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Why are the system requirements for iTunes so high

M

markiv810

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 27, 2002
380
114
India
My roomates are PC users, and they asked why iTunes (minimum requirement 128 MB and recommended being 256 MB) required more RAM than Jaguar did (the minimum RAM required for Jaguar was 64 MB and recommended was 128 MB). This seems as a logical flaw from Apple's side as there is no way iTunes would be a heavier applicaton compared to Jaguar (OS X 10.2). I need help explaining the RAM requirements of iTunes to my roommates. I hope what I stated here made some sense.

P.S. This is the link to
iTunes System Requirements
 
Mac and Windows should have min of 256 and recomended of 512 to run decent. 64mb min for jag is a joke. that will not cut it (at least not for me) i have 384 in my ibook and wish i had more.
 
Jaguar requires 128MB, but I agree that 256 is the minimum for acceptable performance. By the way, I tried to install Jag once on an iMac with 64MB and it wouldn't install.
 
Remember Windows is bloatware.
iTunes runs better on my DP 867 Powermac than my 2.26 G P4. OS X is better able to spread the load, or alot a fixed amount of processing time to a task. iTunes requires a certain amount of processing time. It needs it at a particular time to prevent pauses. OS X is better than Windows in this regard.
 
First different OS and thus different requirements for each one. In OS X iTunes is going to be much more integrated into the OS. The higher the level of integration the lower amount of memory an application is going to use. UNIX in general requires less memory then windows. Look at the system requirements for windows compared to OS X.
 
Try firing up the graphics in iTunes some time, and see what happens. When I am running top I can see the memory usage skyrocket when the visuals are turned on.
 
This is from my 1.2ghz athlon, Win XP Home and 768mb ram
 

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according to those pictures - itunes uses a tiny amount of system resources. Like the above poster said - try it with the visualizer.

Also - if you are running a compatible system (Win2k or XP) then having anything less than 256MB is suicidal. It just wont run very well.

RAM = life force
More RAM = easier to use
Windows /=/ OSX

Therefore, Windows needs more RAM so it can be easier to use than OSX. Not suprising really.

By my complex mathematical equations - Windows needs …… 18 exabytes of RAM in its current from to approach the ease of use that OSX has.

those of you who know, 18 exabyts is the 64bit RAM limit
 
I have a 2.26G P4 with 512 M RAM.
With the visualizer running, CPU usage ~75%at a 22 FPS frame rate.

edit
My CPU temperature usually goes from ~35C to ~49C.
 
On my PowerBook I get over 100 fps normally, moderate CPU usage, and I rarely jump past 40 C temp unless I am folding in the background, at which case, I jump to just under 60.
 
The reason why I posted this question is I want my roomates to download iTunes so that I can share their music library and vice-versa. They made fun of iTunes (called it a memory hogging app) and I tried to expalin all the built in components of iTunes, the browser, CD/DVD burning software, QuickTime, and Rendevous. But somehow I could not convince them, they would much rather use WinAmp than iTunes. Gues this is the price I have to pay living with roomates who use PC's.
 
iTunes for Window is poorly coded. It's more like a Windows wrapper on an Apple binary than a application coded to utilize Windows in any significant way (like APIs, etc.) That why it is a memory hog and underperforms. If the same coders who released iTunes for Windows didn't have Apple supporting them (and an Apple app in the first place) they would be fired for the sloppy performance. It's just poorly done.. intentionally or not, you make the call...

The question now is whether or not Apple will allow these same coders to do the job right in future releases... even at a basic level (reverse engineering) I could, personally, code out a lot of performance bottlenecks (which has to be grossly apparent to the original programmers.)
 
It would look bad on Apple if the program had lower system requirements on a pc than on a mac.
 
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