MacBook Ram - Knowledge - Newbie

[Tensiles]

Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade the Ram on my current machine - MacBook Pro 13" Late 2011 as it's running slow as **** & I've being using it like this for the past year.

Finally researched into the matter & the ram upgrade is the answer for now. Upon trolling through numerous threads on whether to go for 8GB or 16GB, common knowledge would be that I upgrade to 8GB. But upon using the activity monitor I can see that I'm using close to the 4GB Ram i have. But do I also count the visual memory as the total amount my computer is using? As last night my VM was just under 6GB. As I my computer knowledge is not on par. If you count the VM on top too, I'm close to using 10GB so 16GB would be more sensible if that's how you work it out?


I do plan on keeping my Macbook as long as I could.

Many thanks.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

 

[yjchua95]

Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade the Ram on my current machine - MacBook Pro 13" Late 2011 as it's running slow as **** & I've being using it like this for the past year.

Finally researched into the matter & the ram upgrade is the answer for now. Upon trolling through numerous threads on whether to go for 8GB or 16GB, common knowledge would be that I upgrade to 8GB. But upon using the activity monitor I can see that I'm using close to the 4GB Ram i have. But do I also count the visual memory as the total amount my computer is using? As last night my VM was just under 6GB. As I my computer knowledge is not on par. If you count the VM on top too, I'm close to using 10GB so 16GB would be more sensible if that's how you work it out?


I do plan on keeping my Macbook as long as I could.

Many thanks.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

You'll be better off with an 8GB RAM upgrade and an SSD.

 

[Meister]

Your activity monitor shows that you are barely using 4gb RAM, but was that taken under you main workload?
Unless your memory pressure is at least yellow, more ram will not make your machine one bit faster.
Like yichua has stated, the first upgrade should always be an ssd!

 

[MagicBoy]

What Meister said.

I put an SSD in the Mac mini and it transformed the performance under Mavericks, even on 4GB RAM. Mavericks and Yosemite really need an SSD for sensible performance otherwise you'll get a lot of beachballs.

 

[Tensiles]

I will replace the HD with an SSD once I have the funds.

That screenshot was when I turned my MacBook on.

I've got another screenshot, does it show I'm not using the 4GB of ram still?

 

[TheIguana]

I will replace the HD with an SSD once I have the funds.

That screenshot was when I turned my MacBook on.

I've got another screenshot, does it show I'm not using the 4GB of ram still?

Sorry bud, RAM does not look to be your issue. As the others have said, if your hoping to see any performance increase your money would be best spent on an SSD first.

 

[Meister]

I will replace the HD with an SSD once I have the funds.

That screenshot was when I turned my MacBook on.

I've got another screenshot, does it show I'm not using the 4GB of ram still?

You will very likely see no improvments with more ram.
I have a mac mini with 4gigs and an hdd and I've noticed that since Mavericks and Yosemite it has become more unresponsive. My theory is that those OSs do not well with hdds.
I will soon upgrade to an ssd and see what happens.

 

[austinpike]

Have you ever done a clean install, or have you been just running upgrades on the OS for the past 4 years? Back up, wipe the drive and do a fresh Yosemite install. Ideally to a new SSD, but assuming your HD is in OK health, even reformatting and reinstalling on that that should make it feel like a new machine.

 

[Tensiles]

I've just done the updates via the app store.

I've plum for the 8GB Ram for now & I'll get a SSD next.

I've done disk repair etc, seems ok then it slows done again.

 

[brdeveloper]

I will replace the HD with an SSD once I have the funds.

That screenshot was when I turned my MacBook on.

I've got another screenshot, does it show I'm not using the 4GB of ram still?

Just and observation. If this is your normal (idle) RAM load, then RAM can be a issue, although secondary in relation to I/O. If you use Photoshop, for example, your RAM load can turn instantly yellow/red when applying an action or filter. But a couple of seconds after it becomes green again.

I would upgrade to a SSD first, then upgrade RAM to 8 or 16GB. 16GB/1333MHz aren't quite expensive in my opinion, but you'll probably never use it unless you run a couple of VMs or load tons of data at once (e.g., a dozen of audio tracks loaded with tens of realtime filters).

 

[Meister]

I've just done the updates via the app store.

I've plum for the 8GB Ram for now & I'll get a SSD next.

I've done disk repair etc, seems ok then it slows done again.

It's slowing down? What a surprise!
Not like we didn't tell you to get the ssd first.

----------

Just and observation. If this is your normal (idle) RAM load, then RAM can be a issue, although secondary in relation to I/O. If you use Photoshop, for example, your RAM load can turn instantly yellow/red when applying an action or filter. But a couple of seconds after it becomes green again.

I would upgrade to a SSD first, then upgrade RAM to 8 or 16GB. 16GB/1333MHz aren't quite expensive in my opinion, but you'll probably never use it unless you run a couple of VMs or load tons of data at once (e.g., a dozen of audio tracks loaded with tens of realtime filters).

In general you are right, but memory spikes would show in the activiy monitor.
I think his problem is the hdd.

 

[Tensiles]

Just and observation. If this is your normal (idle) RAM load, then RAM can be a issue, although secondary in relation to I/O. If you use Photoshop, for example, your RAM load can turn instantly yellow/red when applying an action or filter. But a couple of seconds after it becomes green again.

I would upgrade to a SSD first, then upgrade RAM to 8 or 16GB. 16GB/1333MHz aren't quite expensive in my opinion, but you'll probably never use it unless you run a couple of VMs or load tons of data at once (e.g., a dozen of audio tracks loaded with tens of realtime filters).

The second picture I've uploaded is when I've used my Mac a bit more during the day.

 

[austinpike]

I've just done the updates via the app store.
I've done disk repair etc, seems ok then it slows done again.

Back your stuff up, do a clean install, restore your files.
Yes it is a little bit of work but assuming you have some sort of external drive for backup it costs nothing.