Is extra RAM worth it?

MrNPG

Prominent Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2005
Messages
830
Reaction score
72
Points
270
Age
53
Location
Poole, Dorset
I’ve had an iMac since 2009 and will shortly be getting a new one.

My old one only had 4gb of RAM and the new one will have 8gb.

I am pondering whether to buy some extra RAM but i am a very “light” user of a computer, pretty much just use it for surfing the net.

Therefore, in all honesty, would i even notice any difference if I increased the RAM from 8gb? I’m guessing that it probably wouldn’t really benefit me to increase the memory.

Cheers.
 
In the short term no, in the long term maybe.

If you're going for the 27" then you can always add it later, it's standard DDR4, but that's not the case for the 21".
 
Last edited:
You may be a "light" user with just internet surfing but if you have a habit of leaving numerous browser windows/tabs open, then the system memory is going to be stressed.

Open up "Activity Monitor", and select from the menu "Window>ActivityMonitor" and select the "Memory" pane to see what the "memory pressure" shows at the bottom... This is for Mojave - but it will be simple to do the equivalent for other OS versions.
 
Personally I wouldn't go below 32 GB on a new machine unless you can upgrade it later. If you open a number of applications you will see a difference especially programmes like Lightroom
 
+1 to adding more ram! I don't have direct experience of Macs, but I've upgraded all our home PCs to 8 or 16Gb - along with an SSD and the difference is massive.

More ram means less memory swapping and less demands on the hard drive. Even things like browsing do speed up, but memory hungry tasks including big Excel spreadsheets as well as video and image editing show the biggest gains.
 
Some interesting ideas here as I said 8GB is fine - extra memory for just web browsing is really not needed. I work on a PC with 8GB all day long with 3 screens with no issues - its not a mac though. Make sure its has a SSD as that will make things feel nice, 16GB for web browsing - thats just a waste. I just opened 25 tabs in Firefox and it used 1.1GB , and thats 25 different sites including amazon, youtube, yahoo, avforums of course. Modern OS's handle memory really well, compared to a the XP days.

I would add that if you cannot add memory to it later on then purely for resale it might be worth considering 16GB but its not for your benefit today.
 
Last edited:
I would say no less than 8gb is recommended. I would have at least 12gb. Both my current pc and the new laptop I’m getting came with
12gb
 
The 2 biggest things of computer tech is how much ram you have or need and your processor. It’s always better to have as much ram as you can and a decent processor.
 
As someone who has deliberated long and hard over RAM requirements, I think it's best to futureproof if you intend to keep for 3+ years. If you're a light user just web browsing, watching Netflix/YouTube etc, then I'd personally go for either 8GB or 16GB if you want to be super safe, but 8GB will suffice. Any more than that is overkill.
 
Last edited:
They always say more is better. :)
 
The thing about RAM is that as more uses or users are found for the Mac, then certainly RAM shortage is going to be painful. Try Fast User Switching and you'll know what I mean...
 
Thanks for all your responses guys. My new iMac should be delivered soon with 8gb. I’m sure it will be fine for what I use it for but I can always buy some more RAM at a later date if need be as it’s the 27” iMac.
 
Try and avoid mismatched memory sizes as you won’t get the full dual channel performance. 12GB means only 8 or 4GB is getting dual channel boost and possibly not even that. Get 2 x 8GB or 4 x 4GB if you have 4 ram slots. Or 2 x 8GB and 2 x 4GB. Matched pairs is the way.
 
Good luck with your new Mac. These 27 inch ones are terrific. I'm sure you will love the big screen.
I am like you in that I am a light user but I recently took the plunge and bought two more 4Gbyte strips from Ebuyer (Crucial made). Easy peazy to fit. They work fine and I think my Mac is better but not absolutely sure. Still at least I know that as I do more and more photo work they will come into their own.

Enjoy your new Mac.
Nick

P.S. #014 MacrosThe Black is spot on as regards matched pairs.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom