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sikkinixx

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 10, 2005
2,062
0
Rocketing through the sky!
I just put a gig into my 12" pb to max it out at 1.25GB and WOW! a huge performance jump! I doubted people on here who said it was a big jump because my more ram to my PC certainly helped, but it wasn't that noticable. With the pb though, everything just runs smoother and bootup is almost half of what it used to be! :cool: anyway just thought i would share, go buy more if you dont have enough!!
 

gauchogolfer

macrumors 603
Jan 28, 2005
5,551
5
American Riviera
sikkinixx said:
I just put a gig into my 12" pb to max it out at 1.25GB and WOW! a huge performance jump! I doubted people on here who said it was a big jump because my more ram to my PC certainly helped, but it wasn't that noticable. With the pb though, everything just runs smoother and bootup is almost half of what it used to be! :cool: anyway just thought i would share, go buy more if you dont have enough!!

I just added a gig to my 15" PB today as well, to boost it from 1 to 1.5. I've also noticed a sizable gain in speed. I wish I'd done it sooner! It might be awhile before I max out at 2GB, though, I'll have to monitor my usage. So far I'm up to 9 programs simultaneously with no pageouts, so I'm happy. :D
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
40,100
8,374
Los Angeles
I think RAM is more important than CPU speed. I never buy a Mac with less than twice the RAM it normally ships with, sometimes 3x instead, and I never think twice about that expense. It always pays off.
 

Queso

Suspended
Mar 4, 2006
11,821
8
When I first got my iMac G5 from the Apple Store, it only had the original 512MB in it. The moment I tried to do more than one thing at a time it slowed to a crawl, and widgets were just useless RAMhogs. I've now got 1.5GB in there and the difference is enormous. It really shows how fast the G5 is.
 

tobefirst ⚽️

macrumors 601
Jan 24, 2005
4,612
2,335
St. Louis, MO
I'm with Doctor Q: it always pays off. When I got my iMac in 2001, I had a gig of RAM in there, which, for that time, was a ton. Happily, it still does pretty well today. I have 3 gigs in my Power Mac, which is probably more than is (usually) useful right now, but will be pretty "standard" not too long from now.
 

Malfoy

macrumors 6502a
Nov 1, 2005
688
2
gauchogolfer said:
I just added a gig to my 15" PB today as well, to boost it from 1 to 1.5. I've also noticed a sizable gain in speed. I wish I'd done it sooner! It might be awhile before I max out at 2GB, though, I'll have to monitor my usage. So far I'm up to 9 programs simultaneously with no pageouts, so I'm happy. :D

A gig of ram boosted you from 1 to 1.5 eh? That rocks. :p :D I'm with you though, Ram increases do rock. Bought the MBP with 512, tried emulating windows with Parallels and it laughed at me. Upgraded to 2 gbs of ram, and well I laugh at it. :cool:
 

gauchogolfer

macrumors 603
Jan 28, 2005
5,551
5
American Riviera
Malfoy said:
A gig of ram boosted you from 1 to 1.5 eh? That rocks. :p :D

It certainly did, since I removed the 512MB from the bottom slot and popped in 1GB. I'll be selling off/giving away the extra one to my sister anyways. Totally worth it.
 

disconap

macrumors 68000
Oct 29, 2005
1,810
3
Portland, OR
Holy crap, that's funny, I just added a gig stick to my ibook, replacing a 512. More RAM always makes a difference with Macs and, in my experience, seldom with PCs (I have a tower that went from 512 to 1.5g and I notice zero improvement)...

The oddest thing is that every ibook spec I came across said that my ibook (one with a soldered 128 chip) couldn't take more than 684. I found a good rate and figured I'd give it a shot, since I could always sell it on ebay if it didn't work, and presto! Super fast ibook. :)
 

Texas04

macrumors 6502a
Jul 2, 2005
886
1
Texas
Yes it does, I have a Gig of ram on my MacBook and look at what it can do!

All those files and movies and even photobooth running in real time! Ahh I love technology..

Edit: Image was extremley huge...
Basically adding more ram is awsome man. Apple Comptuers love ram and do great things with it. Add a little bit of ram every time you feel a need for speed and your set :). Thats why I didn't max out my MBP ;) Yet... :)

Gotta love Ram and a good processer!
 

Cloudgazer

macrumors 6502
Apr 22, 2005
480
1
RSA
You guys are making me jealous.

I'm saving up for an extra 1gb, but its gonna be a while before i can afford it.
(Lotsa other expenses chewing up my hard earned cash).
 

paddy

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2005
651
0
TN
I'm chugging away painfully slow on 256 RAM on a G4 iMac running 10.4.2. Ughhhhhh :(.
 

student_trap

macrumors 68000
Mar 14, 2005
1,879
0
'Ol Smokey, UK
how many page outs are too many page outs???

my girlfriends mbp always has none!!!

problem is, i'll probably get a mbp in a few months and give my pb to someone in the family, would it be worth upgrading RAM for just a few months?
 

FireArse

macrumors 6502a
Oct 29, 2004
900
110
Go buy Ram

JFreak said:
Haven't you learnt anything by now? Go open your wallet now.

I love this guy. He has a point. Listen to what ppl are saying. I wouldn't run OS X with less than 1GB of RAM. I'm running 2.5GB on my PM, made sure my little bro got 1GB from Apple with his Core Duo Mini - shared graphics? more Ram please.

F
 

gauchogolfer

macrumors 603
Jan 28, 2005
5,551
5
American Riviera
student_trap said:
how many page outs are too many page outs???

my girlfriends mbp always has none!!!

I'd ask CanadaRAM, I think he's the expert around here. If you reboot, run your 'normal' number of apps, and after 15-20 minutes your pageout count is above ~100,000 I'd say you definitely need more RAM.
 

djdarlek

macrumors regular
Oct 10, 2003
130
0
Just my input

I bought a G5 dual 2 Ghz about a year or so ago, and skimped on the ram a bit. 512 meg, it'll do for now I thought. But alas, it was barely even usuable. Fresh OS install etc and still could only run Mail and Safari and iTunes without it all coming to a screaming hault. 2 gig o' Ram later and it's a dream machine.

DO NOT EVER USE A MAC WITHOUT AT LEAST A GIG!
 

student_trap

macrumors 68000
Mar 14, 2005
1,879
0
'Ol Smokey, UK
djdarlek said:
I bought a G5 dual 2 Ghz about a year or so ago, and skimped on the ram a bit. 512 meg, it'll do for now I thought. But alas, it was barely even usuable. Fresh OS install etc and still could only run Mail and Safari and iTunes without it all coming to a screaming hault. 2 gig o' Ram later and it's a dream machine.

DO NOT EVER USE A MAC WITHOUT AT LEAST A GIG!

see i don't quite get this, my mac can do a lot more than safari and itunes before its getting bogged down, and i only have a powerbook G4 with 512 RAM
 

Cloudgazer

macrumors 6502
Apr 22, 2005
480
1
RSA
student_trap said:
see i don't quite get this, my mac can do a lot more than safari and itunes before its getting bogged down, and i only have a powerbook G4 with 512 RAM

Yeah, me too.
My pbook is not blazingly fast, but I expect that from a laptop.
I can run a number of apps without any real problem.
Sure certain apps a slow to do things, but it never comes to a grinding halt.
 

disconap

macrumors 68000
Oct 29, 2005
1,810
3
Portland, OR
student_trap said:
problem is, i'll probably get a mbp in a few months and give my pb to someone in the family, would it be worth upgrading RAM for just a few months?

Sure, and also your family will love you more.

If nomey is tight, though, and the person you're giving it too can afford to buy it more easily, then no. Especially if it's already doing what you need it to.
 

Josias

macrumors 68000
Mar 10, 2006
1,908
1
You can run panther with 256. My big bro's ibook has 1.07 GHz G4 and 256 MB DDR RAM (4.200 rpm. drive is also usually making mac's slow, look at the ppc macmini). He runs fine on 10.3.9. I also have a 2.4 GHz Celeron D, 256 MB RAM (not ddr), 4.200 rpm. drive, 16 MB Intel Shared Graphics, and i can play Halo smoothly (on optimal graphics). You can push out much more than you think, but when i get my mb/mbp, i will at least go for 1 GB. Perhaps 1.5.;) Remember: RAM is how much stuff you do at a time, processor is how fast you do it.
 

disconap

macrumors 68000
Oct 29, 2005
1,810
3
Portland, OR
Josias said:
Remember: RAM is how much stuff you do at a time, processor is how fast you do it.


Essentially, yes. But in modern computing machines are doing several different things at once (especially on G4s and G5s), so more RAM=faster.
 
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