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Upgraded to 16GB, Problem?

R

rdallas

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 4, 2013
3
0
Hello, first time poster.

I recently upgraded to 16GB of RAM on my Mid-2012 Macbook with OS Mavericks with this type of memory: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231704

I upgraded now, and I'm just running Chrome and maybe one or two applications at most like Word.

When I check the memory it says I'm using 12GB of Memory, how is this possible, I had 4GB before, and at most I was using swapped memory of around 400mb when I was using 4GB.

How it is I am using 12GB of memory? Apple "recommends" a maximum of 8GB, so if I did what Apple recommends (upgrade to just 8GB) I would be under by 4GB - and its not even like I'm running photoshop or anything.

This isn't all the time, using 12 GB, most of the time I've checked periodically, and i'm using 8-10GB, when this happens, its mostly just chrome open or watching videos on VLC

I don't recall ever using 8GB of memory when I had 4GB of memory.
 
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T

TheEnthusiast

macrumors regular
Aug 22, 2013
165
23
Don't worry about it. The amount of memory "used" by the OS varies based on the total amount of RAM installed and is not representative of the total amount of memory currently in use due to things like cache, etc. The important things are memory pressure (Mavericks' Activity Monitor) and page outs. 16GB is more than enough RAM.
 
R

rdallas

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 4, 2013
3
0
TheEnthusiast said:
Don't worry about it. The amount of memory "used" by the OS varies based on the total amount of RAM installed and is not representative of the total amount of memory currently in use due to things like cache, etc. The important things are memory pressure (Mavericks' Activity Monitor) and page outs. 16GB is more than enough RAM.
Click to expand...

The performance is marginal from 4GB to 16GB, I notice faster performance here and there but its not light and day.

Why is it using so much memory for the tasks I was doing before when I had 4GB and it was never using that much memory when I was at 4GB.
 
S

sonyisawesome

macrumors regular
Jul 24, 2012
105
0
What exactly is the point of having 16GB of RAM? 8GB is sufficient for lot of stuff, including gaming.

16GB is an overkill.
 
T

TheEnthusiast

macrumors regular
Aug 22, 2013
165
23
rdallas said:
The performance is marginal from 4GB to 16GB, I notice faster performance here and there but its not light and day.

Why is it using so much memory for the tasks I was doing before when I had 4GB and it was never using that much memory when I was at 4GB.
Click to expand...

Not sure what you meant by the last question. But, remember that more RAM does not mean exponentially faster performance unless more RAM was absolutely necessary. Meaning you may have seemed to be using a lot of RAM with 4GB, but you may not have maxed out. In a situation where swapping was occurring frequently, then you would have seen more improvements by upgrading. In this case, 8GB would have been fine. At this point, you made the computer perfect for RAM intensive programs or lots of multitasking.
 
P

pat park

macrumors 6502a
Nov 29, 2011
716
26
California
sonyisawesome said:
What exactly is the point of having 16GB of RAM? 8GB is sufficient for lot of stuff, including gaming.

16GB is an overkill.
Click to expand...

Most RAM is so cheap nowadays, it makes sense to take advantage of it. It's not like too much RAM is going to hurt anything.

Really don't understand the aversion to increasing RAM, especially when it's not that expensive.
 
T

TheEnthusiast

macrumors regular
Aug 22, 2013
165
23
pat park said:
Most RAM is so cheap nowadays, it makes sense to take advantage of it. It's not like too much RAM is going to hurt anything.

Really don't understand the aversion to increasing RAM, especially when it's not that expensive.
Click to expand...

I could use a similar argument: why spend money on something that won't necessarily help when that money could go towards something that will, AppleCare, an SSD, clothes, pay a bill etc. Plus, don't forget that expensive is relative.
 
S

sonyisawesome

macrumors regular
Jul 24, 2012
105
0
pat park said:
Most RAM is so cheap nowadays, it makes sense to take advantage of it. It's not like too much RAM is going to hurt anything.

Really don't understand the aversion to increasing RAM, especially when it's not that expensive.
Click to expand...
$200 is cheap?

Kid, you have to go outside a little bit more.
 
SomeGuyDude

SomeGuyDude

macrumors 6502a
Mar 19, 2011
730
2
NEPA
sonyisawesome said:
What exactly is the point of having 16GB of RAM? 8GB is sufficient for lot of stuff, including gaming.

16GB is an overkill.
Click to expand...

Particularly intense media editing or gaming, and the knowledge that in two years it'll still be able to keep up comfortably with whatever gets thrown at it.
 
irnchriz

irnchriz

macrumors 65816
May 2, 2005
1,034
2
Scotland
I too have 16gb in my mid 2012 MacBook Pro. I picked it up just after the new rMB pros were announced as I wanted to be able to upgrade the ram, replace the DVD with an optibay and whack my own SSD in. I have a 750GB WD Scorpio black HD, 512GB samsung SSD and 16GB ram.

4 GB of ram is not enough and you see a major difference going to 8GB. Going to 16 GB means I can have a lot of programs running alongside 2 VM's and the whole experience is buttery smooth. It cost me £84 from crucial.com for my 16gb, worth every penny.
 
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leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,183
19,029
@rdallas: as already stated in the thread, you should not take your RAM usage figures too seriously. OS X will use as much RAM as you have, even if less would have been enough - it goes for caches etc. RAM usage statistics are only useful fir tracking performance issues.
 
thekev

thekev

macrumors 604
Aug 5, 2010
7,005
3,343
rdallas said:
The performance is marginal from 4GB to 16GB, I notice faster performance here and there but its not light and day.

Why is it using so much memory for the tasks I was doing before when I had 4GB and it was never using that much memory when I was at 4GB.
Click to expand...


Performance increases if you were in fact using a lot of memory. For example if you saw choppy behavior when experiencing pageouts, that behavior would go away.

sonyisawesome said:
What exactly is the point of having 16GB of RAM? 8GB is sufficient for lot of stuff, including gaming.

16GB is an overkill.
Click to expand...

That isn't the case for everything. Gaming isn't that big of a deal in terms of ram.

sonyisawesome said:
$200 is cheap?
Click to expand...

It was about half that amount a year ago.
 
Gav Mack

Gav Mack

macrumors 68020
Jun 15, 2008
2,193
22
Sagittarius A*
sonyisawesome said:
What exactly is the point of having 16GB of RAM? 8GB is sufficient for lot of stuff, including gaming.

16GB is an overkill.
Click to expand...

For what the OP is doing with just Chrome and Word, absolutely. Though if you throw apps like Photoshop and Premiere into the mix even having 16Gb can sometimes not be enough either.

Then there's the case of these new MBP models with soldered memory - it's a very sensible idea long term to max the ram out.
 
Gav Mack

Gav Mack

macrumors 68020
Jun 15, 2008
2,193
22
Sagittarius A*
The Mercurian said:
Speak for yourself. I have 16GB in mine and regularly max it out. Wish I could put 32
Click to expand...

I have 8gb in my 2010 i5 MBP and when I fired up PS CS6 on my old 'new' Mac Pro I could not believe how much faster a 5 year old outdated twin cpu tower with 32gb was than my i5. It's still even quicker with bigger files than a clients maxed out i7 2011 Mac mini with 16gb too :D
 
L

leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,183
19,029
Gav Mack said:
I have 8gb in my 2010 i5 MBP and when I fired up PS CS6 on my old 'new' Mac Pro I could not believe how much faster a 5 year old outdated twin cpu tower with 32gb was than my i5. It's still even quicker with bigger files than a clients maxed out i7 2011 Mac mini with 16gb too :D
Click to expand...

Why is that even surprising and what does it have to do with RAM? The dual CPUs in your Mac pro are 3x faster for multi-threaded applications than even the top of the line MacBook Pro i7 from 2010. It is also over 50% faster than the quad core i7 in the Mac Mini...
 
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