Does increasing RAM affect battery performance?

I have a question about increasing the amount of RAM in a MacBook Pro (latest model unibody 15" i7 processor).
If I increase the amount of RAM in this laptop from 4Gb to16 Gb, should that in and of itself result in a decrease in battery performance? This is assuming no increase in number of active programs, etc.
A friend of mine was told by an Apple employee that just increasing the total RAM in a laptop would result in the battery draining more quickly. I am no computer genius, but that does not sound right to me? After all, why should the battery work harder if the excess RAM is not being used at the time.
Any input would be welcomed.

I have a Mid 2010 MacBook Pro with a 250GB hard drive that is almost 80% full. The "genius" told me the excruciatingly slow downs were due to a too full hard drive, but didn't mention memory. I remembered later that I had never upgraded from the original 4GB RAM. This is the only computer around that era that will take 16GB RAM, so I decided to max it out three days ago. Performance has increased dramatically, but battery life has halved. The original battery was giving me about seven hours, now only about three or four. Right this minute the only open apps are Safari and the activity monitor, and my total memory usage is 6.76GB. The top three users of memory are
kernel_task
1.01 GB
81
0
0
root
2.3
1:44:23.94
260
0.0
No
0 bytes
0 bytes
64 bit
0 bytes
0 bytes
0
0
1.01 GB
0 bytes
0 bytes
No
No
0.0
0 bytes
com.apple.MediaLibraryService
350.1 MB
3
85
8588
virginiasmoe
0.0
26.84
0
0.0
No
0 bytes
0 bytes
64 bit
0 bytes
0 bytes
0
0
364.1 MB
348.7 MB
9.8 MB
No
Yes
6.1
0 bytes
com.apple.IconServicesAgent
190.3 MB
2
72
292
virginiasmoe
0.0
11.92
0
0.0
No
0 bytes
0 bytes
64 bit
0 bytes
0 bytes
0
0
191.2 MB
192.6 MB
5.7 MB
Yes
Yes
0.0
0 bytes
Parent process of kernal task is kernal task (0), parent process of MediaLib and IconSvc is launchd (1). Note, those three together use more than one-third of the original 4GB RAM. The hard drive was constantly being used for virtual RAM until I upgraded. Try opening iMovie under those consitions and you will see a lot of spinning lollipop. I would hardly call opening Safari and iMovie together overusage. I think anyone should upgrade and to the maximum, but I think it will definitely affect battery life. And kappy, i kind of wonder if rtmitchell's field is communication or human relations, since rtmitchell was so courteous and clever. Don't know. I am no computer genius eiher. Don't need an answer, just want to let everyone know my own experience with RAM draining battery. Hope you'll be nice if you answer.

Similar Messages

  • Does increasing ram improves game performance?

    does increasing ram improves game performance of my MBP 13" 2012??

    Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory & determine how much RAM is used
    Adding RAM only makes it possible to run more programs concurrently.  It doesn't speed up the computer nor make games run faster.  What it can do is prevent the system from having to use disk-based VM when it runs out of RAM because you are trying to run too many applications concurrently or using applications that are extremely RAM dependent.  It will improve the performance of applications that run mostly in RAM or when loading programs.

  • Does adding RAM really help performance?

    My iMac 1.8 GHz G5 is about two years old and starting to run slowly. Could it be the 10,000 photos and 6,000 songs? I've started using my MacBook for most work and my iMac for most play (i.e. media).
    Does adding RAM really help performance? I've only got one 512 MB chip.
    Thanks for any help.

    Hello,
    Yes, adding more memory can make a huge performance improvement.
    I've owned two iMac G5 systems. And, in both cases, I noticed a huge performance improvement jumping to 1 GB of RAM. And, while not huge, I noticed even better performance going from 1 GB to 2 GB of RAM.
    512 MB is minimal, and adequate. But, more memory makes OS X run considerably better.
    I hope this helps.
    Let us know if you have other questions.
    P.S., if you'd like, go ahead and click the "Helpful" or "Solved" buttons on any of the posts / replies above if you feel they were helpful or adequately answered your question.

  • Does the logic board affect battery performance?

    Anyone know of any issues at all?
    Cheers

    Yeah sorry. It's just that i had my macbook pro repaired due to a faulty logic board. It's a known problem and covered by Apple, so the repair was free. Since it's come back the battery is not working properly. Never had a problem before with it. I suspect that that they've given me someone else's duff battery. However, I'm investigating the possibility that the battery is fine and it's a faulty logic board that is causing the power problems. The battery used to tell me at about 10% to plug in my power cord, and even when i didn't it just went to sleep - as in after getting a dose of power all the programs were open that i was using etc. Now it shuts down at about 35% power.
    Does anyone know if the logic board repair could be causing the problem?
    Cheers

  • Does increasing the RAM reduce or increase battery life?

    Recently I upgraded my Macbook Pro i5 13" Early 2011 from 4gigs of RAM to 8gigs. The RAM I used are PNY - 4GB PC3-10666 1.3GHz DDR3 SoDIMM Laptop Memory. I bought them at bestbuy and the "tech guy" said they were fine to use on a mac (and they were.) So I go home and install them. I love the speed boost it gave but the down side is it that it cut my Macbook's battery life down from maybe 7 hours down 5 (That's doing the exact same thing before I upgraded.) I searched online forums and they both have conflicting answers. Some say that adding RAM should improve battery life because the HD get accessed less. (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1090350) Others say that adding RAM is reduce battery life because it refreshes all the time. I know cheap RAM like these do not come without strings attached, but is it possible that I may have gotten faulty RAM? If so, can you guys recommend the correct kind I should be using? I still have 3 weeks to return them.
    Oh on a side note, I was thinking of upgrading to an SSD. Does that also reduce battery life? Here's what I had in mind, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005T3GPXE/ref=gno_cart_title_3
    Anyways, that's all.

    The answer, I regret to say, can be found in [this thread|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11980463#11980463|Th e sad truth about iPod/iPhone battery life].
    In order to upgrade this solution from a suggestion by someone who isn't suffering the issue to an account of firsthand experience, I'll tell you that in a household with 2 iPod Touch devices that were both decimated by the upgrade to iOS4, this method cured the battery life of both units and will probably work for you.
    +The solution boils down to the following:+
    Using iTunes, run the "Restore" to factory settings.
    I performed this technological equivalent of ritual sacrifice with full knowledge of the devastation it would wreck on the volumes of settings/passwords/usernames/servernames and countless other bits personal information manually entered over 2 years. I did it partially because I only half-believed it would work and was wantonly hoping for an even greater excuse to complain. 3 days later, I'm still finding information I have to look up and reenter.
    +For my own part, I would have greatly preferred the ability to restore my iPod to a state just prior to installation of iOS4.+
    Perform this restore at your own risk.
    On the 4th page of the thread linked above, +Lawrence Finch+ describes a few less drastic steps you can attempt first if you are equally reticent to give your iPod a lobotomy. I tried them all. A series of acts which served only to prolong the inevitable and increase the amount of time wasted as well as to further inflame my ire.

  • Increasing ram battery

    hello
    does increasing the speed of the ram decrease the battery life of a laptop because mine was upgraded to 1gb

    yes you are alright because and electronic device needs supply which already loaded on power battery,and as much as you use more capacity on these rams the power consumption will raise.

  • Does ios 7.1.1 improve battery performance ,also what is its effect on the speed of iphone 4s????

    Does ios 7.1.1 improve battery performance ,also what is its effect on the speed of iphone 4s????
    if it increase battery i want to know if it reduce the iphone speed ,as after ios 7.1 my iphone got more speed but the battery drainage increased

    Tx modular, I mean by speed the general performance of iPhone which optimized after iOS 7.1 but I am afraid to update to iOS 7.1.1 not to lose this perfect performance but also I need battery life optimization

  • Does more RAM for Macbook mean less battery time???

    i am currently using my macbook with 1gb ram, but i am thinking about an upgrade to 2gb. i read and searched the internet for this quest in google, but i didn't get a satisfying answer.
    my simple question is: does more ram also need more power and _do i therefore have less battery time?_

    BTW: I got my RAM from macsales.com
    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/MacBook/DDR2/
    Here is how to install memory:
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303721
    Hope this helps!
    -Mike

  • What does Apple mean by "For best battery performance, leave your device connected to a power source until the restore is complete."

    I just recently returned an IPad air and exchanged it for another. I first set up this new one as a new IPad but then deleted all content and settings right away (since I wasn't getting the progress I had made in apps and games) in order to restore it from my previous IPad Air. I then checked after on how to backup via icloud and saw this line under the subtitle of how to restore from a backup, "For best battery performance, leave your device connected to a power source until the restore is complete." What does Apple mean by "for best battery performance"? Im just a bit worried of issues.
    p.s. And yes I did have it connected to the power. And the ios is the default ios for new IPad Airs.

    Welcome to the Apple Community.
    It only means you should restore whilst it is connected to a power supply, so that your battery doesn't go flat during the process.

  • What happens to unused common table expressions ,Does this affect in performance or ?

    If I write a query with one or more common table expressions to which I
    don't actually refer in the query, do they just get pruned off or do
    they get executed regardless? how does it affect in performance
    Prem Shah

    Try below
    seems when the CTE is not refer in the query then statement inside CTE is not executing at all even if it nested CTE, see for your self
    Create table UserInfo
    UserId int primary key,
    UserName varchar(30)
    GO
    Create table UserInfo1
    UserId int primary key,
    UserName varchar(30)
    GO
    insert into UserInfo
    select 1001,'X1' union all
    select 1002,'X2' union all
    select 1009 ,'X9'
    GO
    insert into UserInfo1
    select 1001,'X1' union all
    select 1002,'X2' union all
    select 1009 ,'X9'
    GO
    SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE
    GO
    Begin tran
    select * from UserInfo1 where UserId between 1001 and 1009
    and UserName = 'XXXX'
    --Commit
    PRINT 'WITH out CTE access in select'
    SET STATISTICS IO ON
    ;WITH CTE1 AS
    (Select * From UserInfo1)
    select * From UserInfo
    PRINT 'WITH CTE access in select'
    ;WITH CTE1 AS
    (Select * From UserInfo1)
    select * From UserInfo a inner join CTE1 b on a.UserId=b.UserId
    Stats IO
        WITH out CTE access in select
        (3 row(s) affected)
        Table 'UserInfo'. Scan count 1, logical reads 2, physical reads 0, read-ahead reads 0, lob logical reads 0, lob physical reads 0, lob read-ahead reads 0.
        (1 row(s) affected)
        WITH CTE access in select
        (3 row(s) affected)
        Table 'UserInfo1'. Scan count 0, logical reads 6, physical reads 0, read-ahead reads 0, lob logical reads 0, lob physical reads 0, lob read-ahead reads 0.
        Table 'UserInfo'. Scan count 1, logical reads 2, physical reads 0, read-ahead reads 0, lob logical reads 0, lob physical reads 0, lob read-ahead reads 0.
        (1 row(s) affected)
    Thanks
    Saravana Kumar C

  • Does connection speeds affect performance in Adobe PDF Pack?

    Does anyone know if the performance of the Adobe PDF Pack is significantly affected by the local connection speed?

    Yes, it is the most important thing,because all files are sent to Adobe for conversion.

  • Does live Smart Playlist updating affect battery?

    After spending months campaigning for live Smart Playlist updating to be fixed on iPod photo I have noticed a drastic decrease in battery life on my 60Gb since it's reintroduction.
    I have a lot of Playlists that update each time a track is played. Does this help to drain battery?
    Just clutching at straws before I send it back...
    eMac 700 Combo Drive   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

    It should not significantly affect battery life. Could there be another cause?
    JC

  • Does the backlight affect the battery life? & new update problems...?

    i've been told that affects the battery life and i like mine bright but if it affects battery i will keep it down..
    and does anyone else notice that the new update is glitchy? or is this just me..?

    When did you purchase it and how much memory does it have? Does it have volume buttons on the side? Is the black plastic antenna window on the back oval, or is it square and cover the corner of the iPod?
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1353

  • Does DBMS.JOB affect Performance

    Dear experts
    Please tell me Does DBMS.JOB affect Performance.

    Can you detail what performance you are talking about.
    DBMS_JOB is simply a scheduler, whcih you can use for your repeated uattended job initiation.which is nt going to impact the performance.
    Probably the actual Job if intensive can hit your performance.

  • Battery performance affected by Mountain Lion

    I have a macbook pro 13 inch 2011 and I have noticed that the battery performance of my laptop has gone down after I upgraded to Mountain Lion. What should I do to improve the performance of my laptop?

    ghostrider619 wrote:
    I guess I am not the only one facing this problem! I hope Apple comes out with a update soon enough!
    You are making the #1 mistake of all people on these forums. Never assume that some issue being blogged about actually exists. If you sit on your hands and wait for an update, you could be waiting forever.
    You probably have some incompatible 3rd party software that is causing your machine to work harder than normal. I wrote a little diagnostic program to run the most common diagnostic tests. Download EtreCheck from http://www.etresoft.com/download/EtreCheck.zip, run it, and paste the results here.
    Disclaimer: Although EtreCheck is free, there are other links on my site that could give me some form of compensation, financial or otherwise.

Maybe you are looking for