New RAM - is it worth it?

Question

I have a MacBook Pro, 2.53ghz, but am investigating upgrading from 4 to 8gb. Graphics from, say, Other World Computing, suggest that the performance increase might be modest; but I'd like to know the effect of 8gb RAM on boot times, and performance.
Generally, would a 8gb upgrade be worth it? In what ways?
Thanks!!

Answer 1

Adding RAM will lengthen your boot time from a cold shutdown, because all the RAM is tested during that process (but not during a Restart).
More RAM will only benefit you if the work you do requires more RAM than you have. To find out whether more RAM would actually benefit you at all, use your machine as you normally do for three days or longer, putting it to sleep whenever you aren't using it (don't shut it down during this time). Then open Activity Monitor, click the System Memory tab, and compare the Page Ins and Page Outs figures tht are reported below that tab. If Page Outs are more than about 10% of Page Ins, your work would benefit perceptibly from adding RAM. The higher the percentage, the greater the performance boost would be. If Page Outs are zero or much less than 10% of Page Ins, you would gain little or no performance from additional RAM, and you should save your money.