What are the benefits of more RAM? I have just got a MacBook with 2gb, what would be the benefits of upgrading to 4gb? Is there really much discernible difference?

Ram = male sheep 😉

Usually, but not sure with Macs. In general it makes everything faster as it has to swap memory out to disk less. Windows also uses RAM for caching things it might need later, which speeds the system up – I dunno if Macs do this.

It’s a good one …….. 🙄

youve already committed yourself to a second-rate computing experience, only having 2GB of RAM isnt going to disappoint you anymore.

😉

Macs would benefit from more RAM too, as they use it in a similar way to Windows (but use far more of it when offered, unlike Windows which still loves to use the hard disk as much as possible…).

Depends on what you’re doing on the Mac? Just surfing the web/typing docs will be very small difference. Editing photos, vids, etc will have a noticable effect.

Yes, it will make your Mac faster – it might even make your battery last a little long longer as it will use the hard disk less for the reasons outlined above.

Places like Crucial will supply you with the right chips. Seriously thinking of taking this one to 8GB at the moment… (I have a couple of Virtual Machines as some software at work is Windows only)

Rachel

Depends on what you’re doing on the Mac? Just surfing the web/typing docs will be very small difference. Editing photos, vids, etc will have a noticable effect.

This. Though if you’re just using the built in monitor and only messing about in iphoto etc 2gb will be fine.

If it’s an older macbook, you may find 3gb is your max.

Thanks for the replies, sounds like 2gb will do me.

If the OS runs out of RAM, it starts caching/paging the memory on disk. Disk is many times slower to read and write than RAM. This is the main reason why people notice their computers slowing down. The more spare memory you have, the more programs and information you can actively use without it slowing right down.

Mac OS has quite a small memory footprint compared with Windows (because MacOS is unix). For example, Windows Vista needs ~2Gb to itself before you run any programs; I think MacOS uses ~500Mb. So roughly speaking, a MAC with 2Gb is equivalent to a WinPC ~4Gb. Whether you prefer the look/feel/reliability/usability of either is a personal preference.

If the OS runs out of RAM, it starts caching/paging the memory on disk.

That’s not technically correct… It manages the physical ram and page file with all sorts of different strategies in mind.

Unix based systems use more physical RAM than their Windows brothers, but they are also much better at managing their memory.

“When the OS runs out” is not quite how it works…