Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Do i need 4 gb of ram? never heard anyone ask this

benlangdon

benlangdon

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 13, 2008
1,497
0
i have read numerous threads around here about upgrading to 4 gigs of ram.

but i have never heard, do i actually need it?

i run iphoto, keynote, pages, Core image fun house, and other little things ( Safari, mail, i chat, itunes (40 gigs worth) and ical) all at the same time when i am doing projects

see my ram goes to about 3/4 used, do i really need 4 gigs? (the computer does get a little bit slower)
this kinda goes with it but, can you actually use all of your ram or is there a limit as to what you can use, and the computer os is using the rest ?
 
4GB will make things faster, and it will be kinda necessary in the long run, so if you feel your Mac is too slow and the price is right, upgrade.
 
For the tasks you mentioned 2GB is plenty. RAM prices will continue to fall so when you really need it it'll be even cheaper than it is today. But the final word really has to come from you. Are you willing to spend more money so your computer will be faster when you're running a full program load?
 
now, if i am not using all the two gigs and i get 4 will it improve other aspects?

is it overall it will run faster or will it run better under load?
 
I disagree. iPhoto slows down tremendously when the amount of RAM available is less than the size of the thumbnails you have in the Library. Its a matter of time until you catalog enough photos to drag it down

If you are heavily multitasking, you will get benefits from 4 GB RAM - especially in the speed of switching between applications. If you are running only one application, you wouldn't see any much if any difference between 2 GB and 4 GB.

If you buy 2 x 1 GB now with the intention of upgrading to 2 x 2 GB later, you will have to pull lout and get rid of the 2 x 1, so much of the money will be wasted.
 
It's never been officially asked, but I been saying it, you don't need 2GB of RAM.
 
RAM is cheap now, go for it. I went from 2 gigs on my MacBook to 4 gigs on my MacBook Pro. Big difference if your running PS, Logic Pro, etc. For just everyday stuff like Firefox, iTunes, iChat, still a difference, but you won't really notice it.
 
CanadaRAM said:
If you buy 2 x 1 GB now with the intention of upgrading to 2 x 2 GB later, you will have to pull lout and get rid of the 2 x 1, so much of the money will be wasted.
Click to expand...

ya mbp already is 2 x 1

well i think i started this on my ibook because it was slow but forgot the real reason.
i keep 6 different iphoto libraries.
two of them are at least 3000+ photos
but i keep these on my external so that might be the bottle neck
hey on another note.
is there a way to have events under other events? like on normal folders keep 5 folders under a folder
i use events and not albums

o well pretty much not going to get it unless someone throws me a hundred bucks for nothing:rolleyes:

thanks.
 
benlangdon said:
o well pretty much not going to get it unless someone throws me a hundred bucks for nothing:rolleyes:

thanks.
Click to expand...

You won't miss it. If anything I keep telling myself I don't need the RAM and I should return it, but I already missed the RMA period so too late.
 
You'll likely be fine with 2gb.

The thing to remember about OS X and its memory usage readout is, OS X doesn't free memory unless it needs it. So, if you open a bunch of programs and close them again and keep your computer on for a long time, your "Free Memory" will be reported low, the the actual "free memory" will be your "free memory" and your "inactive memory" combined, since the inactive memory can be freed up whenever to make room for more.

Windows I believe frees up memory rather quickly after a program is closed. So your free memory will always be your free memory.

The reason OS X leaves it around is because if you decide to reopen on of those apps again, its memory pool will still exist.

EDIT: Also, more RAM will NOT make your computer run faster unless it is swapping memory to the hard drive, which should only happen if you really run low on memory. Also, iTunes doesn't load all of your music into memory. Only the song playing is loaded into memory. You can monitor how much RAM each program is using as well and this should help in your decision.
 
I have been telling all my friends about www.dealram.com. 3 of them have bought 2x2Gb from OWC and a lifetime warranty for like $96 shipped for their Macbook Pro.

I think it is a great deal.
 
4 GB is kind of overkill for anyone who is not doing serious media work.

If you want it, can afford it and feel a general need to have it...then by all means get it as it's pretty cheap but I don't think you're going to see a dramatic improvement.
 
kuebby said:
RAM prices will continue to fall so when you really need it it'll be even cheaper than it is today.
Click to expand...

That's not necessarily true. The per GB price will continue to go down, but that's not true for specific types of memory chips. Once RAM moves to the next generation/iteration, older versions get more expensive since the chip cos. slow down or stop their production. While it may get cheaper for some period of time, don't wait too long.
 
The only reason the ram is soo cheap now is the fact that there was over production. The prices that you see now are not sustainable in the long run as they are under or close to cost.
Ask yourself this you can get 4gb now for ~$80-90 how much cheaper do you think it will go 60-70 so you would save $20 but on the other hand if the prices go up you will have to pay more.
The reason I would buy 4gb is that OS X uses all your ram by caching data. What this meens is that even if you use one program at a time and close the others they remain in the cache and next time start faster. Also I like to leave programs open in a space and just switch to them when I need to. No need to keep closing and opening them.

But it all depends on your budget if 80-90 is too much for you than 2gb should be fine.
 
There's a saying: "You don't need what you don't have." I personally upgraded because I wanted it now rather then later. If 2gb works fine for you, then save yourself some $$$. If you happen upon $100 or so down the line and feel the need to upgrade, by all means, upgrade to 4gb.
For the tasks you listed, 2gb should be fine.
 
I bought and installed mine "now" just in case I need it later. Better to have than not.

Got 2 x 2g at the egg = $90 w/ a $15 rebate ($75 tot) for Mushkin ram. Couldnt pass it up. Do I need it now? Prol not. Will I? Never know. I can always pull out the 4g's and replace the original 2 x 1g if I intend to sell, and use the 4 in my new machine (assuming things don't change).
 
2 is probably fine (I only have 2 in my G5), but I went ahead and ordered 4 from crucial for my new MBP anyway. I guess my view on memory is "more never hurts" and its so cheap now, I figure I may as well max my machine out, then you don't have to worry about upgrading later.
 
IMO, even if you don't "need" 4G, it still improves performance. With 2G RAM, my RAM allocation shows 200 to 250 Meg as "wired" and with 4G, wired increases to over 400M. The OS spreads itself out a little more. How much this means . . . don't know!

Mark
 
4Gb made mine a bit faster doing certain tasks. it awakes from sleep much faster and after the initial start of a program, programs open much faster. max it out...you can get 4Gb for a mbp for just over $100....why would you not?
 
There's a couple of ways to check if you need more ram or not:

1. There's a program called "Do I need more memory?" It hasn't been updated in a while but seems to still work fine (at least on Tiger).

2. But basically all the program does is monitor how often your computer has to swap memory out from the RAM and write it to the HD so that it can load something else. You can monitor this yourself with Activity Monitor. Under the memory tab there's a page in/outs statistic. Now this is all page outs since your computer was last restarted, so it's best to restart just to give yourself a baseline (i.e. 10,000 page outs over a month or a day are very different). You can google "too many page outs" but generally if it's around 10% of page-ins you're ok.

Mine typically runs at 80% of page ins and 100k per day, which is why I have 4gb on the way. :)
 
Not sure if this has been covered or not but...

If you use either Parallels or Fusion 4GB RAM is a must.
 
hey thanks guys
i really appreciate all the advice
when i get parallels i will prob get 4 gb

ill be monitoring my page outs
i never knew what all that meant
 
I agree with the posters above. My feeling is the specific type of RAM that the current MB takes will never be this cheap again. Expect prices to nearly double by the summer as the oversupply caused by the low takeup of Visa gets rectified.

By the time of the next oversupply, probably next spring, the new cheapest most commonly produced RAM will be DDR2-800 or DDR3 or something that doesn't work with your macbook. The Montevina platform comes out this summer, which means a change of RAM specs.
 
RedTomato said:
I agree with the posters above. My feeling is the specific type of RAM that the current MB takes will never be this cheap again. Expect prices to nearly double by the summer as the oversupply caused by the low takeup of Visa gets rectified.

By the time of the next oversupply, probably next spring, the new cheapest most commonly produced RAM will be DDR2-800 or DDR3 or something that doesn't work with your macbook. The Montevina platform comes out this summer, which means a change of RAM specs.
Click to expand...

nice to know. 800 would be nice for the mbp though

so...
buy soon

o ya side note. 1 more post to have 500:D:D:D:D:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back