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Wasn't the 32gb Macbook Pro infeasible (for battery life) initially because Intel kept on recycling their memory controller and it wasn't until the 8th gen proc

Wasn't the 32gb Macbook Pro infeasible (for battery life) initially because Intel kept on recycling their memory controller and it wasn't until the 8th gen processors where LPDDR4 was officially supported [1]. It appears that Apple gave up trying to do LPDDR4 on the 15/16inch [2] and released it with DDR4, while on the 13 inch they released a 32gb version using 3733MHz LPDDR4X [3]. [1] https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/05/17/intels-first-10nm-cannon-lake-processor-with-32gb-lpddr4-ram-support-ships https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/05/17/intels-first-10nm... [2] https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/07/12/apple-refreshes-macbook-pro-with-six-core-processors-32gb-of-ram https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/07/12/apple-refreshes-m... [3] https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/13-inch-space-gray-2.0ghz-intel-core-i5-quad-core-processor-with-intel-iris-plus-graphics-1tb# https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/13-inch-space...

dylan604 6y ago
So it was intel’s fault apple could not release a laptop with more than 16gb? Then why were PC laptops available with 32GB?
- skunkworker 6y ago
  It was Intel's fault that there was no low power memory controller that would work with 32gb for a laptop. There were definitely PC laptops available with 32gb of ram, but the wired powered consumption doubles from ~6 to ~11/12 watts [1] [2] Reviews of pc laptops at the time (eg: Skylake) with 32/64gb of ram showed some detrimental battery life and it appears in Apple's case it wasn't a tradeoff they were willing to make. To me it seems as though Apple gave up and just put DDR4 into their laptop anyway and also increased the battery W-h from 76Wh in the 2016 model [3] to 83.6Wh in the 2018 [4] thus offsetting some of the battery life issues but there may have been other hardware improvements that reclaimed some battery life. As for the 13 inch MBP, the 2020 model was the first to include LPDDR4X and could allow the bump to go to 32gb but is much more battery constrained at 58Wh. [5] [1] https://macdaddy.io/macbook-pro-limited-16gb-ram/ https://macdaddy.io/macbook-pro-limited-16gb-ram/ [2] https://www.crucial.com/support/articles-faq-memory/how-much-power-does-memory-use https://www.crucial.com/support/articles-faq-memory/how-much... [3] https://support.apple.com/kb/SP749?locale=en_US https://support.apple.com/kb/SP749?locale=en_US [4] https://support.apple.com/kb/SP776?locale=en_US https://support.apple.com/kb/SP776?locale=en_US [5] https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-13/specs/ https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-13/specs/

dylan604 6y ago

So it was intel’s fault apple could not release a laptop with more than 16gb? Then why were PC laptops available with 32GB?

skunkworker 6y ago
It was Intel's fault that there was no low power memory controller that would work with 32gb for a laptop. There were definitely PC laptops available with 32gb of ram, but the wired powered consumption doubles from ~6 to ~11/12 watts [1] [2] Reviews of pc laptops at the time (eg: Skylake) with 32/64gb of ram showed some detrimental battery life and it appears in Apple's case it wasn't a tradeoff they were willing to make. To me it seems as though Apple gave up and just put DDR4 into their laptop anyway and also increased the battery W-h from 76Wh in the 2016 model [3] to 83.6Wh in the 2018 [4] thus offsetting some of the battery life issues but there may have been other hardware improvements that reclaimed some battery life. As for the 13 inch MBP, the 2020 model was the first to include LPDDR4X and could allow the bump to go to 32gb but is much more battery constrained at 58Wh. [5] [1] https://macdaddy.io/macbook-pro-limited-16gb-ram/ https://macdaddy.io/macbook-pro-limited-16gb-ram/ [2] https://www.crucial.com/support/articles-faq-memory/how-much-power-does-memory-use https://www.crucial.com/support/articles-faq-memory/how-much... [3] https://support.apple.com/kb/SP749?locale=en_US https://support.apple.com/kb/SP749?locale=en_US [4] https://support.apple.com/kb/SP776?locale=en_US https://support.apple.com/kb/SP776?locale=en_US [5] https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-13/specs/ https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-13/specs/