MBP 4GB Upgrade

A

aaronearles

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
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Just dropped 4GB in the MBP, I'm a little disappointed, everyone on here says it's the first thing to do and the difference is incredible. I don't see any difference, osx is just fast all the time, I don't multitask much though, I guess it will help there obviously. I was just hoping the OS would take better advantage of the memory.

Did you guys honestly see the difference right away?
 
If your programs aren't demanding a lot of memory, I don't see how the OS could be taking better advantage of it.

I just popped in 4GB today and I might have seen a slight jump in responsiveness. I only did it because ram is fairly cheap now and I thought it would be a good idea to take advantage and max out my computer.

I don't really do anything memory intensive on this machine.
 
I know that, I have just read several times, that osx is memory hungry and 4gb is recommended. much like how vista runs so much better with lots of ram than XP does, because it caches system files and uses every last bit of memory to its advantage instead of letting it sit unused like XP does.
 
For the most part I agree with you... the one area I'm thankful for the upgrade is when Im running spaces w/ one window OSX desktop and the other a full screen vmware running vista... is MUCH faster now
 
After about 1.5GB OS X.5 doesn't really benefit nearly as much from additional memory. However, up to that point any extra memory you can get definitely makes a difference. I think the only reason so many people recommend 4GB is because it's so cheap anymore. There's no reason not to do it if you are upgrading anyways.
 
Yeah, here's a snapshot of my memory usage..

I've got mail, firefox, colloquy (IRC client), iTunes, Adium and Activity monitor open..

picture1ro8.png


I've still got a little more than 3 of my 4gb that is not being used for anything.
 
Fire up Handbrake, Parallels, iTunes, and CS3 and watch what happens.
 
Andrmgic said:
Yeah, here's a snapshot of my memory usage..

I've got mail, firefox, colloquy (IRC client), iTunes, Adium and Activity monitor open..

picture1ro8.png


I've still got a little more than 3 of my 4gb that is not being used for anything.
Click to expand...

all those are very low memory programs. Use some real programs and you'll get into the 3gb and 4gb range pretty quick. I'll start paging out all the time with 4gb once I start working.
 
I have 2GB and I'm usually using a good 80% of it getting normal work done. Responsiveness goes down the toilet of course, after I fire up a VMWare session.
 
In terms of general usage, my system responsiveness only improved slightly going to 4GB. Then I launch VMware Fusion and a Vista instance...

With 2GB, it was borderline physically painful.:eek: With 4GB, everything runs smooth as butter. :cool:

-Brian
 
I was trying to illustrate that OS X is not a memory hog.

It is perfectly smooth while not really using that much of my ram.
 
I just put 4gb of gskill in. It makes a huge difference when I want to scan and edit in lightroom simultaneously.
 
I never used 2GB of Ram in my MBP. Before I even turned it on for the first time I popped in 4GB.

I can say that Im glad I did, because I deffinatly use 4GB worth most days. Most of the times its when I have VMWare fired up or have 30 tabs open in FireFox along with iPhoto and photoshop. I guess it just depends on what you do exactly.

I will tell you that having 4GB wont hurt, and will only help you in the long run. Is it a must have? No. But It was to me because this was a High End pro Machine, Im sure as hell gonna max out the ram if I can.
 
I've had more, honestly.

Plus with fusion running and a few other things, it's not hard to do. Just wait, you'll see the difference soon enough.
 
SOMETHING TO TAKE INTO MIND:

After about 3 months, Leopard figures out your usage habits. If you leave your computer on for more then 48 hours or so (putting to sleep instead of shutting down) the system will start using all available memory to launch apps crazy fast.

I have 4gb loaded in my mbp and after about a week of no shut downs, I have 2.5GB USED with NO apps running (just the Kernel taking up all the memory according to activity monitor)

When its like that, its SO fast. It knows what apps I use most and cold starts are lightning fast.
 
taylorwilsdon said:
SOMETHING TO TAKE INTO MIND:

After about 3 months, Leopard figures out your usage habits. If you leave your computer on for more then 48 hours or so (putting to sleep instead of shutting down) the system will start using all available memory to launch apps crazy fast.

I have 4gb loaded in my mbp and after about a week of no shut downs, I have 2.5GB USED with NO apps running (just the Kernel taking up all the memory according to activity monitor)

When its like that, its SO fast. It knows what apps I use most and cold starts are lightning fast.
Click to expand...

he speak truf
 
It's funny, I would have never believed that after using Windows all these years, you're absoloutely right, there was no change at first, but about 1 week in, startups are much faster, thank you for the insight.
 
aaronearles said:
It's funny, I would have never believed that after using Windows all these years, you're absoloutely right, there was no change at first, but about 1 week in, startups are much faster, thank you for the insight.
Click to expand...
Looking to expect the same. Just ordered my 4gb crucial two days ago and will report back how it goes.
 
Ouch, that's too bad. Battery life isn't too important to me, although 4 hours has been nice..
 
aaronearles said:
Ouch, that's too bad. Battery life isn't too important to me, although 4 hours has been nice..
Click to expand...

Yeah, with 5 hrs of class a day, I try to maximize everything I can... 3GB Ram, Undervolted the CPU, replaced the stock thermal paste with AS5 to reduce fan speeds, disabled bluetooth, switched to the lowest wattage drive I could afford, removed my Optical drive... Aha...
 
no kidding? what kind of battery life are you seeing after all that, getting your 5 hours out of it?
 
aaronearles said:
no kidding? what kind of battery life are you seeing after all that, getting your 5 hours out of it?
Click to expand...

5 hours from an original 3.5 (original CD version!) HUGE improvement!

All I need to do is figure out how to underclock the GPU, and get another 15m.
 
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