How Much RAM Can I Use?

[Halfmaster1]

Hello!

I have a computer with 16GB of ram, and I am running a program that you can give as much of your RAM as you like. I used to have it set to one GB, which was fine, but I found that it worked much better if I turned it up to about 5GB.


What I was wondering was, how much ram can I safely give it while stile having a few other programs running? The more I can use the better, but I don't want the rest of my computer to stop working.


Also, if I use to much, will that be bad for my computer, or can all of get used at the same time without it overheating, or something similar?


Thanks.

 

[justperry]

Which program is that, I find this a bit odd since OS X will dynamically change the RAM for any APP.

But, if that is the case 8 GB would still be OK under normal circumstances, if you set it to too much the System will write to the page file for other Apps you later on open and will become slower.

 

[Halfmaster1]

Sorry if I was a bit unclear, it does change the RAM it is using depending on how much it needs, but it lets you set a max.


Anyways, thanks for the help.

 

[justperry]

Sorry if I was a bit unclear, it does change the RAM it is using depending on how much it needs, but it lets you set a max.


Anyways, thanks for the help.

Oh, I remember a few Apps which do this, VM for instance, you can set a maximum for each virtual Machine.
8 GB should be OK, even 10 wouldn't be too bad as long as you don't open 10's of tabs in Safari and use Apps like Adobe.

 

[AcesHigh87]

It all depends what the program is and how much you plan on doing while it's running. For example, my iMac has 20GB of RAM and I have my After Effects software (most intensive software I have) set to use up to 16GB of it at a time; leaving 4 free for everything else. This seems like too much on the surface but helps AE run smoother and, chances are, the only other thing I'll have running is safari anyway which will never use 4GB.

Assuming it's not software that's highly intensive on processing (Video rendering for example) than you shouldn't need to give it more than 8GB and that leaves plenty free for everything else.