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Maxing out memory on iMac (2011)

raver001

raver001

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 23, 2011
21
0
UK
If you're going to max it out, max it out. That's 32 GB, with a three followed by a two!

On a proper, maxed out iMac, the ponies which frolic hither and fro will have green pastures that never end and always have a bounty of delicious grass to feed. Rainbows smile and unicorns giggle.
 
Roy G Biv said:
If you're going to max it out, max it out. That's 32 GB, with a three followed by a two!

On a proper, maxed out iMac, the ponies which frolic hither and fro will have green pastures that never end and always have a bounty of delicious grass to feed. Rainbows smile and unicorns giggle.
Click to expand...

From the Apple website:
"The iMac (Mid 2011) computers have four SDRAM slots in the bottom of the computer and come with at least 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM installed as two 2GB DIMMs into two slots.

The maximum amount of RAM you can install in your computer is 16 GB (a 4 GB SO-DIMM in each slot)."

So where are u getting 32GB from??
 
It's not officially supported.
But don't even go there unless you wanna throw your money into the lake, not even to 16, cause if you ask what benefits, you most likely don't need it.
I'd recommend you to buy an extra 8 to your current 4 and make it a total of 12, if you even need that.
 
raver001 said:
Hi, I am thinking about maxing out the memory on my 27" iMac 3.1 i5 2011.

I understand I can get upto 16bg installed. Have found some memory here..

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=iMac%203.1GHz%20Intel%20Quad-Core%20i5%20%2827-inch%20-%20DDR3%29%20Mid%202011&Cat=SSD

What kind of benefits would be most apparent? Would it run alot faster?? Or would the added benefits be minimal. I'm just trying to weigh up its it worth doing.

Any advise would be great.. Many thanks.
Click to expand...

Not sure if things have changed since 2006-7, but the last iteration of the white iMacs had a 3gb limit on a machine that could technically support 4gb of ram. People could install 4gb, and the "About this Mac" would indeed show 4gb of ram installed, only to have a maximum of 3.3gb of that ram actually addressed by OS X.

So, it would show 4gb installed, but you weren't actually using more than 3gb of ram.

I'm wondering if this is the case with the 16gb / 32 gb debate here, now. If Apple says the max is 16gb, there must be a reason for that. If you install 32gb of ram, who's to say that it wouldn't show 32gb as installed but would only address 16gb of that ram?

Personally, I've got 16gb of ram installed on my Sandy Bridge i5, and it's plenty fast and plenty of ram for Adobe Creative Suite, gaming, movies, all-at-once, etc.
 
Erm...you can't get 32GB of Ram on an iMac.

16GB is the max. It lets your computer run more applications at the same time while keeping maximum efficiency. It's like removing the brakes from a car- it doesn't speed it up, but slows it down less.
 
You can use 32GB RAM on iMac by installing 8GB chips on all 4 slots. If you have the money for it :D

As of today, 8GB RAM priced around $500 ... so buying 4 of those sticks cost you nearly $2000 ... If you think imac worth RAM which cost the same as itself, well .. suit yourself :D
 
Abazigal said:
I have 8gb ram and I already find it aplenty. What exactly would one need 16gb+ of ram for? :confused:
Click to expand...

With Lion, assuming you follow the new paradigm of not quitting applications when finished, one might fill up any arbitrary amount of RAM. (When full, Lion will start closing the applications). Applications still running will "start" instantaneously, so you get SSD like performance. I never reached 4GB out of 8GB in my iMac under Snow Leopard, but I'm now over 5GB in normal use and expect it will go higher with some heavy work I'll be starting on soon.

It's fun to do a command-Tab and see a row of apps longer than the Dock! Yet they are idle and CPU usage is about 0%.
 
Sigh

I'm currently running 16 gigabytes on my iMac Corei7 2.8 ghz model from 2009.

And it's 1333 memory too so it runs at the full 1333 despite what other sources may have said in the past. (The 2009 machines shipped with 1067 Mhz DDR3 probably as it was easier to source for a cheaper price and Apple could have gotten better profits on that memory since the source cost was less for them).

My geekbench numbers have improved and I can do more things and run more programs simultaneously with less overall stress and overhead to the system. I can run more instances of software synthesizers since I do a lot of music related applications.

It cost me $102 with shipping thru NewEgg to go there.

imac.jpg
 
Last edited:
LostJohn said:
Not sure if things have changed since 2006-7, but the last iteration of the white iMacs had a 3gb limit on a machine that could technically support 4gb of ram. People could install 4gb, and the "About this Mac" would indeed show 4gb of ram installed, only to have a maximum of 3.3gb of that ram actually addressed by OS X.

So, it would show 4gb installed, but you weren't actually using more than 3gb of ram.

I'm wondering if this is the case with the 16gb / 32 gb debate here, now. If Apple says the max is 16gb, there must be a reason for that. If you install 32gb of ram, who's to say that it wouldn't show 32gb as installed but would only address 16gb of that ram?

Personally, I've got 16gb of ram installed on my Sandy Bridge i5, and it's plenty fast and plenty of ram for Adobe Creative Suite, gaming, movies, all-at-once, etc.
Click to expand...

That limitation is no more and referred to 32-bit processors running the 32-bit kernel of OS X available at the time.

Much like running Windows 7 32-bit with 4 gigs of memory installed - you only are able to use upwards of 4 gigs but not the entire amount.

You need a 64-bit operating system to address more than 4 gigabytes of memory.
 
you may put 32GB RAM, do you need that for adobe suite no. For high res HD and 3D rendering, and movie format conversion, than yes, you need it. 4 is good for adobe. 8 is great for virtual machining. 12 is epic for above mentioned. 16 would be optimal for above inside a virtual machine

technically the more RAM the slower it gets, but by slower i mean a fraction of a microsecond slower.
 
$2000 for 16gigs?

I just ordered 16gigs from Crucial and paid 119.98. Is that 2K ram gold or what?
 
LostJohn said:
Misinformation about what?
Click to expand...

The iMacs do in fact support a max of 32GB. Apple only lists what they offer to put in as the max, as they did with the white macbook previously. It had the same chipset and CPU as the 13" MBP, yet they only listed it as capable of 4GB, which was clearly an understatement.

silverpony said:
I just ordered 16gigs from Crucial and paid 119.98. Is that 2K ram gold or what?
Click to expand...

Not really, that's about the going price for 16GB in 4x4GB format. Not to say you got a bad deal, but it's nothing especially great. 32GB is where it gets expensive because you need 8GB modules which are $500-600 apiece.
 
silverpony said:
I just ordered 16gigs from Crucial and paid 119.98. Is that 2K ram gold or what?
Click to expand...

Newegg had Crucial 8GB kits for $51 shipped several weeks ago. RAM has come down A TON since like March. I just picked up an unopened 8GB OWC (which I think Crucial makes) off of craigslist for $60. He included the receipt dated from April, and he paid what you paid for 16GB! Yikes.
 
16gb is necessary in aftereffects

With stock 4gigs of RAM I am only able to access 2 cores when doing rendering. In order to make use of all 8 cores you need a minimum of 16gb of RAM.

On my core 2 duo Macbook with 8 gigs of RAM the render was estimated to take 35 hours. On my imac i7 3.4Ghz 27" with the stock 4 gigs of RAM and 2 cores active render times were estimated to be 15 hrs in AE CS5.5, but only 9 hrs in AE CS5, weird but I thought i would throw that out there.

When my 16GB RAM arrives I'll attempt the same render again with all 8 cores active.

So depending on what software your using, YES you can use up all 16gb of RAM.
 
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