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32GB of RAM! What's Next?

John Doe 57

John Doe 57

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 26, 2008
1,333
3
Los Angeles, CA
Does anyone here on Mac Rumors, actually have the Mac Pro with 32GB of RAM? Just wondering.

And also, what kind of power would your computer have? How many apps could you run all at once without stuttering?
 
32 Gb of RAM? How could anyone ever FILL a 5 MB ProFile hard drive? LOL LOL :D LOL LOL
 
Considering the i5400 chipset used in the new Mac Pro actually can support up to 128GB of memory, 32GB is nothing :p
 
John Doe 57 said:
Does anyone here on Mac Rumors, actually have the Mac Pro with 32GB of RAM? Just wondering.

And also, what kind of power would your computer have? How many apps could you run all at once without stuttering?
Click to expand...

Here you go..
Incase you or anyone else here gets a little Bonus this winter. Kinda a bargain, init? :D
 
Is it good to get as much RAM as possible?

I am going to order a 3.2 Ghz MP as soon as they start shipping with the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT. Is there any reason other than money NOT to get as much RAM as I can cram in?
I will mainly be using Photoshop CS3, Capture One Pro, Aperture. These apps are often all open at once.
 
SnapperUK said:
I am going to order a 3.2 Ghz MP as soon as they start shipping with the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT. Is there any reason other than money NOT to get as much RAM as I can cram in?
I will mainly be using Photoshop CS3, Capture One Pro, Aperture. These apps are often all open at once.
Click to expand...

The fact that you will probably of wasted money on RAM that will never be used. Photoshop I think only uses a max of 3GBs of RAM. Aperture I'm not sure about, but if it uses more than 4GBs I'd be surprised. Capture One Pro same again. So if you got more than 12GBs of RAM I'd be surprised if you used it.

Even 8 - 10GBs should be sufficient. How many page outs do you get on your current system and with how much RAM?
 
Back in the day, you had to cut a resistor on the logic board of a Mac Plus to access the unheard of amount of 4 megs of ram. No one needed that much ram!
:D
 
16GB of RAM

Hmm... After seeing OWC's prices I feel compelled to consider getting 16GB.
 
So should I get 16GB (4x4GB) and wait to see if future app releases need more memory?
Is there any performance difference between 8x2GB or 4x4GB?
Sorry for the newbie questions I don't really understand how memory works.
 
SnapperUK said:
So should I get 16GB (4x4GB) and wait to see if future app releases need more memory?
Is there any performance difference between 8x2GB or 4x4GB?
Sorry for the newbie questions I don't really understand how memory works.
Click to expand...

No there shouldn't be any noticeable performance differences. If there is a big price difference from where ever you are buying get the 8x2GB option. Honestly, if you are going to need more than 16GB in the near future it is more than likely you would be aware of it now.
 
As someone hinted at earlier, you need 64bit applications to take advantage of more than 4 gigs per application. Even though the OS can support that much memory, applications can be limited. One thing I can see for needing that much memory is a RAM disk, but I don't know how to do it OS X. I've done it in Linux, and disk speed increases 10 fold.

P6
 
I was reading about RAM disks in OS X, and I was reminded of something. (You can do RAM disks in OS X.) The OS uses memory to cache hard drive operations. In theory, you could use all 32 gigs of memory even if you application does not use more than 4 gigs. However, I would get more than 10 gigs memory until all my applications were 64 bit. 10 gigs = 2 gigs standard plus 4x2 gig for a third party.

P6
 
Still waiting . . .

My meagre 8gigs has been on order at OWC for over a week now and still has not shipped - so keep dreaming. Since I've been running my new MacPro for a week now with just the 2gigs and loving it, it's getting more and more likely that that order will soon be cancelled.

Hmm, 8gigs for $400 - I remember paying $250 in 1992 for 4megs.
 
pyramid6 said:
I was reading about RAM disks in OS X, and I was reminded of something. (You can do RAM disks in OS X.) The OS uses memory to cache hard drive operations. In theory, you could use all 32 gigs of memory even if you application does not use more than 4 gigs. However, I would get more than 10 gigs memory until all my applications were 64 bit. 10 gigs = 2 gigs standard plus 4x2 gig for a third party.

P6
Click to expand...
heh! i remember using a ram disk on my old 75mhz 16mb performa running 7.5 :p damn was that fast :D
 
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