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8gb vs 4gb RAM upgrade. is $450 worth doubling my ram?

I just got a new MBP (well, end of Feb) - 2.53ghz, 13". I got it with 4GB, got 8GB from OWC ($350 I think) and sold the 4GB on ebay for £75 (retail is around 100).

Best thing I did. I run a lot of VM's (I get paid to develop in windows, but I use a mac for everything else), so I need 8GB more than I need an SSD. I threw 8GB in my mini (mid-2009) too, for the same reason.

So, it depends on what you need it for. Big images - maybe. Depends on the software you are using, I guess, and what you are actually planning on doing. It's a nice upgrade, but as others have said, it's a fair bit of change to drop.

How handy are you with a screw driver? putting 8GB into a MBP is trivial, and OWC is still cheaper than Apple - and they'll buy the RAM back if you are in the US (and outside, but the send a cheque, which is useless for those of us outside the US)
 
I'm using my MBP for internet and some music, weekly some picture editing and creating web pages. I have 4GB of ram and it's all I need. If I were you, I'd get a SSD (I don't have it... yet :))
 
what size gb ssd would you recommend? do you know what mac uses for their ssd upgrades? it tell the gb but not who makes it
 
Alvi said:
better get 6GB, if you have 4GB it means that you have 2 x 2GB Chips, so just get 1 4GB one, when they get cheaper get the other one, since 6GB vs. 8GB isn't as bad as 4GB vs 8GB
Click to expand...

is it ok to have one 2 gb and one 4 gb module or is it better to pair up in equal pairs?
 
m85476585 said:
That article was last modified April 2006 and says "This article has been archived and is no longer updated by Apple." Newer MBPs (and most laptops as far as I know) do asymmetric dual channel, so you will get 98-99% of the speed with unmatched modules (as opposed to about half as fast in single channel mode).
Click to expand...

How's June of 2009 for you?
About integrated video on Intel-based Macs
For best graphics performance, your computer should have two same-size SO-DIMMs installed, one in each slot. When memory is installed in your Mac in same size pairs, the computer gains some performance benefits from the memory being interleaved. If you upgrade the memory in your Mac, make sure you have matching SO-DIMMs (both in memory size and speed) in each slot for the best graphics performance.
Click to expand...
The point is, that there is SOME advantage to using matched pairs, but it's not required, as I previously stated.
 
Where is that huge thread saying that above 4gb could result in worse performance? That OSX doesn't know what to do with the extra memory and subsequently degrades overall performance. Anyone use 8gb and not use photoshop?
 
GGJstudios said:
How's June of 2009 for you?
About integrated video on Intel-based Macs

The point is, that there is SOME advantage to using matched pairs, but it's not required, as I previously stated.
Click to expand...

I benchmarked my MBP with matched 4gb and unmatched 6gb, and the difference was within the variability of the benchmark. 6gb was slightly slower, maybe a few percent. My MBP only has a 8600, though, if that makes a difference.

I think this is the chipset used in mine:
http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/316273.pdf
see section 5.2.1
Apparently only up to double the smaller module runs as dual channel (4gb for me), and the remaining 2gb is single channel. Nvidia chipsets probably support the same thing (I think I looked it up once, but I couldn't find anything just now--it's harder to find information from them).

So matched modules will be faster.
 
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