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fongyuen · Apr 12, 2007, 08:08 AM

what's the most noticeable performance gains with upgrading to 3gb of ram and in retrospect, is it worth shelling out the $200-300 for it?

mfbernstein · Apr 12, 2007, 08:14 AM

None, unless you're using a set of applications that regularly occupy more than 2GB of and are forcing you to use virtual memory.

You can see how much memory is being used, and how much virtual memory is being used in the Activity Monitor. Pay particular attention to page ins/page outs. If the latter number is close to the former (within 3-5X or so), you may be a candidate for a RAM upgrade.

Another point to note is that prices on 2GB modules have been dropping rapidly (couldn't be had for less than $350 2 months ago), so it certainly won't hurt to wait a little longer if you're unsure.

b1NARY73 · Apr 12, 2007, 09:24 PM

You will lose the Dual Channel capability... which IMHO is a plus. My 2 cents, take it for what it is worth.

SierraDragon · Apr 12, 2007, 09:32 PM

What apps do you use, and how aggressively? For a pro using Photoshop and/or Aperture hard (e.g. me) IMO 50% more RAM is worth the money.

-Allen Wicks

mayoke · Apr 13, 2007, 08:56 PM

Originally Posted by b1NARY73

You will lose the Dual Channel capability... which IMHO is a plus. My 2 cents, take it for what it is worth.

sorry if this is a dumb question, but what is the dual channel capability and what does it help with? i was also considering the usefulness of getting a 2gig vs. 3gig macbook pro (15 inch one). I do some occasional video editing, and photoshopping. I've never used a mac before so i don't know if specs from pcs and macs are interchangeable with the performance you get out of them. My opinion has always been to try and max out the hardware when you buy it so that it gets obsolete slower. (i dont' think i've ever bothered to upgrade a computer and i just buy a new one whenever the old one gets painfully slow to use)... again these are purely pc experiences i've had.

(and btw, the 2gig->3gig upgrade costs around $600 CDN at apple.ca, just curious as to why ppl are saying it's an extra 2-300 only.)

SierraDragon · Apr 14, 2007, 03:00 PM

Originally Posted by mayoke

(and btw, the 2gig->3gig upgrade costs around $600 CDN at apple.ca, just curious as to why ppl are saying it's an extra 2-300 only.)

Apple overcharges for RAM. OWC charges $220 for a 2-GB MBP DIMM http://otherworldcomputing.com/.

-Allen Wicks

mayoke · 07:11 PM

so how hard is it to open up a mbp and put in the memory? i'm scared to screw something up!

never mind... i found a video on their website... it's painfully simple! just saved myself $400 THANKS!
er... except they don't seem to sell 2GB modules... the mbp comes with 2 1GIG modules... how would you go about upgrading to 3 gigs?

hldan · Apr 15, 2007, 02:16 AM

It doesn't matter rather you use small time apps or large production apps the key success to an efficient running computer is Ram, Ram Ram! It's not a question of performance gains, it's the question of, do you actually "use" your computer? Most people have 3 to 5 windows open at a time especially with todays software. On an average I have iTunes running, while having Safari or Firefox open with multiple tabs which eat up ram. I use either Preview or Adobe to read my PDF's and of course I have about 5 widgets running daily as well as watching shows on my EyeTV. Ram usage just goes up higher and higher without notice.
Keep in mind the apps alone don't just use the ram. The system itself needs ram to run it and many times there are processes in the background that suck up ram for reasons not always understandable. So maxing out any computer with ram is never overkill, except maybe the Mac Pros.
I think 4GB will satisfy even todays most demanding user.

brother337 · Apr 15, 2007, 06:08 AM

Originally Posted by b1NARY73

You will lose the Dual Channel capability... which IMHO is a plus. My 2 cents, take it for what it is worth.

I thought only the Macbook made use of dual-channelling the memory, so having 3 gigs of RAM wouldn't affect the speed of a Macbook Pro.

mfbernstein · Apr 15, 2007, 08:53 AM

The ability to make use of dual-channel memory is a chipset thing: MB, MBP, iMac and Mac Mini (Intel) all use the same Intel 945-based chipset. That said, I've never seen benchmarks of real-world applications showing much of a difference.

OWC certainly does sell 2GB modules, but only for the Core 2-based MB and MBP (original Core Duo-based MB and MBP has a 2GB RAM limit).

Klipse · Apr 15, 2007, 09:57 AM

hmm, first ask yourself, what applications do you use? if you're on an imac or mbp, chances are you don't need that much ram.

mayoke · Apr 16, 2007, 01:13 PM

oh my bad... i didn't notice the subtle difference in the core-duo vs. core 2 duo links... THANKS!

wubrew · Apr 20, 2007, 12:27 PM

Originally Posted by hldan

It doesn't matter rather you use small time apps or large production apps the key success to an efficient running computer is Ram, Ram Ram! It's not a question of performance gains, it's the question of, do you actually "use" your computer? Most people have 3 to 5 windows open at a time especially with todays software. On an average I have iTunes running, while having Safari or Firefox open with multiple tabs which eat up ram. I use either Preview or Adobe to read my PDF's and of course I have about 5 widgets running daily as well as watching shows on my EyeTV. Ram usage just goes up higher and higher without notice.
Keep in mind the apps alone don't just use the ram. The system itself needs ram to run it and many times there are processes in the background that suck up ram for reasons not always understandable. So maxing out any computer with ram is never overkill, except maybe the Mac Pros.
I think 4GB will satisfy even todays most demanding user.

Are you suggesting that it should be 2x2G instead of 1x1G+1x2G?

MikeYMS · Apr 20, 2007, 12:37 PM

Hi there

We at YourMacStore.com covered this in our blog this past week. The Dual Channel does exist and does work from our tests at 1GB+1GB, but other, wacky things happen if you try to insert a 2GB+2GB setup...I'll let you read it.

hldan · Apr 20, 2007, 12:44 PM

Originally Posted by wubrew

Are you suggesting that it should be 2x2G instead of 1x1G+1x2G?

Pardon my slight mistake. I temporarily forgot that we are talking about the notebooks and not the Mac Pros. Since 3GB is what the chipset accepts then in this case it should be 1x2GB and 1x1GB. I wouldn't recommend wasting the money on (2) 2GB sticks if it's not supported at this time.

tinkered · Apr 20, 2007, 01:01 PM

I went with 3 GB and I am glad I did. Then again, I did wait to upgrade to 3 GB after I noticed that with 2 GB I was paging and getting a beach ball as a result. With 3 GB I never see the beach ball.

The other reason to go with 3GB is to be future proof; I am sure that in 2-3 years I will be glad I have the max RAM.

B Gallagher · Apr 20, 2007, 07:49 PM

If you think you need more RAM, open up Activity Monitor in the dock, and have it set up so it shows you the pie graph for your memory usage. Run that for a while when you're using your day to day apps. If you find that there's always a small percentage of free memory left, it's probably worthwhile to upgrade your RAM.

I just added an extra gig to my G4 PB (which reminds me, I need to update my sig!), and the main difference I noticed was that, apps would still take the same amount of time to load, but once they were loaded I could switch between them instantly, no spinning beachballs. iTunes, for instance, used to use about 80MB of RAM, it now uses up to 300MB, simply because there's more available. And that makes a big difference with something like Cover Flow.