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1GB ram, enough for powerbook?

A

al3000

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 16, 2005
275
1
England
I am going to be getting a new 15" powerbook soon, and plan to increase the RAM to 1gb. This will be my first mac, and was wondering if it would be enough for everything to work ok? I heard dashboard uses a lot of ram, and I wouldn't want it running too slow.

Thanks for any advice :)
 
Yes, 1 GB of RAM should boost the performance of your 15" PowerBook. My wife has a 15" PowerBook with 1 GB of RAM. She uses Photoshop and it performs well. What programs will you be using?
 
I have a one gig single DIMM on my 15". It has very good performance under such conditions. I use Photoshop with very little lag. If you can, go for the 2GBs though. You won't be disappointed. The prices just came significantly down on the price of RAM from Apple so take advantage! It would have cost me $850 for 2GBs when I got mine, so I just got the single DIMM one gig so I can put another stick of Crucial in it later. Good luck, keep us posted.
 
Single Dimm

One gig is generally enough for most people unless you are doing heavy computational work or video editing. I would suggest getting all of the memory in one DIMM just in case you decide you want more later though.

P.S. I don't think Dashboard is the main memory concern. All dashboard widgets combined for me use ~100Mb of "Real Memory." Safari on the otherhand currently is using ~550Mb of "Real Memory."
 
I have the same problem, I will be using iMovie alot, maybe not final cut as much though. just to, to much for me. But down the line somehwere i might. I figure that 1 gig is nescsary, 2 gigs, maybe to much. What i was thinking of doing is getting 2 512's and then if i absoulutley need the other 1 gig, then Ill buy a Gig stick, sell the other 512 and get a total of 1.5gb of memory on my powerbook.
 
I survived with the stock 512MB in my PowerBook for more than a year before I upgraded to 2GB. The boost was more significant that I had been expecting; accross the board improvement! I played around with 1GB and 1.5Gb setups a few times, and there is a difference, but not as pronounced as 512MB->2GB :)rolleyes:). I'd recommend as much RAM as you can get. Upgrading 1GB at a time over a few months works too, getting what you need when you need it.

When I get one of the new DDR2 PowerBooks I'll be getting 2GB of Crucial RAM at the same time. I just have to wait a bit to get rid of my current PowerBook. :D
 
I remember about 10 years ago, I was thinking it would be the year 2025 before people would be asking if 1GB of RAM would be enough... haha.

It's a good thing RAM doesn't cost what it did then.
 
Balancing?

I heard it is bad to have unbalanced amounts of memory, i.e. 1.5gb of memory with a 1gb dimm and a 512 dimm, and that it affects performance. Is this true?
 
supafly1703 said:
I heard it is bad to have unbalanced amounts of memory, i.e. 1.5gb of memory with a 1gb dimm and a 512 dimm, and that it affects performance. Is this true?
Click to expand...
only true with Dual Processor Macs (powermacs). Not sure about the single or dual, dualcore machines though.

with your powerbook I would reccomend getting the stock with 512, and then adding 1 GB after the fact, which would be tons of ram. (or you could BTO one with 1, 1GB stick, which would leave you with an open slot. but yea, 1 to 1.5 GB ram should do ya pretty well
 
Don't get the RAM from Apple, upgrading the RAM is easy and Apple's pricing on RAM is STILL insane. 2 1 gig modules are $91 each, $182. NOT $500 Apple wants to charge you. But if you like wasting money.... :p
 
lopresmb said:
only true with Dual Processor Macs (powermacs). Not sure about the single or dual, dualcore machines though.
Click to expand...

Actually, MacAddict Magazine found that on the rev A iMac G5s, having RAM installed in identical pairs actually yielded a performance boost of ~10-15%. Not sure if that would hold true for a PowerBook G4 though.
 
I have 1gb (2x512mb) in my powerbook. It works great. I don't think I will upgrade my RAM any time soon, but if I do I will probably just buy one 1gb stick. 2gb is just to much, unless your doing some hardcore video editing. In my oppinon 512mb is to little, and you really limit you computer ability by not having enough RAM.
 
pubwvj said:
That's funny... 1GB = 1073741824 last time I checked...
Click to expand...

What I meant was in the year 2000, a lot of users thought it was insane for even thinking about 512MB. Over the last few years, this has changed. Remember the 4,000.00 Power Mac (Super Computer!! lol) with a max of 1.5GB?

"It's all about the gigaflop..." What a crook of **** marketing campaign to justify 4,000.00 USD computer - monitor not included! :eek:
 
that should be plenty. I have 1GB RAM (2x512) in my 2004 PB, and I do heavy HEAVY final cut editing (DV and HDV), and it works great for me. I'd love to go up to 2GB, but its not economically feasible for me at the moment, since I would have to buy two 1GB sticks.
 
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