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Who has 32GB RAM in their iMac?
- Thread starter stevefo
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I had 32, was bad and returned it and am using 8GB right now till I get my new 32 and its almost the same... but when I have a bunch of stuff open, it's not as snappy. Can't wait to have 32GB again
Imac 27 2011 32 gig RAM
I have a imac 2011 i5 3.1 working fine since a few months with 32gig ram of crucial memory.
The little ball of colors has disappeared since i have so much memory, also i do not get any page outs.
I would say being the prices of ram so low, it is a must.
I have a imac 2011 i5 3.1 working fine since a few months with 32gig ram of crucial memory.
The little ball of colors has disappeared since i have so much memory, also i do not get any page outs.
I would say being the prices of ram so low, it is a must.
got the i7 and ssd too also got 4 sticks of 8gb each to make it 32gb corsair vengeance laptop memory running here as well, can have every program open and then some no prob, if you got the money then do it for sure, if for no other reason just to say you got it lol. 
I can't say I have noticed a speed increase for day to day operations, however using premier and after effects cs6 for editing video, the rendering time has reduced to around 15 minutes from about an hour with 16gb for a 40 minute clip.
Incidentally my previous Dell XPS quad core 2.4ghz with 12gb ram would take around 2 - 3 hours for the same clip rendering time.
HTH
Incidentally my previous Dell XPS quad core 2.4ghz with 12gb ram would take around 2 - 3 hours for the same clip rendering time.
HTH
Yeah i know apple did this on the past, but not the case with the 2012 imac
Go to this intel specs sheet! for the I7 3770
http://ark.intel.com/products/65719/
The I7 3770 has a bult in memory controller that can only support a max of 32GB.
So this time apple is telling the truth
UnLike newer xeon E7 processors that can go up to 4096gb of ram, belive or not lol
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processor-comparison/processor-specifications.html?proc=53580
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Running 32GB Ram now. I know its overkill and a waste of money but things seem a little bit more snappy. Is it me just wanting to justify my purchase? probably. Whats your experience going up to 32GB?
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512 SSD will be the next upgrade! That should do it for a couple years.
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512 SSD will be the next upgrade! That should do it for a couple years.
While 32GB isn't that expensive it really is a waste of money for the majority of users. There's probably some placebo effect in which users feel like it's useful but for most people, in my opinion, you rarely need more than 8GB. I've hit the limit of the 8GB in my MacBook Pro a few times and see some page outs when running multiple VMs but other than that I can't imagine going much further. That said, of course there are people doing things that can utilise the full 32GB but it's just typically not your average user. I have 16GB in my late 2012 27" iMac and I'm happy with that and pretty sure I'll never need any more.
32 GB RAM from OWC works perfectly. I always upgrade to the max memory, simply because in the future, the OS and programs tend to take more RAM as they add to them, and I'll aready have it. 32GB does increase the speed over the standard 8GB. But, my iMac is super snappy now, not so much because of the RAM, but because of the SSD that I boot off of and have all my Applications on. I rarely use over 12 GB of the RAM using photoshop, and a few other similar programs.
While 32GB isn't that expensive it really is a waste of money for the majority of users. There's probably some placebo effect in which users feel like it's useful but for most people, in my opinion, you rarely need more than 8GB. I've hit the limit of the 8GB in my MacBook Pro a few times and see some page outs when running multiple VMs but other than that I can't imagine going much further. That said, of course there are people doing things that can utilise the full 32GB but it's just typically not your average user. I have 16GB in my late 2012 27" iMac and I'm happy with that and pretty sure I'll never need any more.
It just gives me flexibility. I often run 5-6 virtual machines simultaneously (which the i7 + ssd is capable of). With 32GB, I can give each VM 4GB of RAM, which massively increases the performance of them) and still have 8GB left for the OS + other apps + overhead.
32GB was the 1st upgrade i did on purchase, so i can have my Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows XP, Ubuntu, Mint and Mac os Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion VMs all open at once along with my usual day to day software.
Makes trouble shooting and accessing bespoke software a breeze.
Makes trouble shooting and accessing bespoke software a breeze.
I had 24 up until last week. Thought I would be okay with 24 but my after effects project began paging out a few times. $100 is nothing to boost it to 32 and extend its life (i plan on owning this machine for 5-6 years).
So my plan was stick with 24 and just monitor it, if I needed the extra just buy it later (no loss). When I work on large psds inside photoshop i usually hit around 10-12gb of memory usage mark so I am sure 24gb is enough if you are not planning on HD+ video files, maybe audio? (never worked to much with audio) and large file 3d rendering.
edit: or if you have a bunch of things running at once like the poster above with the VMs
So my plan was stick with 24 and just monitor it, if I needed the extra just buy it later (no loss). When I work on large psds inside photoshop i usually hit around 10-12gb of memory usage mark so I am sure 24gb is enough if you are not planning on HD+ video files, maybe audio? (never worked to much with audio) and large file 3d rendering.
edit: or if you have a bunch of things running at once like the poster above with the VMs
My iMac is such a beast
I do, it is so fast.. Definitely worth it if you do video editing with Final Cut X.. I have a mid 2011 3.4 GHz i7 anything over 16 is overkill for the normal person.. But if you do heavy video or audio processing it's worth it for sure.
I have beat the crap out of my computer and it takes the beating like a champ.. Can't slow it down at all
I do, it is so fast.. Definitely worth it if you do video editing with Final Cut X.. I have a mid 2011 3.4 GHz i7 anything over 16 is overkill for the normal person.. But if you do heavy video or audio processing it's worth it for sure.
I have beat the crap out of my computer and it takes the beating like a champ.. Can't slow it down at all
In Activity Monitor on the Memory pane, the active memory is the sum of App Memory and Wired Memory. Compressed represents running applications that are currently not actively being used, so they are compressed in memory because it is faster to uncompress when needed than to load from disk. The remainder of the ram is used for file caching, speeding up effective disk accessing. The total of the four numbers (down the right side) should equal or be close to the value "Memory Used". This in turn should be close to the value "Physical Memory" otherwise you have RAM that is being wasted. The value for Swap Used should be small, otherwise you probably need more memory. As a quick check the "Memory Pressure" should be in the Green.
I've attached the measurements from a Mac mini I'm currently using to type this reply. It shows everything is fine -- using all RAM but with 1GB still available for applications. Essentially no swapping. This mini has 4GB of RAM as shown, a 120GB SSD and is currently running Safari (used for this post), Chrome, Mail, Calendar, Activity Monitor, Circus Ponies Notebook, Skitch, Preview, BBEdit, and a CAD program, LPCExpresso, which is a large application written in Java.
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I can't say as this iMac had the 32 GB from the moment the power cord was plugged in. I'm positive that all 32 GB has NEVER been used. But if the need ever came up, I've got it installed.
I would venture that if I were to install the 8 GB that came installed from Apple, I would notice performance degradation, not as snappy.
I can't say as this iMac had the 32 GB from the moment the power cord was plugged in. I'm positive that all 32 GB has NEVER been used. But if the need ever came up, I've got it installed.
I would venture that if I were to install the 8 GB that came installed from Apple, I would notice performance degradation, not as snappy.
I did the same with mine. Didn't even power it on before I upgraded the RAM. I average about 10GB normal usage. If I'm doing Handbrake encodes that will use all 32Gb. RAM is too inexpensive not to max it out, as long as you aren't buying it from Apple.
I'm positive that all 32 GB has NEVER been used. But if the need ever came up, I've got it installed.
At least since Mavericks any RAM that is not being used by programs is used for disk caching or idle program caching (the "compressed" figure) for quick resuming. So in that respect, it's easy to use all the memory installed, no matter how much you have, but it doesn't necessarily affect performance much. The critical value is "App Memory" + "Wired Memory" which is what you really need to run smoothly. I would expect it's the caching that causes Handbrake encodes to use all 32 GB. I certainly don't see the Handbrake App using much memory on my system (which has 8GB but rarely uses more than 5GB no matter what I do).
Wow, thanks!
One last question. I too am running an SSD and 4 GB of RAM. My app memory and wired memory combined is a little under 2GBs but my swap used is 2.3 GBs and my memory pressure is yellow? Does this essentially mean I could use more RAM?
Yes, it probably has swapped something out to get room. You used to be able to see this when the listed page ins and outs, but they don't show that any more.
Swapping with an SSD doesn't hurt performance nearly as much as with a HDD. If you notice that apps are loading or switching unusually slowly then more RAM is certainly in order.
When I bought my late 2013 iMac last November, I went on eBay immediately. What I found were two pairs of 4GB Apple OEM DIMMS. These were the exact DIMMS that shipped with my iMac.
Someone was selling them because they were upgrading their new iMac to 32GB. I got lucky and for $40, I now have 16GB Apple OEM RAM.
16GB has done me well and especially for the price. Not much of reason to upgrade yet.
Case by case.
Someone was selling them because they were upgrading their new iMac to 32GB. I got lucky and for $40, I now have 16GB Apple OEM RAM.
16GB has done me well and especially for the price. Not much of reason to upgrade yet.
Case by case.
Pending on your industry/field you might need 32gb. For most people its overkill, but its nice to have so your computer stays relevant longer.
Or you can have 32gb and use 16GB of it as a ramdisk >
Or you can have 32gb and use 16GB of it as a ramdisk >
