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businezguy · Feb 4, 2003, 12:53 PM

Well, I've been running 256 megs of RAM for about 5 months now. While I liked the performance of my Dual 1 ghz Powermac, I was somewhat disappointed with the performance of Mac OS X. The interface was fine, but using iPhoto and scrolling through a lot of photos was choppy and sometimes there would be a delay of up to 10 seconds.

I took your advice and upgrades my ram with two 512 meg chips. I was certainly expecting some improvement, but I was still expecting iPhoto to be choppy.

Well, I can tell you the difference is incredible. My Mac boots up faster and it scrolls through iPhoto without ANY delays (and this is with 1,200 photos). Resizing the thumbnails in iPhoto shows no delay and even resizing the window is perfect. I can open up iMovie, iPhoto, and iTunes and there is no delay. I can play music in iTunes while using iPhoto and still no delay.

I would have to say it is like having a computer that is 100 percent faster then it was before. If you haven't upgraded your RAM yet, you REALLY need to do so as soon as possible.

Now I can finally appreciate the power of my Powermac. It IS a fast machine!

Riemann Zeta · Feb 5, 2003, 05:57 PM

Yeah, OS X needs a minimum of 512 MB. To use a medical analogy, performance is "dose-dependent" up to 512, then the curve flattens out, hitting a horizontal asymtote at 1GB (unless you are doing massive server work).

G4ME · Feb 5, 2003, 06:37 PM

i am happy with my 1.19 gb or ram,

btw how the hell did you get a dual ghz with only 256, i thought apples minimum was 512 for the dual ghz

businezguy · Feb 6, 2003, 03:20 PM

No, the dual 1 ghz only came with 256 megs of ram. Later on, Apple promoted it with a "double your ram" offer, but this was a long time after I made my purchase.

Joe Cool · Feb 6, 2003, 07:45 PM

yeah I recently dumped 1.25 gigs of ram into my dual 800, the difference is amazing.

Darkness · Feb 6, 2003, 07:56 PM

1.5GB is fun too.

DinoG4 · Feb 6, 2003, 10:18 PM

My New Dual 1.25 came factory with 256k, ran everything Smooth , no lag at all!...I upgraded this week to 512mb, and I see no diff at all....the dual 1gig should run just as good I would think, unless u have the slower bus?...............

Emotionally Fragile Luke · Feb 6, 2003, 11:24 PM

Originally posted by Riemann Zeta:
Yeah, OS X needs a minimum of 512 MB

Minimum for what? I found that web surfers, iMovie 2, and WP users are totally happy with 320 RAM. That seems to be the sweet spot for the minimum.

HALsbane · Feb 7, 2003, 12:14 AM

I am also wanting to upgrade my G4 DA with more RAM. Does anyone know where I can get good 512MB PC133-222 (Stress the 222!) DIMMS? I'd love to have OS X flying like it should.

el lindo · Feb 7, 2003, 12:25 AM

www.dealram.com

UnixMac · Feb 7, 2003, 01:59 AM

as you can see from my profile below.. I believe in RAM... especially when it's cheaper than 90% of my software that I run to buy.

Except for my firewall box... XP needs only 128MB to do what I need.

goldplata · Feb 7, 2003, 05:09 AM

Were is the limit?? I mean, I think there must be a point where you did�t notice instaling more RAM. Perhaps if you have 1.5 Gigs you did�t know if you install 512 Kb more???

docholiday · Feb 7, 2003, 05:25 AM

I have 512 megs of ram on my pre-quicksilver G4 733. Would it make a big difference if i got another 512 megs?

I use a lot of iTunes and iMovie and multitask a lot...

BZ · Feb 7, 2003, 07:32 AM

When I wanted to get more life out of my Sawtooth 350 G4... I put in a few things:

- Western Digital 120 GB SE 7200 RPM Drive
- Radeon 8500 64MB
- PowerLogix 1 GHz G4 upgrade card w/ 2 MB L3
- 2 GB of RAM

Now I know there is probably not much to see after 1 GB, but having 2 is nice nice nice.... Hopefully this machine will last me till the first of second round of IBM 970.

BZ

UnixMac · Feb 7, 2003, 11:24 AM

Originally posted by docholiday:
I have 512 megs of ram on my pre-quicksilver G4 733. Would it make a big difference if i got another 512 megs?

I use a lot of iTunes and iMovie and multitask a lot...

There is no one answer to that. I use FCP3 and Cleaner 6, DVD SP etc... a lot, and sometimes I keep them all running at the same time, along with Adobe Photo7 and other large apps... I have looked at my resources during the normal day to day operations of my PowerBook and seen only 240MB free space left on a 1.0GB starting point... so clearly if you're going to tax your machine, you should invest the money.

I paid $3000 for my computer, $2500 for software .... surely I'm not going to skimp on $75-150 worth of RAM???

rytc · Feb 7, 2003, 12:22 PM

Originally posted by Emotionally Fragile Luke:
Minimum for what? I found that web surfers, iMovie 2, and WP users are totally happy with 320 RAM. That seems to be the sweet spot for the minimum.

I have 320MB in my iBook, have no idea what it would've been like with the base 64MB that it came with (I'm assuming awful however) and it seems pretty nice. I doubt for what I use it for, web, email, some light dreamweaver and photoshop, Word it would make much of a diff, not worth the loss of my 256MB chip and then having to purchase another lot....

PreciousBbird · Feb 7, 2003, 06:46 PM

I went from 256 to 640 and it made a huge difference on my single 867 G4. Now I am going to do the gig (I want that 'horizontal asymtote' thang...)

danengel · Feb 7, 2003, 07:08 PM

My trusty 300 MHz iBook has 160 MB RAM installed and for daily web surfing, emails, and some Mathematica (on 10.2, of course) it's still great

When I have more than three apps open it starts to swap, but if you're not too much in a hurry, no problem. However, I consider the Dual 1.25 as a replacement soon

UnixMac · Feb 7, 2003, 07:13 PM

Originally posted by danengel:

When I have more than three apps open it starts to swap, but if you're not too much in a hurry, no problem. However, I consider the Dual 1.25 as a replacement soon

Man a 300mhz G3 to Dual 1.25G4's..... you're gonna have a hard time getting used to that kind of speed!

MikeD · Feb 8, 2003, 12:38 AM

Can the MDD's technically take 4 gb of RAM?

Chris Grande · Feb 8, 2003, 12:59 AM

Originally posted by MikeD:
Can the MDD's technically take 4 gb of RAM?

I don't think so. They have 4 DIMM slots, if you filled the system with the max of 4 512MBs DIMMS you would end up with only 2GBs.

geekwagon · Feb 8, 2003, 01:06 AM

Yup, 2gb max and from what I hear LOTS of software has problems if you have more than 1.5gb installed...

UnixMac · 10:46 AM

Originally posted by geekwagon:
Yup, 2gb max and from what I hear LOTS of software has problems if you have more than 1.5gb installed...

I've heard that too, any one know whyt? and what software in specific?

MikeD · Feb 8, 2003, 04:05 AM

Originally posted by Chris Grande:
I don't think so. They have 4 DIMM slots, if you filled the system with the max of 4 512MBs DIMMS you would end up with only 2GBs.

Yeah but don't the MDD's take DDR RAM and from what I saw at ramseeker, they have 1GB ram chips now! With four slots... 4gb.. but if it's software limited to only 2gb.. well nothing left to do then.

About the >1.5gb RAM issue.. havn't they addressed that yet?!

Todd Madson · Feb 8, 2003, 01:29 PM

I also am running 1.5 GB on my G4/400
and added a Radeon 8500 video card.

This machine is really quite quick as
compared to the way it used to be.

It's not a 1 Ghz box but it's not useless
either.

I do a lot of music work and 1.5 GB really
helps in that area.