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Adding 16GB RAM - Measuring performance increase?

Big Stevie

Big Stevie

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 20, 2012
1,385
874
UK
Just received delivery of my 16gb ram upgrade for my 2012 MacBook Pro. Before I install it I'd like to take some readings of its current performance to compare with the new ram.

What do I look for? Is it page outs?
 
Big Stevie said:
Just received delivery of my 16gb ram upgrade for my 2012 MacBook Pro. Before I install it I'd like to take some readings of its current performance to compare with the new ram.

What do I look for? Is it page outs?
Click to expand...
To determine if you can benefit from more RAM, launch Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab at the bottom to check your page outs. Page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so the best way to check is to restart your computer and track page outs under your normal workload (the apps, browser pages and documents you normally would have open). If your page outs are significant (say 1GB or more) under normal use, you may benefit from more RAM. If your page outs are zero or very low during normal use, you probably won't see any performance improvement from adding RAM.
 
It'll be hard for you to put a quantification to your performance improvement, as the extra ram is only useful if you put it to use.

Page outs are a good way to see if you are needing more ram - but just for reference, I have 16GB of ram, and I still have 3.44GB of page outs.

But I will say - the system runs very smooth when rendering in FCPX while compiling in a VirtualBox (windows) system ;)
 
Thanks:)

Heres a screenshot of my Macbook as it is now with 4gb, whilst only having Mail & Safari open...

MailampSafari_zps0b8d04ca.png



and with many more apps open...

All_zpsd5e661bb.png
 
I think you should have restarted your computer. When I look to see whether you need more ram, I am not looking at the pretty pie chart, I am looking at your page outs. 11gb is a large amount but it is relative to the amount of time since your last restart.
 
GermanyChris said:
Maybe you should return the RAM and buy the guys a round instead.
Click to expand...

Yep, Im happy to do that for you all:D

In the meantime, ive just done a restart. So how long should I be using my Macbook before I check the page outs again?
 
Big Stevie said:
Yep, Im happy to do that for you all:D

In the meantime, ive just done a restart. So how long should I be using my Macbook before I check the page outs again?
Click to expand...

No I really meant it..take the RAM back get the 40-60 or whatever you paid and buy you friends a round..If your feeling really froggy get 8 and only buy your best friends some beer.
 
How long was your computer up n running with that amount of page outs?
What is your typical workflow? IOW, what are you using your machine for? Have you noticed significant slow downs utilizing some of your software or during your typical...again, workflow? If you're using After Effects, it'll gobble up as much as possible for the amount of frames you're playing with...then again, if you don't restart your computer often...and you're loading and installing new software...you'll see massive amounts of page outs (as you've shown).
It's kind of hard to quantify the help extra RAM or performance increase it'll give ya without knowing what you're doing on the rig. That said, more RAM is never a bad thing. And the price is right ;)
J
 
akdj said:
How long was your computer up n running with that amount of page outs?
What is your typical workflow? IOW, what are you using your machine for? Have you noticed significant slow downs utilizing some of your software or during your typical...again, workflow? If you're using After Effects, it'll gobble up as much as possible for the amount of frames you're playing with...then again, if you don't restart your computer often...and you're loading and installing new software...you'll see massive amounts of page outs (as you've shown).
It's kind of hard to quantify the help extra RAM or performance increase it'll give ya without knowing what you're doing on the rig. That said, more RAM is never a bad thing. And the price is right ;)
J
Click to expand...

Fair point. To be honest I dont shut down often, I tend to close any apps and then just close the lid on the MacBook. As for how long it had been running to get that many page outs, I couldnt honestly say.

But im now going to keep a keen eye on the page outs since doing a restart this evening.

Thanks everyone:)
 
Restart your system, then when the system comes back up, open what you would consider to be a 'heavy load' - and then check your page outs.
 
You really shouldn't expect to see any performance increase with added RAM since the CPU and GPU determine performance. You would only see an impact if your current RAM isn't sufficient and memory has to be paged to disk. Since you aren't even maxing out your current memory (as evidenced by the free RAM in the pie chart) I don't think you'll see much difference. Page outs/sec seems more useful to me than the total amount of data paged out, because paging is normal. Since you're showing zero bytes/sec I don't think you're short on RAM with 8, so 16 won't make much difference.
 
OK, thanks.

Its been a couple of days use since my last restart, and ive been using iPhoto, Mail, Safari & iMovie. My page outs now look like this....

ScreenShot2013-08-02at203736_zps391a2075.png


Would you say these figures suggest my current RAM is performing reasonably well or would benefit from extra?
 
Big Stevie said:
OK, thanks.

Its been a couple of days use since my last restart, and ive been using iPhoto, Mail, Safari & iMovie. My page outs now look like this....

Image

Would you say these figures suggest my current RAM is performing reasonably well or would benefit from extra?
Click to expand...

As previously stated, restart your Mac before you start tracking page outs. You'll get much more useful information.
 
GGJstudios said:
As previously stated, restart your Mac before you start tracking page outs. You'll get much more useful information.
Click to expand...

what should the page out look like? what is acceptable? what is a problem?

"Page ins: / Page outs:

This refers to the amount of information moved between RAM and the Mac's drive. This number is a cumulative amount of data that Mac OS X has moved between RAM and the Mac's drive. Note: The number inside the brackets shows recent page activity.
Tip: Page outs occur when the Mac has to write information from RAM to the hard drive (because RAM is full). Adding more RAM may reduce page outs.
Swap used:
This is the amount of information copied to the swap file on the Mac's drive."
 
zipur said:
what should the page out look like? what is acceptable? what is a problem?
Click to expand...
Read post #2.
TheKDub said:
It sounds like he has, his page outs were at 11GB before
Click to expand...
It's possible it was restarted. I just saw the Swap Used was a bit higher than before, and didn't notice the page outs from before. It's a bit harder to see on this iPad Mini sometimes.

Big Stevie said:
OK, thanks.

Its been a couple of days use since my last restart, and ive been using iPhoto, Mail, Safari & iMovie. My page outs now look like this....

Image

Would you say these figures suggest my current RAM is performing reasonably well or would benefit from extra?
Click to expand...
It looks like you would benefit from a bump in RAM. 8GB would likely meet your needs. It's doubtful you would need as much as 16GB.
 
Last edited:
GGJstudios said:
To determine if you can benefit from more RAM, launch Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab at the bottom to check your page outs. Page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so the best way to check is to restart your computer and track page outs under your normal workload (the apps, browser pages and documents you normally would have open). If your page outs are significant (say 1GB or more) under normal use, you may benefit from more RAM. If your page outs are zero or very low during normal use, you probably won't see any performance improvement from adding RAM.
Click to expand...

In the course of 4 days my page outs have been 5.9 GB using Safari, Mail, iMessage, iTunes, and Microsoft Word. What gives?! Have not noticed a performance decrease at all though (at least I don't think so). Well I can't do anything about it anyway since I'm on the rMBP.
 
locoboi187 said:
In the course of 4 days my page outs have been 5.9 GB using Safari, Mail, iMessage, iTunes, and Microsoft Word. What gives?! Have not noticed a performance decrease at all though (at least I don't think so). Well I can't do anything about it anyway since I'm on the rMBP.
Click to expand...

While you're paging, you likely won't notice the impact as much, since you're paging to a SSD. If you were paging to a HDD, you would likely notice the impact more. You're right, there's nothing you can do about it on the rMBP.
 
Shrink said:
Holding the cost of the chips aside, is there any disadvantage to having more RAM than you might need?
Click to expand...

No disadvantage to speak of. Higher cost and sleep image will be larger, but that's about it.
 
TheKDub said:
It sounds like he has, his page outs were at 11GB before
Click to expand...

Yes, I restarted it a couple of days ago (and after my first post). Theres not a huge difference in price between the 8GB & 16GB.

My page outs are now 2.17GB, with 4.48GB Swap. My free space is 267MB..


ScreenShot2013-08-02at230238_zpsd9d3f049.png
 
Last edited:
Shrink said:
Holding the cost of the chips aside, is there any disadvantage to having more RAM than you might need?
Click to expand...

Barring the costs, are there any disadvantages to owning a Lamborghini to go grocery shopping down the street?

You'll have it, but it'll never be put to use. Let your wallet decide knowing that.
 
Last edited:
Big Stevie said:
Yes, I restarted it a couple of days ago (and after my first post). Theres not a huge difference in price between the 8GB & 16GB.

My page outs are now 2.17GB, with 4.48GB Swap. My free space is 267MB..


Image
Click to expand...

Yeah dude, you're close to maxing out. Even though your system is using up some of that ram just to keep the memory from partially closed programs. You would likely benefit from having that 5th or 6th gig of ram during your heavy usage. If you've already bought it, and are trying to justify using it. I would say this is the perfect situation lol. I would do that rather than trying to "use" your computer conservatively just so that you don't worry about running out of ram.
 
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