Please help with RAM upgrade

[Electrical]

I have a 2018 base model Mac Mini with 8 GB of RAM.

I don’t do anything processor intensive, I mostly just use Chrome and do web-based work. Sometimes with a lot of tabs opened I will notice my RAM usage goes above 7 gigs and the swapfile goes above 1 gig, so I think it would be a good idea to upgrade the RAM.

I would assume that the Ifixit RAM package with the required tools is a good value. But it’s a single 16 gig stick that is supposed to be paired with one of my existing 4 gig sticks.

I have heard that this could cause issues and I should use 2 8 gig sticks. But I also heard that since I don’t do anything very processor intensive that it won’t matter if I use two different size sticks.

Can someone confirm if this will be OK? Or should I order 2 8 gig sticks from somewhere else, preferably Amazon if you have a recommendation.

 

[barbu]

Matched ram pairs were a thing in the core 2 days, I’m not sure if it’s still a thing. I don’t think you’d notice any difference if you added the single 16 gb clip.
Consider doing nothing as well. MacOS can run just fine with 8 gb of memory. Even though the ram shows as “in use”, it doesn’t mean you’ve run out.. far from it. If it works fine as is, I wouldn’t mess with it.

 

[russell_314]

I have a 2018 base model Mac Mini with 8 GB of RAM.

I don’t do anything processor intensive, I mostly just use Chrome and do web-based work. Sometimes with a lot of tabs opened I will notice my RAM usage goes above 7 gigs and the swapfile goes above 1 gig, so I think it would be a good idea to upgrade the RAM.

I would assume that the Ifixit RAM package with the required tools is a good value. But it’s a single 16 gig stick that is supposed to be paired with one of my existing 4 gig sticks.

I have heard that this could cause issues and I should use 2 8 gig sticks. But I also heard that since I don’t do anything very processor intensive that it won’t matter if I use two different size sticks.

Can someone confirm if this will be OK? Or should I order 2 8 gig sticks from somewhere else, preferably Amazon if you have a recommendation.

Are you having any problems or slowdowns? If you need to look at a meter to tell you it's being used then you're probably fine. macOS will assign usage to RAM if it sees it available.

I upgraded my 2018 Mac mini RAM so I will give you some tips

Get matching pairs. You will slow down your Mac and the only time it will benefit is when you really need more than 8 GB which I suspect since you didn't say you have issues isn't often. If you're going to go through all the trouble to do this get 16GB x 2 because it's a PITA to do.

Also the 2018 Mac mini RAM is NOT considered user upgradable. Yes you can do it but it's not an easy to do task so you should take caution. If you have in the past did computer repair on laptops you should be fine but be very careful because it's extremely easy to damage some of the connectors you have to disconnect to replace the RAM. If you don't have experience then it's up to you. Do you like to tinker and is the risk of damaging your Mac mini worth getting the experience. If you damage it you'll likly have to find a third party repair shop willing to fix it because Apple might not want to touch it.

 

[Electrical]

Thanks for the replies!

It seems like right now we have one person saying the speed won’t matter and another saying that it will affect me.

As for the reason why I’m thinking of the RAM upgrade, I will often have a lot of tabs opened in Chrome as well as a YouTube video playing on one of the tabs for me to listen to. Every few hours I’ll take a 5 or 10 minute break to play a dinky little .io game that I enjoy. If I have too many tabs opened I will notice that the game lags. It’s not an internet/network bandwith issue since these tabs will have a static website opened on them. If I close some of the tabs the lag in the game goes away. So that makes me think that it’s a problem with memory. What do you guys and gals think?

As for doing the memory upgrade myself, I feel fairly confident I can do it. I am an electrician with experience in control wiring. Over 20 years ago I started building, water cooling, and overclocking computers. I am far from an expert, but I watched the video of the RAM upgrade on the 2018 Mac Mini and I believe I could do it carefully.

 

[russell_314]

Thanks for the replies!

It seems like right now we have one person saying the speed won’t matter and another saying that it will affect me.

As for the reason why I’m thinking of the RAM upgrade, I will often have a lot of tabs opened in Chrome as well as a YouTube video playing on one of the tabs for me to listen to. Every few hours I’ll take a 5 or 10 minute break to play a dinky little .io game that I enjoy. If I have too many tabs opened I will notice that the game lags. It’s not an internet/network bandwith issue since these tabs will have a static website opened on them. If I close some of the tabs the lag in the game goes away. So that makes me think that it’s a problem with memory. What do you guys and gals think?

As for doing the memory upgrade myself, I feel fairly confident I can do it. I am an electrician with experience in control wiring. Over 20 years ago I started building, water cooling, and overclocking computers. I am far from an expert, but I watched the video of the RAM upgrade on the 2018 Mac Mini and I believe I could do it carefully.

It sounds like you have a plan. If you're going to spend the time doing this don't cheap out on the RAM. I don't have benchmarks on the mini and maybe with your general tasks you won't notice but it is fact that RAM in single channel is slower. Ask anyone who bought prebuilt PC with a single 8 GB stick.

My only advice is take each step slowly then pause to see what it is you are doing. I had a YouTube video playing and even after watching it several times I paused each step to make sure. You should never have to force anything but on mine I felt like I had to put an uncomfortable amount of pressure to get the RAM modules to click into place. Maybe that was just mine but before I did that I pulled them out and reseated them several times just to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong. That and disconnecting some of the smaller connectors with tweezers made me sweat 🤣

Here's the modules I bought. You don't have to get the exact same ones but just make sure whatever you get it says that it's compatible with a 2018 Mac mini.

Let us know how it goes!

CORSAIR Vengeance 32GB (2 x 16GB) 260-Pin DDR4 SO-DIMM DDR4 2666 (PC4 21300) Laptop Memory Model CMSX32GX4M2A2666C18 - Newegg.com

Buy CORSAIR Vengeance 32GB (2 x 16GB) 260-Pin DDR4 SO-DIMM DDR4 2666 (PC4 21300) Laptop Memory Model CMSX32GX4M2A2666C18 with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

 

[KaliYoni]

I have a 2018 base model Mac Mini with 8 GB of RAM.

I don’t do anything processor intensive, I mostly just use Chrome and do web-based work. Sometimes with a lot of tabs opened I will notice my RAM usage goes above 7 gigs and the swapfile goes above 1 gig, so I think it would be a good idea to upgrade the RAM.

I would assume that the Ifixit RAM package with the required tools is a good value. But it’s a single 16 gig stick that is supposed to be paired with one of my existing 4 gig sticks.

I have heard that this could cause issues and I should use 2 8 gig sticks. But I also heard that since I don’t do anything very processor intensive that it won’t matter if I use two different size sticks.

Can someone confirm if this will be OK? Or should I order 2 8 gig sticks from somewhere else, preferably Amazon if you have a recommendation.

I have two quick comments:

1. Before you buy RAM and a toolkit, open the macOS Activity Monitor. Select "Memory" and use your computer normally for 10-15 minutes. If the Memory Pressure graph at the bottom of the Activity Monitor screen is consistently green, you probably don't need to install more RAM for your current usage pattern.
2. Have a look at Other World Computing (macsales.com). Even if you don't buy from them, they have lots of good info for DIY RAM installations.

 

[MacCheetah3]

I have heard that this could cause issues and I should use 2 8 gig sticks. But I also heard that since I don’t do anything very processor intensive that it won’t matter if I use two different size sticks.

Simplest if I hand it over to...

As for the reason why I’m thinking of the RAM upgrade, I will often have a lot of tabs opened in Chrome as well as a YouTube video playing on one of the tabs for me to listen to. Every few hours I’ll take a 5 or 10 minute break to play a dinky little .io game that I enjoy. If I have too many tabs opened I will notice that the game lags. It’s not an internet/network bandwith issue since these tabs will have a static website opened on them. If I close some of the tabs the lag in the game goes away.

Sometimes with a lot of tabs opened I will notice my RAM usage goes above 7 gigs and the swapfile goes above 1 gig, so I think it would be a good idea to upgrade the RAM.

Having enough RAM so the system doesn’t need to swap to disk is indeed best. When you have plenty, most of the currently free/available RAM is utilized for file caching. Of course, it is still possible to go excessive even if macOS isn’t wasteful — namely, your bank account will thank you.

With that said, the following isn’t bad advice to help determine how much more you might need.

Before you buy RAM and a toolkit, open the macOS Activity Monitor. Select "Memory" and use your computer normally for 10-15 minutes. If the Memory Pressure graph at the bottom of the Activity Monitor screen is consistently green, you probably don't need to install more RAM for your current usage pattern.

View memory usage in Activity Monitor on Mac

In Activity Monitor, view the amount of system memory being used on your Mac, including physical, compressed, wired, and app memory.

support.apple.com

Again, the Cached Files value is macOS not being wasteful. Cache can/will be relinquished promptly when a process needs more RAM. So, ignore that amount during calculations and considerations.

 

[roman.stapunov]

I would recommend to use kit of 2 sticks to maximise performance and compatibility. Considering price 2x16 is the best value. I got noticeable improvement of performance when switched from 8 to 32 Gb RAM. Be careful, I broke led connector when changed RAM It works fine without, but sometimes I miss led

 

[Electrical]

Simplest if I hand it over to...

Having enough RAM so the system doesn’t need to swap to disk is indeed best. When you have plenty, most of the currently free/available RAM is utilized for file caching. Of course, it is still possible to go excessive even if macOS isn’t wasteful — namely, your bank account will thank you.

With that said, the following isn’t bad advice to help determine how much more you might need.

View memory usage in Activity Monitor on Mac

In Activity Monitor, view the amount of system memory being used on your Mac, including physical, compressed, wired, and app memory.

support.apple.com

Again, the Cached Files value is macOS not being wasteful. Cache can/will be relinquished promptly when a process needs more RAM. So, ignore that amount during calculations and considerations.

So then maybe I should just leave well enough alone for now and see how it is doing in a couple years?