iMac G5 memory management question

[RedCroissant]

Hello!

I just switched from an iBook G4 to an iMac G5 and I wanted to run something past the PPC people here to make sure I wasn't crazy or if the behavior I am seeing with the iMac is normal.

When I was using my iBook G4 with 1.5GB RAM, I would usually have plenty of Memory available for numerous apps(those apps being Mail, WebKit, iTunes, Activity Monitor, Terminal, and TenFourFox). The problem I am seeing now is that the iMac G5(PowerMac 12,1, 1.9GHz, 1.5GB RAM, 633MHz bus speed with iSight, running OS X 10.5.8) doesn't seem to be as effective at memory management as the iBook. Inactive memory builds up more quickly and I am noticing page outs and have already used 16.02 MB of Swap.

What I'm wondering is: Is this normal, and should I basically be looking for a more RAM. Thanks in advance for any insight and assistance.

 

[gavinstubbs09]

When I had my iSight 1.9GHz G5 (Which turned out to be horrible 2 months after I bought it) I also had 1.5GB ram in it. General usage was fine but it was slowwwww. At the time I had a mini G4 with 1GB of ram and running apps seemed much faster with the mini.

 

[RedCroissant]

When I had my iSight 1.9GHz G5 (Which turned out to be horrible 2 months after I bought it) I also had 1.5GB ram in it. General usage was fine but it was slowwwww. At the time I had a mini G4 with 1GB of ram and running apps seemed much faster with the mini.

Hey Gavin,

Thanks for responding! I'm glad that I'm not crazy (well about this anyway). I am regretting the sale of my PowerMac and what I just got used to being able to do with no worries about power, speed, etc. Now I have my iBook running Handbrake to try and copy a movie since the disc is scratched and it's going to take about an hour to make an .m4v from a 27 minute video clip. LAME!

The reason I'm using the iBook instead of the i Mac is because the super drive is suddenly not being recognized at all and I don't have the tools to take it apart and figure out what's going on in there. I'm really glad tat disk utility exists and that I was able to make .dmgs of most of my installation discs!

Anyway, thanks again!