RAM Upgrade: 3GB or 4GB?

Question: For people who have 4GB of RAM, do you actually use that last GB in everyday tasks in 10.6?

By everyday tasks I mean Firefox, Microsoft Office, iTunes, iChat, etc.

 

for the best memory performance on most current system... you want to have matching pairs of memory. Mixing a 1gb and a 2gb will slow down your memory.

how much ram you need totally depends on what your doing.

 

Not true. Dual channel memory provides a very small boost (under 5%) for RAM speed intensive applications like gaming.

For everyday tasks, the bottleneck is usually the hard drive speed, and occasionally the processor speed or a lack of RAM, but never the RAM speed.

Did you even read the original post?

 

there are many bottlenecks but skimping a few dollars just for the sake of a few dollars (2gb sticks are not expensive) isn't worth it

the post is vague. What your doing, and what apps your running isn;t the same thing. I can run 5000000 tabs and websites in Firefox and someone else run 1... our needs will be different. Other apps are much different. i wasn't trying to answer only what the OPs needs are, but was asked "do you actually use..." question

 

The RAM speed is literally never a bottleneck for everyday tasks, so how can you say saving $50 isn't worth it?

FWIW I can't think of anything other than gaming where dual channel memory will actually matter.

Do you think the average person will run 5000000 tabs in Firefox? Are you posting just for the sake of posting?

 

Frankly, I think it's stupid to go 3GB instead of 4GB. The extra capacity goes a long way.

Also if you're still on a 5400 rpm drive, do yourself a favor and pick up a 7200 rpm or SSD.

 

I've run performance tests with various configurations of memory and I'd say always go with matching memory sticks, same manufacturer, same model number.

That said, I have 4 GB of RAM on my MBP and I doubt that either Windows or Mac OS X ever touches the upper 2 GB. If I were running Windows 7 x64, it would use the extra RAM. I think that today's systems come with 4 and you should be fine outside of real memory hog applications.

 

Thanks! I purchased the 2010 White MB as a stopgap before Apple puts the next generation processors in their 13 inch models. Most of the time I have less than 500mb of RAM free, so I figured that an extra gig would allow the system to allowcate more RAM to programs to improve everyday performance.

I'm not 100% but it looks like the amount of RAM allocated to each program dynamically changes depending on the total system RAM. Synthetic memory speed benchmarks have no relevance to me because I don't use any applications that benefits from fast memory.

Yes telling people to blindly upgrade is super helpful...

 

I think 4 GB is all you really need unless you are THAT much of a power user. I wouldn't suggest going 8 GB unless you have the money. Even then, I think a SSD does more wonders than 8 GB of RAM.

 

Seems like all your doing is posting smart comments on this thread.

I would go for 4GBs, if its $50 or less. If you have Firefox, Microsoft Office, iTunes, iChat, open at once, then I would defiantly get 4GBs.

 

All he said was a mix of 1GB and a 3GB stick will make it slower. Its 100% true. It may be only a little, but he's right and your wrong.

I have one question for you: Did you even read the original post? The one about mixed memory goes slower?

 

Now girls, lets everyone be on their Sunday School behavior and keep the cattiness to a minimum, K?

I have 3GB in my machine. I don't think an extra GB makes much of a practical difference regardless of whether it's running in dual channel mode or not. Given the OP is running a pretty light load, I'd vote for the 3GB and see how it goes. You can always upgrade later if need be.

 

I've found the extra 1 gb to be helpful even in everyday tasks (if I have several office programs open + a chat program + a few web tabs (maybe with flash video or whatnot) + some music etc etc etc).

On the other hand you say this computer is merely stoppage until a model with the new processors is released. If you weren't planning on getting rid of it within, say, a year (I hope processors are updated by then) I'd say definitely 4 gb. Otherwise its a tossup.

 

Update: After installing 3GB of RAM my 3dmark06 score stayed the same, even though the GPU uses shared memory and you'd expect it to be a bit slower in single channel mode.