RAM: 2gig vs 1gig ram startup times?

[Nuks]

Hey everyone,

I recently installed 2 gigs of ram on my macbook, and when comparing startup times to my family's macbook with only 1 gig of ram, the family's boot time was quicker (about 2 seconds or so)

I have a 2 Ghz Core Duo with 2 gigs of ram, and they have a 1.83 Ghz Core 2 Duo with 1 gig. Should my startup be a lot quicker? Is it a non-issue?


Thanks.

[psychofreak]

AFAIK, 2GB provides no difference in start up times to 1GB.

[johny5]

It depends what the macs are loading at startup, check in the login/startup options.

and yes, it shouldnt make much difference what size RAM you have as the OS files/apps have to be read from the hard drive on boot so bootup times are more of a hard drive speed issue. But my guess is the slower mac will be loading extra things in this instance

[vansouza]

Everyone, including Apple support, says it should make no difference. But, I added 4 gigs to my iMac and MB and I swear shut down and start up are longer now.

[Nuks]

Everyone, including Apple support, says it should make no difference. But, I added 4 gigs to my iMac and MB and I swear shut down and start up are longer now.

That's kind of what I feel too. I dunno if maybe it's because I was expecting it to be faster than stock, and since it's not it feels even slower.

But I feel like the Leopard "universe" picture takes longer to come up (normally it appears with the password screen, now it's after), and the password screen itself beachballs for a few seconds before I can type a password.

But thanks to everyone!

[Bobioden]

2 whole seconds :)

[lxuser]

apparently, the macbook bios always performs a scan of all system memory upon boot up, so when you have 1 gig, versus 2 or 4 gigs, it has less memory to scan, hence a faster boot up. HOWEVER, once logged on, you should obviously see a boost in performance, especially when running multiple programs at once. Or if you use photoshop or imovie etc, faster rendering and filter previewing etc.

The more memory, the more the macbook has to scan. Shut down times I cant really say, mine have been >7 seconds the whole time ive had my mac.