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HELP with RAM!! 2GB Running SLOW!!

J

jason2811

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 8, 2006
729
2
I just bought 2GB of RAM from OWC. I was expecting to install it and for my computer to be blazing fast but I was extremely disappointed. My computer ran as slow as (if not slower than) the 512MB stock RAM. I ran Memtest and everything checked out fine and I just took the RAM out and put it back in again. Here are the number of dock bounces for some of my programs:
512MB / 2GIG
Limewire: 7 /13
TextEdit: 2 / 5
AdobeAcrobat (non-universal)
19 /25
Program from school:
13 / 9

The only thing that seems better is that I can open up a bunch of Applications and there is no lag. Also it seems that iTunes and other programs set to open at startup open up instantly at startup so that's good. Dashboard also no longer lags. But even things like opening up the Applications folder takes about 3 seconds to show all my applications, I was hoping this would open instantly. So what is the problem? Bad RAM? What should I do? Thanks.
 
no i mean speed, as in Mhz, not space, it should tell you in the System Profiler

The Apple in the top left corner>About This Mac>More
 
I'm not sure how do I find this out?

This is the description from OWC about the RAM:
2.0GB Matched Pair (1024MB(1GB) x 2) PC5300 DDR2 667MHz 200 Pin SO-DIMM Modules for Apple MacBook/ MacBook Pro, iMac Intel, and Mac Mini Intel. New w/Lifetime Warranty. (OWC53DR2SPAIR2G)
 
try using 1 gig of ram by taking out one of our ram... see what happens
 
Mate theres no other reason for it, your Mac should be blindingly fast with 2Gb, I'd definatly take them back under the 14-days that you usually get.

Cheers
 
Some but not all the speed loss that you are seeing may be due to the CAS latency of the ram that you bought. I did a quuick search on google and found the OWC 2GB ram has a CAS time of 5 (the ram that ships with the computer should be less around 3) the CAS time is something you want as small as possable. Going from CAS 2 to CAS 3 you might see 2-5% increase in the computer speed.

What is CAS Latency?
CAS stands for Column Access Strobe (conversely, RAS stands for Row Access Strobe) and CAS Latency is the amount of delay that you have to wait between the CAS signal and the data being pushed from the RAM pins. CAS2 latency essentially means we have a 2 cycle delay, and CAS3 has a 3 cycle delay: hence the lower the CAS, the lower the latency, and the better your performance.

Others who upgraded what is your CAS time?
 
jocool5 said:
Others who upgraded what is your CAS time?
Click to expand...

The timings on my 2gb Mushkin sticks are

5-5-5-15 Pretty slow for a gaming system, but nowhere near slow enough to account for the OP's problems. My 2gb more than doubled my speed/efficiency
 
Something else I noticed is that after I restart my computer and everythying is fully loaded when I try to open a program say Limewire it will take about 6 bounces. But then when I fully quit the program and open it once again it will only take one bounce this time. Does this happen to everyones computer? Also, can some one tell me how many bounces their Apple programs (such as iPhoto, iMovie, TextEdit, Garageband, iTunes) do before opening with 2GB RAM? I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
 
jason2811 said:
Something else I noticed is that after I restart my computer and everythying is fully loaded when I try to open a program say Limewire it will take about 6 bounces. But then when I fully quit the program and open it once again it will only take one bounce this time. Does this happen to everyones computer? Also, can some one tell me how many bounces their Apple programs (such as iPhoto, iMovie, TextEdit, Garageband, iTunes) do before opening with 2GB RAM? I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
Click to expand...

yeah. its will all apps. When you first open an app, it takes a little bit. when its quit and reopened.... its ALOT quicker. Safari is about 4 bounces on this powerbook, when quit and restarted, its less than one.
 
With 2GB of RAM how many bounces should it take to open Microsoft Word (the first time) and then again after quitting and reopening? Sorry for so many questions. Thanks
 
jason2811 said:
With 2GB of RAM how many bounces should it take to open Microsoft Word (the first time) and then again after quitting and reopening? Sorry for so many questions. Thanks
Click to expand...

M$ Word/Office is not going to be overly speedy until Microsoft releases a patch/new version that is universal. My version of Word opens on 2 bounces. :)
 
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