How to know if I need more RAM?

[MacMan988]

Hi, How do I find out if my computer can benefit from more RAM?

I read somewhere that this can be determined by looking at the Activity Monitor's MEMORY PRESSURE graph. I kept activity monitor opened during my work and my computer became very slow after opening few programs. But the memory pressure graph still stayed green. Any ideas?

 

[fenderbass146]

Hi, How do I find out if my computer can benefit from more RAM?

I read somewhere that this can be determined by looking at the Activity Monitor's MEMORY PRESSURE graph. I kept activity monitor opened during my work and my computer became very slow after opening few programs. But the memory pressure graph still stayed green. Any ideas?

How much do you have? If you are using a lot of swap memory you could use more. If you have 4 gb that's enough for Facebook iTunes etc

 

[shoehornhands]

Your computer could be slowing down for any number of reasons. What computer are you using and how much ram do you currently have installed? Also, what do you use the computer for (what are you doing when you notice the computer slowing down)?

Depending on what system you're referring to, you may not even have the option to upgrade your memory (the newer Apple laptops have the memory soldered onto the logic board).

 

[Meister]

Look here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1756865/

Your mac slowing down has nothing to do with ram.

 

[capathy21]

If you are in the green, then memory is not the problem. What are the other specs of your MB? Are you using an ssd or spinning hard drive?

 

[GGJstudios]

Hi, How do I find out if my computer can benefit from more RAM?

I read somewhere that this can be determined by looking at the Activity Monitor's MEMORY PRESSURE graph. I kept activity monitor opened during my work and my computer became very slow after opening few programs. But the memory pressure graph still stayed green. Any ideas?

If your memory pressure shows green, you're not maxing out the RAM that you have, so adding more will not improve performance.

If you're having performance issues, this may help:

Performance Tips For Mac OS X​

 

[MacMan988]

If you are in the green, then memory is not the problem. What are the other specs of your MB? Are you using an ssd or spinning hard drive?

I'm using a hard drive

Your computer could be slowing down for any number of reasons. What computer are you using and how much ram do you currently have installed? Also, what do you use the computer for (what are you doing when you notice the computer slowing down)?

Depending on what system you're referring to, you may not even have the option to upgrade your memory (the newer Apple laptops have the memory soldered onto the logic board).

How much do you have? If you are using a lot of swap memory you could use more. If you have 4 gb that's enough for Facebook iTunes etc

I have a late 2011 MBP with 4 GB ram installed. The processor is 2.4 GHz i7.

Right now my computer is very laggy. I have following apps opened:

Messages
Chrome with 3 tabs opened
Wunderlist Chrome app
Xcode
iPad 2 simulator
Activity Monitor

Even right-clicking on the desktop makes the beach ball appears for few seconds and then the menu appears.

If I keep using only one app for a long time without switching to other opened apps, the computer becomes faster.

 

[yjchua95]

I'm using a hard drive





I have a late 2011 MBP with 4 GB ram installed. The processor is 2.4 GHz i7.

Right now my computer is very laggy. I have following apps opened:

Messages
Chrome with 3 tabs opened
Wunderlist Chrome app
Xcode
iPad 2 simulator
Activity Monitor

Even right-clicking on the desktop makes the beach ball appears for few seconds and then the menu appears.

If I keep using only one app for a long time without switching to other opened apps, the computer becomes faster.

Image

Then it's very obvious that it's not your RAM, but your HDD.

Your RAM usage is pretty low (it's green). What you need is an SSD.

 

[Meister]

Then it's very obvious that it's not your RAM, but your HDD.

Your RAM usage is pretty low (it's green). What you need is an SSD.

Listen to yochua and get an ssd!

 

[Ries]

Your system has used swap, is compressing ram and has barely anything for file cache. You will something out of an additional 4GB of ram. However it will be nothing compared to getting an SSD.

 

[JHUFrank]

That machine is begging for a nice SSD ;-)

 

[simonsi]

Hi, How do I find out if my computer can benefit from more RAM?

RAM isn't your issue.

An SSD will make your machine faster but first off try not running Chrome - see how many Chrome Helper processes you have? Each one badly-optimised for OS X...

 

[Meister]

RAM isn't your issue.

An SSD will make your machine faster but first off try not running Chrome - see how many Chrome Helper processes you have? Each one badly-optimised for OS X...

I was just about to mention that. Listen to simonsi and try to stay away from chrome!

 

[simonsi]

For an example of memory under some stress see below.

This happens when I just load up Capture One in addition to Airmail, Safari etc etc and it just runs, even at 17+GB of virtual memory. This is because it is swapping to the SSD, it just does not give any non-responsiveness even at these levels - Yosemite is that good at managing RAM and the SSD is that good at fast swapping...

This is getting common now I have moved to Capture One from Aperture so 16GB upgrade going in tomorrow

 

[Meister]

For an example of memory under some stress see below.

This happens when I just load up Capture One in addition to Airmail, Safari etc etc and it just runs, even at 17+GB of virtual memory. This is because it is swapping to the SSD, it just does not give any non-responsiveness even at these levels - Yosemite is that good at managing RAM and the SSD is that good at fast swapping...

This is getting common now I have moved to Capture One from Aperture so 16GB upgrade going in tomorrow

Why is capture one so resource hungry?
I can use Lightroom with 4gb and never go yellow.
Are you shooting with a Phase One?

 

[simonsi]

Why is capture one so resource hungry?
I can use Lightroom with 4gb and never go yellow.
Are you shooting with a Phase One?

I'm in discussion with C1 Support. Alas not a Phase One

Bear in mind this isn't C1 on its own.

 

[Meister]

I'm in discussion with C1 Support. Alas not a Phase One

Bear in mind this isn't C1 on its own.

Doesn't matter. My 2012 mac mini with 4gb and a 500gb stock spinner can multitask safari, Lightroom and Airmail with no problems whatsoever. Especially assuming that you are editing the nefs from your D300 that memory pressure you are having is abnormal. Tells me never to use capture one. Reminds me of an app called "Intensify" I sometimes run. Open up a bunch of nefs and see the ram pressure go red in no time. Bad programming!

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Chrome!!!!

I'm using a hard drive





I have a late 2011 MBP with 4 GB ram installed. The processor is 2.4 GHz i7.

Right now my computer is very laggy. I have following apps opened:

Messages
Chrome with 3 tabs opened
Wunderlist Chrome app
Xcode
iPad 2 simulator
Activity Monitor

Even right-clicking on the desktop makes the beach ball appears for few seconds and then the menu appears.

If I keep using only one app for a long time without switching to other opened apps, the computer becomes faster.

Image

All your screen shots showed me was acomputer that is fine for RAM and that chrome is bogging it down terribly especially all those plug ins you have running....

 

[Cloudsurfer]

Another example of RAM under pressure (2010 Mac mini). My girlfriend is a photographer and is working on several huge RAW files simulatneously. At the same time, I'm doing some editing in FCPX.

We're definitely getting 16GB in our next Mac.

 

[simonsi]

Doesn't matter. My 2012 mac mini with 4gb and a 500gb stock spinner can multitask safari, Lightroom and Airmail with no problems whatsoever.

"This happens when I just load up Capture One in addition to Airmail, Safari etc etc"

I'm running a bunch of other stuff as well, Powerpoint, Intensify and more in addition to those I listed...Capture One consumes about 4GB+ which is what C1 Support are looking at.

Personally I look at the end result, that determines what Apps I need to achieve it, that determines the OS and HW. Sure Capture One seems to have an issue in my config but that isn't a reason to "never run it" - with that approach you will soon run out of SW to run!

----------

We're definitely getting 16GB in our next Mac.

Fortunately I just need to get some 8GB sticks, I'll move the 2x 4GB RAM to my iMac to give that 12GB so nothing lost, a couple of 2GB sticks will fall out the bottom though

 

[Meister]

"This happens when I just load up Capture One in addition to Airmail, Safari etc etc"

I'm running a bunch of other stuff as well, Powerpoint, Intensify and more in addition to those I listed...Capture One consumes about 4GB+ which is what C1 Support are looking at.

You run intensify, too?
I think that is the culprit.

 

[simonsi]

You run intensify, too?
I think that is the culprit.

Takes ~0.5GB, at the time C1 was taking 4GB (and a big slice of that was real), Safari was taking 1.5GB...don't think there is a single culprit (other than C1 definitely not playing nice), but I was/have been deliberately trying to push the RAM envelope and with an SSD it is hard to tell you are doing it.

Generally I'm finding I can achieve Intensify effects within C1 so I expect to load Intensify less and less.

Will be interesting to see after another 8GB goes in...

 

[simonsi]

Interestingly I've just applied the security update and restarted and Safari is much better behaved RAM-wise....

 

[simonsi]

Now I've upgraded to 16GB

Same workload as above but with the 16GB installed...on first boot it only used 9GB but the caching etc has built up now, responsiveness IS improved indicating I think that the swapping to SSD was causing some speed drop but it is SO much less than with an HDD it wasn't noticeable until removed by the RAM upgrade.

Removed 8GB was reused in my iMac to bring that up to 12GB (2x8GB + 2x2GB).