Late 2012 21.5" iMac - RAM Upgrade to 32?

[msiler]

I know the official stated max is 16MB RAM which is what I have now but my system is waaaaay sluggish when editing photos in Lightroom and Photoshop*. I am looking for a holdover fix until I upgrade to a new M1 next year.
- Has anyone used 32MB of RAM in these machines successfully?
- Is there a performance bump or is it a waste of time?
- Is there a possibility of harming my Mac?

Yes, I am also strongly considering upgrading to an SSD and I have posted elsewhere in the forums as to how best to do that as well.

*My understanding is that PS and LR optimally use about 20mg of RAM on their own - hence my slowdown on this older iMac

 

[mdgm]

The late 2012 iMac only has 2 RAM slots. I believe it's limited to 2x8GB sticks unfortunately.

The 2011 21" iMac has 4 RAM slots and can take 32GB RAM, but the 2011 iMac doesn't have USB3.

If a SSD doesn't solve your problem it could be time for you to get a new Mac.

 

[chscag]

The maximum amount of memory for that machine is 16GB plus you would have to tear it apart to get at the memory slots if it were possible to add more.

Besides that, Apple says that machine is vintage. I wouldn't spend $$ on it for upgrades.

 

[msiler]

The maximum amount of memory for that machine is 16GB plus you would have to tear it apart to get at the memory slots if it were possible to add more.

Besides that, Apple says that machine is vintage. I wouldn't spend $$ on it for upgrades.

Vintage my butt Apple .

Ha, this machine still runs great and does everything I need it to do except image editing which is now laggy. I will be getting a new M1 silicon Mac in the next 6 months or so strictly for photo and video editing so this is really a stopgap fix for this iMac which will then get re-purposed for controlling music and videos to our whole house system.

That said I am already going to dig in her guts to replace the fusion drive with an SSD so while I'm in there I might as well do what I can for this old lady.

I was hoping that maybe someone on the forum had some experience about "hacking" the RAM and pushing it to 32mb. Total upgrade cost would be around $150-200 plus my an hour or so of my time which is acceptable to me.

 

[nicd]

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[loby]

Vintage my butt Apple .

Ha, this machine still runs great and does everything I need it to do except image editing which is now laggy. I will be getting a new M1 silicon Mac in the next 6 months or so strictly for photo and video editing so this is really a stopgap fix for this iMac which will then get re-purposed for controlling music and videos to our whole house system.

That said I am already going to dig in her guts to replace the fusion drive with an SSD so while I'm in there I might as well do what I can for this old lady.

I was hoping that maybe someone on the forum had some experience about "hacking" the RAM and pushing it to 32mb. Total upgrade cost would be around $150-200 plus my an hour or so of my time which is acceptable to me.

I too am going in and replacing the fusion with an SSD and actually upgrading the CPU to an i7 (have the i5 model to do that). Still a decent iMac and runs good. Too bad we can't update it to Big Sur.

Good to also clean out the cooling system for dust and "may" want to re-apply the thermal paste on the CPU ad GPU while you are already in it. Would not hurt and would keep it running for a few extra years.