Yet another iMac memory question: 64 GB (!) 1600 MHz vs 32 GB 1867 MHz?

[Yiveymacnod]

Hi folks!

I just got a really really good deal on 64 GB OWC 1600 MHz RAM memory and bought it without thinking much about it. The memory is said compatible with my iMac 27" late-2015 17.1 (although "Value Performance").

Right now I've got 32 GB 1867 MHz RAM in my iMac. My question is, and bare with me now, how much of a difference would there be to run 64 GB 1600 MHz compared to my current 32 GB 1867 MHz?

I know it's a bit of a "how long is a rope" question, but I'm not that certain on what actually is affecting my user experience more; RAM clock speed or RAM storage capacity?!

Have a great Saturday evening people!

 

[eRondeau]

You will not notice any difference either way.

 

[Yiveymacnod]

You will not notice any difference either way.

No? There was a huge difference going from 16 to 32 GB, I had thought that going from 32 to 64 GB would make some difference?

 

[wardie]

Without knowing what your use case applications are it’s impossible to say really. But if you do very memory intensive tasks with video for example or AI then the extra memory will help way more than it smaller amount being a bit slower.

 

[wilberforce]

Take a look at memory tab in Activity Monitor. If memory pressure and "Swap Used" are low, then there will probably be no significant benefit in having 64GB, and may actually be slightly slower with the reduced clock speed. Try running Novabench to check the RAM transfer speed.
There may be a benefit in having more space for caching, like of web pages.
If you have a Fusion drive that is most likely your main performance bottleneck.
32GB is already a substantial amount of RAM. I expect most people who need more than this already know who they are, by the type of work they do.
Personally, if I was given the choice I would opt for 32GB @ 1867MHz. But I don't use memory intensive apps, except Photoshop/Lightroom. I have 32GB @ 2667Mhz now (2020 iMac) and have no desire to increase it to 64GB.

 

[Yiveymacnod]

Without knowing what your use case applications are it’s impossible to say really. But if you do very memory intensive tasks with video for example or AI then the extra memory will help way more than it smaller amount being a bit slower.

Yes, sorry for the somewhat vague question. I'm actually back in school studying electrical engineering. So some CAD, Matlab etc for that. Also do some video editing but nothing major there. Server work but that's not RAM intensive on this machine.

Take a look at memory tab in Activity Monitor. If memory pressure and "Swap Used" are low, then there will probably be no significant benefit in having 64GB, and may actually be slightly slower with the reduced clock speed. Try running Novabench to check the RAM transfer speed.
There may be a benefit in having more space for caching, like of web pages.
If you have a Fusion drive that is most likely your main performance bottleneck.
32GB is already a substantial amount of RAM. I expect most people who need more than this already know who they are, by the type of work they do.
Personally, if I was given the choice I would opt for 32GB @ 1867MHz. But I don't use memory intensive apps, except Photoshop/Lightroom. I have 32GB @ 2667Mhz now (2020 iMac) and have no desire to increase it to 64GB.

Right now spinning rust 😱but got an 1 TB WD Black SN750 NVMe blade that's going in with an 1 TB WD Blue SATA SSD. Just haven't had the time yet. I do love my tabs in Safari and that I know is RAM intensive. I'm pretty sure I know that I don't NEED 64 GB over my current 32 GB. But for the price I paid they're practically free so I'm not considering cost here..
Just if missing those extra 267 MHz is noticeable if I put the 64 GB @ 1600 MHz in? In what way does clock speed impact the user experience? I'm clearly not that good at how the RAM process works, so excuse my n00b questions... 😄

Edit: I also run Plex on this machine since my unRAID server is too slow for transcoding so that might be one benefit that points to more capacity RAM. Then I could transcode to /tmp.

Edit 2: Yes, I could just install the new 64 GB and try it out, but I'd rather just sell them unopened if it's a non-upgrade to begin with.

 

[wilberforce]

Just if missing those extra 267 MHz is noticeable if I put the 64 GB @ 1600 MHz in? In what way does clock speed impact the user experience?

In general, more RAM is better than faster RAM, for real world usage.
But you probably will not actually notice a difference going from 1867 to 1600MHz, or going from 32 to 64GB, unless you are currently running short on RAM, and unless you time side-to-side comparisons.

I went from a 2014 iMac with 24GB 1600 Mhz RAM to a 2020 iMac with 32GB 2667Mhz RAM, which by the benchmarks gives twice the performance. In actual day to day usage, yes it felt a bit faster, but tbh wasn't that dramatic (except for gaming, which is more a function of GPU).

Your 64GB is not really "free," as it has value to you if you sell it. Personally I would not spend (or forfeit) more than about $100 on this RAM upgrade. Certainly not the $800+ price from OWC that you linked!

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Your 64GB is not really "free," as it has value to you if you sell it. Personally I would not spend (or forfeit) more than about $100 on this RAM upgrade. Certainly not the $800+ price from OWC that you linked!

OP meant he could sell his current 32GB and add a small amount to get OWC 64GB ram set.

 

[Yiveymacnod]

In general, more RAM is better than faster RAM, for real world usage.
But you probably will not actually notice a difference going from 1867 to 1600MHz, or going from 32 to 64GB, unless you are currently running short on RAM, and unless you time side-to-side comparisons.

I went from a 2014 iMac with 24GB 1600 Mhz RAM to a 2020 iMac with 32GB 2667Mhz RAM, which by the benchmarks gives twice the performance. In actual day to day usage, yes it felt a bit faster, but tbh wasn't that dramatic (except for gaming, which is more a function of GPU).

Your 64GB is not really "free," as it has value to you if you sell it. Personally I would not spend (or forfeit) more than about $100 on this RAM upgrade. Certainly not the $800+ price from OWC that you linked!

Ok, thank you for your answer. Sure, it's not "free" but it's within the roam of calling it that. Not sure what I could get if I sold the 64 GB either. I just figured it's always easier to sell stuff in in unopened package.. =)

OP meant he could sell his current 32GB and add a small amount to get OWC 64GB ram set.

Sorry, but no I actually meant to keep the 32 GB and sell the 64 GB if the upgrade wasn't an upgrade. 🤷‍♂️