Mac Specs By Capability Actual Maximum RAM Mac Pro Models. The actual maximum RAM of each Mac Pro is listed below along with its compatible RAM type, default amount of RAM pre-installed, common identifiers suitable to identify a Mac Pro in order to determine its RAM capacity, and more. If you are not sure which Mac Pro you have, and the Model Identifier and EMC Number below are not. Can I upgrade RAM on late 2013 retina Mac Book Pro? Ask Question Asked 6 years, 2 months ago. Active 4 years, 10 months ago. Viewed 139k times 15. Do the late 2013 models (13' - (ME864, ME865, ME866), 15' - (ME293, ME294)) support RAM upgrades? Upgrade macbook-pro memory.

Your Mac Pro (Late 2013) has four upgradeable memory slots. These support up to 64GB of memory when all four slots are full using 1866 MHz DDR3 ECC RDIMMs.

Before upgrading memory

Make sure that the memory you plan to use is compatible with your computer. The Mac Pro supports both unbuffered UDIMMs and registered RDIMMs, but it is important not to mix these types of memory. DIMMs that are not properly installed or do not meet the system requirements may effect system performance or not be recognized.

Apple recommends that you use Apple-approved DIMMs. You shouldn't use DIMMs from older Mac Pro computers in your new Mac Pro. You can purchase Apple-branded memory by visiting an Apple Retail store or Apple Authorized Reseller.

Refer to Mac Pro (Late 2013): Memory specifications for additional information.

Removing and installing memory

Part 1: Remove the enclosure

  1. Before you open your Mac Pro, shut it down by choosing Shut Down from the Apple () menu.
  2. If the computer is warm to the touch, wait approximately 5-10 minutes for the computer to cool down.
  3. Touch the metal enclosure on the outside of the Mac Pro to discharge any static electricity.

    Important: Always discharge static before you touch parts or install components inside your Mac Pro. To avoid generating static, don't move around the room until you finish installing the memory and slide the enclosure back onto the computer.

  4. Unplug all the cables and the power cord from your Mac Pro. Do not attempt to install memory while it's plugged in.
  5. Slide the enclosure latch to the right to unlock the enclosure.
  6. Lift the enclosure straight up and off of the computer. Carefully set it aside.
  7. The DIMM slots are now visible from the left and right side of the I/O panel.

Part 2: Removing existing DIMMs

Your Mac Pro shipped with DIMMs already installed in some or all of the DIMM slots. Before upgrading the memory, you may need to remove some or all of the DIMMs. Refer to the table below to determine how your Mac Pro is configured and to determine which DIMMs you need to remove and replace to maintain a recommended memory configuration. See the numbered steps following the table to locate specific DIMM slots.

Important: All DIMMs are 1866MHz DDR3 ECC. Do not mix UDIMMs and RDIMMs.

Total MemoryDIMM Slot 1DIMM Slot 2DIMM Slot 3DIMM Slot 4
12GB4GB ECC UDIMM4GB ECC UDIMM4GB ECC UDIMM
16GB4GB ECC UDIMM4GB ECC UDIMM4GB ECC UDIMM4GB ECC UDIMM
32GB8GB ECC UDIMM8GB ECC UDIMM8GB ECC UDIMM8GB ECC UDIMM
64GB16GB ECC RDIMM16GB ECC RDIMM16GB ECC RDIMM16GB ECC RDIMM

Remove DIMMs with these steps.

  1. There are a total of four DIMM slots. Two are located to the left and two are located to the right of the Mac Pro I/O panel.
  2. Access the DIMM slots via the RAM bay release lever (identified by a white triangle (A) at the top of each DIMM back). Push and lift upwards on the lever. The lever should move backwards and up, releasing the DIMM slots to swing out and making them easily accessible. Do not use excessive force on the release lever as you risk damaging the latch.
  3. Locate the DIMM(s) you want to remove. The slots are numbered 1-4 (B). Using your thumb and index finger from each hand, gently grip the DIMM at each end and carefully remove the DIMM by pulling the DIMM straight out of the DIMM slot. Do not twist or force the DIMM out of the socket or damage may occur. Remove the outer DIMMs first to make the inner DIMMs easier to remove.
  4. Place the removed DIMMs into an ESD (electrostatic discharge) protective bag.

Part 3: Installing DIMMs

Each DIMM (F) has a notch (E) that must line up with the key (D) inside of the DIMM slot (C). Note: The key/notch position is different on each side of the computer.

  1. Locate the DIMM slot closest to the interior of the computer and confirm that no DIMM is there.
  2. If available, use canned air to blow dust and other contaminants out of the DIMM slot. Note: Keep the can vertical to avoid spraying propellants onto the DIMM slots.
  3. Gently hold the DIMM ends and insert it into the slot. Ensure horizontal alignment of the DIMM prior to applying any force.
  4. Insert the DIMM at the angle determined by the open DIMM mechanism.
  5. Insert gently until bottom edge of DIMM is touching the gold contacts, then apply more force to fully seat the DIMM.
    • Do NOT force the DIMM. If the DIMM doesn't insert, verify that the key (D) and notch (E) are aligned.
    • Do NOT rock the DIMM into the seated position.
    • Do NOT insert DIMMs while the DIMM mechanism is in the locked position.
    • Do NOT bend or twist the DIMM during insertion.
  6. Press the RAM bay back into place after installing all DIMMs.

Part 4: Reinstall the enclosure

  1. Carefully lower the enclosure over the Mac Pro being careful not to touch any of the circuit boards.
  2. You may need to gently push down on the enclosure in order for it to seat fully.
  3. Once the enclosure is fully seated, slide the enclosure latch to the left to lock it.
  4. If the enclosure latch does not move all of the way to the left, verify that the enclosure is properly installed and fully seated, then try again.
  5. You are now ready to connect a power cord, display, and other peripherals. Power on your Mac Pro and verify that your system is operating properly.

Memory verification

To be sure that you correctly installed the memory and that it's recognized by the Mac Pro, follow these steps.

  1. From the Apple () menu, choose About this Mac.
  2. Click More Info. A window with general information about your Mac will appear.
  3. Click the System Report button to bring up more detailed information on the memory installed in the computer.
  4. Click the Memory tab.
  5. Check to be sure that the memory you installed is listed and appears as you expect it to. In the image below, the DIMMs are annotated (DIMM1, DIMM2, DIMM3, DIMM4) so you can identify the corresponding DIMMs which are numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4 at the bottom of the DIMM mechanism.
  6. If one or more memory slots that you installed memory in are listed as empty, shut down your computer and follow the steps again to verify that the memory is correctly installed. Refer to Mac Pro (Late 2013) Memory Specifications to confirm that the memory meets the requirements for your Mac Pro.
  7. If you continue to have issues with memory you installed, Contact Apple Support for information about the support options available to you.

2013 Macbook Pro Upgrades

Mac

“No matter what I do, my Mac is still slow”, an average tech-consultant hears this phrase multiple times a day. Give a person even the most powerful computer, and pretty soon it will be cluttered with apps, extensions, and things that are too much for it to handle. To reverse it, one has to go back and сlean up the mess, removing memory agents one by one. Prepare for a fight — every byte of memory is at stake. So let’s put your Mac on a diet and get it more free RAM to breathe freely.

First, remove desktop clutter. Get a combination of Setapp apps that clear away unneeded desktop files.

Download Declutter Free

Macbook Pro Memory Upgrade 2015

“Your system has run out of application memory”

How do you know your Mac is low on memory? Floating “rainbow wheels” aside, you may notice your Mac now takes ages to load. You’ll also see many browser applications crashing. You’ll be also thrown warning messages as “Your system has run out of application memory”. To help it, you should first visit the Activity monitor to see memory usage on Mac.

How to check RAM usage on Mac

Go to Applications and type in Activity Monitor in the search bar. This invokes a good old Activity Monitor that should tell how much free memory you’ve got left.

A shortcut to open Activity Monitor:

Press F4 and start typing Activity Monitor in the search bar.

Pro

Mac Pro 2013 128gb Ram

I’ve attached a screenshot from my Mac and as you can see my memory usage almost reached full capacity. Here’s what it all means:

App memory: taken by apps and processes
Wired memory: reserved by apps, can’t be freed up
Compressed: inactive, can be used by other apps
Swap used: memory used by macOS
Cached files: memory you can really use

Notice the colored graph under Memory Pressure. If your graph is all but red and yellow, your Mac is really gasping for fresh memory. It seems counter-intuitive, but “available memory” your Activity Monitor is not that important after all. In fact, it’s a system intended behavior to use all memory resources when available. On the contrary, the Memory Pressure graph is much more telling, so grow a habit to check this graph in the Activity Monitor every now and then.

2013

How to check CPU usage on Mac

Open the CPU tab in Activity Monitor to keep in check CPU-heavy processes. Normally an app would be using 0-4% of CPU. If it takes abnormally more than that, go inside that particular item in the list and press the Quit button.

How to free up memory on Mac

Tip # 1. Remove Login Items to lower Mac memory usage

Login items are programs that load automatically upon Mac startup. Some of them covertly add themselves to the list and this is no good. If you’re looking to free up RAM, they are the first candidates for deletion. Don’t worry, you’re not deleting the app itself, you just stop it from auto-launching every time.

So, to remove Login Items and at the same time reduce your memory usage of your Mac, you need to:

  1. Open System Preferences and select Users & Groups.
  2. Click your nickname on the left.
  3. Select the Login Items tab.
  4. Check programs you don’t want to load as your Mac starts.
  5. Press the “–” sign below.

Now, you won’t see these apps pop up the moment you turn on your Mac. Although this method doesn’t require some superpowers of yours, some special Mac optimization and memory cleaner tools may do the job faster and ensure the smooth performance of your Mac. CleanMyMac X is an excellent example of such software. Here’s how to disable Login Items with CleanMyMac X:

  1. Download it for free and go to the Optimization tab.
  2. Check Login Items to see the list of apps that get opened when you start your Mac.
  3. Click Remove.

As you’ve already come to the Optimization module of CleanMyMac, you can also fix hung apps and heavy memory consumers there. In this way, you’ll free up the solid amount of RAM on Mac — 100% free of charge.

Tip # 2. Free up disk space if Mac is low on memory

The available space on your Mac’s drive translates into virtual memory. This comes to save you when you’ve run out of physical RAM. So now your computer relies on your hard drive space to keep your apps going.

The classic geek rule of thumb holds it that you should keep at least 20% of disk space on your startup drive. Not only this potentially reduces your future spending on iCloud storage but it also keeps your Mac speedier.

What to delete to free up space:

  • Large unused files, like movies
  • Old downloads
  • Rarely used applications
  • System junk

But here’s a simpler solution to save your time — clean up your drive with CleanMyMac X— the app I’ve mentioned above. Many users recommend it as an excellent way to free up more space because it searches for large & old files, useless system files, Photo junk, mail attachments and shows everything you can safely delete. Interestingly, it finds about 74 GB of junk on an average computer.

Extra trick: How to free up RAM on Mac with CleanMyMac X

If you have downloaded CleanMyMac, you may also take advantage of its amazing feature — the ability to free up RAM in a few seconds. Try this next time you see “Your system has run out of application memory” message.

  1. Go to the Maintenance tab on the left.
  2. Click Free Up RAM.
  3. Click Run.

As simple as that!

And you can do it even if you download a free version of the app.

Tip # 3. Clean up your Desktop

This tip always comes at the bottom of instructions and unfairly so as it is quite effective. Without even looking at your Desktop I would assume it’s cluttered with mountains of icons. Thing is, your macOS was designed in a way that it treats every Desktop icon as a little active window. The more icons, the heavier memory usage on Mac. So in order to release available memory resources, it’s recommended to keep your Desktop clean.

You don’t have to do it all by yourself. With apps like Declutter and Spotless, every desktop cleaning session will be scheduled in advance and executed automatically. Your only job is to define the rules on how your files should be organized.

Tip #4. Clear cache files

Another way to free up RAM on Mac is to clear it of cache files. Of course, it won’t save you gigabytes of space, but deleting cache regularly, you can help your Mac run faster and avoid system issues.

So, to remove cache files on your Mac, you need to:

  1. Open Finder.
  2. From the Go menu, select Go to Folder.
  3. Type ~/Library/Caches in the field and press Go.
  4. In the window that appears, you will see all your cache files.
  5. Press Command+A to select all files or delete files one by one.
  6. Enter your user name and password to confirm.

If you find some files still in the folder after you emptied it, maybe you have some windows open on your Mac. Just like that, you can save up some space on your Mac. Don’t forget to empty the bin afterward.

Tip # 5. Tune up Chrome’s Task Manager

Although Google Chrome is not the one to blame for massive memory usage, it can indeed affect your Mac's performance. If you use Chrome as your primary browser, you probably have many windows opened there. Chrome runs a lot of processes to ensure a fast browsing experience for you. So, it uses your RAM for storing your tabs, plugins, and extensions. Look at how many entries Google Chrome has in Activity Monitor:

The question then arises, 'Why does Chrome use so much RAM?' The thing is that each process is responsible for a separate plugin or extension of your browser. For example, when a tab unexpectedly falls, you need to refresh it to continue your work there. If one process were responsible for all tabs and extensions, you would need to restart the whole browser instead. Can you imagine how many times would you do that? That’s the proper answer to why Chrome uses so much RAM.

I’ve been using Chrome for some years only to discover (recently) that Chrome had a task manager of its own. You can use it to force quit memory-heavy processes in the browser. It’s a handy tool because it lets you see how a page weighs on CPU usage on a Mac.

  1. Go to Chrome settings (dotted icon in the top right corner)
  2. Click More tools -> Task Manager

To free up even more RAM, close the GPU process. The GPU Process, though helpful in theory to accelerate pages, eats up a considerable amount of memory. Click to end it to free up RAM on your Mac.

Memory Upgrade For Macbook Pro 2013

Tip # 6. Manage RAM usage with CleanMyMac X menu

Memory For Mac Pro 2013

CleanMyMac X has another useful and convenient feature for managing your Mac’s performance and memory usage. As you install CleanMyMac X and start it for the first time, it’s icon will appear in your menu bar. Click the icon to open the CleanMyMac X menu. Here you can find updates on the current condition of your Mac and perform quick tweaks to increase your Mac's speed. Whenever you feel like your Mac underperforms, open the CleanMyMac X menu to check how much RAM is available and free it up as well.

Tip # 7. Close Finder windows

Okay, suppose you’re still asking yourself, how do I clear RAM on my MacBook Pro/MacBook Air. The next trick is as magical (you’ll see for yourself) as it is time-saving. It’s no secret that each window in the Finder eats up RAM. But how many open windows are there? Some of them are collapsed or stacked in some blind spot on your screen. This Finder command merges all your windows into one. See how to do it:

Click on Finder > Window > Merge All Windows

Now you can manage Finder windows more effectively and free up memory on MacBook.

What else you can do to minimize memory usage on Mac

I’ve saved the easiest tips for the end, as long as these ones are self-explanatory.

  • Replace AdBlock (very memory-demanding) with a lighter extension
  • Keep fewer opened tabs in the browser
  • Restart your Mac more often to free up RAM
  • Close all hung-up print queues

That was my take on how to make your Mac a bit speedier to use. If you’re looking for more guidance, check simple ways to speed up your Mac.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to check application memory on Mac?

To check RAM usage on your Mac, go to Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities). In the Memory tab, you will see all the active processes that are using your Mac’s RAM. At the end of the window, there is a Memory Used graph, which indicates how much application memory is used.

How to find out whether your Mac needs more RAM?

2015

Your Mac may be using almost all its RAM, but you don’t need more if it’s using it efficiently. Open Activity Monitor and go to the Memory tab. The Memory Pressure graph shows the current condition of your RAM: green color means your Mac’s using RAM effectively, while yellow is a sign that some application or process is using too much of application memory. The red memory pressure signals that your Mac needs more RAM.

How to quickly free up RAM on your MacBook?

To free up RAM on your Mac, firstly, you should find out what app uses so much of your memory. The memory-heavy programs are listed in Activity Monitor, Memory tab. If there is an app you aren’t using at the moment, click it and press the “X” sign to quit it. This will, in turn, free some of the application memory

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