RAM for iMac

[Neo_x1]

Model: iMac18.3, 3.5 GHz i5 processor. Currently has DDR4 2400 MHz 4GBx2 RAM

I plan to order RAM to upgrade it, too slow. The Word or Excel icon jump "hundred" times before open.

Crucial 32GB Kit (16GBx2) DDR4 2666 MT/s (PC4-21300) DR x8 SODIMM 260-Pin Memory - CT2K16G4SFD8266

This is 2666 MHz RAM, can I run the new pair with my existing pair of 2400 MHz together?

Thanks

 

[theluggage]

I plan to order RAM to upgrade it, too slow. The Word or Excel icon jump "hundred" times before open.

Should be OK - the two new sticks go in the empty slots in between the existing RAM - so if the existing sticks are in slots 1 and 3 the new sticks go in slots 2 and 4.

But: Word/Excel being slow to load doesn't sound like a problem due to "only" 8GB of RAM - which should be fine for that. Adding more RAM might help but I wouldn't bet on it. You certainly don't need 40GB (32+8) for office. More than 16GB RAM is for people working with large graphics files, "big data", 4K+ video, lots of virtual machines etc. If you need it, you'll know. If Excel/Word are taking forever to load it sounds like hard-drive issues.

Things to check:

Run Activity monitor and ignore the memory used value - it isn't very indicative. If you have a RAM shortage then "Memory Pressure" is high and/or "Swap Used" will be more than zero.

Is your hard-drive full? Yeah, you might have 1TB but use much more than 80% of that (especially on the system drive) and things get inefficient. Use "disc first aid" to check everything is OK. Don't be tempted by certain widely-advertised disc-clean-up tools - they range from unnecessary to downright harmful.

Also - try other applications to see if they're slow. If its just Word/Excel try removing and re-installing them. They could be trying to "phone home" to check for updates etc.

Otherwise... well, when people ask here first, friends don't let friends buy iMacs with the HD only or 1TB Fusion drive options. If you feel adventurous enough to dismantle the iMac, there are instructions out there on the web for installing SSDs, or you can get a fast external SSD and boot from it (several threads here about that).

 

[smirking]

I'm seconding @theluggage's comment. I really don't think RAM is going to help you with Word unless there's some serious resources that you're also running alongside it. Also, MS Office is pretty abysmal in terms of performance, especially some of the older versions. Is it the 2019 version of Office?

I'd rather put that RAM money into an SSD. If you've got a 1TB Fusion drive, it's got a pitiful amount of SSD in it. More SSD ought to help just about any situation if you're relying on a 5400 rpm HDD for anything.

 

[Neo_x1]

Thanks
[doublepost=1559390507][/doublepost]

Should be OK - the two new sticks go in the empty slots in between the existing RAM - so if the existing sticks are in slots 1 and 3 the new sticks go in slots 2 and 4.

But: Word/Excel being slow to load doesn't sound like a problem due to "only" 8GB of RAM - which should be fine for that. Adding more RAM might help but I wouldn't bet on it. You certainly don't need 40GB (32+8) for office. More than 16GB RAM is for people working with large graphics files, "big data", 4K+ video, lots of virtual machines etc. If you need it, you'll know. If Excel/Word are taking forever to load it sounds like hard-drive issues.

Things to check:

Run Activity monitor and ignore the memory used value - it isn't very indicative. If you have a RAM shortage then "Memory Pressure" is high and/or "Swap Used" will be more than zero.

Is your hard-drive full? Yeah, you might have 1TB but use much more than 80% of that (especially on the system drive) and things get inefficient. Use "disc first aid" to check everything is OK. Don't be tempted by certain widely-advertised disc-clean-up tools - they range from unnecessary to downright harmful.

Also - try other applications to see if they're slow. If its just Word/Excel try removing and re-installing them. They could be trying to "phone home" to check for updates etc.

Otherwise... well, when people ask here first, friends don't let friends buy iMacs with the HD only or 1TB Fusion drive options. If you feel adventurous enough to dismantle the iMac, there are instructions out there on the web for installing SSDs, or you can get a fast external SSD and boot from it (several threads here about that).

Thanks so much for the insight advice. As I know, this iMac is using SSD. I'm using one drive on that iMac. One of my friend said one drive may cause that issue, but I don't think so.

 

[theluggage]

Thanks so much for the insight advice. As I know, this iMac is using SSD. I'm using one drive on that iMac. One of my friend said one drive may cause that issue, but I don't think so.

Frankly, OneDrive is more likely to be the cause than lack of RAM.

I've just tried on my old 17" MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM (which has a SSD but not a super-fast PCIe one like a 2017 iMac) and Word and Excel start up in 5-6 seconds.