Mac Apps and ram..

hey all,

Assuming I installed a 4 gig ram on my macbook (not sure if it can take that much ram though), will I feel any difference when running OS X?

I mainly use photoshop, DxO (photography program), Macromedia Director, Flash, and other similar programs.

As far as I know, if this happened to be Windows XP, the computer wont be able to see more than 3 gig, and the Apps wont use more than 1 gig I think. Is it the same thing here?

Thanks in advance


ok just found out it takes only 2 gig. and some ppl did try putting 3.

so is it worth to upgrade? i have only 1 gig.

 

OS X is 64bit, and therefore will be able to utilize more than 4GB of RAM.

Depending on how much RAM you currently have in your notebook, you might and might not see a difference. Upgrading from 1GB will give you a huge boost, but if you upgrade from 3GB you will notice little difference.

 

OS X is not memory hungry like Vista. I have experience with 2GB OS X & 4GB OS X.No big deal like 2GB/4GB Vista.Difference is not noticeable (At least for me ) . If you plan to run Windows with your Mb ,then 4GB will help you

 

more ram is always better

 

Upgrade to ONLY 2Gb of RAM, as your mb won't accept more than two, then there is NO point in getting more.. also by trying to put 3Gb or more you will loose dual channel on the ram, thus further negating any reason for getting more than 2Gb.
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Definitely worth upgrading from 1GB. You will notice a significant improvement in performance.

 

thanks for the tip. will i notice real difference in photoshop and other macromedia programs once I install the second gig? Will programs boot faster? Or is that a HDD thing?

thanks again

 

The whole dual-channel thing is getting less and less important. It was good to have dual-channel back when 512mb was a lot. But when talking about GB of ram, it's not as much of an issue. Especially when you have an OS that can properly allocate memory.

It also depends on which generation macbook he's using on wether or not he'll see more than 3GB of ram. The most current revision(and maybe the one before this one) can see more than 3GB where the ones before that cannot.

Yes. If you like to do other things while working with photoshop I'd go for more than 2GB. I have 2GB and with some of my larger photoshop/illustrator files this thing slows to a crawl.
Flash is even more of a ram hungry app than photoshop and illustrator so the more you have the better.

When loading applications, you'll notice a very slight increase, but application start up is more of a HDD thing so that will be your bottleneck. Once the applications are loaded, though, ram is your key to speed.

 

Yes your right dual channel isn't really a huge deal these days, but its an extra reason not to install 2x2Gb sticks in an older mb that can only support upto 2Gb...only one stick will be functional.. thus no dual channel. The newer/lastest versions of the mb can support upto 4Gb, but the 1st and 2nd gen's are capped at 2Gb.
You will definitely notice a difference in photoshop when your dealing with larger images, and or have plenty of other apps open.
It will be a very wise investment to upgrade to the 2Gb, and now days a 1Gb stick is quite cheap.
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Ok just to be sure... If macbook 1st generation only support 2Gb... does that mean to get the best out of my ram I'll have to install one stick at each slot? Or it wont make a difference and I can install one 2Gb stick at one of the slots?

 

My Penryn macbook has 4GB RAM and it runs super fast Especially in firefox (with 50+ tabs are opened) and photoshop....

 

couldn't have said it better, I would definitely recommend the upgrade to 2GB