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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > 512 versus 1 Gig?

512 versus 1 Gig?
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Aluminum
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Nov 24, 2003, 07:41 AM
 
I currently have 512 megs of ram in this 1ghz tibook and it seems to run as smooth as my last 1ghz tibook which had 1 gig of ram. The question I bring up then is, is paying $300 extra dollars worth a little performance boost when running many apps? For those doing heavy video, music editing, or hardcore gaming, then I can see the jusitification. For those just running ical, mail, safari, itunes and doing the ocassional photoshop, reason, gaming I really dont think the extra 512 is necesarry. Would anyone like to prove me wrong here? I think its more of a psychological thing by having 1 gig of ram rather than 512, cause like I said I have had both and havent noticed any difference really.
15.2" Al/1.25ghz/1gig/Superdrive/80(5400)
     
anaphora68
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Nov 24, 2003, 08:20 AM
 
More RAM is always good, but if you are fine with 512 then stay with 512. Save the money up and wait for the 1 Gig chips to drop in price, so that way you can have 1.5 gigs of RAM.
     
Aluminum  (op)
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Nov 24, 2003, 08:32 AM
 
eigh, 1.5 doesnt fit in the tibooks anyhow, 1 gig is the max, anyhow I know the comment "more ram is better" however I want some factual evidence that this is true, save the $300 and put it toward your next system is what I am getting at, 1 gig is almost overkill for non-video user in my opnion.
15.2" Al/1.25ghz/1gig/Superdrive/80(5400)
     
PBG4 User
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Nov 24, 2003, 09:05 AM
 
I've had a stock 1.25GHz Al (512MB) since the end of September and I have yet to page into virtual memory. I use it for coding, email, surfing, editing my digi-pics, watching DVDs and other stuff that I can't remember.

When I first bought it I was thinking about doing a RAM upgrade, but so far I haven't found a need to.
     
Aluminum  (op)
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Nov 24, 2003, 09:32 AM
 
yup, exactly what I am saying, how can you check if you have paged into VM? Paging doesnt hurt the system, just slows down the system when its doing so correct?
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Sarc
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Nov 24, 2003, 09:53 AM
 
Originally posted by Aluminum:
yup, exactly what I am saying, how can you check if you have paged into VM? Paging doesnt hurt the system, just slows down the system when its doing so correct?
In the Terminal ... run "top" (no quotes) ... there you can get VM pageout stats.

Or if you install Panther hardware tools (CHUD) you can check Big TOP with a nice interface.

Or (in panther) in Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilities/) in the System Memory tab.

And about the pageout thing. Normally I would agree that more RAM == always better, yet, in Panther, with my 512MB, I'm experiencing much less system degradation over time.
With Jag, after say ... 10 days, the system became unpleasant, with panther, I'm getting 18-2x days up. easily, normally I restart for OS 9 or system updates.

Anyway, more RAM is better.
( Last edited by Sarc; Nov 24, 2003 at 10:00 AM. )
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:: unibody macbook pro / 2.4 Ghz C2D / 6GB RAM / dell 2407wfp - X.6.3
     
Aluminum  (op)
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Nov 24, 2003, 10:16 AM
 
ok and what exactly should I be looking at under the activity monitor memory tab, whats the page in/outs exactly mean, and whats the difference between the free and inactive memory? My VM size says 3.25 gigs. Is that bad or good?
15.2" Al/1.25ghz/1gig/Superdrive/80(5400)
     
LfGrdMike
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Nov 24, 2003, 10:53 AM
 
General rule of thumb in regards to RAM and how much you need.

If you aren't getting page outs you don't need more.


For the avg user 512 is enough for iLife, Mail, Web Browsing, Word Processing, and more

For the more advanced user who may play games, run photoshop, or other things 768 or more is good.

So far I have 640 and am doing fine. I run lots of these programs like Photoshop too. I run BBEdit and MS Word the most and sometimes Dreamweaver.
MacBook Pro 15" Rev B | 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo | 2GB Mem | 160GB HD | Display 15 Glossy Widescreen Display
iPod Mini Green | 35 gigs of music :-)
HP DV1040us Laptop | 1.6 Pentium M | 1GB RAM | Centrino
     
LfGrdMike
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Nov 24, 2003, 10:54 AM
 
Furthermore 10.3.1 is handling RAM differently. I never used to get page outs but now I do. I think they fixes something to automatically do this to increase performance. I haven't noticed a difference just as fast as before. On the other hand Apple could have a leak in the OS but as I said things don't bog down. Panther runs very fast.
MacBook Pro 15" Rev B | 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo | 2GB Mem | 160GB HD | Display 15 Glossy Widescreen Display
iPod Mini Green | 35 gigs of music :-)
HP DV1040us Laptop | 1.6 Pentium M | 1GB RAM | Centrino
     
Badwisdom
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Nov 24, 2003, 11:07 AM
 
On my 17 1,33Mhz PB, i have the stock 512 meg RAM.

Just today ive been using Safari (with three to 8 tabs opened), iMail, iTunes, Adress book, iCal and some Bittorrent downloads (approx. 3). Ive also opened Microsoft Word a couple of times and after 5 hours use i find that my RAM use is maxed out and ive had 88000 Pageouts. So i definitely think 1Gb RAM is essential for me, and to be really comfortable 1,5 would be perfect in order to use Macromedia and/or Adobe apps on top of the above usual iLife apps.

Cheers
     
-Q-
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Nov 24, 2003, 11:08 AM
 
My general rule of thumb is that if it's $100 or less, I get more RAM for the machine.

But in this case where it's $300, if you're not noticing any slowdowns and your applications are responsive and don't seem 'ram-starved', I'd stay with 512. Save the money for something else.
     
vancenase
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Nov 24, 2003, 11:17 AM
 
buy from crucial.com ... it's only $120 or so for 512MB
     
Aluminum  (op)
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Nov 24, 2003, 04:29 PM
 
Ok I went under my system memory tab and my page ins is 111806 and the page outs is 114990, does that mean I am using VM extensively? Someone let me know who knows what all this exactly means. Thanks
15.2" Al/1.25ghz/1gig/Superdrive/80(5400)
     
Aluminum  (op)
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Nov 24, 2003, 06:03 PM
 
whats the difference between inactive and free memory as well. Seems like inactive memory takes up a ton and its not even being used!
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Xterratop
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Nov 26, 2003, 11:34 AM
 
More ram....the better. I've run into situations in the past where I didn't have enough memory to run an application. My last and most recent purchase, the Powermac Dual 867 and also a Tibook 867, I maxed out both systems with ram so I don't have to worry about any memory issues. Besides, ram today is very affordable and there are lots of brands out there that are good. I usually stay with one brand just to be on the safe side. I don't know if its an issue if you mix up brands of ram but I like to keep things safe and sound. I use Kingston brand and I haven't had any problems. Good luck.
     
Aluminum  (op)
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Nov 26, 2003, 01:39 PM
 
Kingston is rather expensive however, great ram, but on the pricey side. Those 512 sticks are running about $150 a piece, so those few times I might actually tap hard in VM, well shelling out $300 more doesn't seem worth it. However if money is no object, then power up the ram, I do agree with that Here is something helpful as well for you guys that have 512 like myself. Set activity monitor to run on startup and then have it display itself in your dock as a memory pie, you can see when your going to get close in tapping into VM. When you have 512 all you need to do is restart your computer once a day if that, not even, once every 2-3 days and your computer will always be nice and fresh.
15.2" Al/1.25ghz/1gig/Superdrive/80(5400)
     
   
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