4GB, 8GB or 16GB?

[blanka]

Can you also keep it as low as 64-128MB if you don't care about VRAM?

 

[opinio]

Can you also keep it as low as 64-128MB if you don't care about VRAM?

This is what I was looking to do. I never took the step.

I guess you can decrease VRAM if you can also increase it. Thread suggests 256MB is possible.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1573528/

 

[1iam5mith]

Where is the cheapest place you have seen for 16GB? Cheapest I have seen is £118 (USD$190) @MrMemory

 

[mikochu]

16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz.

16GB will make sure you make out the VRAM dedicated to the GPU (768). Although I may stand corrected on that as 8GB may also max out the VRAM (it did in the 2011s).

It may be overkill. But hey... Its nice to have to power there when you put the foot to the accelerator.

Initially, I bought some 16GB of Crucial-brand memory on Amazon and my Mac Mini (2011) had a hard time booting up. I picked up a pack of Corsair memory, locally at Best Buy, and it booted up fine.

Corsair Vengeance (CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10)
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Venge...361376&sr=8-3&keywords=corsair+vengeance+16gb

 

[burgman]

Buy the Ram. 16GB is well worth it!

I have 2012 Mini. I installed 16GB, I leave activity monitor running. I am amazed how poorly 10.8.5 manages memory. Particularly Safari.

 

[Miat]

mikochu

What model Apple did you do that with?

 

[opinio]

mikochu

What model Apple did you do that with?

I am running the same RAM as mikochu in a 2.6GHz late 2012 mini. I also run the same RAM in a 2011 Mac mini server (2.0GHz quad).

Very good stuff.

----------

Where is the cheapest place you have seen for 16GB? Cheapest I have seen is £118 (USD$190) @MrMemory

I think you should use the cheapest best RAM, not the cheapest cheap RAM.

Corsair Vengeance or Kingston HyperX.

 

[hudson1]

Either leave it like it is, 4Gb is plenty for your needs, or go all the way. Or if you do 8, do it in one slot, that way you have 10 and your money spent on the 8 is not wasted in the future.
Oh, and AppleCare is wasted on a mini as well. It is a pretty reliable machine.

Back in the past, it was suggested to only use matched pairs for best performance... not a single stick or different capacity sticks. Is this no longer the case?

 

[iMas70]

RAM is like money, you can never have to much!

Plus, it doesn't cost much to go with 16GB so that's what I would (and did) go with.

 

[Micky Do]

Back in the past, it was suggested to only use matched pairs for best performance... not a single stick or different capacity sticks. Is this no longer the case?

When I asked an Apple store to install 4 GB of RAM (and do some other things) in my early 2009 Mini, it came back with the original 1 GB and 4 GB installed along side, for a total of 5 GB. It's all good.

Maybe one day I'll chuck the 1 GB and pair the 4GB with another 4. Or maybe not.

RAM is like money, you can never have to much!

Plus, it doesn't cost much to go with 16GB so that's what I would (and did) go with.

I dunno..... A relatively small amount of RAM and low income seems to satisfy my humble needs.

The Activity Monitor says I have 201 MB of RAM free, and 1.77 GB inactive. My bank account records some savings, and I have never had any debt.

 

[Miat]

Thanks, opinio.

I have 16GB of Crucial RAM already on order, hope it works okay in my 2012 Mini.

 

[mdgm]

From my initial experience Mavericks works quite well with 4 GB or more or RAM.

 

[Max(IT)]

With 4 Gb my mini after the boot (with several utilities loaded at startup) has 2.6 Gb of free ram.
Plenty for any general purpose ....
Anyone on a tech forum seems to wanna sell ram ....
Joke aside, 8 Gb is not the MINIMUM, is the optimum.
I have a MBA with 2 Gb and it runs maverick flawlessly. It's perfect for web browsing or light activities.