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Upgrading iMac memory

W

wazzaracer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 26, 2012
10
0
Hi guys i recently bought my first Mac, and i am so impressed ! It does need an upgrade on Ram as Free Ram in Activity Monitor is regularly dropping below 500mb. I bought the basic 21.5 Mid 2011 mac with standard 4gb ram so i currently have 2 sticks of 2 gb each, i have been on Crucials website and i can get another 8 gb for a reasonable price, 2 4 gb sticks giving me a total of 12 gb.
My question to you is will the 2 new 4 gb sticks work with the 2 existing sticks of 2 gb or have they got to be the same size ?

Many thanks

Warren
 
wazzaracer said:
Hi guys i recently bought my first Mac, and i am so impressed ! It does need an upgrade on Ram as Free Ram in Activity Monitor is regularly dropping below 500mb. I bought the basic 21.5 Mid 2011 mac with standard 4gb ram so i currently have 2 sticks of 2 gb each, i have been on Crucials website and i can get another 8 gb for a reasonable price, 2 4 gb sticks giving me a total of 12 gb.
My question to you is will the 2 new 4 gb sticks work with the 2 existing sticks of 2 gb or have they got to be the same size ?

Many thanks

Warren
Click to expand...
Yes any brand 1333 DDR3 SODIMM pair ram sticks will work
 
I also have a quick question: will the 2011 iMac support 4x8 gb? or should I get 4x4? :)

Edit: Its for the larger of the 21,5" models
 
Last edited:
Yes OWC claim it supports but i don't think you need so much ram doesn't improve performance you will only need such amount of ram if you edit large HD projects or high resolution photos in photoshop.

12GB is the sweat spot for every consumer work.
 
Tichols said:
I also have a quick question: will the 2011 iMac support 4x8 gb? or should I get 4x4? :)

Edit: Its for the larger of the 21,5" models
Click to expand...

According to Apple it supports up to 16 GB, but people have found that it is actually capable of 32 GB. However, few people with normal computer use need as much as 32 GB.

If you are unsure I'd say to get 2x8 to begin with, and then add on 2x8 again if you need even more. When using RAM it's best to keep all the sticks the same size, so if you can avoid using different sizes you should.
 
chevalier433 said:
Yes OWC claim it supports but i don't think you need so much ram doesn't improve performance you will only need such amount of ram if you edit large HD projects or high resolution photos in photoshop.
Click to expand...

Ok - Thanks alot :) I think I'll get 4x4 - its way cheaper anyway :D
 
Mister Bumbo said:
According to Apple it supports up to 16 GB, but people have found that it is actually capable of 32 GB. However, few people with normal computer use need as much as 32 GB.

If you are unsure I'd say to get 2x8 to begin with, and then add on 2x8 again if you need even more. When using RAM it's best to keep all the sticks the same size, so if you can avoid using different sizes you should.
Click to expand...

So will my set up of 2x2 and 2x4 not be ideal then ?
 
wazzaracer said:
So will my set up of 2x2 and 2x4 not be ideal then ?
Click to expand...

There's different takes on that. It should be fine if they are in pairs (2, 2, 4, 4 and not 2, 4, 2, 4). It all comes down to how the motherboard works, some say that all 4 has to be same size, and some people claim only two pairs to be the same size, meaning either X X X X or X X Y Y. More recent computers have no problem with the X X Y Y configuration, so you should be completely fine. But even if there's no problems with it and it works completely fine, some people claim the X X X X configuration is somewhat better, but I have yet to see proof of this.
 
Hello, I'm expecting to receive a stock 12,2 iMac 27in (MC813LL/A) i5 2.7GHz with 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM tomorrow.
For $92 I ordered the Corsair 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SODIMM Memory Kit

My question is, can I install/run both sets of memory sticks --2x2GB(stock) & 2x8GB(purchased)-- so the max memory would be around 20GBs?

If so, where's the ideal places to install them into the iMac?
 
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wazzaracer said:
So will my set up of 2x2 and 2x4 not be ideal then ?
Click to expand...

Having mixed sizes is not perfect, but it actually makes very little difference. Which is meant literally: It does make a difference, which can be measured by benchmarks, but the difference is actually very little. Like if you had a 2.19 GHz processor instead of a 2.20 GHz; it is a difference but you don't really care.
 
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Free memory is memory that's not being used. Just because you have a low amount of free memory, it does not mean that you necessarily need more memory. OSX holds onto memory for caching and releases it as necessary.

Restart and do the normal thing you would for a day. Then check your page outs and page ins and post what they are.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1342
 
wazzaracer said:
Hi guys i recently bought my first Mac, and i am so impressed ! It does need an upgrade on Ram as Free Ram in Activity Monitor is regularly dropping below 500mb.
Click to expand...

There's more to the story than free memory. To determine if you can benefit from more RAM, launch Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab at the bottom to check your page outs. Page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so the best way to check is to restart your computer and track page outs under your normal workload (the apps, browser pages and documents you normally would have open). If your page outs are significant (say 1GB or more) under normal use, you may benefit from more RAM. If your page outs are zero or very low during normal use, you probably won't see any performance improvement from adding RAM.

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
 
wazzaracer, I just bought the same computer, refurbished, from Apple for my mom. It comes with 2GB x 2. I bought two more 2GB sticks, so that I have four sticks of 2GB, or 8GB total. I am also running Windows 7 Home Premium in Bootcamp. She has Photoshop Elements on it and watches movies. It seems to be plenty fast as far as the processor and RAM goes. You will be fine with 8GB and it was cheaper to buy 2GB sticks. This computer is a good little work-horse for a smaller area. Enjoy it!
 
Thanks for all your help and advice guys ! I regularly get page outs of 1 gb. think i will go for 2 x 2 gb sticks.
I dont do any thing that strenuous on my mac so that should be plenty !
 
chevalier433 said:
Yes OWC claim it supports but i don't think you need so much ram doesn't improve performance you will only need such amount of ram if you edit large HD projects or high resolution photos in photoshop.

12GB is the sweat spot for every consumer work.
Click to expand...

32 GB does work (4x8 GB).

As for what is a real sweet spot, I don't think you can just make a blanket statement on what is good for every user without knowing what they use the computer for.
 
theSeb said:
32 GB does work (4x8 GB).

As for what is a real sweet spot, I don't think you can just make a blanket statement on what is good for every user without knowing what they use the computer for.
Click to expand...
read my post i said the sweet spot for every consumer work
 
chevalier433 said:
read my post i said the sweet spot for every consumer work
Click to expand...

I did read your post. Despite the "consumer" qualifier, I still disagree with your blanket statement. Not every consumer does the same thing or uses their computer in the same way.
 
theSeb said:
I did read your post. Despite the "consumer" qualifier, I still disagree with your blanket statement. Not every consumer does the same thing or uses their computer in the same way.
Click to expand...

Read again i said the "sweet spot" and for "blanket statements" i am a pro video editor dude i think i have an experience about optimizing workflow and computer needs in hardware depend on usage.
 
chevalier433 said:
Read again i said the "sweet spot" and for "blanket statements" i am a pro video editor dude i think i have an experience about optimizing workflow and computer needs in hardware depend on usage.
Click to expand...

I am a pro computer scientist with a degree in Computer Science, Mathematics and Electrical Engineering. I graduated nearly 11 years ago and I've worked in my field of study since graduating. I don't like objective opinions and incorrect assumptions.

I do realise though that I probably don't know as much about computer performance and optimised work flows as a pro video editor dude so I'll bow down gracefully to your superior opinion.
 
theSeb said:
I am a pro computer scientist with a degree in Computer Science, Mathematics and Electrical Engineering. I graduated nearly 11 years ago and I've worked in my field of study since graduating. I don't like objective opinions and incorrect assumptions.

I do realise though that I probably don't know as much about computer performance and optimised work flows as a pro video editor dude so I'll bow down gracefully to your superior opinion.
Click to expand...
Then we wait your opinion on the matter based on complex diagrams and scientific proof.
 
buy from owc! there ram is much better to be honest.

plus they are more helpfull if there is a problem and you can sell them the old ram.

might be a few bucks more, but its worth it.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/1333DDR3S8GB/
84 bucks for a 8gb ddr3 stick.

your system can hold up to 4 of thoes chips for 32gb of ram

I would buy two chips for now and then a while later buy another two,
just to have it at its max plus resale value will go up.
 
chevalier433 said:
Then we wait your opinion on the matter based on complex diagrams and scientific proof.
Click to expand...

provideoeditordude.png


Thank you for taking interest in my work. I am currently working on a thesis to show that global warming is being caused by the decrease in pirates around the world and have been writing software to model the situation.

pirates.jpg
 
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