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Should i upgrade to 4GB of RAM?

M

mossme89

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 2, 2009
596
131
I have a 15" 2008 unibody, 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo MBP with 2GB of RAM. I'm really considering upgrading to 4GB of RAM. I find that in Snow Leopard (and Leopard too) that playing HD video can be pretty choppy at times, iMovie beachballs a lot, and it's just kinda slow if i have more than a couple apps open.

Compared to my friend's new MBP (core 2 duo w/ 2.4 ghz also) with 4GB of RAM, my friend's Macbook is so much zippier and he can have many apps open without much of a slowdown. Anybody else notice this? And should i upgrade? I'm doing video editing, some with HD video, light gaming, but often like to run with a bunch of apps in the background or in different space (i.e. iTunes, Safari with a bunch of tabs, Word with a couple documents, Skype)
 
Yes you should. I have a pre-Santa Rosa MBP that had 2GB in it up until a few weeks ago when I upgraded. My MBP is a whole lot snappier and smoother running now.
 
It's a unibody with DDR3 so it's a tad more expensive i think...

Good, so i'm not crazy :) Yeah i could have sworn my friend's macbook is much faster than mine. By faster i mean being able to zip around with a bunch of apps open with not much slowdown. Think i should go for 5 or 6GB while i'm at it?
 
mossme89 said:
It's a unibody with DDR3 so it's a tad more expensive i think...

Good, so i'm not crazy :) Yeah i could have sworn my friend's macbook is much faster than mine. By faster i mean being able to zip around with a bunch of apps open with not much slowdown. Think i should go for 5 or 6GB while i'm at it?
Click to expand...

I'd just go for 4GB. That's what I have in mine (which is the same computer internally), and it works very well. I think you can pick up a 4GB kit for around $75-80 now
 
It is totally worth the upgrade. There is a reason that pretty much every computer you can buy these days comes with at least 4gb standard.
 
I have the same model, it's worth upgrading.

I upgraded to 4GB in late 2008, when ddr2 was the most popular type of ram, so 4GB of ddr3 was still expensive, now you can get 4gb ddr3 pretty cheap.
 
mossme89 said:
I have a 15" 2008 unibody, 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo MBP with 2GB of RAM. I'm really considering upgrading to 4GB of RAM. I find that in Snow Leopard (and Leopard too) that playing HD video can be pretty choppy at times, iMovie beachballs a lot, and it's just kinda slow if i have more than a couple apps open.

Compared to my friend's new MBP (core 2 duo w/ 2.4 ghz also) with 4GB of RAM, my friend's Macbook is so much zippier and he can have many apps open without much of a slowdown. Anybody else notice this? And should i upgrade? I'm doing video editing, some with HD video, light gaming, but often like to run with a bunch of apps in the background or in different space (i.e. iTunes, Safari with a bunch of tabs, Word with a couple documents, Skype)
Click to expand...

Coming from my 2007 Macbook with a 2.0 GHz processor with 2 GB of RAM , wait, scratch that, it might have been 1 GB (whatever was standard to come with that laptop) to my 2010 MBP 2.4 GHz processor (both core2duos) with 4 GB of RAM, I'd say yes, 4 GB is definitely much better than 2 GB (or maybe that was 1 GB, still, more RAM can definitely make a difference).

I know, different computers but I will say I haven't noticed much speed difference (seeing as the processors aren't that different, is that relaly much a surprise), but I have seen a good difference in my new computer being able to handle more processes at once vs. my old computer which would have several "stop and think" episodes (which from what I was told was most likely due to needing more RAM). So, I'd say it makes a huge difference.
 
Does anyone know the story with 6gb in the 2008 unibodies? I've been reading around but I just cannot find a definite answer. Some say it works, some say Snow Leopard broke it.
 
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