Would I benefit from more RAM?

For something like £18 or about $30 I'd say do it, regardless of the low RAM issue you're getting. Very simple to install as well and will only make your machine better.

 

Well your system would feel smoother with more RAM even if you dont need it because the system loads more things into the RAM.
Although you have a little free memory, that is probably not always like that and its very likely you have days where you haveno free RAM. For the current prices I think you should definitely get it. You wont regret it.
Well you can check which programs you are using is using lots of RAM. If you need more RAM, and dont need, lets says safari, quit it yes. The videos you watch are stored in the RAM and they can be hundreds of MB's.
It would take longer to fall asleep with 8GB then with 4GB yes, but only when you are using more then 4GB of the 8GB. But then would that be a problem? So it might take 10-30 seconds longer, but since your not using it, I dont see that being a problem

 

Go for 16GB! only $109.99!

I have 16GB, and you can too!

Here's the link: http://www.frys.com/product/6932057?site=sa:adpages page:Tues_P29

Lifetime warranty too!

This is the exact memory I have. I paid $135, with a $25 mail in rebate, but now you can get it for $109.99.

And, no, I don't work for Fry's. This will work in latest 2011 MacBook Pros and I think it is backwards compatible with 2010 machines.

 

Go for it. Your mac won't always need it but when it does it will keep things humming. If you open programs and then quit them, they are stored in the RAM so if you open them again (assuming you haven't yet shut down your computer) then they will open instantly. More ram is also very useful for doing photo editing.

These days, the price makes it an easy decision - two years ago the price would have been roughly 10x more. 95% of the time I don't need the extra ram but when I do it makes a huge difference like when I was stitching 35 photos to create an HDR panorama I needed everything I had - see below. If I had a 2011 mac I would be considering 16gb now that the prices have come down - they were about 6x higher this time last year.

 

Would I benefit from more RAM?

Almost anyone could benefit from more RAM. RAM upgrades offer the most bang for buck of all computer performance upgrades.

 

You can never have too much RAM.

Crucial has always been recommended to me, and I've had no trouble with them.

 

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

 

Very nice, I picked up 16GB from Amazon for $112 last week with free shipping (via Prime), but it is up to $117 this week.