Wondering if its fast. Mine is one the way with 1 gb ram, OCW 4gb ram kit is sitting in front of me. How much faster will I expect from the reviews?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Anyone running a 24" 2.4 with 4GB Memory?
- Thread starter mothergoose45
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
They've been out for five days... if anyone custom ordered one with 4GB, it would have just shipped. It's not like this forum is crawling with people with five day old 24" 2.4ghz 4gb ram iMac users. Head on over to the macbook pro forum and you will see people running the 2.4s with 4gb.
I've put 4gb of Kingston in mine, from the stock 1gb.
It feels no faster to be honest but I've not exercised it yet, I've got Vista running in Vmware with a gig allocated - both are lively and fast.
I bought this iMac to run Solaris, Sun Directory in a VM, and Oracle, that will stress it. I want to retire my SunBlade 2000, noisy and expensive to run.....
8gb of RAM in that - that cost me....
It feels no faster to be honest but I've not exercised it yet, I've got Vista running in Vmware with a gig allocated - both are lively and fast.
I bought this iMac to run Solaris, Sun Directory in a VM, and Oracle, that will stress it. I want to retire my SunBlade 2000, noisy and expensive to run.....
8gb of RAM in that - that cost me....
If this forum isn't crawling with people with five day old 24" 2.4ghz 4gb ram iMac users i would be very surprised.
Well, give it another day or two
OK here's the thing.
More RAM does not make your machine faster.
Taking your foot off the brake does not make the car go faster... it only removes an impediment to its potential speed.
How much RAM you need, and the benefit of adding more, depends entirely on how you are using the machine.
If your applications, OS and data that are running require less memory than your amount of installed RAM, then your machine is running at full speed. Adding more RAM won't speed it any further (*).
But when you don't have enough RAM for all of your applications, OS and data to memory fit into the physical RAM, then the machine has to use Virtual Memory; it swaps RAM space onto and off of the hard drive. Unfortunately, a hard drive is many, many times slower than RAM, so every time it has to hit the disk for a swap file (which you can see in Activity Monitor under the "PageOut" count), the machine has to slow down and wait for the hard drive.
If you increase the installed RAM to, say, 4 Gb, and all your applications and data can operate underneath the 4 Gb without Paging Out, then your machine is back up to its full potential speed.
If you then open a bunch more programs simultaneously, and start requiring 5 Gb of RAM, then it will slow down again.
So adding RAM doesn't speed up a machine, it removes a barrier to speed. Not having enough RAM will slow the machine down. How much "enough" is depends on how you are using your machine.
(*) Exception 1: If you have a machine with mismatched RAM, then getting a matching pair of modules (1 Gb + 1 Gb or 2 Gb + 2 Gb) will allow Dual Channel memory access, and you will see a modest overall improvement of 6% - 8% compared to single channel. Still, it is removing a barrier, not accelerating.
If you have to choose between More total RAM, or Less RAM but Matching, always choose More RAM even if it is unmatched.
(*) Exception 2: Some programs like Photoshop and Final Cut HD, run their own Virtual Memory system. These programs can exploit extra RAM for speed increases, even if the OS reports that no PageOuts are being generated. For Photoshop, 3 Gb seems to be where it hits its maximum speed.
More RAM does not make your machine faster.
Taking your foot off the brake does not make the car go faster... it only removes an impediment to its potential speed.
How much RAM you need, and the benefit of adding more, depends entirely on how you are using the machine.
If your applications, OS and data that are running require less memory than your amount of installed RAM, then your machine is running at full speed. Adding more RAM won't speed it any further (*).
But when you don't have enough RAM for all of your applications, OS and data to memory fit into the physical RAM, then the machine has to use Virtual Memory; it swaps RAM space onto and off of the hard drive. Unfortunately, a hard drive is many, many times slower than RAM, so every time it has to hit the disk for a swap file (which you can see in Activity Monitor under the "PageOut" count), the machine has to slow down and wait for the hard drive.
If you increase the installed RAM to, say, 4 Gb, and all your applications and data can operate underneath the 4 Gb without Paging Out, then your machine is back up to its full potential speed.
If you then open a bunch more programs simultaneously, and start requiring 5 Gb of RAM, then it will slow down again.
So adding RAM doesn't speed up a machine, it removes a barrier to speed. Not having enough RAM will slow the machine down. How much "enough" is depends on how you are using your machine.
(*) Exception 1: If you have a machine with mismatched RAM, then getting a matching pair of modules (1 Gb + 1 Gb or 2 Gb + 2 Gb) will allow Dual Channel memory access, and you will see a modest overall improvement of 6% - 8% compared to single channel. Still, it is removing a barrier, not accelerating.
If you have to choose between More total RAM, or Less RAM but Matching, always choose More RAM even if it is unmatched.
(*) Exception 2: Some programs like Photoshop and Final Cut HD, run their own Virtual Memory system. These programs can exploit extra RAM for speed increases, even if the OS reports that no PageOuts are being generated. For Photoshop, 3 Gb seems to be where it hits its maximum speed.
Do you have a link or part number, I am considering a new iMac and have been looking for a less expensive alternative to the factory option.
But why not? Why not max out your ram. Its an inexpensive way to make sure your Computer can run at its maximum performance. $230 from http://macsales.com. I dont think you can go wrong. So what if your not using it all. You know you have all it can handle and it can't be any better. Agree?
I need some help becuase i'm going to buy one of the new 24'' imac's tomorrow hopefully.
I'm not sure which is better for me to do.
1. Buy the cheaper 24'' imac with 2.4Ghz processor and the basic 1GB Ram. Upgrade the Ram myself to 4GB and sell the extra stick
or
2. Buy the 2.8Ghz Extreme Imac and just have the standard 2GB Ram installed?
Which will give me a better performance?
I'm not sure which is better for me to do.
1. Buy the cheaper 24'' imac with 2.4Ghz processor and the basic 1GB Ram. Upgrade the Ram myself to 4GB and sell the extra stick
or
2. Buy the 2.8Ghz Extreme Imac and just have the standard 2GB Ram installed?
Which will give me a better performance?
Buy the 2.4 BTO, upgrade the cpu to the 2.8... and the hard disk if you need it. It's cheaper to upgrade the ram with after market. Thats what I did
Buy the 2.4 BTO, upgrade the cpu to the 2.8... and the hard disk if you need it. It's cheaper to upgrade the ram with after market. Thats what I did
Words, pole and barge spring to mind about the extreme model.
Better value for money buying a refurb Mac Pro
Buy the 2.4 BTO, upgrade the cpu to the 2.8... and the hard disk if you need it. It's cheaper to upgrade the ram with after market. Thats what I did
I ordered the 2.8 by selecting the $1,799 2.4, upping the CPU to 2.8, changing the HDD to 750 (you can also select the 500 that the stock 2.8 comes with) and kept the RAM at 1GB. I also ordered the $230 4GB set from OWC - macsales.com. By customizing the 2.4 to a 2.8 rather than the 2.8 stock I saved $150 + tax so it ended up costing me $73 more than a stock 2.8, 2GB RAM to get a 2.8, 4GB RAM. The RAM should arrive Monday and the iMac on Tues or Wed. I ordered both last Wed.
if you got money to throw around it is always a good idea to max out the RAM.
In the real world you won't see much benefit unless:
1. You are working with large files (1GB+ photos for example)
2. You need to have multiple apps in use
3. You are also running windows in a virtual window. (Parallels for example)
In the real world you won't see much benefit unless:
1. You are working with large files (1GB+ photos for example)
2. You need to have multiple apps in use
3. You are also running windows in a virtual window. (Parallels for example)
Eh?, sorry mate, lost me there.
"wouldn't touch that with a barge pole" is a UK expression, sort of describing a lemon.
The iMac extreme, although not a lemon, is overpriced.
A Mac Pro refurb, with a Dell 24" monitor would be a better option.
That way you can use cheap PC standard memory and hard drives, and also hook up a 360/PS3 to the monitor.
(Saying that, Mac Pro memory is buffered, little more expensive but 8 free slots gives you bags of growth)
Eh?, sorry mate, lost me there.
"wouldn't touch that with a barge pole" is a UK expression, sort of describing a lemon.
The iMac extreme, although not a lemon, is overpriced.
A Mac Pro refurb, with a Dell 24" monitor would be a better option.
That way you can use cheap PC standard memory and hard drives, and also hook up a 360/PS3 to the monitor.
(Saying that, Mac Pro memory is buffered, little more expensive but 8 free slots gives you bags of growth)
Lol, I thought you were saying its like a barge tied to a poll.
Well of course, money no object, you could just max the RAM as a hedge against future requirements.
What I'm saying though, in response to the OP's question "How much faster will it be" is that in most cases the speed improvement is directly related to the degree that the user's programs are being held back by a shortage of RAM.
I think the American equivalent would be "I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole."
Just had a gander the iMac tech page, didn't notice before that the 2nd DIMM slot is free, good improvement over the previous model.