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Ram...what a difference

E

Eric8199

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 27, 2009
804
236
Just upgraded my late 2008 MPB from 2gb of ram to 6gb. What an improvement. It's like a new computer. I was going to get an iMac, but decided I'm better to keep investing in more mobile devices since I use those s lot more. Don't want to be tied down to a desk.

Next step will be a 500gb or 1tb hard drive.
 
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Would going from 4gb to 6 or 8 make much difference?
 
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I'm planning on upgrading from 4 to 8. I would imagine you'll notice the difference when multi tasking with some bigger programs.
 
Frankly going from 2GB to 4GB or going from 2GB to 8GB I doubt you will see much difference. The current threshold for most users seem to be around 4GB as the best balance.
 
nippyjun said:
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Would going from 4gb to 6 or 8 make much difference?
Click to expand...

squaredonut said:
Yea, I'd like to know about 4GB to 8GB as well. If it makes a significant difference, I must just upgrade the MacBook Pro I'm about to get.
Click to expand...

kdum8 said:
Frankly going from 2GB to 4GB or going from 2GB to 8GB I doubt you will see much difference. The current threshold for most users seem to be around 4GB as the best balance.
Click to expand...

it greatly depends on what you're doing with it. running virtualized os's, editing large photo, audio or video source files, or a workflow that requires extensive multitasking can all benefit from an upgrade in RAM, even if it's as little as doubling a 2GB setup to 4GB... and in most previous gen Macs, the max amount of RAM they'll accept is 4GB.

but if you're just surfing the internet, typing up docs, and editing spreadsheets, then no. the extra RAM wont make much difference for average users.
 
Unfortunately upgrading the CPU means a new computer, I'm very happy with the difference 8Gb has made to my mbp- I'm definitely getting the use out of it and can transfer the sticks in future. (Well looking forward to making the move to SSD too- from what I read thats where the bottleneck is with speed at the moment- especially with Aperture need to read your source data).
 
Im thinking about doing the same thing.

Im getting constant beachballs. Not sure why :-/

I have 2 users constantly running with firefox open on both. Would more ram help?
 
Nabooly said:
Im thinking about doing the same thing.

Im getting constant beachballs. Not sure why :-/

I have 2 users constantly running with firefox open on both. Would more ram help?
Click to expand...

Sorry, off topic; how are you getting two users accounts running at the same time? Thanks!
 
I will be upgrading from 4 to 8 gb ram, and from 500 gb hdd to 120 gb ssd this monday or tuesday.

I expect quite a boost to my mid 2009 c2d 3.06 machine.

And yes, I do it out of need. I edit a lot of photos, of the panoramic kind. Often messing with images with 30-40 layers with a 24 megapixel image in each.

I will run a couple of benchmarks before and after and post them here if interested?
 
Upgrading RAM could solve some problems. One has to see if the current amount is being used and if your getting a value of less than 10 percent remaining you are indeed wanting to upgrade.

Each virtual machine will allocate its programmed amount from the main system and the main system will not have excess to that memory. For example I have Windows XP (1 GB) and Windows 7 (3GB) in virtual. When both of these are running OS X only has 4 GB remaining. I could not do this if there was only 4 GB on board as OS X needs 1 GB to launch and run in basic settings not counting other programs.
 
4Gb is the new 2Gb of a few years ago.

Snow Leopard pretty much demands at least 4Gb to be at its most efficient. 6Gb is even better, but I doubt that you'll see as big a leap going to 8Gb, except that you'll enjoy dual-channel again.
 
oakie said:
it greatly depends on what you're doing with it. running virtualized os's, editing large photo, audio or video source files, or a workflow that requires extensive multitasking can all benefit from an upgrade in RAM, even if it's as little as doubling a 2GB setup to 4GB... and in most previous gen Macs, the max amount of RAM they'll accept is 4GB.

but if you're just surfing the internet, typing up docs, and editing spreadsheets, then no. the extra RAM wont make much difference for average users.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this! :)
I'm probably going to upgrade to 6/8 GB once I've saved up the cash. I do quite a lot of work with photos.
 
kdum8 said:
Frankly going from 2GB to 4GB or going from 2GB to 8GB I doubt you will see much difference.
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You're wrong.

I recently upgraded my gf's blackbook from 2GB to 3GB (it's max usable RAM, via 2x2GB sticks - can only use 3GB of the installed 4GB), and she noticed a big difference in overall system speed. She's using snow leopard and even though she doesn't use any heavy software, she usually multitasks. Dashboard constantly showed anywhere from a couple hundred megs and under as free/available most of the time, clearly starving for memory. The extra 1gig helped big time. If you're running snow leopard and only have 2gigs of RAM, any upgrade will help.
 
Blu101 said:
The extra 1gig helped big time. If you're running snow leopard and only have 2gigs of RAM, any upgrade will help.
Click to expand...

Just ordered a 4GB upgrade kit for my 2.2GHz SR MBP (from stock 2GB to 4GB) and a 2GB upgrade kit for my mom's 2.0GHz MB (from stock 1GB(!) to 2GB).

I'm not expecting a night-and-day difference with my MBP honestly, but I really hope the extra 1GB will help my mom's MB; lots of spinning beachballs and sluggish performance lately.
 
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