Is 4gb RAM enough for os x mavericks?

I am on a limited budget and thinking of getting a macbook air 13 inch base model and wanted to know if 4gb ram is ok or does it run like crap.

Are the RAM requirements for Mavericks significantly greater than that  for Mountain Lion?  If not, than I can probably upgrade to Mavericks (strange name this. Sounds like some sort of nightcap) with the RAM I have.
My mid-2007 iMac can't be upgraded above its current 4GB - as far as I know.  It is working fine with ML as long as I don't have too many apps open.  I can still have three or four open at the moment depending on what they do and, interestingly, the pedigree of the company that originated the software.  By that I mean if the originator a Mac only developer (possibly with PC as a secondary line) I experience no problems.
If the originator of the software is basically a PC developer with Macs catered for mainly as an afterthought I find apps from these developers tend to take up most, if not all, the available RAM I have even when nothing else is booted.  Stereomerger.app is a good example of this.

Similar Messages

  • 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%)

  • 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.

  • Is 4GB ram enough for the 2.93 imac?

    I'm buying a imac 2.93 gh, 4Gb ram, 640 hd. How much ram does the OS 10.5 use? How can I find this info?

    I am currently running 4gb ram on a G5 dual 2.0
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    Will I see much difference in performance?
    How about performance difference between imac vs ppc on snow leopard?
    I usually run at same time:
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    - mail
    - ichat
    - together
    - The Hit List
    - MacJournal
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    - itunes
    Periodically I get a lot of page outs
    but I haven't been able to detect a pattern as to why.
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  • 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 2 gig of ram enough for a 2011 2,3 ghz mac mini for doing some games? Like GTA IV

    Is the standard 2GB of ram enough for a 2011 2,3GHz Mac Mini for doing games? Like GTA IV.
    Or do I even have to go for the faster 2,5GHz model?

    I have a MacMini Late 2011 with 2.3 GHz I5 and 4GB RAM and I use it as media center... It's enough to play FullHD movies but it uses 256 on 512 MB of (shared)RAM... I don't think that you can use a mini for hard gaming...
    But AngryBirds Space on a 60" FullHD TV looks great
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    welcome to discussions... i'm a newbie too

  • 15" Macbook Pro i7 4GB Ram good for gaming?

    Hi, I'd like to know if the 15" MBP i7 4GB Ram good for gaming? I'm not gonna be an intense gamer I would just like to play games during my down time. All I will be playing is like 1 MMORPG and maybe 1 or 2 FPS games. I will not be doing this all at once. I will be using bootcamp. I have some friends tell me that they wouldn't play games on the MBP because it could ruin it? Is this true? They tell me that it's not wise to play games on this laptop.

    It would depend on the games and how demanding they are, but generally laptops make for horrible gaming platforms in general. Apple laptops in particular tend to be among the thinnest of the bunch. A MBP can be thinner than plenty of netbooks out there while packing considerably more punch. That doesn't leave a lot of room for any excess heat that may be generated while gaming.
    If we're talking older games, that probably aren't all that demanding, then maybe. If we're talking newer games that are pushing the limits of the laptop's specs, I'd recommend against it.

  • Is Mac mini 2.0Ghz +4Gb RAM sufficient for CS4?

    I am on a budget and am thinking of buying a 2.0Ghz Mac mini with 4Gb RAM to run Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2 for the next few years. I will be using external HDDs for scratch and photo storage. Up to now I have used a 3.0GHz P4 PC with 2Gb RAM. I work with large numbers of mainly Canon 5D files, occasional weddings/events but mostly fine art. In CS2 I typically use 3-4 fill layers and a similar number of adjustment layers before flattening.
    Does the Mac mini with 4Gb RAM have sufficient grunt to permit me to process approx 1800 event images in Lightroom, and to work on fine art images in CS4 where file sizes are typically 75-300Mb before flattening?
    Appreciate any advice...

    Yes, I am happy, it does the job satisfactorily, although with some 
    reservations:
    - I upgraded from CS2 to CS4, and the Mini with 4Gb RAM is not as 
    fast as I would like when applying filters on large files. However I 
    can't compare it to CS2 on my old PC as it was older software on a 
    different OS with less RAM
    - the Mini suffered a RAM failure shortly after purchase and had to 
    be returned under warranty for service. No problems since. Possibly 
    the RAM sticks were not seated properly but that's just a guess
    - I run 2 screens, one a Sony Trinitron CRT and the other an HP 
    analogue LCD. Occasionally I get a brief flicker on both screens, but 
    it's infrequent, almost imperceptible and lasts less than a second. I 
    had to buy adapter connectors for both screens
    - sometimes there is a small delay when trying to read/write to the 
    external daisychained firewire 800 drives, as if they have gone into 
    standby, but transfer times are good once they get going.
    That's all with the problems. It would be very nice if the Mini was a 
    little faster, but considering the price point, I am quite happy with 
    the performance. It does the job. I can leave it with a batch 
    processing run of 1500+ images in CS4 and it works its way through 
    them reliably while I do other things.
    Configuration
    - I have 3 external firewire drives daisychained, a Wacom tablet, 
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    - just upgraded to Snow Leopard, but too early to detect any 
    difference in performance
    Pluses
    - the Mini is very quiet, and I like being able to use a display of 
    my choice (gloss screens are too reflective for accurate colour work 
    with photos).
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  • 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 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.

  • 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.

  • 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 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.

  • Is 2gb of RAM enough for update to OS X Lion

    I have a Mid 2009 Macbook Pro with 2GB of RAM. I'm wondering if 2GB is enough to run Lion for my uses. I use microsoft office, iwork, and ilife regulary for school work and other purposes but nothing to extensive. Is 2GB enough?
    Thanks

    It runs on my 2010 macbook air w/ 2 g of memory without any obvious slow down compared to Snow Leopard. That isn't the fastest machine in the world and I use it for limited purposes due to its extreme portability. I haven't noticed any performance degradation but I haven't done any benchmark tests - so this is just a subjective impression. On my macbook pro with 10 gig of memory there are no slowdown issues and a subjective impression without benchmarks is that it is a tad speedier.

  • Is 2gb of ram enough for office 2011

    I just received a MacBook air with 2gb of ram. Is this enough to run Microsoft 2011? I'm wondering if I should upgrade to 4gb

    Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac works great. I have it running on my OSX partition with no problems. I normally run several large PDF's, documents and presentations at the same time. I haven't tried crunching my large spreadsheets yet. I am sure I will try that in the next couple weeks.
    One other thing, Office 2011 installs the Microsoft Document connection which will let you save your docs directly to the skydrive, which is very nice. It's a good way to save the space on the laptop and store the docs so you can access anywhere, anytime on any device.

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