[smiley]

Yeah, I know: More RAM is better and if you think you've got too much, you probably have just enough.

But, is there really a big performance difference in OSX between 1GB and 2GB? Will things seems snappier, or are we running into the law of diminishing returns here?

Crucial.com wants my money. Help!

-smiley

[scratt]

More RAM is always a good thing.
I have been running on a Rev. A 17" G4PB for a while now, couple of years or so and have not felt the need for more RAM than the 1GB I have installed.

I think your law of diminishing returns is a good analogy.
More than half a gig is good.
A Gig is definitely good enough.
2 Gig is cool!

My other machine is a Dual G5 2Ghz with 4GB of Ram!!

[Track_40]

I just ordered a PB w 2gb ram - from Apple as it was cheaper than Crucial - if you're buying a whole system. I'm a big photoshop guy typ working with hi-rez files greater than 700mb... I need it. Based on my PC experience, I'd say it definitely makes the system seem a bit snappier. I think having more ram also helps if you multitask a lot - 10-15+ apps running at the same time.

However Disk IO is also important. I try to run everything off a fast external drive. That's why I'm hoping the new LaCie Biggest FW800 RAID 5 Array coupled with the amt of ram I've got in this pup will enable me to use it as a desktop replacement for a while - before i pickup a G5 PowerMac.

In the end, if you're just doing MS Office, surfing the web and checking e-mail, it's prob overkill.

My 2c

[scratt]

Yeah... I was going to add a note about Photoshop.
It has quite a few memory issues...
One of which is not cleaning up after itself.
The other is not being able to use very large amounts of memory.
I know that the 4GB on my G5 is useless for Photoshop as it cannot use it all.
I just can't remember if the boundary is 2G or 1G?

[Track_40]

I think it's 2G

[sunrain]

Originally Posted by Track_40 I think it's 2G

Yup, it is. I read a funny exchange between an Adobe rep and an interviewer asking why Photoshop doesn't take advantage of the G5's ability to address up to 8GB of RAM. I'll try to find the linky.

Edit: http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/mwsf-2005.ars/4

[Brad]

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/mwsf-2005.ars

It's a picture of empty seats at the booth for Quark, who was surprisingly in attendance at Macworld, and without any kind of protective plexiglass. Quark, the once undisputed leader for professional design and layout software, is now heavily disputed, thanks to InDesign, which partially explains why I am relating a conversation from the Adobe booth. Outside the Adobe booth, where all sorts of AOLpeople were watching demos and learning about layers — come one people, open a fricking book — there were also many affable and smug representatives. "When is the 2GB RAM limit going to be lifted in PhotoShop?" It's the question I was asked to ask. The guy began his script. "Do you mean a 2GB file size limit? Because through virtual memory Photoshop has always been able to—" "No. I mean addressing more than 2GB of RAM." "Well, that's a result of the limitations of hardware and’" "What are you talking about? The PowerMac G5 is a 64-bit computer and OS X can handle more than 2GB with aplomb." The guy smiled at me, and in that smile, that thin line, was maybe the event horizon for Adobe, the same one that Microsoft found years ago. It is the point where a company has become so large and powerful, so much the market leader, so all encompassing that it collapses in upon itself. Adobe, the ultimate cool graphics software company is doomed, not in the sense of entropy and dissolution, but like that of a gravitational anomaly that has collapsed in upon itself. It will continue to suck money out of wallets for years to come, but innovation will likely take the long dark ride down that black hole too. And so ended the script. "Well, I'm sure it's coming, but we have a lot more people interested in smaller images than 2GB and..." "Okay, thanks, have a nice Quark." Every elemental particle has its day. Until something cooler is discovered, anyway.

[sunrain]

Damn you're quick.

[Luca]

LOL I love that commentary!

To Aspyr: "Well, thanks again, and here is hoping that Apple doesn't decide to do their own game ports and frag you."

To ATI: "Where the hell is NVIDIA? I'm sure they will be here next year because they really love Macs too."

To Microsoft: "Do you ever get tired of snotty Mac users talking down Microsoft?"

To Unsanity: "You know my wife has been pretty irritable lately, and I just installed WindowShades X. Are you sure that it has nothing to do with her mood?"

[wuf]

Originally Posted by Track_40 I just ordered a PB w 2gb ram - from Apple as it was cheaper than Crucial - if you're buying a whole system. I'm a big photoshop guy typ working with hi-rez files greater than 700mb...

I don't argue that photoshop needs a good bit of ram, as I do use it everyday. But having dealt with photoshop everyday for the past 8 years, I have to ask, WHAT TYPE OF FILES ARE YOU WORKING WITH THAT ARE 700MB?? Are you making billboards that are printed at 300dpi or something?

Just wondering....

-wuf

[julesstoop]

In my experience (I.m.e) it's not that difficult to end up with 500 MB+ files when working on something that needs to be printed on something larger than A3.

[wuf]

Well, a 24"X36" document at 500 dpi (who needs 500 dpi files????) is 618 MB's in Photoshop. Who (other than high end printers that do large glossy posters) needs files that big??

Seriouly, I'm just wondering.....Not disagreeing......

-wuf

[scratt]

Yeah... but then if you have a few layers here and there it soon escalates...
When I work on Photoshop files they are generally for the web and come from medium rez. digital pictures or DV-Cams. Now by the time I have jiggled with them, put a few layers on etc. etc. I have generally lost about 500MB of disk space to Swap Files.. Not to mention quite a large chunk of Ram gone.

I just checked now and I was using Photoshop yesterday for some 600 x 600 72dpi files, which had about 4 or five layers in them and yup I have about 1GB of Swap Files!

Photoshop is the only program that seems to do this!

The most annoying thing is you have to reboot your machine to clear this stuff out.

So I can quite believe that people working with a reasonable size file which is good enough quality to print could easilly use all of 2GB of memory if the machine would allow.

Photoshop, to me, is the ultimate example of how programs these days just abuse the hell out of the fact that we have huge amounts of memory available.

[wuf]

You are correct when you say that the only way to clear out some ram to use is to restart.....That is definately a pain.....

HOWEVER, all I know is that i used to run a blue G3 tower, with 448mb ram......The poor little machine never let me down, and I would often have ~20 11-20mb files open, playing with them all at once.......2GB of ram is a far cry from the 448MB that I had to use......

Could it be a little slow at times? Sure......Did I have to have 2GB to get it to run? No....

Just seems to me like just because you CAN upgrade up to a certain amount of ram or a bigger hard drive, doesn't mean you have to. I know of folks (that have to much $$) that bought G5 towers and tons of ram because they HAD to have it to surf the web and send e-mails........

Some folks need lots of ram.......most don't.......

Thats just what I think.......

Maybe I'm jealous because I don't have a G5 and 2GB ram......BUT I STILL THINK I'M RIGHT!!! :-D

-wuf

[scratt]

I agree with you...
I only have 1GB on my 17" and find that more than adequate.
If you read my original post you will see that I have already said that 1GB is ample, 2GB is overkill.

Before I started using my G5 with 4GB of ram, , I got on just fine with my 17" and still do.

I have editted professional video productions and worked on multiple maximum resolution still images from 5 Megapixel cameras for magasine articles without any problems... However, I certainly would never have a machine with less than a GB when running OS X. The difference in performance below that 1GB barrier is stunning!