MacBook Pro benefits from RAM

Last year I got a macbook pro for design purposes I was using it for more light weight programs. But recently I got into using video editing software for example after effects, premiere pro etc. Soon I might get into 3D programs.

I'm wondering since now I have 4GB of ram would I need to upgrade and would this help speed this up? Things are kinda sluggish sometimes at the moment. I have a 2.4ghz core i7. I don't remember the exact model of the graphics card but it's an ATI and looking at the GPU boosts I can get I realize unfortunately there will be no acceleration. This is unfortunate as there was no option from what I recall when I was purchasing to choose the nVidia GPU. Would the acceleration have made a huge difference? Would I be able to compensate with more ram?

Yes I have Lion sorry yesterday I wasn't on my mac so I couldn't check out all the stats. Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5, apparently it says my graphics is Intel HD Graphics 300 384, when I look at the summary there is a AMD Radeon HD 6770M GPU but unlike the Intel HD it doesn't say it's built in so I'm assuming I don't have the ATI graphics card in my laptop? If this is the case I feel silly for having probably clicked the wrong model to buy.

In the case of memory I was thinking of getting it about 16gb of ram or so maybe less not sure yet but I wanted to make sure that it would actually help in the video editing. I'm wondering since I don't have the video acceleration is that a reason the video editor is running slow as well? Or are those two things unrelated?

In any case I hope I actually do have the ATI graphics card but I wish they hadn't put that graphic card into the macbook pros that year because if the video acceleration does make things run faster video editing then that kind of sucks.

But thank you guys for all the help! I'm gonna find out hopefully if I actually have a ATI graphics card I always assumed I did when I bought it I remember clicking the one with an actual graphics card but who knows maybe I made a mistake. Thank you guys!

Ah yes! I bought it late in 2011 around end of November to early December. Yes it was a 15" model. Wow how did you know? Also if I do have the AMD why does the graphic say Intel HD Graphics? Do I need to switch it and how would I?

I am going to buy Ram and add probably around 16gb but just wanted to make sure about the whole situation of my laptop. I mean most likely I would buy it either way but just wanted to check in on my video card and see if there was no video card what I can do. I also just wanted to know how the video acceleration would affect the performance of the software or computer.

So is does the graphic card just switch to the ATI when it needs to automatically?

bobcan said:

Currently 16GB of RAM for your computer is selling for $60-70 for well known brands.. it will be the cheapest Upgrade you could hope for!!

If you are going to Keep and Use it, Just DO It..

Click to expand...

Where are you seeing this? Do you have any links? Thanks.

Is the voltage an issue? Do I need 1.5v or 1.3v? Or does it matter? Or is there anything else I should look out for? Thanks.