Should I Add Ram?

When you are using it, open Activity Monitor (in your utilities folder) and see what the RAM usage graph looks like

see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5890

If the Memory Pressure graph is displaying RED, then that indicates that you are running out of RAM resources and actually would be swapping out to disc because of that. In that case, yes, adding RAM would definitely improve performance.

If your Memory Pressure graph is routinely GREEN though, then RAM is not the limitation on your system.

Mavericks and ONLY 4GB RAM? Perfect recipe for an exercise in patience. Bump it up to 8GB and you will see and feel a performance improvement. Just be sure to purchase RAM made specifically for your model: 204-pin PC3-8500 (1066 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM

To be honest, I would not expect it to help "greatly" at least by my expectation of that use of phrase. It will probably help incrementally, but since your system does not appear to be more then on the cusp of being memory bound, the increased performance is not likely to be spectacular.

To be honest, the single biggest bottleneck on your system is the same as my late-2008 2.53Ghz MBP - that is the outdated Core 2 Duo cpu, its less than stellar onboard cache, and the associated logicboard chipset.

Still, RAM is a pretty cheap upgrade, and it will help some.

P.S. OWC has the 8GB Kit for $105 - http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3

Look at how much swap space is being used on the HDD and the page ins and outs. If the system has to resort to doing lots of I/O due to paging activity, performance will go down the crapper, even if pressure is green.

I have 16GB on mine and can go for months without taking up ANY swap space (page in/out == 0), cause it all fits in the physical RAM. In your case, MacTracker is giving me conflicting info: says the 13" model can take up to 16GB but the 15" and 17" only up to 8GB, which may be wrong.

As long as the graph is green, I've never seen a system with any page outs. I'm not saying it's not possible, just seems odd to me that if you had a pressure graph that was always green, why there would ever be any page outs in the first place since RAM is not exhausted?

Page Ins are meaningless - that just means the system called for a page that was already in RAM anyway - no disc I/O involved at all with a page in.

Mavericks does use RAM compression now too. I suppose if your system is being pushed up to but just not quite beyond your RAM limits, you could see a bit of a performance hit from agressive compresson/decompression of RAM? Adding RAM could help with that, as your system may actually not use much less compression, but may not have to decompress as often as it is now.

Those are pretty trivial page outs, but it does indicate you may often be operating right at the cusp of your systems current RAM limits. So all told, it does sound like you would benefit from more RAM. Exactly how noticeable a difference it will make is impossible to say, but if your system is always straining at the upper edge of its performance bounds for RAM, it will be worthwhile to upgrade.

I haven't bought Apple RAM for an upgrade in a long time and have had no problems. Crucial, PNY, NewEgg, OWC/macsales.com, etc. are all good. Make sure they have a lifetime warranty, or better yet an advance exchange lifetime warranty.

Here is the straight scoop.

Mac's have always been historicly picky when it comes to Ram.

DO NOT use bargin basement or cheap Ram

If you stick with top of the line Ram you will have less chance or NO CHANCE of problems.

http://www.crucial.com

Crucial is considered to be the best by many users.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/

Both of these are the best you can buy for Mac.

Good Luck

Cheers

Don

This is Apple selling you RAM:

My last 3 Macs (9 year period) have all had Corsair RAM. Just make sure the speed is correct AND the package says Mac Certified.

ElfLord10 wrote:

Ok maybe i'll do an upgrade. I'll have to do research between if I can use 8GB or 16GB. From what I have heard, I can only use 8GB max. Would you stick with the apple ram (really expensive) or would you go with Crucial or PNY (about half the price)?

OWC does their own in-house testing of every configuration they sell, so I trust what they say will run. I have had one of their 8GB kits in my late-2008 MBP for two years now without a problem.

Apple actually does not make RAM - they just buy the same stuff as everybody else uses (well, Apple buys and uses high quality RAM). I have had Apple machines ship new direct from Apple with Samsung RAM, with Crucial RAM, one with Kingston RAM. There is nothing special about Apple RAM other then the quality of the specifications they demand from the manufacturers. And there are literally a mere handful of actual RAM chip manufacturers in the entire world (Crucial and Kingston being two, Samsung may be the biggest single source).

You can safely use Crucial or Kingston Apple system specific RAM (avoid Kingstons "value RAM" line - it has not met the QC tests for Apple's specifications), OWC, or Samsung. Those are the only brands I've personal experience with in Apple equipment.