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Everyday users - 8GB RAM overkill??
- Thread starter mattchiro
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nice move going with the SSD. The SSD upgrade will be much more noticeable than the upgrade to 4gb to 8 gb ram. Just use the machine as is and see if you really need it. I dont think you will. Just wait another year and upgrade to 16gb ram.
I got the same laptop btw, i decided to go with the ssd over more ram.
I got the same laptop btw, i decided to go with the ssd over more ram.
If you're doing video or photo renders, you'll certainly notice the RAM. An SSD makes the OS a lot spiffier, but multitasking and speed within programs is handled by RAM. See what happens as you're using your machine and you can always decide to upgrade your RAM later on. If you do, definitely buy it 3rd party - OWC & Crucial are definitely my preferred brands.
I did some graphic design work over the weekend on my 2011MBP with CS4. I had Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator open working with several big 300dpi images and with my 4GB of memory, the system never hit the pagefile.
So 4GB is probably ok for that sort of stuff right now.
I'm personally holding off until 8GB comes down a smidge in price (although it's not super expensive or anything anyway). But until then I haven't needed more than 4GB of ram for what I'm doing
So 4GB is probably ok for that sort of stuff right now.
I'm personally holding off until 8GB comes down a smidge in price (although it's not super expensive or anything anyway). But until then I haven't needed more than 4GB of ram for what I'm doing
Seriously? How much lower does it need to get? I bought my RAM for my MBP for $75 for 8GB?
I have found the extra ram is great for virtual machines. Otherwise it's hard to use up even 4. I have 8 and I can give XP 2 gigs in parallels, which leaves plenty for for OSX.
I see the extra ram being used a lot when I am working with video, iMovie will eat up ram as much as Hand Brake eats CPU. The advantage of extra ram is not really in everyday use, but when I am working on a movie project I can still work on email, surf or whatever with very little if any performance hit or beach balls where before I pretty much had to leave iMovie to do its thing until done.
Agreed. I'm majoring in GFX Design and running Photoshop and FF cranks all the way up to 3.2GB used, so I just ordered 8GB G.Skill.
Running InD, Illus., and Ps causes one of the 3 to crash and theres as little as 800kb free.
I got mine from buy.com, they had it for $89 and a $20 rebate from Kingston. The rebate has since expired however (March 22nd IIRC).
Yep. Just make sure you look at the ratio of page outs to page ins rather than just the amount of free memory (as that can be misleading). If you're getting alot more page outs then you could use more ram.
I'm generalising now, but the average user of today can get by fine with just 4GB of ram. Especially if they have an SSD! However one of the reasons to get more ram is to future proof yourself but if thats the case then you might as well just wait for RAM prices to drop and buy as needed.
Long story short, I'd take it as it comes. If it looks like you need more RAM then buy it but theres no rush.
Adam
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I'm debating it myself, but since I've been getting on fine with 2GB in my 5 year old MacBook Pro and the same (through laziness of not upgrading) in my 3 year old iMac I'm happy for now. I do use QuarkXpress and Photoshop at home when I need to do a bit of extra work but it's been adequate on the iMac anyway.
I'd stick with 4GB unless, as above, you can upgrade another machine with your discarded RAM.
I'm debating it myself, but since I've been getting on fine with 2GB in my 5 year old MacBook Pro and the same (through laziness of not upgrading) in my 3 year old iMac I'm happy for now. I do use QuarkXpress and Photoshop at home when I need to do a bit of extra work but it's been adequate on the iMac anyway.
I'd stick with 4GB unless, as above, you can upgrade another machine with your discarded RAM.
I'm pretty set on 8Gb for photoshop, but that's mostly because I'm dealing with rather, uh, large files. When your base image is a 4x5 scan, at ~70MP 16bit color, and you duplicate it several times to create adjustment masks and old-school film-based HDR, you get 3-4gig files pretty quick. 4Gb of memory, and they crawl. 8Gb, and a fast SSD, and they feel like 8MP camera raw files. (I LOVE my new MPB, btw...)
Yeah. That's the kinda thing you need the RAM for.
Standard web design/photoshop type stuff? Not so much.
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If it's a good price get it. Photoshop will thank you for it for years to come.
If it's a good price get it. Photoshop will thank you for it for years to come.
Exactly my experience. If I didn't need Windows XP and 7 in Parallels, I wouldn't bother with 8 Gb RAm. Even then, as long as I only run one of them, 4 Gb is adequate, just not ideal.