questions about adding memory to 2017 iMac

[madeirabhoy]

thinking of adding more memory to the stock 8gb in my 3.5ghz 2017 iMac, in general I think it might help with a few slowdowns, also I tend to play civ vi or football manager and leave them open all the time. apart from that my Mac is for watching tv on, normal internet and email, Plex server, music, the odd other game both in Mac and bootcamp windows.



looking on memory.co.uk they have a few options.

firstly they have normal 'DDR4 PC4-9200 2400mhz' then for slightly higher prices, and only 8gb or more, they have Kingston HyperX impact DDR4. is that worth paying more for?

then question is how much is 'enough'. I'm thinking just going to 16gb. my old iMac 2011 I took to 12gb and it seemed fine. is 16 enough?

if I did go to 16gb, is it best to buy two 4gb chips for €60, meaning all my memory is equal 4gb, is it still the case that has faster? but meaning that if I ever wanted to get more memory id have to bin one or more of the chips. I could get 1x 8gb for €56 meaning I have one space but my memory isn't exact pairs. the website links to a video about it being better to have equal pairs but it seems well out of date and if you have 4 spaces does it still benefit to have two different pairs or do all 4 need to be the same?

or I could spend €112 on two x 8gb giving me 24gb but is that overkill? and still it would mean there would be a mismatch of 2x4 and 2x8 in the machine.

any advice appreciated.

 

[Fishrrman]

"in general I think it might help with a few slowdowns, also I tend to play civ vi or football manager and leave them open all the time."

What kind of DRIVE is inside the iMac?

If it's a platter-based hard drive, an SSD will do much more for "speed issues" than RAM (although adding RAM may help -a little-).

A suggestion:
Close memory-intensive games and apps if you're not using them.
Things just go better that way.

 

[jagolden]

If you’re going to install more RAM, don’t just go to 16. It’s only ~$200US to get 32 gigs from Amazon or other place of your choice. This will give you a hefty 40 gigs.
You will definitely see a speed increase.

I copied/pastes the ram spec directly from the Apple tech spec page for the iMac into the search field in Amazon. So apparently I just purchased the "standard" ram. Happy.

I went from 8 to 40 in my late 2017 iMac. I frequently edit audio files that are 5 to 9 hours long using Audacity. Opening, saving, filtering was much faster.
Also am constantly in Photoshop or Affinity Photo working files with tens of layers. Much smoother.

 

[madeirabhoy]

"in general I think it might help with a few slowdowns, also I tend to play civ vi or football manager and leave them open all the time."

What kind of DRIVE is inside the iMac?

If it's a platter-based hard drive, an SSD will do much more for "speed issues" than RAM (although adding RAM may help -a little-).

A suggestion:
Close memory-intensive games and apps if you're not using them.
Things just go better that way.

its a fusion drive, I know, it was the only one the shop had. I live on a wee island and my 2011 iMac died, and I checked with the two different retailers here and one just had the crap 21' basic model and one had this.

but don't want to rip my Mac open just now whilst its under warranty.
[doublepost=1555259126][/doublepost]

If you’re going to install more RAM, don’t just go to 16. It’s only ~$200US to get 32 gigs from Amazon or other place of your choice. This will give you a hefty 40 gigs.
You will definitely see a speed increase.

I copied/pastes the ram spec directly from the Apple tech spec page for the iMac into the search field in Amazon. So apparently I just purchased the "standard" ram. Happy.

I went from 8 to 40 in my late 2017 iMac. I frequently edit audio files that are 5 to 9 hours long using Audacity. Opening, saving, filtering was much faster.
Also am constantly in Photoshop or Affinity Photo working files with tens of layers. Much smoother.

I don't use anything like those apps, very occasional indesign to knock up a poster. I suppose two 8s gives me 24.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"but don't want to rip my Mac open just now whilst its under warranty."

You don't have to.
Buy an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD, plug it in, and set it up to be the boot drive.
Things may go much faster.

 

[madeirabhoy]

thinking again about increasing memory either to 16gb or 24gb and again stuck as to whether matching is important.

if I went to 24gb it will cost me more to get 3x8gb than to keep my 2x4gb. if I keep my 2x4gb is there any benefit to getting another pair of 8gb as opposed to 1x16gb and leave a space empty.

if I just go to 16gb, will it be faster with 2x4gb than with 1x8gb?

 

[theluggage]

if I just go to 16gb, will it be faster with 2x4gb than with 1x8gb?

Yes. You need to add ram modules in matched pairs to keep 'dual channel' mode active, which is slightly faster. You don't need all 4 slots to be the same, but slot 1 should match slot 3, and slot 2 should match slot 4.

if I went to 24gb it will cost me more to get 3x8gb than to keep my 2x4gb.

For 24GB you would get 2 8GB sticks and install them in between the original 2 4GB sticks. Normally, the 4GB sticks are in slots 1 & 3 and the news sticks go in 2 and 4.

For what you say you are doing, 24GB should be more than enough.

Crucial.com have a RAM finder thingy on their website that will point you to a 16GB 'upgrade kit' specifically for the 2017 iMac. I wouldn't bother with Super-X++ with go-faster stripes RAM.

 

[SaSaSushi]

There is a comprehensive 28 page thread about recommended RAM for the 2017 iMac here.

If you intend to add new RAM alongside the stock memory I would advise against Kingston HyperX based on the experiences of some users who had compatibility issues.

Crucial is an excellent choice. I have been using 32GB of Crucial Ballistix running together with the 8GB of Micron that came with my 2017 iMac for 40GB for two years now with no problems.