Possible Reason Why The MacBook Pros Are Capped At 16GB RAM

It seems that when the new MacBook Pros were revealed, there are some users who were disappointed that the max the laptop’s RAM could be set at was 16GB. When a customer reached out to Phil Schiller, he responded by saying that having more than 16GB of RAM would basically result in a laptop that isn’t as energy efficient.

However it seems that maybe this isn’t entirely Apple’s fault, but rather the limitations of the Intel chipsets found in the laptop. This is according to a post on Reddit (via 9to5Mac) which suggests that maybe the limitations of Intel has more to do with why the MacBook Pros are capped at 16GB, as opposed to it being something that Apple has chosen to do.

According to the OP on Reddit, exploding_m1, “The true reason behind the lack of 32gb or ddr4 is intel. Skylake does not support LPDDR4 (LP for low power) ram. Kabylake is set to include support, but only for the U category of chips. So no LPDDR4 support for mobile until 2018 I think.”

The poster also points out that other laptops like the Dell XPS 13 is maxed out at 16GB, and so is the Microsoft Surface Book. That being said, if you don’t need a new laptop right this instant, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had earlier predicted that in 2017 we can expect new MacBook Pros that will support up to 32GB of RAM.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Computers
Tags: Intel, Laptops, Macbook Pro