Ode to RAM

[quidire]

As a part of our (my gf and I) latest round of Mac buying I just added 2GB to our PowerMac (for a total of 4 GB).

0 Page outs after 24 hours. Life is good.

The computer is much snappier, no beachballs, it really makes a huge difference for only $200 (in a 2.5K machine, really not that much money). This is the best price/performance upgrade anyone can make.

None of this is news to anyone, just felt like sharing the thrill.

 

[Josias]

Congrats. Macs love RAM. You might even consider 6 gigs, but that would only be if you did very heavy stuff. Little RAM for a Mac is no good. I saw a quad w. 512 MB RAM hacking on a 1080p video...

 

[LastZion]

I too just upgraded my ram in my MBP 1st from 512 to 1.5, then from 1.5 to 2... each time it gets smoother and smoother...

Although I am quite jealous of your page in/out chart

I am currently at:

287770/168833

Time for a restart? Or is that normal?

 

[CanadaRAM]

I too just upgraded my ram in my MBP 1st from 512 to 1.5, then from 1.5 to 2... each time it gets smoother and smoother...

Although I am quite jealous of your page in/out chart

I am currently at:

287770/168833

Time for a restart? Or is that normal?

That's a bit heavy on pageouts

Remember that 2 Gb is good, but if you then go ahead and open 3 Gb worth of programs and data, you are right back to doing pageouts again.

 

[indigoflowAS]

If someone could give me a quick briefing on page ins and page outs

...and maybe the difference between the blue "inactive" ram and the "free" ram.

Thanks friends

 

[WildCowboy]

If someone could give me a quick briefing on page ins and page outs

...and maybe the difference between the blue "inactive" ram and the "free" ram.

Thanks friends

Searching the forums is your friend.

Inactive RAM is RAM that has been used by a program, but is no longer needed. If some other program needs it, it can go ahead an use it. But if it's not needed, it still retains the old data, enabling you to launch things more quickly if you come back to it. Consider both "inactive" and "free" RAM as free RAM...the rest is all behind-the-scenes management that isn't important.

Page ins are instructions that are loaded into RAM...completely normal operations. Page outs are instructions that RAM is unable to handle to due to limited memory, and so the instructions are passed off to the hard drive. This is inefficient (due to the much slower speed of hard drive memory), and an indication that more RAM might be needed.