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florianwagner

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 27, 2006
9
0
hi fellas.

about a week ago, my shiny white baby arrived. i did not want to pay apples prices for more memory and just got the 512 rams, thinking i could easily buy cheaper ones and install them.

well ... there's this apple shop around the corner and i guess i'll be asking them to install the new ram for me.

the question i got is ... shall i get 2 gigs or 1 gig (and work with 1,250) ... i dunno, but 512 are definately NOT fun. i just want things to work at a decent speed and i know that i use some rosetta apps that may work but i looked at the cpu activity monitor and when starting photoshop or ms word, the processors dont work that much, so i figure it must be the ram. i just cannot work with 512 and i need more but i don't know if working on 1,25 gig are a major difference to working on 2,0.

ah: i am a student and my mainly used apps are: ms word, powerpoint, adobe photoshop, dreamweaver (all rosetta apps) but i want the os itself to be more stable. even safari sometimes takes its time now ...

anybody got any suggestions / help for me?

thanks :)
 

iBookG4user

macrumors 604
Jun 27, 2006
6,595
2
Seattle, WA
If you're going to be working with photoshop then 2GB is by far a better choice. Photoshop likes RAM and so does Rosetta and then coupled together means that you'll need a lot of RAM. I've got 512MB in an intel iMac and 2GB in my MBP and the difference is substantial. Go with 2GB.
 

florianwagner

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 27, 2006
9
0
yeah but i am not a heavy photoshop user. i mainly want the system to run smoother ... i do not need monster-renderings and monster-graphics and i don't really design that big and overloaded stuff... it's mainly about interface designs and photo editing ...
 

fivetoadsloth

macrumors 65816
Aug 15, 2006
1,035
0
youll still be more happy with 2 gigs. things will run smoother, and since not everythingis native yet rosetta will be alot faster with 2 gigs.
 

florianwagner

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 27, 2006
9
0
you really think this 0.75 gigs do the thing? because i can hardly imagine the difference ... you know i just made the switch and on my windows pc 1gig always seemed to be okay for everything, even photoshop.
 

CanadaRAM

macrumors G5
Yes - for Photoshop etc. under Rosetta 1 Gb is not enough and 1.25 is marginal. Get the 2 Gb. The issue is that OSX wants about 512 to run smoothly, Rosetta seems to want another 512 and Photoshop itself wants 512 - 1 Gb. Universal Binary programs are happier with 1 Gb than Rosetta programs will ever be.
 

florianwagner

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 27, 2006
9
0
okay i'm still undecided. perhaps it's best to have a sleep over it and then decide :) thanks a lot, guys i think i may be getting the 2 gig.
 

MalcolmJID

macrumors 6502a
Nov 1, 2005
774
151
England
Go for 2Gb.

Don't forget, with the MacBook, 64MB is gone just for video. I know its not that much, but its still 64mb less RAM.
 

kalun

macrumors regular
Sep 13, 2006
154
0
meepm00pmeep said:
the more RAM the better your computers performance will be

This statement is wrong.....

This is ONLY true up to a certain point.
 

swindmill

macrumors 6502a
Mar 17, 2005
946
4
KY
The decision obviously has to weigh the price of that extra 1 gig stick. Obviously 2 gigs is better, but is 1.25 enough in light of the price of a 1 gig stick? I need to get more RAM for my mom's MB, and I don't think it would be worth the extra $175 or so that it would cost to get 2 gigs rather than 1.25. However, she doesn't use photoshop. Anyways, my point is that $175 is a large jump in cost for a $1100 computer.
 
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