I just got a 2011 base 2.3 i5 Mini. When I have several programs open (e.g., Firefox, Safari, Openoffice, and Logic) there is considerable lag when moving from one program to another, especially if I have multiple tabs, and I'm seeing the colorful spinning ball sometimes. Also, loading up and closing programs seems to be slower when multiple programs are open (which is obvious, but it seems too slow). The only really intensive program I can see from the programs I listed would be Logic 9. Would adding 8GB of RAM make things snappier and stop this lag when moving from program to program?
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Will 8GB RAM Help me?
- Thread starter teknobrat2003
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Not sure how to check that. I'm just curious if this is normal behavior for my Mac Mini and if the 8gb will eliminate these issues.
You can check in Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor). There is a System Memory tab.
If you have a number greater than 0 for page outs and/or a number greater than zero for swap used then you need more RAM.
2GB RAM is barely enough to run Lion. You should upgrade the RAM to at least 4GB RAM. 8GB (2x4GB) RAM is fairly cheap so you may as well upgrade to that.
Upgrading to 16GB (2x8GB) RAM is possible, but it's still very expensive.
If you have lots of applications open at once or memory intensive applications more RAM will help.
Of course putting a SSD in will help as well.
I went from 4 to 8gb ram in my 2011 i5 iMac the improvement wasn't much. Since ram is so cheap these days id do it. I just didn't get that much of an improvement. To be honest using m main apps like Logic, Reason act. i have noticed nothing.
2gb ram does not cut it for a 2011 mini. 8gb ram is dirt cheap. buy some if you are using base 2011 mini. new egg has good ram for 45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231342 this is good ram has good reviews I have purchased more then 10 sets of it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231342 this is good ram has good reviews I have purchased more then 10 sets of it.
yeah. that could be a combination of not enough ram and rpm's since the mac mini only come with 5400 rpm hdd's.
the hdd speed will be noticeable when you are in the midst of work, like say, in logic, as you say and there is a lag scrubbing on the timeline or acessing big files. this will be even more noticeable if you are low on ram and you are paging out as they have also said.
it's not so easy to upgrade a hdd but the ram is easier on the mac mini.
for the hdd, i suggest getting an external firewrie hdd for your logic work. as in, save your files on the faster external 7200 rpm drive so you work off of that and leave your os drive free of any media accessing because it is the slower drive to begin with and in general, it is recommended to not do video or audio editing off of your os drive because of the nature of video and audio editing work that strains the drive. so, you don't wanna do that to your os drive.
hope this helps.
the hdd speed will be noticeable when you are in the midst of work, like say, in logic, as you say and there is a lag scrubbing on the timeline or acessing big files. this will be even more noticeable if you are low on ram and you are paging out as they have also said.
it's not so easy to upgrade a hdd but the ram is easier on the mac mini.
for the hdd, i suggest getting an external firewrie hdd for your logic work. as in, save your files on the faster external 7200 rpm drive so you work off of that and leave your os drive free of any media accessing because it is the slower drive to begin with and in general, it is recommended to not do video or audio editing off of your os drive because of the nature of video and audio editing work that strains the drive. so, you don't wanna do that to your os drive.
hope this helps.
Yes, it makes a huge difference.....Have the same 2011 - 2.3 and its performance was terrible with the stock 2gig. Beach balls and delays for everything. 
After adding 8gig all that non-sense is gone and we now have a Mini that's running great.....Smooth sailing!
Apple should be ashamed putting these out with 2gigs.....It's just enough to hobble their new OS.....Let alone run apps on top of it.
4 to 8 may not make a big difference but 2 to 8 sure does......Buy the ram!
After adding 8gig all that non-sense is gone and we now have a Mini that's running great.....Smooth sailing!
Apple should be ashamed putting these out with 2gigs.....It's just enough to hobble their new OS.....Let alone run apps on top of it.
4 to 8 may not make a big difference but 2 to 8 sure does......Buy the ram!
the 8Gb RAM upgrade is so cheap there's no reason not to do it.
The next step for speed on your machine after RAM upgrades would be to move to a SSD. In my experience, that almost had a bigger effect than the RAM upgrades.
The next step for speed on your machine after RAM upgrades would be to move to a SSD. In my experience, that almost had a bigger effect than the RAM upgrades.
Yes, it makes a huge difference.....Have the same 2011 - 2.3 and its performance was terrible with the stock 2gig. Beach balls and delays for everything.
After adding 8gig all that non-sense is gone and we now have a Mini that's running great.....Smooth sailing!
Apple should be ashamed putting these out with 2gigs.....It's just enough to hobble their new OS.....Let alone run apps on top of it.
4 to 8 may not make a big difference but 2 to 8 sure does......Buy the ram!
I got the barebones 2011. After bumping up to 8gig RAM the different is night and day with multiple programs running.
I bought the same computer, is it possible for it to run (and utilize the throughput of) 1600 MHz or 1866 MHz RAM?
8 GB helps, if you do not use Safari for > 1 day. Google:
"Safari memory leak site:discussions.apple.com" (without the quotes).
Yes, it helped in my case.
The EFI controls this, AFAIK. Memory speed is not the problem, because the internal CPU caches are > 1000x faster than the RAM.
Here are some real world tests:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/memory/2011/01/11/the-best-memory-for-sandy-bridge/9
(i can see only a small difference, as expected)
Thanks a lot for that info! It's interesting seeing how marginal the differences are. Looks like I can start saving for a big SSD, while waiting for the technology to mature more and the price to drop.
This may not be the place to ask, but my brother has Mac mini base Mid 2010 model {2.4 GHz (P8600) Intel Core 2 Duo}. Can I use the above mentioned G.Skill memory type eventhough mid-2010 doesn't clock to 1333 MHz?
Apple installed 2 GB on its low end offering to keep the price down, and hope many would fall for the low cost Mac Mini, finding out later that one needs more ram to keep more apps open. And/OR have some noobie purchase the additional costly ram from Apple instead of doing a couple minutes of research to find ram that is very good and cheaper from Amazon or Newegg.
Get the additional ram as many here have suggested and you will be happy you did.....
Get the additional ram as many here have suggested and you will be happy you did.....
No it does not work in 2.4ghz mac minis. As per the 4 sticks I tried in 2010 2.4 mac minis
2010 2.4 ghz mac minis are picky for ram .
jr.com may have some pny 4gb sticks 1066 type that work..
samsung 4gb 1066 sticks work.
the 2010 is a real p.i.t.a. with ram.
+1. While most PCs will downclock the RAM (so 1333 goes down to 1066, and so on), my experience too is that minis (not sure about the rest of the Mac line) have to have RAM that matches their native clock speed.
It should help. I have a new 2011 mini and I use very light programs and Im over 2gb of ram all the time.