04-14-2011, 02:50 AM

I have searched the forum and I know where to purchase memory. I gather the consiensis is either OWC or Crucial. However I still have some question and would like some input.

1) With 8gb upgrade being only $100 why doesnt everyone do this. I understand most people, probably including myself will never use it, but dollar for dollar wouldnt this be the best money every spent.

2) I own a 15inch MBP the newest model, with a 2.3GHz i7 and 4gb of ram. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be asking this question, however here I am. I dont consider myself a heavy user, but here within lies my problem. I am a college student who has the misfortune of having to take a college computer class. So.... back to windows it is. So I will be running Parallels 6 with Windows 7 ultimate 64bit. I have allocated 2gb to the virtual machine. Now, while doing this on I continue to run Safari in one window with 4 - 6 tabs. iChat, and iTunes. Typically I have not issues but while running Windows, I sometimes get the Rainbow circle for minutes... not seconds at a time. So, is there anything I can do to increase performance? or am I doing something wrong? I will attach a photo of the activity monitor during normal operation.

Thank you for any help.

04-14-2011, 04:13 AM

Originally Posted by Boosted_Brian

I have searched the forum and I know where to purchase memory. I gather the consiensis is either OWC or Crucial. However I still have some question and would like some input.

1) With 8gb upgrade being only $100 why doesnt everyone do this. I understand most people, probably including myself will never use it, but dollar for dollar wouldnt this be the best money every spent.

these people know they dont need 8GB of RAM, and aren't wasting their money, or they cant afford it.

2) I own a 15inch MBP the newest model, with a 2.3GHz i7 and 4gb of ram. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be asking this question, however here I am. I dont consider myself a heavy user, but here within lies my problem. I am a college student who has the misfortune of having to take a college computer class. So.... back to windows it is. So I will be running Parallels 6 with Windows 7 ultimate 64bit. I have allocated 2gb to the virtual machine. Now, while doing this on I continue to run Safari in one window with 4 - 6 tabs. iChat, and iTunes. Typically I have not issues but while running Windows, I sometimes get the Rainbow circle for minutes... not seconds at a time. So, is there anything I can do to increase performance? or am I doing something wrong? I will attach a photo of the activity monitor during normal operation.

Thank you for any help.

increasing the RAM to 8GB will improve your performance with a VM, you are currently overloading it, and causing pageouts to occur (using the harddrive as a active memory source, which is extremely slower than with dedicated RAM.)

upgrade to 8GB, and you will see these SBBoD problems go away.

04-14-2011, 04:37 AM

Alright, I just rechecked the settings on parallels, and realized I have it set for only 1GB. I guess I just found it odd that with so few programs running I would be experiencing this issue. However, I guess when I look at it, OSX was the only intended OS for this setup. When you start throwing another OS on top of it, things get a little dicey. Oddly my CPU usage never got above 15%. Even when installing on both OS's at the same time. I also noticed that my page outs were around 33% of my page ins.

I guess in a way I am a little disappointed that I am in need of upgrading soon.

Do you or does anyone know of any settings that I can change in the mean time to make my machine run faster while using VM?

04-14-2011, 05:18 AM

i wouldnt be dissapointed, you are running two operating systems. Thats eating up your RAM, and it is unavoidable. Your Flash Player is taking up quite a bit, I would block it (I have three tabs, and watching a video, and my usage is 57 MB). Browsing is always a big one on RAM. run less tabs.

here is my usage (I have 8GB)



running Safari, Photoshop, Safari (3 tabs, one flash video) Skype, iTunes. I run vmware and virtualbox sometimes, never run into RAM issues.

i usually use BootCamp for Windows however.

notice - my page outs are tiny compared to yours - this is the key to slowdowns.

04-14-2011, 05:47 AM

Originally Posted by robduckyworth

i wouldnt be dissapointed, you are running two operating systems. Thats eating up your RAM, and it is unavoidable. Your Flash Player is taking up quite a bit, I would block it (I have three tabs, and watching a video, and my usage is 57 MB). Browsing is always a big one on RAM. run less tabs.

here is my usage (I have 8GB)



running Safari, Photoshop, Safari (3 tabs, one flash video) Skype, iTunes. I run vmware and virtualbox sometimes, never run into RAM issues.

i usually use BootCamp for Windows however.

notice - my page outs are tiny compared to yours - this is the key to slowdowns.

Thank you for your help so far.

when you say "block flash" how do I go about do that, or what is the best. Also would VMware or Virtualbox make better use of the available ram?

04-14-2011, 06:29 AM

no, it would all be the same, its Windows taking RAM. parallels, vmware and virtual box reserve RAM for use.

ClicktoFlash:

ClickToPlugin/ClickToFlash Safari extensions

its for Safari, runs as an extension. make sure you download clicktoflash, not clicktoplugin. I'm not sure on other browsers. blocks Flash, only runs what you click on.

04-14-2011, 05:42 PM

Thank you for your help. +rep

04-14-2011, 06:04 PM

thats okay my friend.

04-15-2011, 01:02 AM

Originally Posted by Boosted_Brian

Also would VMware or Virtualbox make better use of the available ram?

To add to what has already been said, a lot of people don't realize that running Windows at the same time as your Mac OS basically divides your computer in half or by how much resources you give it.

For example if you are giving Windows 1GB RAM then you only have 3GB left for your Mac. The 2 don't share resources. In other words when you are running Windows you are crippling your Mac because those resources are reserved for Windows.

This is why I recommend only giving Windows just enough resources to make it run smoothly and no more. I give Windows 1GB RAM and only 1 core processor. If you are a light Windows user you might be able to get away with 512GB RAM. I have 8GB RAM so it doesn't affect me much but if you're going to use Parallels a lot then upgrading your RAM is very helpful.

If you don't want to upgrade your RAM then you just have to stop multitasking while using Windows or not use apps that don't use lots of resources. Anytime you see a lot of page out and swap usage then you know you need more RAM. Mine is usually zero for both. I had more when I use to have 4GB RAM but not everyone needs 8GB RAM.

04-15-2011, 04:50 AM

Until lately, I have never experienced a problem. Daily typical usage, my MBP preforms flawlessly, and like you said, pages out is at zero. However, many of the memory intensive programs just sat in the background never being used because I never had a need for them. I installed them in anticipation for the future which, unfortunately for me, is now the present.

I guess life could be worse.. I could be stuck with windows as my main OS. hahaha

04-16-2011, 09:12 PM

Alright one last question. I went on the crucial website to place the order for my MBP. Unfortunately they dont list my exact model. I have an early 2011, 2.3GHz i7 15 inch. However, is the memory really all that different. I believe that the memory across the line is same. If I am wrong, please someone correct me before I make the mistake of ordering the wrong product.

Thank you.

04-17-2011, 03:58 AM

I believe the memory your after is 1333Mhz pc3-8500 DDR3 RAM.

the 2010 versions used 1066Mhz, i think the only difference is the speed. i would check on this forum before buying.

04-17-2011, 07:08 AM

Originally Posted by Boosted_Brian

Alright one last question. I went on the crucial website to place the order for my MBP. Unfortunately they dont list my exact model. I have an early 2011, 2.3GHz i7 15 inch.
Thank you.

Just for you.

Cheers

04-18-2011, 02:22 AM

Originally Posted by robduckyworth

I believe the memory your after is 1333Mhz pc3-8500 DDR3 RAM.

the 2010 versions used 1066Mhz, i think the only difference is the speed. i would check on this forum before buying.

It is. That is what I ordered.

Originally Posted by TattooedMac

Just for you.

Cheers

I was ordering it on the crucial site. But I am pretty sure they are all the same across the model line.

04-18-2011, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by TattooedMac

Just for you.

Cheers

Exxccelent! I'm taking your advice and ordering 8 from them. They made it easy to find the exact fit for my Macbook Pro. And, the 16 gig upgrade - didn't know it was even possible. Just a bit too spendy for me.