C2D: does 3 gigs of ram really speed things vs 2 g (photoshop, final cut ,etc)

[SpaceJello]

hey just out of curiously, my mbp c2d is running a bit slow lately, i am not quite sure what it is, perhaps i need some cache cleaning etc.

But i have been using Photoshop cs3 beta and its quite slow or slower than before... its quite ram intensive, so i am wondering that exact gig of ram may help but i have read in other posts that it is unstable or have some problems.

Curious what are other people's experiences when using design and video editing software?

 

[Eidorian]

Check your Page Outs in Activity Monitor.

 

[dartzorichalcos]

Enhancing Performance of Mac OS X.

 

[gr8tfly]

I don't have any feel for PS or FC, yet, but I just upgraded mine to 3GB and it was noticeable right away. I was surprised, as I didn't think I'd notice anything until pushing it with a large image file or running FCE. Faster booting and app launching were apparent.

I did a cursory check on pageouts with Top before (2GB) and after. Under similar circumstances, the 3GB configuration had zero pageouts.

OWC has the 2GB modules for $234.99, today, and they have a trade-in for the old 1GB module of $50 (also, as of today).

edit: btw, Photoshop CS3 launches in < 4 seconds (after initial launch after booting). Noticeably faster.

 

[richard4339]

See, that's weird. I had tons of pageouts before, and tons of pageouts after upgrading to 2gigs of ram...

*Goes to watch activity monitor*

 

[SpaceJello]

hey thanks to all, how do you check page outs? i checked into activity monitor, but i am not sure where the info are. or does it go by another name?

 

[Eidorian]

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107918

 

[gr8tfly]

My test wasn't all that scientific, but I tried to keep the conditions the same. After booting, I had the following apps running, then took the snapshot with Top: Safari, Mail, Text, Chat, WeatherMenu, OSXPlanet, Term

I probably hadn't been as active before the 3GB snapshot, as the number of pageins was smaller.

2GB: VM: 10.3G + 129M 81705(0) pageins, 2576(0) pageouts

3GB: VM: 9.44G + 119M 30553(0) pageins, 0(0) pageouts

As I said, not very scientific, as I should have had a closer number of pageins. But, proportionately, it seemed like the zero pageouts was significant. That, plus the faster launch and boot times.

I haven't looked yet, but maybe there are some real benchmarks out there for PS and FC.

 

[SpaceJello]

Woh, this is crazy,
my pages in/out were
VM 9.2 GB 630244/24405
but after restarting it went back to something 15000/0

Anyway out of this crazy page i/o without restarting?

 

[Eidorian]

Woh, this is crazy,
my pages in/out were
VM 9.2 GB 630244/24405
but after restarting it went back to something 15000/0

Anyway out of this crazy page i/o without restarting?

The number of page outs is taken from first boot. Restarting just gets rid of the count of page outs and nothing more.

What applications would you like to be running simultaneously?

 

[SpaceJello]

The number of page outs is taken from first boot. Restarting just gets rid of the count of page outs and nothing more.

What applications would you like to be running simultaneously?

I think its cause I had flash, mail, and safari and adium running at the same time, for a while i had photoshop, maybe thats why the number would go that high. Usually if I do use FCP or photoshop, i run them alone with minimal other programs running. I just notice photoshop was giving me trouble when i had a 170MB file running for some reasons when nothing else is running

 

[Eidorian]

Photoshop (PowerPC) would be the biggest offender. Next would be Safari. How long do you leave it open? It racks up a lot of RAM for its caching. You do look like a good candidate for more RAM though.

 

[hogprint]

I still get page outs with 3gb. It isn't the end all be all...... Just be sure you really need it before popping for the extra ram.

 

[SpaceJello]

Photoshop (PowerPC) would be the biggest offender. Next would be Safari. How long do you leave it open? It racks up a lot of RAM for its caching. You do look like a good candidate for more RAM though.

i have safaristand with safari as well maybe that's why, now that i got rid of safari stand, its much better and quicker.