How much RAM is sufficient for Leopard?

Now that Leopard's been here for a couple of weeks, I wanted to hear you opinion on how much RAM I should get for my Macbook (might be a switcher soon). I won't be running bootcamp or parallels. I'm debating over 1 or 2 GB.

1. I want to run Leopard without it lagging
2. I probably would use a combination of (nothing hardcore) iWork pages/itunes or safari/mail/iWork pages. Also, I would want to do occasional home video editing and iPhoto.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs/

There are the requirements of Leopard. If you meet them then I don't see why it would lag.

I don't know about Apple, but with Vista the system requirements are 800 MHz and 512 MB RAM. Now, can the OS boot up with that kind of speed and memory? Yes. But with all the software installed, will it run smoothly? No. It would lag to the point where it's almost impossible to use. I was asking if it was the same with Apple.

On Apple's site it says 512 MB memory.

When I bought my Mac Pro, it came with 1 gb of memory. After the upgrade to Leopard, I was still waiting for my crucial memory to arrive. So I was using Leopard for about 2 weeks with 1 GB memory. It was ok, BUT I noticed a HUUUUUUGE speed boost when I added an additional 4 gigs of memory, so I definately suggest a memory upgrade!

Unless you are a very casual user that just checks email and some basic browsing, I would upgrade as far as you can afford to. More RAM will not hurt and help if you run a lot of applications at the same time.

I know a few people running Leopard with 1GB with no complaints, but I personally would recommend 2GB - there's quite a noticeable difference between 1GB and 2GB (it was a big improvement on Tiger, but even more so on Leopard in my opinion).

So, 1GB will be good, but 2GB will be a great deal better.

You wouldn't want to run it on 512 meg of ram if you want a smooth experience. 1 gig at a minimum, and 2 would be nicer.

I have 2GB and it runs smooooooootthhhhh on my macbook.

T

mac747 said:

I have 2GB and it runs smooooooootthhhhh on my macbook.

T

Click to expand...

X 2!!!

2Gb is perfect for me. Leopard and all my apps run great.

Eric559 said:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs/

There are the requirements of Leopard. If you meet them then I don't see why it would lag.

Click to expand...

Even Tiger lags with 512MB of RAM on an intel machine. I don't think people realise how much memory applications take now and how many apps they have sitting open usually. Right now I am on Leopard, I have these apps just sitting away in the background (this is normal for me)

- Camino (3 tabs)
- Entourage
- iTunes
- Adium
- Stickies
- iPhoto

I also have Blackberry Sync in the background

My machine is showing 651MB free RAM (I have 2gigs). If I open or close an app, it's silky smooth, but with only a gig it would have been caching and swapping 2 or 3 apps ago.

Of course no one is going to run on 512MB of ram. 512MB isn't even available for Macbook as a configuration unless you remove one by yourself.

The lowest RAM available to order is 1GB and it runs Tiger fine for me.

Eric559 said:

Of course no one is going to run on 512MB of ram. 512MB isn't even available for Macbook as a configuration unless you remove one by yourself.

The lowest RAM available to order is 1GB and it runs Tiger fine for me.

Click to expand...

The question was how much is sufficient for Leopard, and you posted a link saying 512MB was the minimum required and then added if you meet that, it would not lag.

The fact is, many Intel machines were bought last year with only 512MB installed, and with this configuration, OS X certainly does lag if you open more then one or two apps.

With 1 GB I got lots of page outs with my imac under 10.4 and with 2 GB I have none. But I still have a little free memory and heaps of inactive memory and that's after playing games and sound/video editing. I would have to agree that 2GB seems to be a realistic minimum for a smooth running Mac.

And I believe this rule applies to 10.5 too.

My wife and daughters all have 1Gb on their Macbooks and 2 of them are running leopard (I haven't managed to pry the laptop off the other daughter yet). They all run quite happily with that much RAM although none of them are power users. My Mac mini has 2Gb and acts as the home server quite happily with leopard. My iBook has 1.5Gb and my Mac pro 6Gb and again no probs.

Basically I don't think it is any worse or better than tiger RAM wise. I will be updating my wife's Macbook to 2Gb shortly so will be able see the difference.

D R said:

You wouldn't want to run it on 512 meg of ram if you want a smooth experience. 1 gig at a minimum, and 2 would be nicer.

Click to expand...

I have 2Gb in my new 24" iMac (2.4GHz) and it sure flies compared to my older iMac 17 (1.83)...

Gene

Why not buy 1Gb of RAM.

If Leopard isn't running as smoothly as you like, buy another 1Gb stick and install it yourself.

Matt Deasay said:

Why not buy 1Gb of RAM.

If Leopard isn't running as smoothly as you like, buy another 1Gb stick and install it yourself.

Click to expand...

Well, I think the problem with that is, since there's only 2 slots and the standard configuration is 512x512 I'll have to replace that with 1gbx1gb meaning that I'll have to buy 2gb of RAM.

Also another question. What do you think of Apple charging $150 for 2gb of RAM on the Macbook? Should I choose that option when buying my Macbook, or is it just overpriced?

It would be cheaper to buy the machine with 1Gb and upgrade it yourself to 2Gb but use good RAM. Crucial or Kingston are as good as Apple's in my experience.

For RAM where should I buy it from? I've heard about Newegg... what about Amazon? Can someone point me in the right direction?

This will help you.