MacBook Pro RAM Upgrade 4GB to 8GB worth it?

[PD-John]

I'm able to purchase an OWC 2x4GB 1333MHz RAM upgrade for a MacBook Pro at a really good price - I'm wondering if those who have upgraded can tell me if I'll notice a definite difference in performance? The general consensus I've gathered from around here is that more RAM is always a good idea..

I'm not a heavy VI user, most of my sessions will typically have 1 or 2 instances of a virtual piano (TruePianos or Mini Grand), a few XPand! instances and maybe 1 track with Boom on it. In general my setup is very stable and I rarely have Pro Tools go glitchy on me.. it's usually my fault when something goes wrong (dodgy plugin etc). I suppose more RAM will help primarily when multi-tasking with several applications open at the same time as PT?

Any advice/experience is much appreciated!

Thanks.

[Dism]

Double the RAM will always show a significant boost in overall performance. Just going from 4 to 6 on my old Macbook showed a bump just in boot time alone.

Do it, you'll be happy.

[gives]

Originally Posted by PD-John

I'm able to purchase an OWC 2x4GB 1333MHz RAM upgrade for a MacBook Pro at a really good price - I'm wondering if those who have upgraded can tell me if I'll notice a definite difference in performance? The general consensus I've gathered from around here is that more RAM is always a good idea..

I'm not a heavy VI user, most of my sessions will typically have 1 or 2 instances of a virtual piano (TruePianos or Mini Grand), a few XPand! instances and maybe 1 track with Boom on it. In general my setup is very stable and I rarely have Pro Tools go glitchy on me.. it's usually my fault when something goes wrong (dodgy plugin etc). I suppose more RAM will help primarily when multi-tasking with several applications open at the same time as PT?

Any advice/experience is much appreciated!



YES. Ram is cheap.. I run 24GB on my Tower and it's really helpful with the disk caching feature.. Saved me on the film I am doing.

4GB is nothing. I am surprised you can run anything with such a small amount. the OS uses most of that.

My recommendation is to call Other World Computing and order some good RAM with a good price. they have never steered me wrong and have knowledgable staff there.

Good luck. G


Thanks.

[tamasdragon]

Yep, do it right away!

[DJ Hellfire]

Best thing you can do for it. If you install atMonitor (for free), you'll notice that the MBP maxes out that 4GB ram pretty fast just from normal use, not even including Pro Tools.

[CME]

I agree. IMO 5-6 GB should be the minimum for anyone these days. The OS is going to use up to 2 GB on its own. And Pro Tools can use up to 4 GB. Anyone using VI's that can use RAM outside of PT should have even more. Plus it's pretty cheap these days. So no reason not too.


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[remusjacobs]

Well since pro tools is a 32 bit application it can only use 4GB of ram so even if you put 64GB of ram in your system PT will only utilize 4GB.

[CME]

Originally Posted by remusjacobs

Well since pro tools is a 32 bit application it can only use 4GB of ram so even if you put 64GB of ram in your system PT will only utilize 4GB.

Yes but the OS is also using ram. And he mentioned using some VI's. Not sure if the one he use does, but some can also use ram outside of the 4 GB Pro Tools can address. On every system I've owned I've seen improvements in performance up to the 5-6 GB point. I've only got one system with more than that (12 GB in a "custom" Mac pro). And I'm sure I don't need that much. At least until pro tools add disc cache to regular PT, PT goes 64-bit and uses more RAM (which should be the next version), or I find a great deal on a CPTK license. Either way it never hurts to have more than you can use.


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[DJ Hellfire]

Originally Posted by remusjacobs

Well since pro tools is a 32 bit application it can only use 4GB of ram so even if you put 64GB of ram in your system PT will only utilize 4GB.

Lion uses like 1.5GB just to run, leaving only 2.5GB for everything else, which really leaves even less for Pro Tools.

[albee1952]

I also say go for it. But for those contemplating, I suspect its more important than many think to have all RAM sticks matching(same brand and model). Any differences in timings or any spec could hurt performance(especially on PC's that use dual, triple or quad channel RAM)