBook Pro (2010 i5 or i7) with 16GB RAM loaded, Windows 7 will boot OK and be able to see/address the 16GB RAM.Īs far as I can tell, this appears to be an Apple SW limitation of some sort.- Send Feedback Related: hard drive, how-to, laptop, MacBook, MacBook Pro, memory, Photoshop, RAID, RAID-0, software, SSD, storage If you load Ubuntu 12 onto the MacBook Pro (2010 i5 or i7) with 16GB RAM loaded, Ubuntu will boot OK and be able to see/address the 16GB RAM. A maxmem=2048 will allow the system to boot normally with 16GB RAM loaded however only 2GB RAM will be usable.

This would limit the usable RAM to a maximum of 8GB (official Apple Max) however this also will cause a kernel panic during normal boot when 16GB RAM is physically loaded. It is possible to limit Max RAM to 8GB using the command: sudo nvram '-v maxmem=8192'. ' in safe mode, as opposed to 'IntelHD.'. Notice that the graphics card is listed as 'Nvidia. You will be able to boot into safe mode OK and it will show the 16GB RAM in System Information. After doing some digging around, it sounds like the limitation has to do with the IntelHD graphics SW that is used by OS X.Ī 2010 i5/i7 MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM running MountainLion/Mavericks will kernel panic during normal boot. I believe there is an EFI limitation in OS X Mountain Lion that will not allow the 2010 i5/i7 Macbook Pro's to be upgraded over 8GB RAM. The type of RAM needed is DDR3 PC3-8500 1066. If you have a 2010 MacBook Pro Core2Duo (13'), then you are in luck and you can upgrade to 16GB RAM. Any mid-2010 MacBook Pro i5 or i7 is limited to a maximum of 8GB RAM.

2010 macbook pro ram upgrade 16gb