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Is there any point in adding RAM?

R

RyanWW

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 2, 2013
29
1
I have a Macbook pro Mid 2012 with a crucial SSD, 2.7GHz Intel Core i7 processor and 8GB of ram.

I use photoshop, indesign, illustrator occasionally, I have a lot of stuff open at once.
It seems sluggish, compared how it was anyway.

Should I add RAM? Some people say past 8gb it doesn't really make that much difference but as far I am aware it can support up to about 32gb of ram.
 
RyanWW said:
I have a Macbook pro Mid 2012 with a crucial SSD, 2.7GHz Intel Core i7 processor and 8GB of ram.

I use photoshop, indesign, illustrator occasionally, I have a lot of stuff open at once.
It seems sluggish, compared how it was anyway.

Should I add RAM? Some people say past 8gb it doesn't really make that much difference but as far I am aware it can support up to about 32gb of ram.
Click to expand...

CPU can support 32GB RAM, but as they don't do 16GB SODIMMs it can only support up to 16GB max (2x8GB modules).

Best thing to check would be Activity Monitor to see where the bottleneck is, and whether the CPU's maxed or the RAM's maxed. Shutting down as often as you can with the option 'reopen windows when logging back in' disabled will clear the RAM - it's possible that you've got a large uptime which may be compounding the problems.

If after doing daily shutdowns and the RAM is still maxed, it may be prudent to look towards getting a 16GB upgrade. Otherwise if the RAM is OK but the CPU is maxed, that's a hardware bottleneck that can't be sorted.
 
RyanWW said:
I have a Macbook pro Mid 2012 with a crucial SSD, 2.7GHz Intel Core i7 processor and 8GB of ram.

I use photoshop, indesign, illustrator occasionally, I have a lot of stuff open at once.
It seems sluggish, compared how it was anyway.

Should I add RAM? Some people say past 8gb it doesn't really make that much difference but as far I am aware it can support up to about 32gb of ram.
Click to expand...

if you can add ram then do so. 8gb is nothing with the stuff u mentioned. not even worth asking.
 
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Crucial ?
Maybe they source them from here.

Regarding compatibility they (intelligentmemory) state:
"16GB SO-DIMMs (IMM2G64D3LSOD8A) are compatible to any notebook/ultrabook based on the new 5th Gen Intel Broadwell processors with CPU codes i3/i5/i7-5xxxU!"

Bad luck for my Sandy-Bridge late-2011 MBP :-(

[Maybe Apple could work on it: "
Most notebooks and desktop- computers based on normal Intel processors will not support 16GB UDIMM/SO-DIMM memory modules. This issue may be solvable by a BIOS/UEFI update with a new memory reference code. ", see here]
 
Last edited:
Gav2k said:
That is why your having slow down issues.

Go > https://www.cindori.org/software/trimenabler/

Enable trim asap and the 'snappy' Mac you had will return. The issue is not ram.

Once installed you'll need to run the manual trim and it'll zero out all the mess.
Click to expand...

If the OP is on the latest version of Yosemite, this tool is no longer needed.

Code: 
sudo trimforce enable

Type that in Terminal, read the warning and then agree. By the way, the same warning would apply when using TrimEnabler.
 
hallux said:
If the OP is on the latest version of Yosemite, this tool is no longer needed.

Code: 
sudo trimforce enable

Type that in Terminal, read the warning and then agree. By the way, the same warning would apply when using TrimEnabler.
Click to expand...
As documented Yosemite isn't playing nice with all makes and models. The software I pointed out works with a broader range hence the option
 
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