Is 4GB of RAM enough on an iMac?

I have a four-year-old iMac which is "maxed out" at the Apple-recommended 4GB of RAM. I'm running LR 4.1 on a LR Catalog with about 100,000 images, mostly RAW. I read that OWC has tested my iMac and confirmed that it can handle 6GB of RAM, but the added RAM is somewhat expensive. Will I see a lot of speed difference if I were to take a chance and upgrade? Here are my computer specs:
iMac8,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          6 MB
Memory:          4 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Bus Speed:          1.07 GHz
Thanks.

Make sure you quit all other applications before running Lightroom, and it will probably be sufficient, though not necessarily optimal.

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Is 4gb of ram enough?

Hi apple fam, im considering getting a macbook pro. And i wanted the one with an optical drive so im going with the regular one. I was wondering would 4gb of ram be enough for me. I usually use my computer for music, social networking, youtube, netflix, hulu, playing diablo, streaming video games and watching streams, and skype. And thats about it. So what do you guys think? Think i should go and bite the bullet and upgrade it to 8gb of ram? Or is 4gb enough?

Prefer to have 8GB RAM installed.
You can buy one with 4GB RAM installed and upgrade it later with 8GB RAM from
companies like Macsales. Cost difference will be about $60.
Best.

How much is 4gb of ram enough for?

I just got a 4gb oF RAM MacBook Air. I was wondering what kinds of applications I will be able to use side by side without slowing down. Also, of I ran photoshop by itself would it be ok?

RAM cleaning APPS are not only useless, theyre frequently detrimental.
Mavericks is optimized to use RAM correctly, and no 3rd party can either equal or best this operation.
Nearly 100% of "RAM cleaning" applications have extremely low ratings for a reason.
They are not recommended and often "worse than useless".
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/06/12/compressed-memory-in-os-x-109-maverick s-aims-to-free-ram-extend-battery-life
Mavericks uses RAM much more efficiently than any other previous version of OS X. Mavericks now has a memory compression feature that will compress the memory occupied by applications that aren't being actively used and give the freed up RAM to the application that needs it the most. Memory Pressure graph that tells you how stressed is the system in terms of memory.
Fore more information about OS X Mavericks new system management technologies visit:
http://www.apple.com/osx/advanced-technologies/
See page 5 here:
http://images.apple.com/media/us/osx/2013/docs/OSX_Mavericks_Core_Technology_Ove rview.pdf

Is 4GB of RAM enough for MacBook Air 11

I am contemplating whether to stick with the 4GB that ships with the new MacBook Air 11, but I am not sure if it is enough?
I am planning on using it for mainly coding apps (xcode, arduino ide, java, etc.), play video files, and general web and email. Possibly some Adobe apps like photoshop, indesign and dreamweaver.
I may be interested in either a bootcamp partition or parallels in order to to run windows, but if this is a problem I can avoid as I have Windows running on other machines.
Its just the RAM is going to cost me at least £60ish (student discount) which will highten the cost of things. However, if its going to cause problems further down the line I may have to dig deeper and get it ordered with 8GB.
Thanks

PATRICKMELE wrote:
Before spending money try this free app from the mac app store,
http://www.tweaknow.com/ Works http://www.tweaknow.com/freerambooster.php
More sensibly, don't.
Add real Ram at the time of purchase, not fake stuff later.

Upgraded from 2gb to 4gb of RAM and now my Imac freezes up all the time.

I have a 2009 model Imac and I upgraded from 2gb to 4gb but now after about 20 minutes of the computer being on it will freeze up randomly. It could be 20 mins - 3 hours of use before it freezes up. I did my research and I'm didn't get any RAM my Imac couldn't handle...so I have NO idea what's wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

As old as it is have you cleaned out the dust? Dust buildup can lead to over heating issues. Remove any and all things plugged into it including the power cord, Remove the RAM access grille. Vacuum all openings starting with the RAM access area (air intake). Vacuum all ports and plugs, DVD slot and the opening across the top of the rear of the body. Blow compressed air through all your openings and vacuum again to remove any dust you loosend. Reinstall the RAM grille. Plug in the keyboard and mouse if not blue tooth. Insert power cord...
You are now in a perfect position to do a
SMC RESET
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
Wait 15 seconds.
Attach the computers power cable.
Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.
Here is a Widget to monitor your temps and other operations:
http://islayer.com/apps/istatpro/

Is 4gb of ram enough for my uses?

Hi everyone, just a little question which has popped up in the past, although I just wanted too get an answer from other people myself.
I'm a college student, 17 years old, starting higher education of my college course in september, which is a 2 year course. I'm wanting to buy a MacBook Pro 13" with Retina Display, but I'm just wondering whether I need 4gb or 8gb of ram? And how fast it shall perform when I'm using it?
I shall be using my MacBook Pro for the following:
• Office for Mac (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
• Safari (Revision / Web Browsing)
• videos (Youtube)
• Itunes (For my iPhone & iPad)
• FaceTime
• Mail
• Notes
etc...
Will my MacBook Pro 13" with Retina Display still run fast and like like normal after using these program's on a daily basis? Thank you.

It may right now, but who knows what the future will bring. You can't upgrade it later so buy it with 8GB now.

More than 4GB of RAM in iMac 8,1 under Snow Leopard

Greetings,
I have an iMac 8.1, running under Snow Leopard in 64bits mode (i.e. kernel is in 64 bits). I am wondering if I can install - and use - more than 4GB of RAM now that my iMac is booting in 64bits mode?
Thank you for your help!

"32 bits mode" does not limit Mac OS X to 4GB or 6GB. Mac Pros could go up to 32GB of RAM, even when they were first introduced with Tiger (10.4) as the OS.
The current iMacs use the 32-bit kernel by default (to maintain compatibility with third-party extensions that have not been upgraded yet). However, it is fully capable of running 64-bit processes (system processes and applications) and using as much RAM as the Mac in question is capable of using, whether that is 4GB, 6GB, 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB.
So to summarize, the RAM limit is based on the hardware, not the software. This isn't like Windows, where 32-bit Windows has a usable RAM limit of somewhere between 3 and 4GB.

Is 4GB Ram enough for a new iMac?

I'm contemplating buying a new iMac. I see that the new iMacs come with 4GB of RAM installed. Is that enough for running programs like Pages, Numbers, iMovie, iDVD, Finale (music notation software), Toast, iTunes... as well as the usual web browsers and Mail.
Would I be better off upgrading the ram even before I take the computer home, or should I try getting by on 4GB first?
It used to be that the amount of RAM pre-installed was never enough. Is this still a truism?

Paul SanGregory wrote:
It used to be that the amount of RAM pre-installed was never enough. Is this still a truism?
You are correct. The system will run nicely on 4 GB of memory but for what you are planning to do and for new things you may get into, I’d make my original purchase 8 GB (4x2GB sticks). It’s not much more money and your applications will thank you. If you decide to wait before adding the RAM, you will be able to monitor your RAM usage using Activity Monitor. With 4 GB, you’ll see memory pageouts and swap file usage; with 8 GB installed, you may not typically have any pageouts or swap file usage and everything will run better when you have a busy machine.

2GB, 4GB or 8GB of RAM enough for CC professional use?

Hello,
I have an urgent question I hope you can help me with:
I want to buy a iMac for my friend who is a professional media designer. She will be using InDesing, Illustrator (and Photoshop) mostly. I checked System Requirements and I found this:
2GB of RAM (8GB recommended)
What does that mean for using the Program, i.e.:
Will 2GB be enough to run it at a reasonble speed, or will working with, for example Illustrator, be slow and frustrating?
Do i need to get a 8GB RAM version (of iMac) to run the programs fast and without frustrating delays and problems, or might 4GB of RAM (for which I found the best iMac offers) will be totally enough?
Thanks for your help and experience in advance!!!
PS.: I am not a professional at all, so excuse any mix-ups of tech specs ; )

Given that InDesing, Illustrator (and Photoshop) are now 64-bit apps I wouldn't put in anything less that 16GB. RAM is cheep and the performance increase will be well worth it.

I want to buy a new mac. Would a 21.5 inch Imac run Aperture 3 with 4GB or ram until I can upgrade to 8GB

I want to buy a new mac. Would a 21.5 inch Imac run Aperture 3 with 4GB or ram until I can upgrade to 8GB? And would the stock 512mb video card be fine.

davidfromdartmouth wrote:Would a 21.5 inch Imac run Aperture 3 with 4GB or ram until I can upgrade to 8GB?
Specifically, after you buy a Mac test for RAM needs by calculating page outs as described below. The good news is that RAM is cheap enough that every Aperture user who can should upgrade to at least 8 GB RAM.
And would the stock 512mb video card be fine.
All 2011 Macs will "run" Aperture, but lesser CPUs and/or lesser GPUs will provide lesser performance. What "fine" is depends on your workflow and how demanding you are. There are some folks here happy with the power of the box you suggest.
GENERIC UPGRADE ADVICE
Apologies in advance to those for whom this info is redundant.
Some general guidelines for operation of heavy graphics applications (specifically Aperture):
• Only the strongest Macs will provide the strongest operation. Owners of weaker boxes (CPU, GPU, i/o, RAM) or older boxes will experience lesser performance.
• There is a huge difference in hardware needs among workflows. A heavy pro workflow will only work best on a top well-equipped modern box.
• As RAM prices continually fall RAM needs will continually grow. This has been true since the beginning of computing.
OS X has enabled Photoshop, for instance, to take advantage of at least 32 GB RAM for many years even though 32-bit operation limited direct RAM access to ~3 GB RAM.
• All computers/OSs/workflows are different. Each individual user needs to carefully evaluate (meaning see what the early adopters report) workflow and hardware operation BEFORE upgrading any application or OS.
• Hardware upgrades should be planned for always-increasing future OS/application demands, not just for today. After all, a computer purchased today is used for the next 3 years, not last year.
• SSDs rock. All users, all apps will benefit from using a solid state drive as the boot/apps drive. Strongly recommended. RAM-challenged setups will additionally benefit from 10x faster page outs.
• All users should regularly evaluate their workflows by checking the Page Outs number under System Memory on the Activity Monitor app before starting a work session; then rechecking after working. If the page outs number increased significantly during operation the workflow is RAM-starved and steps should be taken, such as increasing RAM or restarting and running only one app at a time - - or switching from 64-bit operation to 32-bit operation. [Note: this is a manual calculation of any change in page outs. Ignore the cute pie charts, page ins, etc.]
HTH
-Allen Wicks

Is 4GB RAM enough to run Mavericks on a MacMini 2.5Ghz/i5?

Since purchasing this new Mac Mini at Best Buy two weeks ago and upgrading from Mountain Lion to Mavericks, I've experienced two unsettling events: first, an out-of-the-blue Bluetooth shutdown (which required swapping out my wireless mouse and keyboard with my old USB models in order to wake the Mini out of a sleep, and then doing an SMC reset to get Bluetooth going again) and a confidence-rattling Microsoft Office 2011/Word hang tonight that required a force-quit and a frustrating loss of some work.
I've also noticed some intermittently sluggish app launching -- the Preferences pane sometimes takes 4 seconds to open, for example. The Office apps don't exactly spring open, either. So I'm wondering whether the base 4GB of RAM Apple installed on this model (late 2012, 2.5GHz/Intel dual-core i5) is enough to smoothly manage the possibly more memory-intensive Mavericks OS? Has Mavericks slowed anyone else down? I know they always say the more RAM the better, but would it be worth spending $75 to go to 8GBs? I'd appreciate your suggestions!

Between the smallish hard disk drive and limited RAM I'd say no since you don't get as much flexibility for OS X to manage automatic functions to help keep it as efficient (under a load) as it will be expected to with Mavericks compared to an earlier OS X that may have been happy with less resources, or less of a load.
A larger HDD and maybe a good third-party source for high quality RAM, and $75 seems cheap in the historical sense to double the RAM. Be careful to check the upgrade for stability, and if the unit doesn't work well, you can revert to the original as-shipped RAM chips. Isn't 16GB the most it can use? I'd go with that.
{And expect to pay a little more for a good brand, guarantees aside. Their word just isn't good enough when all the RAM warranty does is hand you another set of the same stuff. Even if it is the cause of misery.}
Then if you think it still goes slow, look into how the resources are managed by the OS X, the activity monitor utility helps. Look at things like page-ins, page-outs, virtual memory, free RAM (not in use) and RAM tied up in things you can't easily see. And perhaps consider an SSD.
Another idea would be to put a larger drive in the Mini and use the 500GB for a backup drive, maybe run a clone of your OS there, or maybe run installation of the older OS X you aren't running now, in an external HD.
Good luck & happy computing!

Is 4gb RAM enough for me?

Hey guys, i just had a few questions, hope you can sanswer them? (i think this is my 7th question in 4 days )
1. I heard that the 256gb or higher model has a samsung PCIe ssd drive, while the 128gb model has a sandisk PCIe ssd drive . Am i correct?
2. If so, is the samsung ssd drive faster than the sandisk ssd drive? How fast? (is it noticably fast?)
3. I am not going to play any game on my air. I am only going to check my email, listen to music, use itunes, watch movies, and so on. I am not going to use Parallels, however i am going to use bootcamp to install windows. Anyways, do you think 4gb of RAM is enough for me? I think the most RAM-using activity i do is open up to 20 tabs, but that's only when i read the news(i press ctrl and left click because i dont want to wait for the news to load every time). Anyways, do you think it's enough?
4. Same question with number 3, except do you think i5 is going to be enough?
Thanks!

The I5 MOST CERTAINLY more than enough. 8 gig upgrade is only $90, if youre going to upgrade (you cant do it later), that is the most wise upgrade choice rather than the 256 over the 128, unless cost is no issue.
I5 vs I7 benchmark tests show little difference between the two.
Geekbench: i5: 5868, i7: 6287 (+7%)
Handbrake: i5: 12min12s, i7:12min5s (-1%)
Cinebench: i5: 11.13fps, i7:11.54fps (+4%)
iMovie: i5: 5min1s, i7: 4min56s (-2%)
PhotoShop: i5: 68.7s, i7:57.4s (-17%) <<<<only "real" improvement area of the I7
Final cut: i5: 2min7s, i7: 2min 4s (-2%)

I am unable to install Lion. I have a Core 2 Duo iMac with 4GB of Ram and 120GB of free space - and no Bootcamp or other partitions - and yet repeatedly get the 'no recovery' error. Can anyone help?

I am unable to install Lion. I have a Core 2 Duo iMac with 4GB of Ram and 120GB of free space - and no Bootcamp or other partitions - and yet repeatedly get the 'no recovery' error. Can anyone help?

Run Disk Utility located in /Applications/Utilities before trying to upgrade to Lion in case the startup disk needs repairing.
Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks

Is 4gb of RAM would be enough for AE CS5?

Hi guys, I have a problem that bothers me sometime. I have 4gb of RAM running 64bit windows 7 and I use a lot of heavy programs like after effects, 3ds max, CAD, photoshop, etc. Is 4gb enough for my computer or should I increase my RAM? Please somebody help me, any suggestion would be appreciated. Thank you

4GB is enough to run After Effects, but it's far from the optimum amount. It's an especially low amount if you'll be running any other programs at the same time.
It depends on what kind of work you're doing. Let's say that you'll be working with HD video and maybe 2K film. In that case, you'd ideally have 3GB installed per processor core. So, if you have a four-coure computer (which has eight processor cores with hyperthreading), you'd have 24GB of RAM. That's exactly how my home computer is set up. If you're working with 4K film, you'd have more RAM; for SD TV, you could have less.
See this page for some information about memory settings and performance:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/543440

Is a 4gb RAM enough on Macbook Air 2013 13 inch for OS mavericks?

I am thinking of buying a Macbook Air for my school work and have heard that 4gb of RAM isnt enough for mavericks - Is 8 gb RAM upgrade a must?

4GB is enough for a Macbook Air since it can't do any hard graphical or computational work, but as above, since its not upgradeable and only $100, there is no good reason not to.

Is 4GB of RAM enough on an iMac?

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