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2gb to 4gb, noticable?

thadoggfather

thadoggfather

macrumors P6
Original poster
Oct 1, 2007
16,341
17,457
With just messing around with programs? iChat, Firefox, Photoshop CS3, Word Excel Powerpoint 2008, etc...

VLN and occasionally video encodes and stuff...

Anyone?

I can get 4gb of RAM for $35 after rebate shipped.

Running 2.4 Penryn.
 
Yeah the machine becomes less lethargic when running multiple apps and also when opening large image files.
 
Do it. I just upped my MBP (sig) and the wife's iMac (sig) to 4GB for that same price and it's definitely noticeable. For $70, I couldn't pass up 8GB of RAM, anway.
 
thadoggfather said:
With just messing around with programs? iChat, Firefox, Photoshop CS3, Word Excel Powerpoint 2008, etc...

VLN and occasionally video encodes and stuff...

Anyone?

I can get 4gb of RAM for $35 after rebate shipped.

Running 2.4 Penryn.
Click to expand...

No brainer.

2 to 4 is a huge speed bump. 4 to 8 noticeable but less. I'm up to 11 now, but I do lots of things at the same time :)
 
Would I notice a big difference even opening applications for the first time and with boot up times?

I'm not too concerned with having a million applications open at once, but it's a nice thought!
 
And would it even make a big difference with a 5400RPM drive?

Because that's what I have is the stock 200gb fujitsu 5400rpm drive.
 
thadoggfather said:
Would I notice a big difference even opening applications for the first time and with boot up times?
Click to expand...

Actually, with my experience and others that I've read about, boot up time is a BIT slower. This is because OS X runs a cursory check of the RAM before booting. Just a few seconds longer, but worth it once you're booted.
 
For a lot of the stuff you use I don't think it will make a huge difference (though at that phenomenal price, why not), other than keeping some more programs open.

However when using Photoshop (and Illustrator, etc), depending what I am doing I can easy burn though 4gigs, so yes, it is very noticeable and helpful there.
Also I think it would definitely give you a nice boost in the video encoding programs.


And the comment about the harddrive is also correct to I believe, having a slower 5400rpm drive (as I have too) will benefit more from the 4gigs, the extra memory will help prevent pageouts (writes to harddrive) and boost sys. proformance. Also if you have the iStat widget installed you can see your pagein/outs with you current RAM allotment, you should have a 2:1 ratio of ins to outs, (a higher ratio is better), a 1:1 ratio is not great, and a 1:anything over one is really bad. with 4gig ram I don't think I ever get over that 2:1 ratio

my .02
 
for me the bump to 4GB didn't made a huge difference but it's good to know that the specs are now maxed out. no "how would it be with 4 gigs" thoughts all the time :)
 
I jumped from 1.5 to 3, and I hardly noticed a difference. but at least now I have the peace of mind of knowing that my Macbook pro's maxed out, and it only cost me $30 to do it, too!
 
yeah, def. go for it. i recently took out my 4 gb and put the original 2 gb in cause i was planning to take it to the store for service and it's been painful on 2gb. can't open as many programs without things slowing down.
 
The only opinion I have is, "It can't hurt."

When running iStat, I notice that the thing that slows my computer down is the processor. I don't completely tax it out most of the time (when not running HandBrake), but that's the first meter to get filled up almost all of the time.
 
with RAM being worlds cheaper than before, there is no reason not to do it.

1GB dedicated to virtual machines and room to spare is awesome.
 
I've just upgraded from 2GB to 4GB (like 20 mins ago).
Earlier today, i was running Safari, mail, itunes (streaming), XP via Fusion (with engineering program running), MATLAB, and whilst the MBP was coping, it was lagging here and there.

Running exactly the same stuff now, works like a charm.....definitely noticeable.

but i'd say that unless you do fairly demanding stuff you probably wouldn't notice it. Nice to have though.. especially if you can get it cheap.
 
Sweet just ordered 4GB of Crucial RAM.

Thanks everyone for your responses. for $35 after rebate, screw it.

you can get 4gb of crucial ram for $70 up front and $35 after rebate from frys.com for those who were asking..

Some other place had kingston 4gb for $35 after rebate also, but I figure I'll go with crucial... doesn't really matter.
 
thadoggfather said:
Sweet just ordered 4GB of Crucial RAM.

Thanks everyone for your responses. for $35 after rebate, screw it.

you can get 4gb of crucial ram for $70 up front and $35 after rebate from frys.com for those who were asking..

Some other place had kingston 4gb for $35 after rebate also, but I figure I'll go with crucial... doesn't really matter.
Click to expand...

which ram did you get? I'm just looking at the one they offer for the MBP and it's about $80.00
 
thadoggfather said:
And would it even make a big difference with a 5400RPM drive?

Because that's what I have is the stock 200gb fujitsu 5400rpm drive.
Click to expand...

I think my signature gives you an idea of the answer to that question. :D

Biggest bottleneck on the MBP is the hard disk though. 7200rpm is the way forward. Takes about half an hour off of the battery life: 4h 45 m to 4h 15m. I can't think of an occasion where I've used it off of battery for more than an hour or two anyway.
 
It's not worth it, it sounds like you don't need it.

Please remember:
"A bargain is something you don't need at a price you can't resist."

Which is exactly what this has amounted to.

But it's your money.
 
i upgraded from 2 to 4 but never notice the difference.
when i had 2 gb, i ran itune and played on wc3 it spiked like crazy and seen the same result with a 4 gb..so i was very disappointed
i got ocz rams any suggestions anyone?
 
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