Early 2011 MBP RAM issues

[lgwells1]

I bought my new Pro just a few months ago, still has the factory 4GB of RAM. I find my self constantly running low on RAM, and opening terminal and using the "purge" command to free it up. I monitor all of the time using Activity Monitor. I had Mail, Safari with two tabs open, Rapidweaver and Photoshop all running but just Photoshop on the screen. I was down to 600MB of RAM. I looked at the Activity Monitor and none of the software was hogging up a lot of ram. I used the "purge" command with those apps still running and now I have over 2GB free.


What can I to help stop me having to constantly free up RAM?

I do have two 4GB sticks on order from OWC, they said that my 13" can handle up to 16GB, is that true?

 

[alust2013]

You can use up to 16GB, it is pretty expensive though.

 

[TheJing]

From what you said, 8GB will probably be enough.

I usually have Illustrator, Flash, Photoshop, Skype, Spotify, Safari and Twitter open and I usually don't go over 6GB.

 

[SDColorado]

If you are down to 600MB doing as you describe, then adding an additional 4GB should give you 4.5GB of headroom. It sounds as though it should be plenty, without the expensive leap to 16GB.

 

[lgwells1]

Is there anything else I can do to have the extra stolen RAM cleared up, so I don't have to do it manually by Purge in Terminal?

 

[heisenberg123]

Is there anything else I can do to have the extra stolen RAM cleared up, so I don't have to do it manually by Purge in Terminal?

if by extra you mean Inactive ram, you can used FREE Memory app to clear it and list it as free Ram, but as soon as an application needs it and there isnt enough in Free Ram it will take it from inactive Ram