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Should I upgrade to 8GB RAM?

T

TW95

macrumors member
Original poster
May 26, 2010
87
0
London
Hello all, so basically I am not sure whether to upgrade by MBP's RAM from 4GB to 8GB.

Any thoughts?
Any prices for 2 x 4GB Modules?

Personally I think that Apple's price of nearly £500 for 2 x 4GB RAM modules is utterly ridiculous.

Does anyone know of a UK shop or website that sells RAM for MBP?
or
I am visiting the US in the summer so does anyone know of a place that sells MBP RAM preferably in California. (Not the Apple Store please)

:)
 
4 to 8 RAM

I was thinking that but sometimes I get things running slowly when using multiple applications. Especially when playing installed games.
 
What do you do? Do you run multiple OS's? Any page outs?

Probably not needed my guess. SSD would probably make a more significant impact.
 
TW95 said:
I was thinking that but sometimes I get things running slowly when using multiple applications. Especially when playing installed games.
Click to expand...
Run the performance monitor, hidden in the background. When the machine seems slow, look to see if you have a large amount of "green" - free memory. If not, maybe you need an upgrade. If you always have lots of free memory, your slowdown is probably something else. For games it is likely CPU or GPU- I don't think that most Mac games require more than 1 GB memory.

Work with digital images (Aperture, Photoshop) or movies (Final Cut) needs a lot of memory. And, the real killer is if you have several virtual machines going at once(Windows 7, Linux) - then you need as much memory as your machine will hold.
 
TW95 said:
Any prices for 2 x 4GB Modules?

Personally I think that Apple's price of nearly £500 for 2 x 4GB RAM modules is utterly ridiculous.

:)
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, there is a premium on all 4 GB DIMMs in all form factors, right now. Maybe there is a technical reason for it, or, does anyone know if this is a patent thing? So, Apple's pricing may be ridiculous, but, don't expect to get 4 GB modules dirt cheap from anyone. In California, there are several electronic "supermarket" chains where you should be able to walk in and buy (e.g. Micro Center, Fry's, etc.)
 
jnpy!$4g3cwk said:
Run the performance monitor, hidden in the background. When the machine seems slow, look to see if you have a large amount of "green" - free memory. If not, maybe you need an upgrade. If you always have lots of free memory, your slowdown is probably something else. For games it is likely CPU or GPU- I don't think that most Mac games require more than 1 GB memory.

Work with digital images (Aperture, Photoshop) or movies (Final Cut) needs a lot of memory. And, the real killer is if you have several virtual machines going at once(Windows 7, Linux) - then you need as much memory as your machine will hold.
Click to expand...

And while all thats going, your watching a flash video:D
 
I just upgraded mine in the uk 2x4gb modules cost me under £250 posted, i got them from laptopmonkey on ebay, installed with no issues, have not really got a comparison with 4gb as the memory and hdd was swapped before new laptop was used
 
TW95 said:
Hello all, so basically I am not sure whether to upgrade by MBP's RAM from 4GB to 8GB.

Any thoughts?
Any prices for 2 x 4GB Modules?

Personally I think that Apple's price of nearly £500 for 2 x 4GB RAM modules is utterly ridiculous.

Does anyone know of a UK shop or website that sells RAM for MBP?
or
I am visiting the US in the summer so does anyone know of a place that sells MBP RAM preferably in California. (Not the Apple Store please)

:)
Click to expand...

Your computer has the shoddy 9400m, that is the reason you're having poor gaming performance, more RAM would most likely be a waste.
 
miles01110 said:
Not really. Generally people that need 8 GB of RAM already know they need it.
Click to expand...

+1

Once you start watching PIns and POuts, you're gonna end up with 8GB. If you don't know what these are, 4GB is probably doing you just fine. Lol :D
 
I would say you don't need it. I play some games on mine with 2GB, so I am thinking that your RAM isn't the issue. 8GB is a LOT of RAM, and I can't see spending $500+ on it.
 
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