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Do I need More RAM
- Thread starter LordFox
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This doesn't tell the whole story/ a whole lot of anything. That's a snapshot, not your "day to day" usage. Only the page outs/ swap can be considered ongoing paramters, and even then we have no idea how long your computer has been running as you don't indicate any of that information.
Also, what made you think you might need more ram in the first place? That might be helpful to know.
This is general student usage eg word and safari however I may need more as i am entering high school and need to use a lot of Adobe Creative Suite apps such as illustrator and soundbooth for my courses
This is when the machine has been running about 30 mins
could have just mentioned this in the first place instead of posting a pointless image with no background info at all.
just entering high school? i hightly doubt you're doing much intensive work in photoshop etc etc but if you only have 2gb of ram yes it would be nice to have more.
You should return with a shot once you have accumulated some decent amount of page ins. About 10GB.
Once you are there and page outs are at 2GB or more you probably need more RAM.
Here is an example.
uptime is 1 day 19h. Rather low usage for my taste only browsing and a couple small apps. That is usage in which I could get by with 4GB very well. If there are 8GB it just needs 1GB more than it would otherwise without any real actual need for it. Browsers are RAM hogs but they don't really need it. They run just fine if there is less RAM and will usually consume less.
Chrome is responsible for close to 2GB of all that.
Once you are there and page outs are at 2GB or more you probably need more RAM.
Here is an example.
uptime is 1 day 19h. Rather low usage for my taste only browsing and a couple small apps. That is usage in which I could get by with 4GB very well. If there are 8GB it just needs 1GB more than it would otherwise without any real actual need for it. Browsers are RAM hogs but they don't really need it. They run just fine if there is less RAM and will usually consume less.
Chrome is responsible for close to 2GB of all that.
To determine if you can benefit from more RAM, launch Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab at the bottom to check your page outs. Page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so the best way to check is to restart your computer and track page outs under your normal workload (the apps, browser pages and documents you normally would have open). If your page outs are significant (say 1GB or more) under normal use, you may benefit from more RAM. If your page outs are zero or very low during normal use, you probably won't see any performance improvement from adding RAM.
Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
Generally I'd say that if you're going to be using Photoshop and other Adobe CS programs, I'd get at least 4GB of RAM. Adobe products tend to be rather RAM hungry. I can't imagine running them with only 2GB. If you would need beyond 4GB, that's much harder to say. It depends on what you'll be doing.
Hmmm, I don't remember taking Photoshop 101, nor do I remember using Illustrator or soundbooth in 9th grade.
But yes, you will need more RAM than 2 gb to run photoshop intensively.
However, if you really want to know if you need more ram you will have to provide us with the information requested by posters above me.
Although, I've never met at 14 year old in my life that really needed more than 4 gb of ram at this point in time. So if I were you I would spend the 50 bucks and put 4 gb of ram in it and call it a day.
just throw in 4 or 8 gb of ram or whatever your machine supports and call it a day.
I agree except I would go with 8gb or 16gb. Overkill is never a bad thing with ram especially at the low price it is going for now.
by all means if it can support 8 then go for it.
but really, someone just entering high school needing 8 gb of ram? i can't imagine even the school computers having that.
How about it? How long since your last restart? Does that represent normal usage for you? Read my earlier post (#8).
It depends on the purpose. A computer for online research or word processing? That can run on a 1GB if it must. A computer for students in visual arts and digital media? That should have as much beef as you can afford.
Last time I was in high school Flash was still under Macromedia and there was still hope that it could do much more exciting things than just banner ads. I had a friend in grade 10 who created some amazing things with it. There is no reason why someone in high school would somehow be unable to take advantage of such technologies, in fact, I think it's quite the opposite.
Since when does a identifying parameter of ram usage correspond to ram requirements? Always.
Yes, good job with that advice. Now I know where 95 % of people on this forum learn about computers... From people telling them when they're young that they should max out their ram if they can afford it. Because reasons.
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Also, to all who seems confused: The OP gave very little information to start, if you read the whole thread. I simply supplied my experience as never meeting a person of that age group who was a professional photo/video editor, you know the kind of person requiring large amounts of ram.
To repeat, I never said it was impossible that he would need that much, I simply stated a fact that I have observed based upon the small amount of information that was provided, trying to be as helpful as possible.
It's called statistical inference.
2GB of ram? heh. is this 2004?
RAM is really cheap these days - I'd upgrade while they're still cheap.
RAM is really cheap these days - I'd upgrade while they're still cheap.
Yes get more RAM.
People are funny they act like putting more RAM in will hurt somehow. Ya lets run the absolute minimum that you can..
Question: Hay I just bought a $2000 laptop with 2GB of RAM do you think I should upgrade.
Answer: No 2GB is plenty. I've never used more than a 1GB checking my email...
Listen to me put as much as your can a.) afford b.) the machine can take. There is NO downside.
People are funny they act like putting more RAM in will hurt somehow. Ya lets run the absolute minimum that you can..
Question: Hay I just bought a $2000 laptop with 2GB of RAM do you think I should upgrade.
Answer: No 2GB is plenty. I've never used more than a 1GB checking my email...
Listen to me put as much as your can a.) afford b.) the machine can take. There is NO downside.
Schools are changing. And so are the classes. Going to our local high schools website shows a whole slew of classes that could require that amount of RAM. I'd lose the skepticism. It's not up to anyone here to say how much the kid needs when you don't know the situation.
I got 8GB RAM on my rMBP, and I got 0 page outs and 0 bytes in Swap file. Glad I saved the $200. I don't foresee my usage getting any more extreme then this anyway.
Unless you got a couple of gigs in swap file used, I wouldn't think that more RAM will help you any.
Unless you got a couple of gigs in swap file used, I wouldn't think that more RAM will help you any.
I really don't understand why someone would install more RAM then they're ever likely to need. Sure, it's not very expensive. But when I was just getting into high school, even $20 was a lot of money to me. What's the point of installing it if it's never going to get used?
Without knowing more information, I can pretty confidently recommend 4GB for the OP, just knowing that he'll be running Photoshop. Anything above that will strictly depend on what else he plans on doing with his machine. Installing more RAM than what is needed is just a waste of money and won't give any sort of benefits. Wasting money sure does seem like a downside to me.
Without knowing more information, I can pretty confidently recommend 4GB for the OP, just knowing that he'll be running Photoshop. Anything above that will strictly depend on what else he plans on doing with his machine. Installing more RAM than what is needed is just a waste of money and won't give any sort of benefits. Wasting money sure does seem like a downside to me.
It's not a question of whether adding RAM will hurt. It's whether or not it will help. Regardless of how inexpensive RAM may be, if you're not maxing out the RAM you have, adding more is wasting money, as it won't improve performance.