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So, how big of a speed boost are we talking about here?

Steve.P.JobsFan

Steve.P.JobsFan

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 27, 2010
1,010
613
Columbus
This Saturday, I'm driving 85 miles to another State (Ohio to Michigan) to the Apple Store to get my new iMac. Here is the config I bought, which is the $1499 model.

SPECS:
21.5-inch: 2.7GHz
2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
1920 x 1080 resolution
4GB (two 2GB) memory
1TB hard drive
AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 512MB

Now, I had 8GB RAM delivered from Crucial today, so I'd actually have 12GB RAM instead of 4GB RAM. I'm coming from a 2007 20" iMac, also the $1499 model.


SPECS FOR OLD MACHINE:
20-inch: 2.4 GHz
2.4GHz Dual-Core Intel Core 2 Duo
1680 x 1050 resolution
4GB RAM
320GB Hard Drive
ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB

Here's what I'm usually doing on my Mac everyday.

The usual stuff (Email, web, YouTube, Facebook, stuff like that)
Gaming via Steam (Left 4 Dead 2, Portal, and another game I forgot...)
GTA IV via Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit (BootCamp)
Photoshop Elements work (Maybe twice a week...)
Render and export 720p video via iMovie once a week.

Since I'm gaining an extra two cores, I'm assuming the speed boost would just be double what I had on the old iMac?

Comments appreciated.

- Billy
 
The Usual stuff is going to be about the same... might seem slightly faster.
Gaming will see a decent boost, fairly significant GPU upgrade
Gaming on windows will also improve
Photoshop some renders and effects/layering will get done faster, better gpu could help if you deal with very large hi-res images
Probably going to see the biggest difference here. Should be 2x+ faster than your old machine.
 
Steve.P.JobsFan said:
Now, I had 8GB RAM delivered from Crucial today, so I'd actually have 12GB RAM instead of 4GB RAM.
Click to expand...

That's not how it works. There are two RAM slots in that iMac, each using a 2 GB stick. You'd have 12 if the Crucial was one 8 GB stick and the iMac was using one 4 GB stick. If the Crucial is just one stick of memory the most you'll have is 10. If it's two 4 GB sticks you'll only have the 8 that you bought.
 
MonkeyBrainz said:
That's not how it works. There are two RAM slots in that iMac, each using a 2 GB stick. You'd have 12 if the Crucial was one 8 GB stick and the iMac was using one 4 GB stick. If the Crucial is just one stick of memory the most you'll have is 10. If it's two 4 GB sticks you'll only have the 8 that you bought.
Click to expand...

all of the iMacs have 4 slots.....:p
 
I noticed a big jump in my Adobe programs going from core duo to i5. Basic web browsing won't really see much of a bump since a lot of that has to do with ping, and connection speed. I will say though that much to my surprise adding 16 gb of ram to my imac, has drastically improved my streaming video download. I cannot explain it but my computer will easily run 1080p videos, whereas before it would buffer and stutter. Same 10mbps dl speed.

In that instance you may also see a bump.
 
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xxBURT0Nxx said:
Steve.P.JobsFan said:
That's what I thought! I was alarmed for a second! :eek:

Thank goodness for your clarification!
Click to expand...
you can, but it's not recommended to run different ram in each slot. Might as well just buy another set of 4gb sticks to match, and have 16gb!!!
Click to expand...

Mine runs fine in the 12 GB configuration, and FCP X makes good use of it.
 
laserbeam273 said:
Mine runs fine in the 12 GB configuration, and FCP X makes good use of it.
Click to expand...
like i said, it WILL work, but is not recommended. Apple says: "For best performance, fill all memory slots, installing an equal memory module in each slot"

Obviously you can install 2x4gb and 2x2gb, but if you start seeing problems that may be the problem. Just was letting the OP know.
 
Is it really true mixing ram cards (sizes) is bad?

xxBURT0Nxx said:
you can, but it's not recommended to run different ram in each slot. Might as well just buy another set of 4gb sticks to match, and have 16gb!!!
Click to expand...

I've seen people post that they added 8gig of ram to the existing 2, 2gig chips for 12 gig total and it was great. Is this a mistake? If my imac comes with 2, 2gig cards and i want to add 2, 4gig cards, a problem?

Thanks
 
xxBURT0Nxx said:
like i said, it WILL work, but is not recommended. Apple says: "For best performance, fill all memory slots, installing an equal memory module in each slot"

Obviously you can install 2x4gb and 2x2gb, but if you start seeing problems that may be the problem. Just was letting the OP know.
Click to expand...

Given the number of people here that have done it and had no issues at all (myself included), the likelihood of that happening is really low unless you use some really obscure brand of memory.
 
it will work, apple just doesn't recommend it and some reports of kernel panics and such. Obviously people have done it with no problems, and it works fine, I was simply letting the OP know that it is not recommended to mix/match ram.

^^^ yeah 2 people in this thread... HUGE sample size haha

I NEVER claimed it WILL happen, i said it COULD happen, and apple specifically says they do not recommend mixing ram. Take it for what you want, I'm just providing the information.
 
xxBURT0Nxx said:
it will work, apple just doesn't recommend it and some reports of kernel panics and such. Obviously people have done it with no problems, and it works fine, I was simply letting the OP know that it is not recommended to mix/match ram.
Click to expand...

Kernel panics? I've heard it was not recommend before, but that was because there's a performance boost associated with all 4 chips having the same size.
 
You new machine will absolutely DESTROY the old one in terms of video transcoding.

My i7-2720 based MBP 15 is so much faster than my core2 quad desktop at video encoding its not funny.


depending on the workload, your new machine may be much more than 2x faster. in some tasks, it will be approximately the same however.


edit:
going for 12gb instead of 16gb - you're maybe saving $20 (4gb DIMMs are about 20-25 bucks each?), and perhaps making the mac unable to access memory as quickly due to the memory slots not running in dual channel mode.

don't screw around... spend the extra 20 bucks on upgrading to 16gb, you'll be glad you did.
 
Last edited:
forty2j said:
Kernel panics? I've heard it was not recommend before, but that was because there's a performance boost associated with all 4 chips having the same size.
Click to expand...
anytime you mess with ram or hdd you can experience kernel panics. Doesn't mean that it was or wasn't the ram, i'm just posting FYI. Obviously it can be done, as I've said, just saying RAM is so cheap, it's not hard to just spend an extra $35 and upgrade all 4 DIMM's to 4gb at once. Easier to do it all at once than taking your iMac apart again.
 
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