04-11-2009, 06:56 PM

Hi guys well, im going to buy an imac soon. I study graphic design and im looking at the 2.93ghz model because of its dedicated card as oppose to the intergrated cards found in the lower models. I will be using programs like indesign cs4 and photoshop. Possibly programs like autocad and other 3d applications in the future. Now i realize that the new imac's support up too 8gb of ram and im just wondering is it difficult to use all of that ram up? I mean what would you have to be running to even go over 4gb's. In the future im sure there will be alot of more ram intensive applications but when will we see these kind of applications.. because if its going to be very difficult to use up all of this ram then i may aswell go with a previous 2.8ghz with 4gb of ram in it? I hope for this to computer to last me a good 4/5 years and i dont want in the future for the computer to run slow when using intensive applications.

Thanks for the help

04-11-2009, 07:15 PM

Just my personal opinion...

I bet that you will be able to get away with max limit of 4 gig of ram for quite a while.

By the time you need 8 gig of ram (let's say 3, 4, or 5 years from now or more)...you will probably have more issues with the computer's CPU or GPU being too slow vs. not having enough ram.

So I would say that you would be ok buying either an older iMac with a 4 gig of ram max, or a current 8 gig of ram max computer.

By the way...just one more thought. If you're using such high end programs. Depending on what you're doing with those programs....maybe you would be better of purchasing a used MacPro rather than an iMac.

I know from personal experience that you can buy an older used MacPro for less than a new iMac.

Hope this helps,

- Nick

04-11-2009, 07:31 PM

Right right, I get what you mean. the Mac pro isnt really an option because i dont want to have to fawk out extra money for a display/mouse/keyboard and all of that stuff. I think i might just settle with the 2.93 then if in the future more ram is needed for programs i can just stick another 4gb stick to make it up to 6gb instead of being limited at 4gb with previous models.. i think thats what swaying my descision the fact that the previous imac's are limited to 4gb.. and i dont really know how difficult it is to use up all of that ram?