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8gb ram or 16gb ram? Advice?

M

MikeArtworks

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 1, 2015
106
6
Hello people,

I'm currently looking at a 21.5 inch iMac (late 2013) 2.9 ghz with the nvidea dedicated graphics (750m).

I'm wondering wether to spend 522 euros (580 dollars) for the 16 gb of ram.

Here is what I do:

*Lots of internet browsing & youtube (5/6 tabs open at once max)
*Photoshop & Illustrator (open together, but only 3/4 compositions open in total at once)
*Some games (the 750m is actually pretty good I saw at the store) (But I have a ps4)

I won't have photoshop & illustartor running while gaming, but I do have the internet running.

I have a 4gb rMPB too, and had no problems there. It does swap though, around 200/300mb's.

I will get a external ssd, because the internal ssd will also cost me 522 euros extra (don't ask me why, but to get these upgrades I have to order through Apple, which is more expensive than the biggest electronic stores here in Holland, but those all have 8gb's ram).

What would you do? Do you think 8gb's of ram is enough for me? As osX is pretty good in Ram management.

Thanks
 
I just bought an iMac 5k and had the same dilema. But since the ram on the iMac is swappable I decided, if I ever need the 16gb Id just buy it from Amazon at a fraction of the cost.
 
Your Adobe products LOVE RAM. Will they run on 8 gigs sure...will Adobe work better with 16, yes.
 
My iMac only has 8GB and i never experienced any problems with that. I do video conversion and gaming.

Internet and similar doesn't count. ;)

Isn't the 5K memory not self upgradeable anymore?
 
MikeArtworks said:
I'm wondering wether to spend 522 euros (580 dollars) for the 16 gb of ram.


What would you do? Do you think 8gb's of ram is enough for me? As osX is pretty good in Ram management.
Click to expand...


$580 is too much to spend just to upgrade the ram. 8GB will work. I personally wouldn't spend over a $1500 on a desktop to have it limited to 8GB and would try to purchase a used 27" iMac but thats me.
 
Mikegp said:
I just bought an iMac 5k and had the same dilema. But since the ram on the iMac is swappable I decided, if I ever need the 16gb Id just buy it from Amazon at a fraction of the cost.
Click to expand...

Be sure that memory is not causing problems. I purchased the same thing and it caused my (and may other people's) sleep/wake to fail. Removed and the problem went away. Bought OWC chips instead and am having no issues with them.
 
It maybe over kill but I went 16GB and 500GB SSD i7 and Nvidia graphics on my iMac. I will never have to take it apart and upgrade it. I should be able to get 5+ years out of it no problem. Its supper fast and it will handle everything I throw at it. I like to run Parallels so I can dedicate 4-8GB of RAM if I want too. The only dilemma I faced was I could have gotten a retina 27" for the money but didn't want such a big screen in my living room.
 
ZipZap said:
Be sure that memory is not causing problems. I purchased the same thing and it caused my (and may other people's) sleep/wake to fail. Removed and the problem went away. Bought OWC chips instead and am having no issues with them.
Click to expand...

blake2 said:
I think 8gb would work for your case.

I usually like future proofing, but 500+ euros seem a bit too steep for that.
Click to expand...

zone23 said:
It maybe over kill but I went 16GB and 500GB SSD i7 and Nvidia graphics on my iMac. I will never have to take it apart and upgrade it. I should be able to get 5+ years out of it no problem. Its supper fast and it will handle everything I throw at it. I like to run Parallels so I can dedicate 4-8GB of RAM if I want too. The only dilemma I faced was I could have gotten a retina 27" for the money but didn't want such a big screen in my living room.
Click to expand...



There's a company in my city that repairs & upgrades iMacs.

They offer a 16gb upgrade for the 21.5 inch for 300 euros, not that bad if I ever need that amount in 2-3 years (probably 8 will be fine). Is it correct that they are able to do that?
 
MikeArtworks said:
There's a company in my city that repairs & upgrades iMacs.

They offer a 16gb upgrade for the 21.5 inch for 300 euros, not that bad if I ever need that amount in 2-3 years (probably 8 will be fine). Is it correct that they are able to do that?
Click to expand...


According to
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...-imac-aluminum-late-2013-mid-2014-models.html

Looks like it's possible for the 2013 quad-core iMacs. OWC carries the ram for around 150 US dollars, but considering the trouble required to do the install I think $300 is fair.

http://blog.macsales.com/17141-owc-...-2013-21-5-apple-imac-core-i3-education-model
 
blake2 said:
According to
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...-imac-aluminum-late-2013-mid-2014-models.html

Looks like it's possible for the 2013 quad-core iMacs. OWC carries the ram for around 150 US dollars, but considering the trouble required to do the install I think $300 is fair.

http://blog.macsales.com/17141-owc-...-2013-21-5-apple-imac-core-i3-education-model
Click to expand...

I'm on the verge of buying one. Only problem is the video card. It has a gt 750m, and I currently have a gtx 550ti. Do you think I would go backwards with this video card?
 
There are two things to ask yourself.

First, your current system has 4 GB of RAM. Your graphical work is probably the most memory-demanding activity that you do. Open Activity Monitor when you have the Adobe programs open and are working on something, switch to the Memory tab, and look at the Memory Pressure. Is the graph green, yellow, or red? If it's green or yellow and you don't have a huge swap file, 8 GB will be a nice upgrade and should serve you fine. If it's in the red, 16 GB might be warranted.

The second consideration is looking to the future. Do you foresee your computer usage changing? Perhaps more importantly, how often do you upgrade your computer? If you're a short-term upgrader, swapping systems every 2-3 years, then going with 8 GB - assuming you've determined it to be enough for your needs - is probably the way to go. On the other hand, if you're the type of person who holds on to systems for a longer time (5-6+ years), the additional RAM may be worthwhile. It could make a difference in allowing you to continue to comfortably use the system for a while longer.
 
Ledgem said:
There are two things to ask yourself.

First, your current system has 4 GB of RAM. Your graphical work is probably the most memory-demanding activity that you do. Open Activity Monitor when you have the Adobe programs open and are working on something, switch to the Memory tab, and look at the Memory Pressure. Is the graph green, yellow, or red? If it's green or yellow and you don't have a huge swap file, 8 GB will be a nice upgrade and should serve you fine. If it's in the red, 16 GB might be warranted.

The second consideration is looking to the future. Do you foresee your computer usage changing? Perhaps more importantly, how often do you upgrade your computer? If you're a short-term upgrader, swapping systems every 2-3 years, then going with 8 GB - assuming you've determined it to be enough for your needs - is probably the way to go. On the other hand, if you're the type of person who holds on to systems for a longer time (5-6+ years), the additional RAM may be worthwhile. It could make a difference in allowing you to continue to comfortably use the system for a while longer.
Click to expand...

I've decided that 8gb of ram should be enough for me. Only thing that's holding me back is the video card. I now have a GTX 550TI in my pc, and the iMac I will get/afford has a gt 750m. I think that's a downgrade.

And like I said,

I can get a pc with i7, 16 gb ram, ssd + hdd, GTX 980 4gb ddr5 for not much more, so I'm really having a hard time deciding what to do..

(the 4gb of ram is on my macbook, always green)
 
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