Memory Usage Question (Need More?)

[George Knighton]

2010 iMac i7 with 12 GB installed.

5.80 Wired
2.84 Active
1.11 Inactive
9.75 Used

2.25 Free

VM Size: 386.21 GB
Page In: 1.45 GB
Page Out: 0
Swap Used: 237.4

Will I see any performance advantage with more RAM?

 

[GGJstudios]

2010 iMac i7 with 12 GB installed.

5.80 Wired
2.84 Active
1.11 Inactive
9.75 Used

2.25 Free

VM Size: 386.21 GB
Page In: 1.45 GB
Page Out: 0
Swap Used: 237.4

Will I see any performance advantage with more RAM?

If that represents your normal workload, no, as you have zero page outs. To determine if you can benefit from more RAM, launch Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab at the bottom to check your page outs. Page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so the best way to check is to restart your computer and track page outs under your normal workload (the apps, browser pages and documents you normally would have open). If your page outs are significant (say 1GB or more) under normal use, you may benefit from more RAM. If your page outs are zero or very low during normal use, you probably won't see any performance improvement from adding RAM.

Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used

 

[Weaselboy]

Assuming you took this reading after a good period of normal usage (as opposed to right after a restart), then no... more memory will do nothing for you. You still have over 3GB available there.

 

[George Knighton]

Thank you very much for the quick and definitive answers.