MacBook Pro how much RAM can I put on this laptop ?

tommyb

I have a 2009 MacBook Pro and I want to add more RAM, how much Ram will this machine handle ?
Thanks

John

Thanks for the post!

All expandable MacBooks (MacBooks up to Mid 2012 non-retina) have two slots for RAM, and the memory is usually divided between the two slots. That generally gives you 1GB (2x512MB), 2GB (2x1GB), 4GB (2x2GB), 8GB (2x4GB), or 16GB (2x8GB). All MacBooks are capable of handling 4GB, and most can take 8GB. So the only real questions are in the extremes -- can your really old MacBook (say, 2007) take 8GB, or can a not-quite-so-old MacBook (say, 2011) take 16GB?

The best way to determine this to an absolute certainty is to look up the serial number using this website:

https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/

The website will identify your computer. Next, click on the link to get details. Mid-way through the list of specifications, you'll see the "RAM" section, which will tell you the maximum RAM your machine will take. It's worth noting that when a machine was released, sometimes only smaller memory modules were available. For example, Apple stated that lots of MacBooks only had 8GB capacity, but that's because only 4GB modules were available at the time, but years later 8GB modules became available and it often turned out those worked in the machine as well, for a total of 16GB. However, everymac.com (the website above) is very good at identifying this issue when it occurs.

Once you know how much RAM your MacBook will take, you need to determine what kind of memory to use, and you can determine that by watching my video:

Hope that helps!

John