MacBook Memory Upgrade Advice

[blythy]

I have a 1.83ghz Intel Core Duo Macbook, running a fairly puny 512mb Ram. I'm a web developer and often run 3/4 memory intensive applications like Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Photoshop.

Is it worthwhile forking out the extra for an 2gb memory upgrade, or will 1gb suffice? What kind of performance increase could I expect from either?

All advice appreciated!

 

[devilot]

I'm sure someone else will come along w/ much more polished advice, but one thing you could do is start running the apps the way you normally would, and then open up Activity Monitor and take a look at your RAM usage, like so:



From there, you can determine whether or not upping your RAM would really benefit you (although most on here would be frothing at the mouth telling you to get more RAM as it is ). And if you do decide to get RAM, there is currently a really good deal being discussed here. I don't know for 100% certainty that those sticks would work w/ your machine, but I think they just might do the trick.

 

[CanadaRAM]

And it's not the pie chart you are looking for, its the ratio of page ins to page outs. Page outs (the second number) should be 10% or less of Page Ins, ideslly less than 5%.

But -- RAM has come down in price splendidly. Get the 2 Gb ( 2 x 1 Gb SODIMMs) and be happy.

 

[blythy]

Thanks guys.

2gb is probably what 'my heart says' anyway, I just needed someone else to justify it

 

[xJulianx]

Yeah go for 2GB's, especially with prices as low as they are right now. I upgraded to 1.25GB from 512MB and noticed an absolutely huge difference, and the most intensive app I run is Logic Express.