How much does RAM actually help?

T

themacko

Barking at the moon.
I recently got Tiger 10.4 and, perhaps more importantly, a Firewire DVD-R/W drive. I have an 800mhz G4 with 640mb of RAM. My question is, would an increase in RAM (say, upgrading to a total of 1gb) give me much of a speed/reliability boost?

I wouldn't consider myself a power user but I do tend to have many applications open simultaneously, which does bog my system down, and will soon be doing a fair amount of simple video editing (iMovie) and DVD burning. I suppose a better question to ask is "Would another 384mb of ram be worth the $80 it will cost to upgrade?"

Thanks, I know this is a subjective question but that's what forums are for, eh? :D
 
If you are a heavy user yes. RAM makes all the difference when working with a lot of programs/large files. The less your computer has to go to the hard drive the better. Typically benchmarking Database queries is done by the amount of disk access required because it is the slowest part of the system.
 
I should add that a Mac wih Panther and 256MB is ok for doing normal things, but run about 6/7 programs and it will really start to slow down. That's why my RAM needs upgraded. :eek:
Not sure how well 256MB is on Tiger...
 
Get as much RAM as you can afford. You will notice the difference, if you are running multiple applications. Stuff like video editing will easily eat up RAM.
 
i have a gb of ram, on tiger. still accesses the disk from time to time - iwant 2gb, or more! MORE!! bwahahahahaaha!
 
As stated above:

"The simple rule is to get as much as you can afford."

Even if you are not a power user, it only takes OS X and a couple of applications to easily fill up a GB or less of RAM. Just add it up. OS X needs a minimum of 256MB. An application like Photoshop requires 256MB - 512MB recommended. Open another application similar to Photoshop and - BANG - your computer is having to compensate for it's lack of RAM.

Having RAM is a bit like having a fridge in the house.
Let's say you're making a meal in the kitchen and you need something.
Now, you could check in the fridge for supplies (RAM).
Or, you could put on your shoes, jump in the car, fight traffic, find a car park space, get to the supermarket, get what you want, and make it all the way back again.
(Accessing virtual RAM on your hard-drive).

So, the more RAM you have the bigger your fridge is going to be, and the more likely that what you need is going to be stored there. Cos' if you have to go to the "supermarket", well, it really slows things down. Better to have a big fridge - or as much RAM as you can.

If you have 640MB - I would suggest you obtain a 512MB module.
(And if I guessed correctly what modules you alreadly have...)
If you have 4 RAM slots - you will now have 1152MB. (very nice)
If you have 3 RAM slots - you will now have 1024MB.

Also, DVD burning will eat a large proportion of either figure above!
 
Thanks for the info, looks like I should fill it up with as much RAM as possible (1 gig, I think). I typically have a couple Office apps open along with SPSS & possibly iPhoto and/or Photoshop. Then of course the obvious Safari, Mail and iTunes. I always presumed that 640mb was enough and that my computer overall was just slowing down ... maybe it has been the [lack of] RAM.
 
It's like juggling: more RAM will teach you how to juggle more balls at once, but it won't teach you how to juggle faster or more reliably.

Or something.

I'll get me coat.
 
here is an example for you. I have an 867 G4 with 1.5gb of ram and a new Dual 2.0 G5 with only 512mb of ram (2gb ram should be arriving today, i hope). i used the same 110mb image on both machines and did a 15px gaussian blur. the g5 did it in 16 seconds and 17 for the G4. as you can see ram played a huge part. i will redo it when i install my new ram later today
 
themacko said:
Thanks for the info, looks like I should fill it up with as much RAM as possible (1 gig, I think). I typically have a couple Office apps open along with SPSS & possibly iPhoto and/or Photoshop. Then of course the obvious Safari, Mail and iTunes. I always presumed that 640mb was enough and that my computer overall was just slowing down ... maybe it has been the [lack of] RAM.
Click to expand...

I would go 1 GB given your activities. However, I can't support the idea, for example, of "go with as much as you can afford" unless purchasing more RAM, even if not needed, does not preclude you from purchasing something else you want. More RAM adds absolutely zero if you don't need it.
 
Now... don't get me wrong - 640MB of RAM is a fairly decent amount.

I think well accepted notions such as "go with as much as you can afford" stem from that fact that computers are generally sold/brought with a severe lack of RAM. And therefore the act of even doubling that amount can in many cases still be too little. From experience I have found there is a certain threshold you need to get above in order to maximise an applications performance. Take the OS X system for example. It is sold with the minimum requirement of 256MB of RAM. With that amount it will work, but not particularly well and certainly not with any consistently. It's threshold is somewhere between that amount and 512MB where suddenly it kicks in and you notice a drastic improvement. Keeping in mind that is just one application. Have a few more applications open and running at the same time - to achieve that threshold for each application - and suddenly what was once thought of as a fairly decent amount of RAM just isn't cutting the mustard.

"The Ghost" is correct in stating that; "More RAM adds absolutely zero if you don't need it". And once you reach this overall threshold of meeting RAM requirements, any more isn't going to increase performance. But, to touch base on my previous post - I would rather have a "big fridge" with room to keep everything I need and more, than a small fridge with the absolute essentials, where I find myself dashing off to the supermarket all the time!

And in this case I agree with "The Ghost" that "given your activities" any amount of RAM less than 1GB is probably going to involve many trips to the supermarket.

But, (and I think it goes without saying) don't go investing in huge amounts of RAM at the expense of other components. Because if you have a severe bottleneck like a old, slow hard-drive - any amount of RAM isn't going to make that hard-drive go faster...

mmmmm, better go and see what's in the fridge...
 
ok so i just got my ram installed. holy sh#t. what a huge speed difference. that same image test i did above... now with 2.5gb of ram i did it in 3 seconds compared to 16 seconds with only the 512mb installed.

Buy more Ram.
 
"ok so i just got my ram installed. holy sh#t. what a huge speed difference. that same image test i did above... now with 2.5gb of ram i did it in 3 seconds compared to 16 seconds with only the 512mb installed. "

WOW! That is impressive.

Although, what got me wasn't that a G5 with 2.5GB RAM could do it in 3 secs, but rather that your original single processor G4 867Mhz with the RAM maxed out was just as fast as a dual processor G5 2.0Ghz with the amount of RAM that it comes with out of the box.

I think that's pretty amazing.
 
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