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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > macOS > Anyone running Lion on 6 GB of RAM?

Anyone running Lion on 6 GB of RAM?
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angelmb
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May 19, 2012, 01:42 PM
 
So my brother has this Mid 2007 iMac with 4 GB RAM running Snow Leopard. Today, he got this message from Rhino -3D design software-



I am questioning the ability to run OS X Lion, Adobe CS 5, Rhinoceros and other minor apps at once with a mere 4 GBs of RAM. Neither I think maxing out the RAM to 6 GBs should make things a lot smoother.

What has anyone else to say about this.? TIA.
     
seanc
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May 19, 2012, 02:26 PM
 
Is Rhino going to upgrade itself at that time?
Maybe you should ask them what's going on.
     
Thorzdad
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May 19, 2012, 02:41 PM
 
Maybe Rhino is going to push-out an update/upgrade at that time that will be 10.7+ only? Sort of a poorly-worded warning that 10.6 Macs are about to be left behind?
     
angelmb  (op)
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May 19, 2012, 02:43 PM
 
Rhino on the Mac side is pre-release software, so you should update it from time to time as these betas do expire; hence the warning. As Thorzdad points out, when it comes to Rhino, Macs running Snow Leopard are being left behind.

I did forget to mention my brother's workflow includes Final Cut Studio making it more difficult for the iMac to cope with.
     
Thorzdad
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May 19, 2012, 02:50 PM
 
With all that, he definitely should max the ram in the old iMac.
Its max is only 6GB? I thought iMacs could max to 8GB.
     
angelmb  (op)
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May 19, 2012, 03:11 PM
 
According to Mactracker, 2009 and later iMacs can take 8 GB RAM. His is older, so 6 GB as maximum.

I usually dismiss the minimum specs for most software. I wonder if anything under 8 GB of RAM will have you heavily into the hard disk to compensate. SSDs are out of question due to sheer hard disk capacity requirements.

I have already maxed out the RAM (eight GB) in his Unibody 2008 MBP, so that one should do fine.
     
Thorzdad
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May 19, 2012, 03:20 PM
 
Any chance he can hook an external drive to the iMac? CS5 would benefit from a dedicated swap disc. Dunno if the other apps can access externals for swap.
     
angelmb  (op)
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May 19, 2012, 04:01 PM
 
Sure, he has a WD My Book Studio II as means of back-up strategy.
     
abbaZaba
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May 19, 2012, 04:23 PM
 
I have the Mid 2007 iMac 2.4C2D and just recently maxed it out to 6GB. although I do not use it for anything as intense as Rhino or FCS.
     
angelmb  (op)
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May 20, 2012, 02:58 AM
 
abbaZaba, does it page out frequently.?

The thing is that his current iMac GPU (ATI 2600 HD 256MB) can hardly cope with Alias. Heck, no iMac is certified for use with Alias Design/Automotive software. None at all.
     
abbaZaba
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May 20, 2012, 11:44 AM
 
it used to have 3GB which was pretty tight page in/out ratio stayed around 15:1. Upgraded to 6GB and my Page in/Out ratio is close to 1000:1. I've been pretty pleased with the upgrade. In fact, it usually hangs around 1GB free+inactive with 150 processes. Not sure if these numbers help you, but maxing it out to 6GB really helped the daily use of it.
     
turtle777
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May 20, 2012, 12:32 PM
 
My iMac is a 2007 C2C as well, and I recently upgraded to 6GB.

Made a big difference, especially with running Parallels.

I wish I could get 8GB, but that's not possible.

-t
     
angelmb  (op)
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May 20, 2012, 04:11 PM
 
abbaZaba, turtle; I appreciate your time on this matter, thank you. Amazing what a difference 2 GB of RAM makes. Well, I kind of played chicken and got this computer at a rather favorable price:

Mac mini Core i7 2,7 Ghz
16GB RAM
Radeon HD 6630M (certified for use with Alias 2013)
500 GB HD + SSD 256GB OCZ Vertex 4
Apple Care

At the very least, it should serve him well for the next four years.
     
   
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