Does 8GB of RAM Make a Difference?

[Mac03ForLife]

Hi. I have a MBP from 2011 (4GB of RAM, Intel i5 2.4GHz, Intel IGP 5000 graphics)
Im having a serious slowdown problem recently, and was wondering if the RAM was the issue? Could this be it, or do I need to be looking into another source of the problem (Maybe need to clean the inside, etc.)?

Will 8GB of RAM make a significant difference?
Things like Word and the Office Suite take 2+ minutes to launch, logins are painstakingly slow, and startup is painstakingly slow. However, once it's been on for awhile (45mins-1h) it works fine. No slowdown, apps launch within 30secs of clicking, etc.)

Help!

 

[Fishrrman]

RAM will help a little, but will REALLY "make a difference" is to put an SSD into the MacBook Pro.

I'd put either a 250gb or 500gb SSD into it, and swap the uppermost RAM DIMM out with a SINGLE 8gb RAM DIMM.

That will give you a MUCH speedier drive -and- 10gb of installed RAM.

You will LIKE what this does for the MacBook.

 

[AeroZ]

I’d say go with SSD and 2x4GB or 2x8GB of RAM. SSD gives a great performance boost and 4GB truly is not enough in 2017.

 

[Mac03ForLife]

I’d say go with SSD and 2x4GB or 2x8GB of RAM. SSD gives a great performance boost and 4GB truly is not enough in 2017.

What SSD should i be using? Crucial? How much storage is enough? i do Fusion 360, Eclipse Java, MS Office 2016, MINDSTORMS programming, etc. What type of RAM?

(Im better with powermacs than macbooks so excuse my lack of knowledge)

 

[AeroZ]

What SSD should i be using? Crucial? How much storage is enough? i do Fusion 360, Eclipse Java, MS Office 2016, MINDSTORMS programming, etc. What type of RAM?

(Im better with powermacs than macbooks so excuse my lack of knowledge)

I’ve been using Samsung SSD’s myself. I got 850 EVO 500GB at the moment. You got to figure it out yourself how much storage you need. Look at how much storage you currently have and then think if you actually need that much, or it that’s the right amount that you need or if you struggle with storage then get a SSD with more storage than you currently have.
I don’t know what type of RAM 2011 MBP uses - DDR3 1333MHz or DDR3 1600MHz.

 

[Tech198]

RAM will help a little, but will REALLY "make a difference" is to put an SSD into the MacBook Pro.

I'd put either a 250gb or 500gb SSD into it, and swap the uppermost RAM DIMM out with a SINGLE 8gb RAM DIMM.

That will give you a MUCH speedier drive -and- 10gb of installed RAM.

You will LIKE what this does for the MacBook.

If i had the choice of SSD or memory, I would choose SSD,,, but I would then upgrade memory still to 8Gig, since apps like photo/vider editing need this.