I'm seeking some guidance from you folks here. When I bought my iMac Pro back in 2017, I thought 64GB would suffice, and for the most part it kinda does. I do use an astronomy processing software (PixInsight) which processes many large files and that can slow down my iMac Pro (or often, crash it too). Aside from PixInsight, I find Google Chrome also bloats up quick (I do have up to 70 tabs open continuously).
As such I'm thinking of upgrading my 64GB. Realistically going to 128GB would suffice my needs now, I think that'll probably just buy me only another 2-3 years before I'd want to upgrade again.
Before I go full on with 512GB (OWC certified), I thought I'd run by folks here to see if that would be considered as an overkill, and if something like 256 or 384GB would be a more practical step for adding longevity to my iMac Pro? Note that due to the cost of the iMac Pro, I'm happy to continue using it for the next 5-8 yrs. It's not uncommon for decade old iMacs/Macbook Airs to be floating around my home. Even my iPad Pro Gen 1 has so far been satisfactory. Apps I run aren't CPU intensive but may consume lots of memory and may swap a lot.
Currently with some of my image processing, my PixInsight app easily consumes 90GB before it crashes (wired up to 64GB). I easily process 200x122MB sized raw files, and when PixInsight processes, it bloats each file to to 244MB. I have to kill all other apps, e.g. Google Chrome could easily consume 64GB with 35GB wired. So I can't run the two concurrently. I have switched to Safari for now and that's marginally better - note that I don't really wanna close tabs, that's a last resort; I'd rather close the whole browser.
If I get more memory, I'd allocate some of that to RAM disks, maybe 8GBx 6. I don't really need them to be big, but just more to spread out my I/Os.
Would going full out for 512GB be considered excessive, and something like 384GB be more practical?
As such I'm thinking of upgrading my 64GB. Realistically going to 128GB would suffice my needs now, I think that'll probably just buy me only another 2-3 years before I'd want to upgrade again.
Before I go full on with 512GB (OWC certified), I thought I'd run by folks here to see if that would be considered as an overkill, and if something like 256 or 384GB would be a more practical step for adding longevity to my iMac Pro? Note that due to the cost of the iMac Pro, I'm happy to continue using it for the next 5-8 yrs. It's not uncommon for decade old iMacs/Macbook Airs to be floating around my home. Even my iPad Pro Gen 1 has so far been satisfactory. Apps I run aren't CPU intensive but may consume lots of memory and may swap a lot.
Currently with some of my image processing, my PixInsight app easily consumes 90GB before it crashes (wired up to 64GB). I easily process 200x122MB sized raw files, and when PixInsight processes, it bloats each file to to 244MB. I have to kill all other apps, e.g. Google Chrome could easily consume 64GB with 35GB wired. So I can't run the two concurrently. I have switched to Safari for now and that's marginally better - note that I don't really wanna close tabs, that's a last resort; I'd rather close the whole browser.
If I get more memory, I'd allocate some of that to RAM disks, maybe 8GBx 6. I don't really need them to be big, but just more to spread out my I/Os.
Would going full out for 512GB be considered excessive, and something like 384GB be more practical?