3rd Party memory fear

[ViktorVaughn]

Hey guys newbie here but have been trolling about this topic for a bit. I have 2 questions.

I have a mid 2010 MBP and run lots of tabs and windows inside my firefox, which is exactly what shows up as being a memory hog. Which I suspect is why I get lag, and the spinning death ball

First question is do I need more memory? or am I simply running too many Tab Groups. I use the Firefox's Panorama/Tab Groups feature where you can create multiple mini windows, with lots of tabs in them, within one browser. I generally have approx 4-5 of groups with 7-15 tabs in each.

Secondly, should I be nervous about adding 3rd party memory? Been reading stuff about "Kernal jumps" and other snafus after adding memory and it is scaring me to perhaps think more about Apples insanely priced OEM memory. Which I absolutely cannot afford

Thoughts..

 

[ender land]

If you are running just Firefox and have a 2010 mbp (which I'm fairly sure will have 4GB RAM), something is messed up with FF most likely.

I don't know what version of FF you are using but in some tests (granted, on windows - here) even with 117 tabs they were still barely over a GB worth of RAM.

Lots of 3rd party RAM is fine.

 

[Steve's Barber]

Secondly, should I be nervous about adding 3rd party memory?

As opposed to what... Apple's *first* party memory? Even they get it (and most everything else) from 3rd parties.

 

[Mojo1]

If you want reasonably-priced RAM from a retailer I recommend Other World Computing. Sure, you can get somewhat cheaper RAM when sales are happening at Newegg and similar online retailers. But OWC specializes in Macs so the RAM just works.

I checked out RAM at Newegg during a recent sale and while the price was attractive I was put-off by user reviews detailing problems with some MacBook Pro models. I don't have the time nor the inclination to bother with returning defective RAM.

Stick with the OWC branded RAM for the best price. I have upgraded numerous Macs owned by me and clients and I have never had a problem with OWC RAM.

 

[dionysious]

If you are running just Firefox and have a 2010 mbp (which I'm fairly sure will have 4GB RAM), something is messed up with FF most likely.

I don't know what version of FF you are using but in some tests (granted, on windows - here) even with 117 tabs they were still barely over a GB worth of RAM.

Lots of 3rd party RAM is fine.

I realllllyyyy beg to differ. The main memory hog in my 2008 uni-body macbook is google chrome. i leave way to many tabs open which occasionally gets to two gig. Also this problem with kernel_task, my computer nearly locks up because when macs run out of ram the put it into virtual ram. problem here is i have run out of hdd space, which in turn gets to, you know it, kernel panic

 

[IllIllIll]

I checked out RAM at Newegg during a recent sale and while the price was attractive I was put-off by user reviews detailing problems with some MacBook Pro models. I don't have the time nor the inclination to bother with returning defective RAM.

For every poor review on Newegg, there are probably at least 10 others who are perfectly satisfied and have had no problems. And since OWC doesn't even bother to put up user reviews, you have no proof that others haven't had problems with OWC branded RAM either.

 

[szolr]

Kingston and Crucial RAM are 2 great brands. That have always served me well when fitting up.

 

[Mersailios]

I have Crucial memory installed in my MacBook Pro (which is a Mid 2010 model) and have had absolutely no issues with it. The total cost was $69.95 after taxes and made a noticeable improvement to my workflow as I run quite a few applications at once and tend to have several tabs open in Safari at a time as well.

Open the Activity Monitor from /Applications/Utilities, and under the Memory tab take a look at the page ins/page outs entries after using your computer for a little bit. If this number is high then your computer is likely running out of memory as it is swapping memory to the virtual memory file located on your hard disk, in which case a memory upgrade will improve the performance of your computer.

 

[ViktorVaughn]

Thanks guys! I have also been doing some searching on how FF's Panorama uses memory and different plugins/add-ons meant to help.
Ultimately, I think I am going to just pull the trigger on new mem. This lag is killing my work and play flow!