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8gb ram

T

th3goob

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 4, 2011
109
0
If i would buy the 8gb ram upgrade for my MBP 2011 13 in baseline model would i see a signification rise in performance?
 
I have 8gb, but i got it when i bought my mac, and don't have any way to compare performance.

however, i have noticed that during heavy processing i chew into the extra ram, get lots of page outs (about 10% or so), and an occasional beachball. this is fine with me, because i am coiming from a netbook that wouldn't even let me type emails when it was under a heavy load. 4gb is probably enough for me most of the time, but it is nice to have the extra ram when it is needed.

anyhow, i think it probably depends a lot on what kind of tasks you are performing. the good news is that ram is a super inexpensive upgrade, so you get a lot of bang for your buck.
 
well i game(wow and starcraft 2 and some steam games) and just browse the web and listen to music. no video/picture editing.
 
th3goob said:
well i game(wow and starcraft 2 and some steam games) and just browse the web and listen to music. no video/picture editing.
Click to expand...

why do you want ram? if you could give us a symptom, then people might be able to diagnose the problem, and it could turn out to be a different upgrade (or settings) would solve it.
 
no i was just wondering if i would see a significant performance increase haha, nothing is wrong my mac is almost perfect.
 
If you are on snow leopard you won't probably notice any difference.
If you are on lion, you could, since safari is more memory hungry.

There an easy way to know btw:
after a day of work (without rebooting your mac) open activity monitor, go to system memory and check pageouts. If you have an high value (several MBs or GBs) you could probably see the benefits of more ram
 
i am on lion, and i dont use safari, i use google chrome, ok thanks for the info about activity monitor
 
if you have a normal hard drive, then you should really consider getting an SSD first as that'll really boost the performance....
 
th3goob said:
imo, ssd drives are overpriced and not really worth it lol
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i agree with you. but, this is an endless debate. pay a few dollars to get ram or hundreds to get ssd. obviously, ssd is faster than the hdd, and obviously we will see a huge performance difference, but at what a cost, especially if you are doing work that involves lots of ram but not much activity on the hard disk to begin with.

You get what you pay for. The question is whether you want to pay or not.
 
eC1990ho said:
Well, once you go ssd you never go back :)
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it's like a cult!
i want ssd, but i don't really need it. my computer is already performing spectacularly and i am 100% satisfied with it. this is very frustrating, because i was hoping to be tempted into buying an mba. no such luck...
 
Rams cheap just go for it. I just put 8GBs in my 2010 13" MBP. It was only $46 and I seem to notice a difference in every day basic stuff going from 4GB to 8GB.
 
scupking said:
Rams cheap just go for it. I just put 8GBs in my 2010 13" MBP. It was only $46 and I seem to notice a difference in every day basic stuff going from 4GB to 8GB.
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adding unnecessary ram isn't a smart thing to do, it's better to spend that money elsewhere e.g. lion (but you already have it) or save up for a ssd
 
My Problem with ssd's i would only be able to get a 128gb(im a college student) and i would need a bigger hdd just to store my stuff, within a week of having my MBP i used up 250gigs and i saw the ram was cheap and thought hey maybe it will speed it up a tad bit
 
I have had 8GB since early 2010, and I can tell you that once you go 8GB, you won't go less. Its super cheap now btw. Lowest Ram has ever been. I mean, why not?
 
th3goob said:
My Problem with ssd's i would only be able to get a 128gb(im a college student) and i would need a bigger hdd just to store my stuff, within a week of having my MBP i used up 250gigs and i saw the ram was cheap and thought hey maybe it will speed it up a tad bit
Click to expand...

did you look at the hybrid drive I linked?
 
I recently upgraded to 8GB of RAM, not because I need it, but because I like having as many upgrades as I can for negligible money. For a bit under fifty bucks, I am able to not worry about closing any applications.

I also noticed a small gain in gaming performance, specifically Torchlight. This is probably due to the Intel HD 3000 being able to use 512mb.

Next up, SSD. Just waiting for a good deal to hit.
 
cinek said:
adding unnecessary ram isn't a smart thing to do, it's better to spend that money elsewhere e.g. lion (but you already have it) or save up for a ssd
Click to expand...

< sarcasm>640kB is plenty of RAM - no one should ever need more.</sarcasm>

Seriously though "not a smart thing to do"? That totally depends on what you do with your box.

Lion will NOT make a VM run any better for $30.

For $50 you can DOUBLE the amount of system memory available to split between host and VM, that's huge.

$50 won't even pay the tax on a decent speed/sized SSD right now

So for me if I had $50 I would buy RAM, in fact I just did 2 days ago and am waiting on amazon to ship it.
 
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