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More than 1 gig of RAM
- Thread starter kasei
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I recently saw a posting regarding some one using 2 gigs of RAM in their PowerBook. They said with 2 Gigs we would see a performance increase. I am curious to know how much of an improvement would we see? Which programs would benefit from the extra RAM?
Has anyone else seen the same results?
Has anyone else seen the same results?
if you have the money to drop on another 1gb of ram it isn't going to hurt. there will some improvement in some applications if you consistantly work with multiple large files, or run multiple applications at once. But you need to think are the few extra seconds waiting for a blur or filter to be applied in Photoshop (for example) worth the amount of money on the extra ram.
I know that people were saying with the PM G5's there was a "sweet spot" for the ram around like 4gb or so i think it was (not sure) so i guess that there may be one for the powerbooks, so you could always try it.
an a similar note but somewhat different does anyone have experience running 1gb sticks in the original 12" powerbook? i read somewhere that it caused problems with the airport and stuff, but would like to know if anyone has first hand experience with it.
I know that people were saying with the PM G5's there was a "sweet spot" for the ram around like 4gb or so i think it was (not sure) so i guess that there may be one for the powerbooks, so you could always try it.
an a similar note but somewhat different does anyone have experience running 1gb sticks in the original 12" powerbook? i read somewhere that it caused problems with the airport and stuff, but would like to know if anyone has first hand experience with it.
BornAgainMac
macrumors 604
wrldwzrd89
macrumors G5
I don't think my iMac G4 (1.25 GHz, 17") will even take the 1GB sticks. It maxes out at 1GB (I have 512MB in there right now - that was upgraded at the Apple Store online from the 256MB it would have otherwise come with).kasei said:
While it's not exactly what you asked....
I went from 768MB to 1GB on my PB667, and noticed exactly ZERO difference. Except, of course, for the lighter wallet.
I guess if you run some serious graphics stuff it might be worth it - but then you probably wouldn't be using a PB for that, either.
I went from 768MB to 1GB on my PB667, and noticed exactly ZERO difference. Except, of course, for the lighter wallet.
I guess if you run some serious graphics stuff it might be worth it - but then you probably wouldn't be using a PB for that, either.
edesignuk
Moderator emeritus
I think for most people 1GB is the sweet spot. It's more than enough for the majority of people, and the cost is just right. With PowerBooks, and iMacs only having 2 banks (and iBooks 1 bank?) 2x512 is just right, 1GB DIMMS are just too expensive IMO.
So for cost & performance, 2x512MB is the sweet spot.
So for cost & performance, 2x512MB is the sweet spot.
Timelessblur
macrumors 65816
figure i can help explain some stuff here. from 256 to 512 there is a noticble improvment in profomences. From 512 to 1 gig there is another boost but it not as easy to see.
from 1 gig to 2 gigs for 90% of the stuff you will not be able to tell the diffences. It has been shown that a lot of the time going over the 1 gig marker actully starts to slow down the computer (not like you will be able to tell) So unless you are running software the is really eating up your ram it just not worth the money to go any higer than a gig
from 1 gig to 2 gigs for 90% of the stuff you will not be able to tell the diffences. It has been shown that a lot of the time going over the 1 gig marker actully starts to slow down the computer (not like you will be able to tell) So unless you are running software the is really eating up your ram it just not worth the money to go any higer than a gig
Palad1
macrumors 6502a
2 gigs, good.
Go for it you won't regret it. Remember : There is no such thing as too much RAM
And if you never swap you may even create a ramdisk and mount /tmp on it.
I'm typing this on a P4 with 2 gigs and 0 bytes of swap used 🙂
(whish I could type it on a G4 and 0 bytes of swa used but I'm at work).
Go for it you won't regret it. Remember : There is no such thing as too much RAM
And if you never swap you may even create a ramdisk and mount /tmp on it.
I'm typing this on a P4 with 2 gigs and 0 bytes of swap used 🙂
(whish I could type it on a G4 and 0 bytes of swa used but I'm at work).
Palad1 said:
I was wondering about swap files and how they affect your RAM. I currently have 2 swap files running, sucking up 128 MB of RAM. I have 2 512 sticks of RAM in my system now. The only drawback of buying a 1 gig stick is I would have get rid of one of the 512 sticks which would give me 1.5 gigs and some change. I bought Crucial RAM the first time and I am sure I paid out the nose for it. This was before the discussion about the Browser based pricing came up. I do run a lot of programs at the same time and I have not seen any drastic slow down in my system.
You right you can never have to much RAM.
wrldwzrd89
macrumors G5
I'm quite satisfied with the 512MB I have now - only network-related stuff lags behind. I really don't do anything especially demanding, which would benefit from more RAM - so I'm not upgrading to 1GB anytime soon. I did leave that option open by leaving the user-accessible RAM slot empty so I could stick a 512MB module in there later.edesignuk said:
tomf87
macrumors 65816
I have a PowerBook with 2GB of RAM and I can say that is no faster than a system with 1GB. What I do notice is that the system will remain just as responsive when I am doing a multitude of tasks at once.
That said, yes, on your P4, you can have too much RAM. It's because the P4 cannot address greater than 4GB of RAM. And when you want more, you have to enable PAE on Windows. Then, if you run SQL Server, you have to enable AWE on it for it to recognize the extra RAM. Then, when you enable AWE in SQL, it causes SQL Server to lose its execution cache. So, yes, going for the maximum amount of RAM is not always what you want.. 🙂 One can only hope Intel's 64-bit extensions help out.
That said, yes, on your P4, you can have too much RAM. It's because the P4 cannot address greater than 4GB of RAM. And when you want more, you have to enable PAE on Windows. Then, if you run SQL Server, you have to enable AWE on it for it to recognize the extra RAM. Then, when you enable AWE in SQL, it causes SQL Server to lose its execution cache. So, yes, going for the maximum amount of RAM is not always what you want.. 🙂 One can only hope Intel's 64-bit extensions help out.
Palad1
macrumors 6502a
tomf87 said:
Who said I was running Windows? 😀
You're right though, don't be stupid and buy 4 Terabytes of RAM for your iBook if all you do is use iChat and safari.
But I've come to notice that when a user complains that his machine is too slow for a task it's often because the said task is memory intensive, such as opening a 100megs photoshop file, or adding more than 5 tracks to GarageBand... Such operations are greatly relieved by gobs of RAM.
Being a developper of my own, I can't stress out how much RAM I need. Java anyone ? 😛
And when I need to run VirtualPC, well... thank GOD I'm not swapping.
Throw in resident apps introduced by Fast User Switching (my girlfriend always leaves FireFox, Word, Thunderbird, Excel and iTunes on while FUSing out 🙂 )
And don't get me started on games 🙂
Bottom line is -for me- if your machine is a tool for your job, don't let swap get in the way of your work. A pleasant computing experience does make you more productive.