18 Mini Memory upgrade

[ChumpyD]

So thinking about upgrading the memory on my 18 Mini. Is it worth going to 64 or is 32 fine. For what I use it for 32 should be good. Also, if 32 should it be 1 32 stick or 2 16 ones?

 

[Stephen.R]

Whether 64 is worth it, will depend on your current and future planned use.

You definitely want to use two (matched) DIMMs.

 

[Ybersetzer]

Whatever size you settle at: 2 sticks (and they should be the same model and capacity).

 

[getrealbro]

...Is it worth going to 64 or is 32 fine...

Open Activity Monitor (in Applications>Utilities) and click on the Memory tab. Then start monitoring the Memory Pressure graph while you do whatever you fairly regularly do (or plan to do).
1 - If the graph is already (or quickly goes) yellow or red - you need a memory upgrade.
2 - How quickly it goes yellow/red as you open apps will give you a very, very rough estimate of how much memory you need.
3 - You can improve this memory upgrade estimate by running each regularly used application separately and seeing how much memory it uses “all by it’s lonesome”. Then total up the app-memory usage by each regularly used app.

FWIW on my 2014 Mini with only 8GB memory I had to religiously monitor my memory pressure and quit applications to keep the memory pressure graph green/yellow. Now with my 2018 Mini w/32GB memory — I don’t even think about it

As Steven.R & Ybersetzer posted -- You definitely want to use two matched DIMMS.

GetRealBro

 

[ChumpyD]

Thanks all. Think i will end up with 32 in a week or so. That will be more then enough and allow me to run a VM once in awhile.

 

[Ybersetzer]

Good for you. 32 is going to be PLENTY. Enjoy!

 

[Kaida]

Go for 1 x 32gb. You can still can put in another 32gb for 64gb next time. The dual channel difference is negligible imo