8 or 16gb ram upgrade for late 2011 mbp 13"

[MyRomeo]

Hey all,

So I finally took the leap and got myself a late 2011 MBP 13", 2.4ghz with 4gb RAM. Base model, its great, so much better than my 2004 HP laptop (obviously!).

Now, I have a simple question. I bought the base 4gb version as the 2.4ghz i5 and 500gb HDD are more than enough for me however I have already ran into page outs and zero free RAM!

I do a lot of photo work using iPhoto, lightroom and PhotoShop all working with 25mb RAW files. This includes editing, applying filters and batch import/exports both from my camera and to JPEG format.

I can get an 8gb ram kit for around £30 or a 16gb kit (2x8) for around £75. (neither are bank breakers but if 16gb is a waste then i'll save the cash!).

I am planning on upgrading the RAM but is it worth spending the extra for the 16gb kit or will 8gb be more than I could ever use?

Many thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[prisstratton]

I would go for the extra RAM. My 2011 MBP came with 8 GB and I found that I was getting page outs when working on large images. I topped it up to 16 GB and no page-outs since then.

 

[Gorge]

I would go for the extra RAM. My 2011 MBP came with 8 GB and I found that I was getting page outs when working on large images. I topped it up to 16 GB and no page-outs since then.

I went from 4 GB to 8 GB. Realized it wasn't enough to run Parallels, Outlook, Photoshop, and Bridge. Switched to 16 GB and I will never look back.

You might as well spend the extra cash, get more RAM, and never think twice about it. It's not like the price difference will break the bank.

 

[MyRomeo]

Thanks for the replies, both confirming what I suspected.

I'll see about a 16gb kit in a few weeks when I get paid again!

Does the jump from 4gb to 16gb on the 2.4 MBP make a noticeable difference in general running?

Never used a machine with so much memory!

 

[prisstratton]

Does the jump from 4gb to 16gb on the 2.4 MBP make a noticeable difference in general running?

You will not notice a difference in "general running", by which, I assume you mean such things as:Safari and Mail. If you like to run many applications at the same time, then certainly things will be a lot smoother.

 

[NeuralControl]

Could someone please explain why "Page Outs" is a better indicator of the necessity for additional RAM as compared to monitoring the amount of "Free" RAM?

I have an early 2011 MBP with 4GB RAM and have been contemplating upgrading to either 8 or 16GB, depending on the difference in price in the coming months.

 

[MyRomeo]

My understanding is page outs are basically things that have to be wrote to the hard drive instead of ram because ram has ran out. As the hard drive is crazy slow compared to ram this has the knock on effect of really slowing things down.