Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

My macbook pro 13' is Slow. Upgrade RAM?

H

hazedragon45

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 23, 2009
125
0
I've been told to upgrade my macbook pro 13' from 2009, 2.26ghz 2GB ram because it lags when i have lots of applications open. Will this help solve the issue? If i want to upgrade to 4gb, do i just buy another 2GB ram and stick it in? i heard there are 2 slots.

Thanks.
 
Upgrading the ram sounds like the right solution. I'll recommend you to let some Apple service people do it though. Depends on if you feel comfortable and able to do it yourself.
 
You can change the RAM yourself. All you need is a #00 Phillips screwdriver and 5 minutes or less of your time. Pull a few screws, remove the panel, pull the RAM out, insert the new RAM, replace the panel and put the screws back.

If my cat had opposing thumbs, he could do it!;)
 
Are you familiar with how to read the RAM allocation? If not, open the 'System Monitor', click 'System Memory', and either take a screen shot or give us the readings. More than likely yes, it will help, but that will be the proof. Pay close attention to Page Ins and Page Outs.

It isn't terribly hard to do. If you go to 4GB, you can get 2 2GB sticks for pretty cheap as a lot of people here go from 4 to 8 and have to remove both sticks obviously. If I still had them, I would send you mine. You can probably find another nice member on here to help you out. And more than likely, you have 2 memory sticks at 1GB each; it is usually cheaper and makers, when given the chance, use both DIMM slots.
 
if i have 2 1GB memory, can i change one of em to a 4gb to make it 1+4=5GB? I'd go to apple but I'm pretty much broke, and i'm sure a DIY would be a lot cheaper.

Yes, if anyone has one lying around that they don't use i'd really appreciate it if you send it over! :D:D:D
 
You should look up your specific Macbook Pro to see what type and how much RAM is can handle. Check it out >>here<<.
 
Now you know what type and choices of upgrade you have, plus you can buy it from OWC. It's where I get mine.
 
hazedragon45 said:
I've been told to upgrade my macbook pro 13' from 2009, 2.26ghz 2GB ram because it lags when i have lots of applications open. Will this help solve the issue? If i want to upgrade to 4gb, do i just buy another 2GB ram and stick it in? i heard there are 2 slots.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

To check what memory you have: Apple Menu, About this Mac, More Info, Hardware/Memory. That will show you exactly what you have (you might have two 1GB chips, or one 2GB chip).

Upgrading to 4 GB is quite cheap and is likely to help. To check whether you have enough memory, open "Activity Monitor" in the Utilities folder, click on "System Memory". If you have little "Free memory" plus "Inactive memory" then getting more RAM should help.
 
gnasher729 said:
To check what memory you have: Apple Menu, About this Mac, More Info, Hardware/Memory. That will show you exactly what you have (you might have two 1GB chips, or one 2GB chip).

Upgrading to 4 GB is quite cheap and is likely to help. To check whether you have enough memory, open "Activity Monitor" in the Utilities folder, click on "System Memory". If you have little "Free memory" plus "Inactive memory" then getting more RAM should help.
Click to expand...

Right now i have 41mb free, 500mb inactive. What is "inactive memory" and why do i have 1.95 of my 2GB used!!!!?!?!

Things opened: iTunes, Firefox, uTorrent and Adium. I'm surprised that these things would use this much

Now i'm mad.
 
Have a look here for an explanation : http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20006694-263.html
inactive RAM

This is the amount that has recently been used but is no longer required. It may have been used by a recently quit process, or by an active one that no longer needs it, and is not required for use. This RAM is essentially free RAM, with the exception that OS X has kept track of what has recently been loaded into it.
Click to expand...

HOpe this helps!
 
hazedragon45 said:
Right now i have 41mb free, 500mb inactive. What is "inactive memory" and why do i have 1.95 of my 2GB used!!!!?!?!

Things opened: iTunes, Firefox, uTorrent and Adium. I'm surprised that these things would use this much

Now i'm mad.
Click to expand...

"Inactive" memory contains data that is not really needed and can be thrown away at any time, but might come handy in the future. For example, if your computer reads some data from the hard drive, a copy will likely be in "inactive" memory in case it is used again. However, if you do things that really _need_ memory, then the data in "inactive" memory are just thrown away at no cost. So really only 1.45 GB of your 2 GB are used at this point.
 
What are your page outs relative to your page in ratings? When out exceeds in, then it's def RAM time from what I gather
 
Unless your a hollywood movie producer editing thousands of hours of film....8gb of ram is retarded. For 99% of all Macbook owners 4gb is more than enough. Secondly if you really want to speed up the mac swap out the HD for a SSD. The ram upgrade will be barely noticeable during normal daily use.

I purchased my 4gb kit from OWC last month for 60 bucks(approx). Took my retarded pet monkey with broken thumbs 3 mins to put it in.
 
nospeed411 said:
Unless your a hollywood movie producer editing thousands of hours of film....8gb of ram is retarded. For 99% of all Macbook owners 4gb is more than enough. Secondly if you really want to speed up the mac swap out the HD for a SSD. The ram upgrade will be barely noticeable during normal daily use.

I purchased my 4gb kit from OWC last month for 60 bucks(approx). Took my retarded pet monkey with broken thumbs 3 mins to put it in.
Click to expand...

Running a VM will eat up alot of ram, easily 8gig if you let it/need the performace.
 
Here is a tip:
Drop firefox. It uses more ram than chrome. I'd rather use safari before I touch firefox.

Chrome is best atm, but it's always changing.

Upgrade to 8gb. It's only around $100 right now for 2x4gb
 
Going from 4GB to 8GB may not have any real advantages and will cost more. I went to 8GB because I would run down to about 500MB of free RAM, but my 'Page Outs' were minimal and the portion that was 'Inactive' was over 1.5GB...so it was probably a waste for me. 95% of the time I have more than 4GB in the 'Free'. I've always read and have been told my members on this forum (with much greater knowledge than mine) when 'Page Outs' exceeds 'Page Ins', then you want to go for some RAM. And IIRC whether you are on an odd or even number of GB, in the MBP it does not make a real difference (although the old in me said to have both DIMMs the same way :p)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back