Upgraded RAM but video programs not running much faster

[lazyman]

I finally upgraded my ram and thank you guys for all the help. But even though I think initially I thought the software was running faster it didn't seem like the case when I really used it for a longer time. It still seems to get sluggish after a while. Overall I didn't notice as big of a difference as I thought I would have. I'm wondering is it something else that I will need? Thanks

[Ccrew]

Best way to breathe life/speed into an older laptop is by switching the HDD for an SSD. That said, if video itself is an issue it's throwing good money away that could go to a more capable machine.

[leman]

Originally Posted by lazyman

I finally upgraded my ram and thank you guys for all the help. But even though I think initially I thought the software was running faster it didn't seem like the case when I really used it for a longer time. It still seems to get sluggish after a while. Overall I didn't notice as big of a difference as I thought I would have. I'm wondering is it something else that I will need? Thanks

What are your computer's specs? How much RAM did it have before the upgrade? What kind of 'video programs' are we talking about?

[maflynn]

Ram will improve the performance if you are experiencing lots of page outs. If you are not, then the ram really won't impact anything

[Hexley]

After RAM I'd upgrade your HDD to SSD or an external Thunderbolt RAID designed for faster read/writes.

If that doesn't work then you will need to upgrade Mac from scratch.

[snaky69]

Originally Posted by lazyman

I finally upgraded my ram and thank you guys for all the help. But even though I think initially I thought the software was running faster it didn't seem like the case when I really used it for a longer time. It still seems to get sluggish after a while. Overall I didn't notice as big of a difference as I thought I would have. I'm wondering is it something else that I will need? Thanks

I believe I told you something along the lines of "if you're not running out of it in the first place, more RAM won't do anything for you" in your first thread, that still holds true.

More RAM does not equate more speed, unless you start using the hard drive as swap(which means your RAM is full). Having more RAM will allow you to do more before you reach the point where you use swap. It won't speed anything up directly.

[visim91]

Members often say this.

They go on in circles chanting upgrade theology and touting expensive BTO specs like law. Don't listen to them. I can not believe the number of people on this board that insist - "first things first, gotta get dat RAM!" - without the slightest idea of what they're increasing it for.

Are you encoding hundreds of songs from FLAC to Apple Lossless on a daily basis, wherein your RAM is eaten up with every encode and you could use some more to avoid paging? Buy RAM.

If you throw a hissy fit because 8 is less than 16 and surely 16 is faster than 8, then you don't have any idea what you're talking about and you should stop pouring your insecurities into computer specifications.


OP, here's a quote from your previous thread on RAM upgrades:

Originally Posted by bobcan

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..

These are the kind of members that I adoringly refer to above. Upgrading for the sake of upgrading is like getting a hair transplant with a full head of hair.

[bluechair1984]

Originally Posted by visim91

Members often say this.

They go on in circles chanting upgrade theology and touting expensive BTO specs like law. Don't listen to them. I can not believe the number of people on this board that insist - "first things first, gotta get dat RAM!" - without the slightest idea of what they're increasing it for and that, in fact, it will slow down the computer instead of increasing speed as the Mac has that much more RAM to process and account for.

Are you encoding hundreds of songs from FLAC to Apple Lossless on a daily basis, wherein your RAM is eaten up with every encode and you could use some more to avoid paging? Buy RAM.

If you throw a hissy fit because 8 is less than 16 and surely 16 is faster than 8, then you don't have any idea what you're talking about and you should stop pouring your insecurities into computer specifications.


OP, here's a quote from your previous thread on RAM upgrades:



These are the kind of members that I adoringly refer to above. Upgrading for the sake of upgrading is like getting a hair transplant with a full head of hair.

While I agree with most of this... Are you some how implying that more ram will somehow slow a machine down? That is absurd. And converting audio is not the example I'd use for high ram usage. Of the upgrades offered on most MacBooks the ram is the most bang for your buck improvement, especially on a cMBP. However with the inclusion of an SSD, it is much less noticeable.

[visim91]

Originally Posted by bluechair1984

While I agree with most of this... Are you some how implying that more ram will somehow slow a machine down? That is absurd. And converting audio is not the example I'd use for high ram usage. Of the upgrades offered on most MacBooks the ram is the most bang for your buck improvement, especially on a cMBP. However with the inclusion of an SSD, it is much less noticeable.

Sorry, I'm a bit dated. In the past, adding more RAM could in fact slow startup times; however, Macs these days have self-test procedures and so this doesn't happen any longer. Still, more RAM can lengthen the time it takes to put Mac to sleep. This is because when you put Mac to sleep, it writes the contents on RAM to HDD. Again, I suppose I'm dated here as well, as this new SSD technology drastically reduces the time it would take to transfer RAM before sleep. I'll edit that out, thanks.

The audio is just an example, I'm not looking to dig out the most perfect example of RAM usage. This is just one of them. And a program like XLD quickly eats RAM when dealing with high-volume, large audio files.

Funny, Macrumors gave me a warning for trolling, despite that most of what I said is just true. The mob mentality here can be unhealthy at times, there are simple people out there that don't need all the bells and whistles some of us get off on.

[Rhinoevans]

Originally Posted by visim91

Members often say this.

They go on in circles chanting upgrade theology and touting expensive BTO specs like law. Don't listen to them. I can not believe the number of people on this board that insist - "first things first, gotta get dat RAM!" - without the slightest idea of what they're increasing it for and that, in fact, it will slow down the computer instead of increasing speed as the Mac has that much more RAM to process and account for.

Are you encoding hundreds of songs from FLAC to Apple Lossless on a daily basis, wherein your RAM is eaten up with every encode and you could use some more to avoid paging? Buy RAM.

If you throw a hissy fit because 8 is less than 16 and surely 16 is faster than 8, then you don't have any idea what you're talking about and you should stop pouring your insecurities into computer specifications.


OP, here's a quote from your previous thread on RAM upgrades:



These are the kind of members that I adoringly refer to above. Upgrading for the sake of upgrading is like getting a hair transplant with a full head of hair.

First off, Don't listen to this idiot.
More Ram doesn't make your computer run slower and it also doesn't make your computer run faster. It only helps if you run lots of applications or ram hungry applications. When you dont have extra ram and you system needs it, your computer will BOG down as it pages out to the Hard Drive as RAM.

I am not a power user, but I upgraded to 16 G, partly because is was cheap, but partly because my new cMBP only came with 4G (no way enough) and the jump from 8 to 16 was a small amount of cash.

Tonight I was running Parallels with WIn 7, had Outlook open for mail, and on this site with Safari and my system said I was using 7.5G of Ram.

Under the original 4G, yes, my computer would have slowed down as it used HD as ram. It probably would have worked with 8, but with 16, no issues.

If an extra $30 makes difference to you then get 8, but if you own a MBP, I doubt the $30 will make a difference, else, you would be on a $399 Asus or Samsung.

I bought 16 for $100 from OWC, and I believe that Amazon or Newegg has it even less. Remember when it was over a $1000!

That is why people usually recommend to upgrade to 16G because it is so cheap.

The only way to make your computer run FASTER is to upgrade the processor or over clock your current processor.

Good luck

[visim91]

Originally Posted by Rhinoevans

More Ram doesn't make your computer run slower and it also doesn't make your computer run faster.
Good luck

Changed it already, I was too far in the past. Hell, I still use a Powerbook.

[brop52]

One benefit not mentioned is the fact that increasing RAM will increase VRAM if using integrated graphics.

[Hexley]

Originally Posted by brop52

One benefit not mentioned is the fact that increasing RAM will increase VRAM if using integrated graphics.

But there is a limit of how much VRAM will be used by the intel hd graphics.

[snaky69]

Originally Posted by brop52

One benefit not mentioned is the fact that increasing RAM will increase VRAM if using integrated graphics.

More VRAM doesn't do anything for performance when it wasn't the bottleneck to begin with...

[brop52]

Originally Posted by snaky69

More VRAM doesn't do anything for performance when it wasn't the bottleneck to begin with...

With most modern games there is a good chance it is and may limit the future system requirements.

[bluechair1984]

Originally Posted by visim91

Sorry, I'm a bit dated. In the past, adding more RAM could in fact slow startup times; however, Macs these days have self-test procedures and so this doesn't happen any longer. Still, more RAM can lengthen the time it takes to put Mac to sleep. This is because when you put Mac to sleep, it writes the contents on RAM to HDD. Again, I suppose I'm dated here as well, as this new SSD technology drastically reduces the time it would take to transfer RAM before sleep. I'll edit that out, thanks.

The audio is just an example, I'm not looking to dig out the most perfect example of RAM usage. This is just one of them. And a program like XLD quickly eats RAM when dealing with high-volume, large audio files.

Funny, Macrumors gave me a warning for trolling, despite that most of what I said is just true. The mob mentality here can be unhealthy at times, there are simple people out there that don't need all the bells and whistles some of us get off on.

You definitely weren't trolling. :-) Yeah, startup time won't be affected any more like the older machines. But you're right, when hibernating, a machine would dump more RAM (if used) to disk. That is one case it would be a little slower, but you've already closed the lid and walked away at that point :-)

I agree, most people on these forums don't need any where near the power of the machines available today. I'd like to think I do as a software engineer, but I'd probably be fine on a MBA or cheaper windows laptop. But since I do use VMs all the time I DO need the RAM, which prevented me from getting the MBA. Plus the screen on this laptop is much better than anything else out there.

[jjhoekstra]

Originally Posted by bluechair1984

You definitely weren't trolling. :-) Yeah, startup time won't be affected any more like the older machines. But you're right, when hibernating, a machine would dump more RAM (if used) to disk. That is one case it would be a little slower, but you've already closed the lid and walked away at that point :-)

I agree, most people on these forums don't need any where near the power of the machines available today. I'd like to think I do as a software engineer, but I'd probably be fine on a MBA or cheaper windows laptop. But since I do use VMs all the time I DO need the RAM, which prevented me from getting the MBA. Plus the screen on this laptop is much better than anything else out there.

In fact going to sleep is not slower with more RAM, but waking up from deep sleep is slower. Waking from normal sleep is as fast with 16 Gb as with 8 Gb as there is no RAM written to the harddisk. But in deep sleep all the RAM is saved on the HD. It takes about half a second to fill a Gb of RAM from an SSD. So 16 GB is about 4 seconds slower to wake from deep sleep than 8 GB. I personally have never been able to use more than 6 Gb on my rMBP, which has 16 GB, using FCX, Compressor, Safari and Excel. Next time I will buy 8 Gb.

[thekev]

Originally Posted by Ccrew

Best way to breathe life/speed into an older laptop is by switching the HDD for an SSD. That said, if video itself is an issue it's throwing good money away that could go to a more capable machine.

I have a 512GB ssd in my notebook. I don't find it to provide a universal impact. It's just snappier for things that regularly hit the disk. I usually say ram prior to ssd, because with current pricing you get more for your money. Also sometimes with an older notebook, it's an issue of a slowly dying HDD, sluggish file system, or one that is filled beyond an optimal point.

[CJM]

Unless you're powering away in Final Cut Pro, you don't need 16GB of RAM in your laptop. 8 is fine... 4 is a little lacking. However, that said, you can buy after-market, but still quality RAM for a good price. I just checked Crucial.com and they don't even do an 8GB option for the latest MBP, but 16GB is not expensive.

Still, the most important upgrade you should make is an SSD, and don't buy it directly from Apple. You can get top of the range SSDs for half the price elsewhere.

[Justinhub2003]

Im a nerd.


I like to max out my machines just for the fun of it when I have money to blow.

I have 16Gb of Ram which only on rare occasions do I use more than 8GB.

That said, 16Gb was a bit excessive but not a waste of money and 8gb IMO is pretty much essential especially on Lion/ML.

All Mac's should come standard with 8Gb of Ram in my opinion (espeically in machines like the Air where changing ram is either impossible or hard to do).


ALL that said, I never noticed a performance boost from ram in everyday use. I was able to multi task better when I was really pushing my machine.



The biggest upgrade you can do to your computer is an SSD. I could use a computer with 4GB, but after having an SSD, I dont think I could use a standard hard drive again (at least laptop hDD).


If you want to have a noticeable speed increase, then an SSD is the best upgrade hands down. IMO

[brop52]

Given the price of 16GB being in the $40s with discounts I don't see a reason to go with 8GB. You just have to wait for good deals.

[takeshi74]

Originally Posted by maflynn

Ram will improve the performance if you are experiencing lots of page outs. If you are not, then the ram really won't impact anything

^ This. Verify your bottlenecks before attempting to "fix" them. There are plenty of ways to look at the resources in use to see which resources are in short supply.

[Ccrew]

Originally Posted by thekev

I have a 512GB ssd in my notebook. I don't find it to provide a universal impact. It's just snappier for things that regularly hit the disk. I usually say ram prior to ssd, because with current pricing you get more for your money. Also sometimes with an older notebook, it's an issue of a slowly dying HDD, sluggish file system, or one that is filled beyond an optimal point.

The reality though is that the SSD performance is always there, versus the RAM that may or may not ever be needed.

[ProConArt]

you should download memory clean, you can use it to moniter your RAM usage which will let you know if it's the problem

[thekev]

Originally Posted by Ccrew

The reality though is that the SSD performance is always there, versus the RAM that may or may not ever be needed.

Where it's always there is in terms of launching applications, reboots, and opening files. Most applications at this point can address what they need from ram rather than going to swap, and it is considerably faster. I can still tell when I'm experiencing pageouts.

Oh and a slowly failing hard drive or clunky file system will always make things annoying at times. I just mention ram as hitting a minimum of 8GB is quite cheap relative to the price of a 512GB ssd. I have maxed ram + ssd.