I have a Late-2013 27" iMac with only 8GB stock memory. It also has a 256GB SSD. I noticed OWC has 32GB memory upgrade kits for about $139. Do you think it would be worth it for upgrading this older machine? It does what I need it to do for the most part, but recently I've noticed it slowing down some. Spinning beach balls and my imac fan revving up are becoming much more frequent. I usually have multiple tabs open in safari, along with photos, mail, music, notes, all open at the same time. I then check my activity monitor and 90% of the memory is used up often. Sometimes I do some work in Final Cut Pro or Pixelmator. $139 for a memory upgrade is better than spending $2k+ on a new machine, which I really don't want to do yet if I can get at least a couple more years out of this one. Would I notice any difference if I upgrade the memory? Thanks for any advice!
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Should I Upgrade the Memory on my 2013 iMac?
- Thread starter SteelBlueTJ
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How is your Memory Pressure, visible in Activity Monitor? See below, if it is green all is well. If not, the RAM upgrade will do wonders for your usage, especially when working in FCP or Pixelmator - that's exactly what your machine seems to need.
It would be informative if we knew your memory pressure. If the swap is around 8 GB, you should go to 32 GB RAM straight - if not, 16 GB should be plenty for your usage.
The green on mine is slightly less than the image you posted. My green is about a hair less than 1/4 way up from the bottom. Right now, I have two - 4GB sticks. Could I get two 8GB sticks and have a total of 24GB?
Unless you are getting crashes or out-of-memory alerts, there's probably no point in "upgrading" from 8gb.
That's still fine (at least for now).
Tell us WHAT APPLICATIONS you are using on a day-to-day basis.
I sense that most folks who buy "lots of RAM" don't need half of it.
My preferred source for RAM:
That's still fine (at least for now).
Tell us WHAT APPLICATIONS you are using on a day-to-day basis.
I sense that most folks who buy "lots of RAM" don't need half of it.
My preferred source for RAM:
Apple Late 2013 iMac Memory - Intel Core i5 Quad-Core 27" Late 2013 ME088LL/A - DMS
DMS offers DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) Memory for your Late 2013 iMac Intel Core i5 Quad-Core 27" ME088LL/A. All RAM is 100% Apple Compatible and backed by a Lifetime Warranty.
www.datamemorysystems.com