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If you have a SDD drive, would More RAM help?
- Thread starter Phycoduck
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Depends on what do you do. RAM won't speed up unless you need more of it so computer with 2GB RAM with 500MB free is as fast as computer with 8GB with 6.5GB free.
Keep your eye on Activity Monitor and see if your RAM usage is over 75% most of the time. If it is, then it might be worth it
Keep your eye on Activity Monitor and see if your RAM usage is over 75% most of the time. If it is, then it might be worth it
It can, but if you don't need it it's just a waste of money. Wait and see if your computer lags when you have a bunch of things running at the same time, it will help with multi tasking. If you have 2gb, you'll probably want 4. Most don't need more than 4 (I may...), but don't get more than 6 it'll be a waste, especially for 32 bit stuff.
Here's a good test with different cases (4/8 GB ram, HDD/SSD):
http://macperformanceguide.com/Optimizing-MacBookProCorei7-Combined.html
That's just Photoshop though, but it gives a good idea how the options work. Now already the "diglloydSmall" test is a quite ram-hungry one, exceeding 8 GB. But as the swapping, after the ram runs out, happens on a really good SSD instead of an HDD, the 4GB/SSD combination is almost as good here as 8GB/HDD. Even more so with more load. The SSD is "not quite ram", but makes a fast virtual memory (and dozens of GB of it).
Therefore, adding the everyday snappiness, application launching, zero noise, etc. of SSD's, it seems to me like a better upgrade than 8 GB ram. The ram and a decent size (120 GB) top of the line SSD also cost about the same (here in Europe I think the ram could be found for less in the US though).
So to your original question: if you can afford both, yes it helps some. But after the SSD, not that much
Bottom line: much worse performance per dollar upgrade now than the money you already put into the SSD.
http://macperformanceguide.com/Optimizing-MacBookProCorei7-Combined.html
That's just Photoshop though, but it gives a good idea how the options work. Now already the "diglloydSmall" test is a quite ram-hungry one, exceeding 8 GB. But as the swapping, after the ram runs out, happens on a really good SSD instead of an HDD, the 4GB/SSD combination is almost as good here as 8GB/HDD. Even more so with more load. The SSD is "not quite ram", but makes a fast virtual memory (and dozens of GB of it).
Therefore, adding the everyday snappiness, application launching, zero noise, etc. of SSD's, it seems to me like a better upgrade than 8 GB ram. The ram and a decent size (120 GB) top of the line SSD also cost about the same (here in Europe I think the ram could be found for less in the US though).
So to your original question: if you can afford both, yes it helps some. But after the SSD, not that much
Bottom line: much worse performance per dollar upgrade now than the money you already put into the SSD.