2012 Mac PRO, Sierra, Will More RAM Help

[mbabc]

I've got a 2012 Mac Pro, 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 12 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 RAM.

Will adding more RAM get me increased speed? Currently I have 2 2 GB modules and 2 4 GB modules. I was thinking of swapping the 2 GB modules out for 8 GB ones to give me a total of 24 GB.

When I check out the Memory usage in the Activity Monitor, this is a fairly typical set of values:

Physical Memory: 12.00 GB
Memory Used: 6.11 GB
Cached Files: 5.86 GB
Swap Used: 41.3 MB
- -
Of the Memory Used, it says:

App Memory: 4.58 GB
Wired Memory: 1.23 GB
Compressed: 185.2 MB

So it seems as if it's not even using all the memory I've got.

Will I adding more RAM speed things up for me? IF yes, would going all the way up to 32 GB get me anything more?
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Second part of question.

Would adding a SSD be worth it? If yes, can I get a 2.5" drive with an adapter and use it in the Mac Pro?

Would the SeaGate FireCuda drive – advertised as a SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive) – give me more speed?
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Thanks in advance. I hate the idea of giving up my 4 SATA bays – I swap drives in and out all the time. I'll have to give it up at some point but am trying to figure out of spending a couple of hundred bucks is worth it to prolong the unit's life. (The front USB ports no longer work. something to consider.)

 

[casperes1996]

Adding more RAM has practically no effect if you're not using all the RAM you have now. It may allow you to cache more files in RAM speeding it up a little bit, but you've already suggested something way better yourself

An SSD would speed up all data traces, not just give you a slightly higher chance of having the data in RAM. This could have massive performance improvements, and is the single greatest performance improvement strategy. You'll be bottlenecked by the interface of the system (if you get a good SSD), but it'll still speed things up significantly, and will be reusable in the future

Apple has said they're working on a modular Mac Pro, presumably with hard drive bays, so you might want to wait around for that.