from 2 gig to 3 gig, big difference?

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iMac 20" C2D, 2 Gig.
would i see a big difference in performance if i bump my ram from 2 gig to 3 gig. i mostly use my imac for photos (lots of it) and music and occasionally video editing. so far it handles my task ok but im wondering if it would speed up everything.
 
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best way to tell is by checking in Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor to see if you have any Page Outs in the system memory tab. If you are getting page outs that means your computer is using the hard drive as a temporary memory storage and you would see some benefit from the extra 1gb
 
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Kulokoy
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thanks, i will try to run my apps and check the activity monitor.

thanks
 
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It depends on whether or not you are planning on buying Leopard when it comes out. It will be true 64 bit and will be both better at using that much memory and will also perform better with larger amounts of memory.
 
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i dont have no mac's
the only way it will make a difference is if you are currently running out of ram. if you never run out of ram then adding more will do nothing but waste your money.
-chris
 
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The short answer is "I doubt it". I have 2.5 GB of memory on my machine, and run a menu bar memory meter (among many other such meters). I have never seen my Mac even come close to fully using the 2.5 GB I have. Like you, I do photos, lots of 'em, in Photoshop, plus of course, Firefox and Thunderbird, iTunes and lots of other stuff. 2GB is plenty!
 
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iMac 20, Intel Dual Core 2.3GHz, 1Gb RAM, 256Mb Video; G4 tower 444Mhz w/ 1G RAM, 2x G3 towers
what about games in bootcamp? i'm trying to decide if i should go with 3Gb or get a matched pair of 2x2Gb to take advantage of the dual
 
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The short answer is "I doubt it". I have 2.5 GB of memory on my machine, and run a menu bar memory meter (among many other such meters). I have never seen my Mac even come close to fully using the 2.5 GB I have. Like you, I do photos, lots of 'em, in Photoshop, plus of course, Firefox and Thunderbird, iTunes and lots of other stuff. 2GB is plenty!

You'd be surprised. I have 2gb and when working on some yearbook files (over 1gb each) it got to the point where I was rebooting after working on each file because I was paging out while working on them

what about games in bootcamp? i'm trying to decide if i should go with 3Gb or get a matched pair of 2x2Gb to take advantage of the dual

Until the iMac is updated to using the Santa Rosa chipset you won't be able to recognize 4gb, the max is 3
 

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