2GB or 4GB, worth the difference?

[techlover828]

Hey, as you can tell by my signature I just ordered a macbook pro with 2GB of ram and am really excited to get it. However, I am considering buying 4GB of 3rd party ram for the extra speed, but I don't know how much difference it makes and if it is worth the 200 bucks it would cost.

Thanks

 

[L3X]

You can never have too much memory imo.

However, that being said, a lot of it depends on the programs you're using. iTunes, browsing, etc doesn't require 4 GB memory. More memory will help with any video editing, audio production, some graphic design and photography apps, gaming, and also parallels.

You can always use the 2 GB for now and in 6 months to a year, you need a boost, order the 4 GB.

 

[squeeks]

you can get 4gb of ram from frys for 170 bucks its definatly worth it i think, i noticed an overall speed increase systemwide

 

[WhiteChrome]

hey L3X, did you order your macbook pro with the apple 4gb ram? that cost £480??

 

[Zel]

I thought I wouldnt need it, as 2gb is a lot, but Some applications just need a lot more ram

Running Azureus uses my entire 2gb because it will try to keep every file in memory, also running Aperture tries to keep thousands of images in memory at once, and both together slows my machine to a crawl

I need the the 4gb sooner or later.

 

[MacPossum]

You can never have too much memory imo.

However, that being said, a lot of it depends on the programs you're using. iTunes, browsing, etc doesn't require 4 GB memory. More memory will help with any video editing, audio production, some graphic design and photography apps, gaming, and also parallels.

You can always use the 2 GB for now and in 6 months to a year, you need a boost, order the 4 GB.

That being said, would the average user notice better system performance by upgrading to 4GB up from 2GB even if they didn't actually need it?

 

[Zel]

That being said, would the average user notice better system performance by upgrading to 4GB up from 2GB even if they didn't actually need it?

because you could keep more applications in ram, you could basically just have more programs running (little black triangle under every icon!) before it slows down and makes you close some.

 

[James Cole]

Well, I am what you would call an average user, last week I got my MBP Santa Rosa 17'' and I use it for the following:

- Surf the Web
- Watch Videos
- Listen to Music
- AVI to MP4 file formart convert (I have my movies on the Ipod and use it as video player on the TV)
- And that's about it...

I upgraded like 3 days later my memory from OWC with a 4gb Kit (Techworks brand) and looking at istat pro I see the following:

Wired & Active (the RAM you are actually using at the moment) never goes pass 700mb and the rest is in Inactive & Free (The RAM that you are not using, in my case most is in Inactive), so I am not what you call a power user at all, even 2gb were more than enough for me, besides I heard safari was very good at managing RAM.

So why did I doubled my memory if I didn't needed to?
Just for the heck of it, I am the type of person that buys a 1000 meter water proof watch only to feel confident it will do well when I put it in the sink.

But actually the system does feel more lively, the computer seems to run like clockwork and handles beatifully everything I throw at it, you probably will notice a bigger difference if you do stuff like video and graphics editing, but in average use (like me) you will notice a substantial difference too.

So yes, IMO its worth the difference.

 

[steve31]

I have 4 gigs of ram in mine and it does not need it. For most things 2 will be more than enough but having said that it is really nice to have the extra ram. I would say go for it if you have the extra cash kicking around. If not wait and see if you need it...also I dont have windows on my mbp yet so I cant speak to any need for extra ram if you plan to run Vista. Enjoy.