Let's see how much RAM helps out OS X

T

thedbp

Frantic Messenger of Hope
As of tomorrow, i'll be upgrading my B&W G3 from 384MB of RAM to a full 1GB. We'll see how fast OS X can chomp down a GB of memory. Any other users with maxed out RAM find that it helped immensely or what? I've never worked on a computer with anything higher than this one with 384, so I can't imagine what this will be like.

And I'd just like to say that although i was initially upset that I bought a B&W just before the G4s came out, I'm reaping the benefits now: I can use my old AppleDesign keyboard, which I LOVE, the BEST keyboard Apple has made yet, and RAM for this model is the CHEAPEST AROUND. I just picked up 3 256MB modules for a cool $32 each. For less than $100 bucks I got what would have cost me over $4,000 if I had it preconfigured....
 
My PB has been upgraded from 256MB to 512MB. While I did see a difference, it wasn't all that much faster.

I've noticed that only one 80MB swap file is used. I can't help but think that X would be faster if the PB had more video RAM. 8MB is fairly crap.
 
yea, 8MB is VERY small.

that was the one thing I really didnt like about the PB. And the other bad thing is that, its not upgradeable. Ack!

on the other side, it does run diablo2 @ ~30fps... which is decent.
 
I have a gig of ram. I also have never had anything swap to disk :)

A gig of ram is sorta like having a 1000 gallon fuel tank in your Diesel Volkswagen.....you never have to worry about it.
 
I noticed a pretty big gain from 160M to 256M in my Rev C. iMac.

I still get the occasional "not enough memory to load image" errors from IE 5.1, but I think that's an IE 5.1 problem, not MacOS X.

Mike
 
lol damn besterds :p (new england accent lol) ...
I wish I could max out my G3 B&W .... ahh oh well ;)


Admiral
 
There has been a lot of discussion about memory on this site, but - forgive me if I have missed it - not much about virtual memory.

I'm not technically literate, but I do know that using virtual memory under Mac OS 9 slows your machine dramatically.

It makes me question why Apple set it 'on', by default - but that's another issue.

What I am wondering here is whether OSX's different way of handling memory means that VM is always on, impossible to turn off?

And would that slow the Mac down, just like under OS 9?

Could this explain the speed problems many people seem to be having?



 
It makes me question why Apple set it 'on', by default
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Because in 2001 users shouldn't be getting 'OUT OF MEMORY ERROR' messages

What I am wondering here is whether OSX's different way of handling memory means that VM is always on, impossible to turn off?
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There was a thread here on how to turn it off, but I think the general consensus was it wasn't worth it.

And would that slow the Mac down, just like under OS 9?
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Only if you had a small amount of ram and were switching between a lot of ram-hungry apps
 
it helps - it helps A LOT. But i didn't really notice to insane of a performance boost in X, other than being able to have almost all of my relevant apps open at once without an problems whatsoever.
OS 9 however, LOVES this new ram - the memory control panel tells me that I have TOO MUCH RAM to bother with VM. That's cool! And waking from sleep takes approximately half a second now. Beyond that, I haven't noticed dramatic speed increases, although functionality is way improved, i.e., app switching is quick and painless, app launching doesn't hog the system as much, all the normal multi-tasking boosts you'd expect. But nothing that really knocked me off my feet. all in all though, i'm glad i have a gig of RAM. I'll NEVER EVER have to worry about upgrading that section of this blue beast ever again!

zjd
 
OSX handels all of the memory allocation on its own. It only swaps out to VM if it needs to. If you have ten programs open and all of your physical ram is used up, and then you launch an eleventh application, the OS will write some of the data that you are not using to the hard disk to make more room.

To see more about how much ram you computer is using and how much VM is used, type "top" at your command prompt. The "pageouts" number tells you how much swap [writing to hard disk] is going on.
A better explination of everything that you see on this screen can be found at www.macosx.org

With the price of RAM right now, I don't know why you all don't have at least 512MB :)

Hope this helps
 
With the price of RAM right now, I don't know why you all don't have at least 512MB :)
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I have 256M in my Rev C. iMac (266Mhz). It maxes out at 384M, but it's a PIA to add RAM and I'm not convinced I'd notice any difference with only another 128M.

I was toying with giving it to my sister and buying a cube, but I guess that's not gonna happen. Not sure what I'll do now.

Mike

 
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