The latest MacBook Pros do n’t constitute a completely new product line , as the first MacBook Pro did over the PowerPC - base PowerBooks . But they are more than just speedbumps .
The laptop annunciate Tuesday by Apple feature new and degenerate processors , more L2 cache , bigger strong campaign , FireWire 800 across the line of business , and flying videodisk burners . But one matter I find particularly noteworthy is an increase in the standard RAM with each model — especially important in these days of storage - hungry applications ( and , well , operating system of rules ) .
All three MacBook Pro models now let in twice the standard RAM of the models they replace . The 2.16GHz , 15 - in poser come with 1 GB of RAM , while the 2.33GHz 15 - inch and 2.33GHz , 17 - in models do with 2 GB of RAM — making the latter two the first Macs ever to ship with 2 GB of RAM , an amount once considered appropriate only for the highest - end client .
At the same time , Apple also increased the maximal random memory for the MacBook Pro from 2 GB to 3 GB . That ’s an impressive number , but if there are two tup slot , why not a 4 GB limit ? When working on my review of the Core 2 Duo iMacs — which , except for the entry - horizontal surface modelling , share the same 3 GB RAM bound — Apple told me that the Intel chip shot stage set used at heart had limited memory addressing capabilities , meaning 3 GB is the most the system can deal . I have to assume that Apple is using the same poker chip determine in the MacBook Pro . ( The iMac is basically a screen background computing machine using laptop computer parts , so that would make common sense . )
I point this out not to take anything away from Apple ’s increasing its standard MacBook Pro RAM — a bump I suspect we ’ll see in other example as well — but simply to point out the “ two steps forward , one step back ” situation here . But how many people really ask 4 GB of RAM in any Mac , much less a portable ? Very few , I ’m certain . So for most of us , the RAM bump is nothing but good newsworthiness .
