As some of you probably know, I upgraded my 2011 iMac's RAM this week from 4gb to 12gb, adding two 4gb sticks to the mix. My question is, does an iMac automatically up its usage of RAM when you add more to it accordingly as well? I use the RAM usage meter of Menumeters, so I can tell when my memory is running low. When it was just 4gb, during normal everyday use (meaning surfing, email, iTunes and regular everyday software) my RAM usage usually went up to two or even three gigabytes, but never reaching the limit. When I did Photoshop and other graphics- and video-intensive apps, it usually hit the ceiling, yes, which was why I opted to upgrade. But lately since I've upgraded I've noticed my RAM usage now hovering at the five gigabyte mark or so even during regular everyday use. It never used to do this. I haven't hit the RAM ceiling yet, but I was just wondering why this is so. Anybody?
Really? Haven't noticed any extra snappiness, to be honest. In fact, nothing's really changed, as far as I can tell; it's as if I added the extra RAM, and my Mac goes, oh, ok, and goes on about its everyday duties. Then again, I really hope that that's all it is. Thanks.
If you didn't notice any improvements, then it may mean that you never needed the extra RAM in the first place.
natsgo has a point. adding ram doesn't necessarily makes your apps faster. it's more of a multitasking thing. With more ram you're able to open multiple ram hungry apps without slowdowns. if you didn't notice lag before you won't benefit from upgrading ram. 12gb or ram. How many photoshop images can you be running at the same time before you'd notice any lag? another thing that would benefit having more ram is if you use parallels.
Never really thought my apps would be faster, it was John123 who brought that up. I bought the extra ram as advance provision when I open my photo and video apps, so my iMac would have room to maneuver and not get strangled when it calls for more memory. And no, I don't really use Parallels or any Windows-related apps. Left that behind years ago, never looked back.
I currently just use my iMac for browsing, email, playing the occasional steam game, iPhoto, iTunes, and for watching videos. Does it make sense for me to upgrade to 16 GB?
If it's just for general usage maybe you do not need to add ram for now. Or you may add ram but it does not have to be 16gb. Just want to add, maybe you can using "Activity Monitor" in the Utilities folder so you can gauge if you have enough ram at present or not. The Activity Monitor shows you how much free memory remaining you have and you can also see which applications consume more ram . In my case, Firefox browser consumes as high as 300mb memory. Other apps like iTunes are just 50mb average.
I suspect there is a maximum amount of memory that your application, I.e photoshop allocates and does not necessarily use up what's left of the 12GB. Check if this link helps http://macperformanceguide.com/OptimizingPhotoshopCS5-Plugins.html
