RAM -- 2Gb or 4Gb

I'm strongly considering buying a MacBook Pro to replace my Vista notebook from Dell. I'm sick of legacy software packages not working, the annoying UAC ("accept or deny"... that's the one Apple commercial that is accurate), and I want hardware that looks as cool as a Mac... so I'm looking at a Mac.

Anyway...

I'm unfamiliar with the "ideal" hardware configs, especially when it comes to RAM. With Vista, the reviews have strongly suggested 2Gb of RAM.

Will a MacBook Pro used for your typical office apps, plus Adobe CS (mainly Dreamweaver) work well under 2Gb on the MacBook Pro?

Thanks!

 

I don't think you'll have any issue running it with 2GB's of RAM. 4GB is just plain overkill at this point in my opinion.

Right now with OS X, Firefox, Mail, Adium, iTunes, iCal and TexEdit all open and running I still have over 700mb's remaining. This reminds me, FireFox is such a memory hog.

 

While 4GB is pretty nice, you wouldn't need it. It's pretty expensive, so unless you have the money to use, I would just stick with 2GB.

 

true, unless your running programs like websphere, 2 gigs will suffice for almost everything and the upgrade to 2 gigs range from 90 dollars to about 140 (depends on the company). 4 gigs is overkill and plenty expensive as much as 400 dollars extra , but its nice to brag about

 

4GB is overkill for a laptop.

 

how fast a program will run depends on the memory, but more on ur cpu as well. from what i saw from the apple website, the macs pro have from a2.2 to 2.4 ghz chip, with santa rosa technology. Im sure even with 512 or 1 gig of memory, it would open and run within 10 seconds. so with 2 gigs it would open even more quickly

 

There is a command in about:config you can do that reduces firefox's memory when you minimize it.

It pretty much resets its memory, sort of.. and its instant, No lag when you go to firefox and minimize it etc

I'll try and find it soon.

 

2GB is fine unless you work with large format print images or do a lot of 3d work.

Even then 2GB works ok for the most part.

I just did a 7'x3' @ 150dpi print banner using Photoshop CS3 with no real issues using 2GB ram.

 

Oh c'mon...you know you'll all miss the days where you open Vista up and 800MB of RAM's already in use from startup

 

I don't know why people keep bringing this up as a negative. OS X kinda does this, as does Linux.

 

I don't know why people keep bringing this up as a negative. OS X kinda does this, as does Linux.

Ram is cheap now. Get a bunch of it and fill it up.

 

i am thinking of grabbing 2x2gigs for my MBP.. so i can dedicate 2 gigs to OSX / 2 gigs to parallels & windows.

 

people complaining about an OS using ram are just bloody confused I think :? it is being used for a reason.

getting 4gb's to dedicated to separate OS's doesn't make a lot of sense.

4gb's is not overkill, only if you are heavily using Pro apps like Final Cut Studio, Adobe Creative/Production Suite, Aperture, Logic Pro, etc.

these programs can use as much ram as you can throw at them. other than that, yes it will probably be overkill, however, if you can afford it, get it, put it in yourself however, you can save yourself about $300+ dollars.

 

Why not? if people run memory demanding apps both OS X and Windows under Parallels, it makes a lot of sense to me.

 

If you are just running OS X, or BootCamp to run Windows, then 2gb is fine for most applications.

Looking at "free" memory is not always helpful, as OS X will try and maintain free memory even when its swapping, you have to look at swaps to effectively evaluate memory need or performance. When I had 1gb OS X usually has some free memory, when I got 2gb I noticed a huge performance increase and my basic memory need was actually around 1.3 gb. More apps, and running parallels and I started using most of 2gb. When I upgraded to 3gb I did not have a large performance increase, but a modest one - battery life however increased considerably, so there was obviously still swapping going on that additional memory helped with.

If you want "future proof", get your MBP with a single 2gb module. Later you can add 1gb or 2gb without having to replace current memory.

 

Does the new macbook have 4 RAM slots, or 2x2GB?

Because the online store asks for 900 bucks for 4GB of ram, wouldn't it be easier to buy your own?

Is mac RAM different from PC?

 

how come any time i see circa make a comment its always about how something "doesnt make sense" or "is utterly stupid" or somehow manages to blame individuals?

anyway- i think that if you plan on running osx and vista/xp side by side- 4 gigs of ram will certainly help. And i could be wrong- but i think you actually do have to dedicate specific amounts of ram to each os.

 

I bought an 'old' MBP about 4 weeks ago: 2.33 Ghz with 2Gb RAM.

I have been very tempted to upgrade to 3Gb RAM just because I can, so have been interested to see if I can justify it.

My conclusion is there is probably no point.

For my normal use I never use more than 1 Gb. For more intensive use I have managed to get the 'free' memory down to 60mb, but that was still with a huge slice of 'inactive' memory (at least 400 mb).

Normal use: firefox, itunes, adium, iphoto, light photoshopping or word / powerpoint.

Intensive use: rendering video in imovie whilst manipulating images in photoshop or converting RAW images in bibble, whilst doing all of the above.

In both 'normal' and 'intensive' use my 2Gb is never exceeded and the computer happily hums through whatever I throw at it. Opening large applications like photoshop, powerpoint etc usually incurs a small delay (like about 5 seconds) but once they are open things are pretty much instantaneous.

I am still tempted to upgrade to 3Gb just for the hell of it but I think it would be a waste of money

Of course I don't run Windows so cant comment on that aspect

 

I run lots of virtual machines, so 4GB would be useful to me. When I don't have the virtuals running it would be overkill.

 

I'd say get 2 GB for now and just use it as you need to. When applications become more RAM demanding you can upgrade later. The price of RAM is dropping REALLY fast (check out manufacturers like OWC). If you waited for a while, 4 GB (2x2GB) will be easily affordable and you'll save a bunch. Upgrade it yourself later when it becomes necessary, as of right now 2 GB is probably enough

 

Yep same here, I'm a windows convert but still have to run Vista/2003 and Linux at the same time for work and 4gb has made a huge difference. The MBP with 4gb is the first laptop I've had which can genuinely replace my desktop.

I would say though that 2gb is fine if not still pretty generous for most activities bar serious graphic or development work.

 

Based on how you said you use your laptop, 3gb would prolly slow it down a little since you'd lose the dual channel capability.

3gb would help in situations where you exceeded 2gb, or in a virtualization scheme where you need to power 2 OSes.

Under boot camp you only run 1 OS at a time, so, 2gb is fine for that too.

I do fairly demanding stuff, and 2gb more or less is enough 95% of the time. The other 5% of the time, I just deal with it.

 

that's a good point thanks :O)

 

If you have the money and don't mind doing it yourself then sure throw in the 4gb, you can always sell the ram later if you don't need it anymore.

Also...

You can easily disable that feature and it will never ask you again.

 

Hmm, so what happens when you put 4GB?

If I put 4, will they run in dual channel? Like the two 2Gb sticks.