Question about RAM on the 15' MacBook Pro

[geesang]

Hey guys I have the early 2011 15' MacBook Pro running 2.3GHz Intel Core i7 (Quad Core). It came with the standard 4 GB 133 MHz DDR3 configuration. I've noticed that I've been running near 4 GB while doing daily tasks especially when browsing a video which seems to take up a lot of memory. Anyways I'm going into engineering for school and was considering upgrading to 8 GB of RAM for the sake of speed and multitasking. I am new to all of this so I dont know which brands are good and whether or not the 8 GB will make much of a difference. Any suggestions?

 

[GGJstudios]

I am new to all of this so I dont know which brands are good and whether or not the 8 GB will make much of a difference. Any suggestions?

To determine if you can benefit from more RAM, launch Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab at the bottom to check your page outs. Page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so the best way to check is to restart your computer and track page outs under your normal workload (the apps, browser pages and documents you normally would have open). If your page outs are significant (say 1GB or more) under normal use, you may benefit from more RAM. If your page outs are zero or very low during normal use, you probably won't see any performance improvement from adding RAM.

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

• Apple does not manufacture RAM and charges more than you would pay with other reputable RAM providers.
• Some great sources for Mac-compatible RAM are OWC, Crucial and newegg.com.
• Installation of user-installable parts such as RAM does not void the Apple Warranty or the AppleCare Protection Plan, unless you damage something in the process.
  
  
• MR Guide to Buying RAM
• MR Guide to Understanding Intel Mac RAM
• MR Guide to Matched RAM on Intel Macs
  
  
• MacBook Pro: How to remove or install memory
• MacBook: How to remove or install memory
• iMac: How to remove or install memory
• Mac mini: How to remove or install memory

You can find specs on all Apple products, including maximum RAM:

• By visiting EveryMac.com: Actual Maximum RAM
• By selecting your model on the Crucial Memory Advisor™ Tool to find RAM information
• By using Mactracker
• By entering your serial number here to find specs for your model.
  (Be aware that some models can use more RAM than Apple shows. Check EveryMac to verify actual usable RAM.)