do i need a 2g ram & 128 vram new pb 15''?

I really do not think you will need more than 1GB for what you describe. Your best bet might be to specify 1GB now, set up so there is space for a further GB later on.

As for the graphics memory, for games I take the view the more the better. I do not use my PB for games, so I hope someone here can give a more specific answer. However, unlike the system memory, you cannot upgrade the graphics memory later, so you should probably specify 128MB now, just in case.

Think 1gig of RAM will be enough.
The only way that you could have real use for 2gig's was if you did a lot of BIG Photoshop files

msharp

So here comes another question: Which brand is suggested? Is "Kingston" the only ram that can be installed on PowerBook perfectly?

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Hi, I use ram from Outpost.com and I bought the "no name" brand, 1gig stick for my iBook and it works fine. I have said on other posts that I feel this is fine and that the first stick of ram was "name brand" and it went bad within 3 days of putting it in my iBook 🙁 so if money is an issue then that is an option if not its up to you.
Cost was $189 and I had it the next day. Some lifetime warranty sticks are about $220-250 for a 1 gig stick there. Hope this helps.

msharp said:

So here comes another question: Which brand is suggested? Is "Kingston" the only ram that can be installed on PowerBook perfectly?



PS: I added 2 256 kingmax ram on my PowerMac G5, but sometimes it crashes with grey screen and telling me to restart my computer. I'm wondering if that is a problem from ram.

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All of the RAM I've mail ordered has come from Coast to Coast Memory (18004memory.com). It's all been flawless. I ordered a "generic" 1GB PC2700 DDR SO-DIMM for my 12" 1.33GHz PowerBook, and they sent me a name-brand module (Nanya).

The RAM in my Power Mac G5 is Kingston. I've had no problems. I'm about to add 4x256MB Hynix RAM (all discards from Mac mini upgrades) for 8x256MB (2GB the cheap way). 🙂

Anyhow, to your original question, there is no such thing as enough RAM. At the moment I have 1GB in my Power Mac, 1.25GB in my PowerBook, and 1GB in my dad's Mac mini. I still get a lot of page-outs on all three machines.

Rod Rod said:

Anyhow, to your original question, there is no such thing as enough RAM. At the moment I have 1GB in my Power Mac, 1.25GB in my PowerBook, and 1GB in my dad's Mac mini. I still get a lot of page-outs on all three machines.

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That's just the Unix memory managment philosophy.

Say you have 1GB RAM, and programs+data in addressable memory (which is not the same as RAM) in the amount of 768 MB. Your programs have opened files on the HD in the amount of 512 MB for read/write without loading them into RAM.

You would think that the kernel would allocate 768 MB RAM to your addressed memory needs, perhaps keep some for later and put 200 towards a disk cache.

This is not what OS X (or Linux or *BSD etc etc) does; instead the kernel looks at what you are using at the current moment, and what you have been using recently. All of the addressable needs of those programs are met first and then the files open on the hard drive are cached. Any programs you haven't used recently are swapped out to optimise the HD performance of currently running programs by caching any file the kernel feels you have a high-likelihood of trying to use in the near future.

This is generally held to be far superior to the simpler method mentioned first. It is also why OS X performs far better at multitasking than Windows (which uses the first model). All of this memory management is (needless to say) transparent to the applications.

Anyway, with OS X's model more memory will always provide a performance benefit insofar as it will cache more of the disk and thus reduce the bottleneck that is HD access.

As an aside for any programmers: what gets nutty is when one is mmap()ing files that then are part of addressed memory and then those addresses get swapped out! Somehow this is STILL a performance boon!

-RS

msharp said:

I'm buying a powerbook 15" in a couple of days, so I need some advice, thanks.

I'm a web designer, sometimes do some photoshop work with small files(not larger than 50mb i think) and most of the time do script work and run a web server for testing. Also, I play games such as UT2004, C&C General, Diablo II, StarCraft, XIII, Call of Duty(or MOH) and so on. I won't play games like Doom III on this pb because I've already got a PowerMac G5 2.0 x 2 at home.

Is a 2g powerbook far more faster than a 1g one?
And, for my games, do I need this pb with 128 vram?

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Depends on what you want to play.

Doom III will make use of it, and most games coming out will.

Put it another way, ever going to take it to a Lan party?

And if so - want your PB to hold its own agaisnt other PC's 😉

Lol. I'd go with at least a gig, Mac OS X sucks up a lot of RAM.

As for the VRAM? I'd go with the 128MB. It will help with Core Image in Tiger. Thats something you CANT upgrade when you want.

And, ooh, Starcraft kicks ass doesnt it? 😀

msharp said:

thanks all of you, and I take the advice for 1gig of RAM. but I think the ram from apple is tooooo expensive, so I decided to buy a 3rd party 1gig ram aftermarket.

So here comes another question: Which brand is suggested? Is "Kingston" the only ram that can be installed on PowerBook perfectly?

Click to expand...

I've been running my 15" 1.0 with a 1gb module from Mushkin, and I've never experienced a crash... though oddly enough, it took three sticks of Crucial's "guaranteed compatible" RAM before I got one that worked.

It looks like Crucial is charging an insane (read: near-Apple) amount of money for 1gb. Mushkin's charging $239 shipped.

msharp said:

thanks all of you, and I take the advice for 1gig of RAM. but I think the ram from apple is tooooo expensive, so I decided to buy a 3rd party 1gig ram aftermarket.

So here comes another question: Which brand is suggested? Is "Kingston" the only ram that can be installed on PowerBook perfectly?



PS: I added 2 256 kingmax ram on my PowerMac G5, but sometimes it crashes with grey screen and telling me to restart my computer. I'm wondering if that is a problem from ram.

Click to expand...

Basicly on ram basicly go with some repetibal name brand ram with desent specs and you be fine. Dont fulling understand all the spec rating then get a name brand PC3200 from a company that has a good rep and should be fine.

Kingston, Coirsar, Cruitble, Muskin are all good brands.

quidire said:

Anyway, with OS X's model more memory will always provide a performance benefit insofar as it will cache more of the disk and thus reduce the bottleneck that is HD access.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I appreciate the explanation. I'm still covetous of more RAM though. 🙂

Go for the 128MB of VRAM-- that is not upgradeable later, and will work better in Tiger as well as when you have dual displays hooked up.

As for RAM- 1x1GB should be fine. Then later get another. Unless you can buy both now....🙂

And your G5 has some bad RAM. Might want to think about getting them replaced-- a Kernel Panic (that gray screen) is extremely rare. Only bad hardware or REALLY REALLY bad software causes that.