I Only Have 4GB of RAM...is that enough?

[ghsDUDE]

Here's what I do on my MBP.

iTunes, Safari, Mail, iCal, School Work, App Store, and Netflix.

I don't edit or make any videos or anything often. I do occasionally but not a lot.

Here's my iStat :

Obviously I'm using 1.06GB
I should have 2.94GB free.

Whats Wired and Inactive?

 

[GGJstudios]

Here's my iStat :

Obviously I'm using 1.06GB
I should have 2.94GB free.

Whats Wired and Inactive?

Combine Free and Inactive to find what's available for apps to use.
Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

Launch Activity Monitor and look on the System Memory tab at the bottom. If your page outs and swap used is significant, you may benefit from more RAM. However, if they're low numbers or zero, you're not maxing out the RAM you currently have, so adding RAM won't make any difference in performance.

• Guides : Mac Hardware: MR Guide to Buying RAM
• Guides : Mac Hardware: MR Guide to Understanding Intel Mac RAM
• Guides : Mac Hardware: MR Guide to Matched RAM on Intel Macs

 

[Hellhammer]

Wired is memory used by the system and it cannot be freed. Active memory becomes inactive when you quit an application. The data used by the app will still be in the memory so if you relaunch it, it will open faster than from the HD. Other active tasks can, however, overwrite the inactive memory if needed.

It looks like you have enough RAM though.

 

[Badbaw]

For what you do, 2GB is sufficient.

You really don't need to pose that question unless you're performing graphic intensive tasks, such as using Final Cut, Photoshop, etc.

 

[tmagman]

4GB is plenty for what you are doing. The only time you're really going to need more is if you were working with large HD videos or photoshop files and other 3D rendering.

Wired is the amount of memory that the actual OS and basic computer functions are using, active is the amount being used by applications that you are running at the time and inactive is memory that has been used by applications you may have closed recently- it simply keeps the allocation of that until it is needed elsewhere, just in case you open that application again.

 

[riptideMBP]

congrats on the new mac... the best way to find out is to let it run for a while, then look in activity monitor and get your ratio of page outs to page ins... if its greater than 5% you probably need more ram (though you probably have enough for what you're doing)

 

[tmagman]

could we all have responded at once?!

 

[kdoug]

Here's what I do on my MBP.

iTunes, Safari, Mail, iCal, School Work, App Store, and Netflix.

I don't edit or make any videos or anything often. I do occasionally but not a lot.

Here's my iStat :

Obviously I'm using 1.06GB
I should have 2.94GB free.

Whats Wired and Inactive?

4GB is enough but I have a theory on this. When the current RAM is obsolete next year or the year after, prices on the obsolete or non-current RAM skyrocket. Since it's not produced in huge quantities like the most current RAM, manufacturers can charge a premium. It's why I always buy the most RAM I can afford when I buy a new computer.

 

[AttilaTheHun]

congrats on the new mac... the best way to find out is to let it run for a while, then look in activity monitor and get your ratio of page outs to page ins... if its greater than 5% you probably need more ram (though you probably have enough for what you're doing)

i think or as i remember 32bit system cannot see more then 3 gb

 

[GGJstudios]

congrats on the new mac... the best way to find out is to let it run for a while, then look in activity monitor and get your ratio of page outs to page ins... if its greater than 5% you probably need more ram (though you probably have enough for what you're doing)

The ratio is meaningless. You will always have page ins. If you have significant page outs under normal workload, you need more RAM, regardless of the ratio.

 

[Hellhammer]

i think or as i remember 32bit system cannot see more then 3 gb

What does that have to do with anything? OS X is 64-bit. The CPU is 64-bit. The EFI is 64-bit. Besides, the 32-bit limit is mainly a Windows thing. OS X has supported +4GB of RAM for ages, even when it was mainly 32-bit.

 

[riptideMBP]

The ratio is meaningless. You will always have page ins. If you have significant page outs under normal workload, you need more RAM, regardless of the ratio.

the ratio is important because it helps determine what is significant... If i just said I had 673MB of page outs, you wouldn't be able to tell if i needed more ram, but when you compare that to 44GB of page ins its clear that more ram isn't necessary.

 

[GGJstudios]

the ratio is important because it helps determine what is significant... If i just said I had 673MB of page outs, you wouldn't be able to tell if i needed more ram, but when you compare that to 44GB of page ins its clear that more ram isn't necessary.

The ratio is not important. Both page ins and page outs are cumulative figures, since the last restart. If it has been weeks since your last restart, the ratio can vary widely. Only the page outs under normal workloads are important.

 

[riptideMBP]

The ratio is not important. Both page ins and page outs are cumulative figures, since the last restart. If it has been weeks since your last restart, the ratio can vary widely. Only the page outs under normal workloads are important.

In that case, what would be deemed a significant number of page outs?

 

[GGJstudios]

In that case, what would be deemed a significant number of page outs?

While there's no hard and fast rule, I'd say anything around 1GB or more in a day of normal use, and you may see some benefit to more RAM. Understand that page outs may happen under abnormal workloads. For example, I occasionally have a need to open 50+ Safari tabs simultaneously, which may cause paging. However, that need is so infrequent that it would be a waste to increase RAM for such an infrequent need. On the other hand, if normal daily use includes regular page outs of around 1GB or more, more RAM could produce noticeable improvement in performance.

 

[thermodynamic]

What does that have to do with anything? OS X is 64-bit. The CPU is 64-bit. The EFI is 64-bit. Besides, the 32-bit limit is mainly a Windows thing. OS X has supported +4GB of RAM for ages, even when it was mainly 32-bit.

32-bit limitation, even Linux ran into it. Unlike Windows client OSes, Linux (and OS X) has PAE enabled. (PAE is 36-bit, but runs at the cost of some performance... Windows kept PAE enabled for server OSes, but given the wide range of hardware and drivers, especially poorly written drivers, Microsoft disabled PAE so people wouldn't complain of crashes... well, more than usual... )

 

[dlimes13]

As others have said, 4GB is plenty. 3 or even 2GB should suffice, but 4GB is well enough. Plus, if you happen to run into RAM issues down the line, it's not that expensive. Go to 8GB for only around $70-$80, or even 6GB for $30-$40.

 

[riptideMBP]

While there's no hard and fast rule, I'd say anything around 1GB or more in a day of normal use, and you may see some benefit to more RAM. Understand that page outs may happen under abnormal workloads. For example, I occasionally have a need to open 50+ Safari tabs simultaneously, which may cause paging. However, that need is so infrequent that it would be a waste to increase RAM for such an infrequent need. On the other hand, if normal daily use includes regular page outs of around 1GB or more, more RAM could produce noticeable improvement in performance.

interesting... i was curious to see if there's any relationship between paging ratio and installed ram whatsoever, so i posted a poll

 

[GGJstudios]

interesting... i was curious to see if there's any relationship between paging ratio and installed ram whatsoever, so i posted a poll

A poll isn't necessary. You can test it yourself. Just reboot your Mac, then track your page ins and page outs over time. You'll see there is no relationship between them.