RAM issue

Hello everybody.

I have a 2011 27 inches iMac with 4gb RAM.
My problem is that when I'm editing 1080p videos with Premiere, or just doing previews with After Effects it runs really slow, making it terrible to work with.

I've read that 2011 iMac's RAM memory can be upgraded up to 16gb, and my question is: is it worth it upgrading it? I mean, what worries me is to spend 100-200€ on it and just have a slight improvement for editing.

In that case I'd start to think in selling my iMac, and maybe even get a PC because although there is no programs like Final Cut, I can get better hardware for the same price and still edit on Premiere and After Effects.

What do you guys think?? Thank you for your time

My 09 MBP felt like a new machine when I went from 4GB to 8GB of ram so yeah you will notice.

Your 2011 iMac can actually take up to 32 GB of memory. (4 x 8 GB modules) But for the work you're doing, 16 GB should be sufficient. You're not going to find a PC with the same great display as your iMac has. Spend the money on the extra memory and don't look back.

Thanks for the replies! I think buying more ram will be the best medium term option

Also do you have enough contiguous free space on your drive for scratch files. That could slow things down too if you don't.

That could be a problem. I just found out about HDD and SSD drives. Do you think changing to a SSD drive could help me more significantly than just upgrading my RAM?

Thanks!

SSD will always improve the performance of any computer but if you are short on ram for a particular application it will still be the bottleneck.
How big is your current drive and how much free space do you have?

My suggestion would be to do the following the next time you are going to do some editing:

1. If it has been a while since you booted the machine reboot so that you start clean.
2. Open Activity monitor, click on the memory tab and make note of the numbers at the bottom of the screen (bottom of the tab). Activity Monitor is in the Utilities folder.
3. Go about your work as usual. When you notice the slowdown switch to Activity Monitor and make note of the readings again.
4. Post your results here and we can better advise whether a memory upgrade or SSD swap would be better.

Also seeing as you're doing video edits you might want to look into a defrag app.

I would go with the RAM upgrade first. This will help with things that are currently running. Adding a SSD will only really speed up loading times on applications. After they are in RAM (if you have enough) then they should run as fast as you RAM/CPU/Mobo Chipset combination will allow. Hence upgrading RAM first. Then later on down the road if you want a boost for programs loading up and a noticeable system responsiveness increase, then a SDD may be in order. However keep in mind you may want to keep you existing HDD for storage and add the SSD for you system and applications drive. Not sure about your mac model, but iMacs are not well known for being user upgradable friendly. However you can google a how to video to see if its right for you.

Cheers,
Joe