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Do I need to upgrade my RAM?

E

evilweasel47

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 13, 2010
12
0
Hi guys,

Long time reader of the threads, first time posting a question. I have a Late 2009 MBP with 2gb RAM and 160gb HDD. The machine has been running sluggishly lately. I used to use Safari but due to some flash problems, I switched to Chrome. Found it was no better, so using FF now, which I found was the least sluggish among the lot. I currently have a dozen tabs in FF, Mail.app, Trillian, Skype and Tweetie open, which is the least load I put on my Mac. I checked out Activity Monitor now and this is what I found:

screenshot20101013at730.png


Do I need to upgrade my RAM? I do a lot of programming, use Dreamweaver and Eclipse. I don't shut down my Mac often (current uptime is over 11 days). Please do keep in mind that I am a student, and funds are very limited. If there is a way by which I can put off my RAM upgrade until later, please do let me know. Thanks! :)
 
you only have 2gb ram? atleast get 4GB, mac runs best when it has atleast 4GB of ram. also make sure to quit apps that you arent useing instead of just closing them
 
Thanks everyone. I really appreciate it. A couple of questions more. :)

1. Most of you seem to suggest an upgrade to 8gb over 4gb. I don't think I can afford that much money right now. Should I just wait till I save up some more or just buy the 4gb kit? I don't think I will be running very memory intensive apps. I don't even use VMware.

2. Will RAM prices ever drop? I am looking to get this - http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-CT2KI...SODIMM/dp/B001KUL012/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Is the price reasonable? :confused:
 
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How about buying one 4GB module. That way you'll be able to add another one when you have more cash and you feel the need for more ram.
Another possibility is to see if anyone is selling 2x2GB modules that became useless after upgrading to 8GB.
 
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evilweasel47 said:
Thanks guys. Is installing 2x2gb modules necessarily better than just installing 1x4gb module? I found this - http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/8566DDR3S4GB/ which seems on par with the prices of 2x2gb modules. Or can I install this with one of the older RAM modules that I have to make it a total of 5 gb memory?
Click to expand...

that would work, and would give you a cheaper upgrade path later

mulo said:
and kill dual channel memory in the process, no...
Click to expand...

yes it kills dual channel, but that is usually negligible, especially if it's only internet use, not photo/video editing.
 
I restarted my mac yesterday evening. It is okay till now but I haven't fired up any heavy apps yet. Though it already has a swap of 1gb and free memory of 9mb. :(

Anyway, I have shortlisted it to 3 options.

1. Get the Mushkin 2x2gb memory from newegg. It costs $70 and is the cheapest deal I can get.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146878

2. Get the Crucial 2x2gb memory from amazon. It costs $84.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

3. Get NuRam 1x4gb module from OWC and use it either alone or along with one of the 1gb modules I have in my MBP right now. (5gb RAM, does it make sense? :confused:)

Please help. Thanks!
 
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Definitely get the single 4gb ram chip, and run a 5gb setup with your single 1gb. You'll be better set up to upgrade down the road, and 5gb running at single channel is WAAYYYY faster than 2 gb running at dual channel, and much faster even than 4gb running at dual. Dual channel is maybe a 10 percent performance improvement over same capacity at single channel - Basically more ram will trump dual channel mode.

Futhermore at this point in the game, buying 2x2gb is a huge waste of money if you ever plan on upgrading.

I made the same upgrade to my 2.26 mbp and it was an unreal difference. Then you can toss in another 4gb chip when the price goes down in the future - you'll be much better off.
 
From that pic, you aren't using more than you have. More ram never hurts though. I could be wrong but the way I understand it is this: The red and yellow is what you are using (OS, open programs, etc). The blue chunk is memory that contains data but isn't being used. That's from programs that were open and are now closed and stuff. There is no point in the OS clearing that out unless you needs the space. Unused ram is just wasted ram. This way if you decide to reopen those programs it will make it launch way faster.
 
ynk1121 said:
From that pic, you aren't using more than you have. More ram never hurts though. I could be wrong but the way I understand it is this: The red and yellow is what you are using (OS, open programs, etc). The blue chunk is memory that contains data but isn't being used. That's from programs that were open and are now closed and stuff. There is no point in the OS clearing that out unless you needs the space. Unused ram is just wasted ram. This way if you decide to reopen those programs it will make it launch way faster.
Click to expand...

As I had mentioned, that is the least amount of load I put on my MBP. When I am working, I usually have at least two of the following programs open : Dreamweaver, Xcode, Eclipse, MS Word, MS Excel. An Excel document takes at least 30 seconds to open. :(
 
evilweasel47 said:
As I had mentioned, that is the least amount of load I put on my MBP. When I am working, I usually have at least two of the following programs open : Dreamweaver, Xcode, Eclipse, MS Word, MS Excel. An Excel document takes at least 30 seconds to open. :(
Click to expand...

You might want to look into an SSD. Made a huge improvement in app launch time for me. (Boot time was also drastically improved, which means I can shut down my machine knowing that it no longer takes minutes to boot back up.)

Also, I used to notice when I was running low on RAM, because Safari would freeze for a good 10+ seconds when the RAM was swapping. But the SSD drive does the swapping so fast that I can't tell anymore.

This is the SSD I bought.
 
kepner said:
You might want to look into an SSD. Made a huge improvement in app launch time for me. (Boot time was also drastically improved, which means I can shut down my machine knowing that it no longer takes minutes to boot back up.)

Also, I used to notice when I was running low on RAM, because Safari would freeze for a good 10+ seconds when the RAM was swapping. But the SSD drive does the swapping so fast that I can't tell anymore.

This is the SSD I bought.
Click to expand...

I am impressed with the performance of a SSD but I really cannot afford that much.
 
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