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Benefits of upgrading RAM??

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Hi.

I just switched to a Mac for work (HD video editing/Motion Graphics/Compositing). I have the 17" MacBook Pro with 4GB RAM and I keep seeing posts recommending people to upgrade the RAM to 8 or even 16 GB.

The main programs I use areIAfter Effects, FCP, Premiere Pro etc and a bit of Cinema 4D every now and then so I guess my question is, what benefits should I expect from upgrading?

Thanks for any advice anyone can offer.
 

pigoo3

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More ram allows:

- more ram to be dedicated to a single application (if it needs it)
- more ram allows the opening of simultaneous applications...without much or any loss of performance (which can happen when if there isn't enough ram & too many apps are open)

HTH,

- Nick
 
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Thanks.

Would dedicating more RAM to, say After Effects, equal quicker preview and render times?
 

pigoo3

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Thanks.

Would dedicating more RAM to, say After Effects, equal quicker preview and render times?

Adobe.com says After Effects (CS 5.5) requires 2 gig of ram. I don't know what Mac OS version you're running...but if your running OS 10.7 (Lion)...Lion needs 2gig of ram...and After Effects needs 2gig of ram to run it's best.

That's a total of 4gig of ram (the amount you have in your MacBook Pro). If you have any additional apps. open at the same time (which many people do)...then some ram will be "taken away" from what After Effects "would like"...thus not running as effectively.

If you run a lot of Adobe programs (with various apps. open simultaneously)...you may benefit from at least a ram upgrade to 8gig (assuming you have a MacBook Pro that can be upgraded to 8gig).

- Nick
 

robduckyworth


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Thanks.

Would dedicating more RAM to, say After Effects, equal quicker preview and render times?

In short, yes. I would consider for your uses an 8GB RAM upgrade would be quite useful, though I think 16GB would be a bit overkill.

Basically, Rendering relies mainly on your CPU/GPU. But having more RAM available means more of those scenes can be kept in the RAM for fast access.

Download a little app called menumeters, and monitor your page ins/page outs ratio. basically, if you are getting large amounts of regular page outs, you should really consider a RAM upgrade.
 

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