New RAM questions

I just bought an 8GB (2 4GB) off of Amazon because it was a great deal ($40) and got great reviews in a MBP. I have a 2011 MBP with 4GB RAM and 750 GB HDD. My question is this:

What should I look for as far as increased performance? Will the machine run faster overall, i.e. boot faster, load applications faster etc. Will I notice an increase in internet browsing speed? Or will the difference not be noticeable?

Nola26 said:

I just bought an 8GB (2 4GB) off of Amazon because it was a great deal ($40) and got great reviews in a MBP. I have a 2011 MBP with 4GB RAM and 750 GB HDD. My question is this:

What should I look for as far as increased performance? Will the machine run faster overall, i.e. boot faster, load applications faster etc. Will I notice an increase in internet browsing speed? Or will the difference not be noticeable?

Click to expand...

More than likely you won't see much of a speed increase in the operations you mentioned going from 4gig to 8gig of ram. More ram is good if you have specific applications that require lots of ram (such as some Adobe programs)...or more ram helps when you have lots of applications open simultaneously.

Specifically:

- to make a computer run faster overall...a faster cpu or gpu is needed (or both)
- boot times & app. load time are improved via a faster hard drive
- faster internet...you would probably need a faster internet service plan

But going from 4gig to 8gig of ram (for the average user)...is not really going to speed anything up to the point that you will notice it.

But when you need it...the extra ram is nice to have.

- Nick

p.s. BTW...if you only had 1gig or 2gig of ram...yes you might have seen a speed increase going to 4gig or 8gig of ram. But going from 4gig to 8gig (for the average user)...not so much of a speed increase.

Thanks. I kind of figured I would barely notice a difference because my MBP is so fast already. But for $40 I couldn't pass it up, and it may come in handy later on.

Nola26 said:

Thanks. I kind of figured I would barely notice a difference because my MBP is so fast already. But for $40 I couldn't pass it up, and it may come in handy later on.

Click to expand...

$40 is a pretty good price!

- Nick

It was $40 from Amazon. It came in today (4 days early) and I just installed it. It may be all in my head, but I would swear the computer booted faster, and loads applications and web pages much faster. In case anyone is interested in getting it, it's Crucial 8GB Kit. Here is a link to the page- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003DZJQQI/?tag=macforums0e4-20

This seems like a good place to put a ram question instead of starting a new thread...

I have a late 2007 macbook (white) core 2 duo 2.0. Currently have 1GB kingston in one slot and 2gb kingston in the other. I know it is best to have both ram chips matching. My question is, does age matter?

I want to upgrade to 4gb. Could i just buy another 2gb kingston ram module? or should I be buying 2 new ones?

You can just buy one 2GB module but for minimal cost you can get a matching pair and then use the extra ram as a spare.