Apple / LIVE 8 RAM allocation, Is 6GB worth the $$ price?

[ekg]

hey, i've got a 17" macbook pro 2.93ghz w/4GB RAM and 500GB/7200 hard drive, and no major complaints with LIVE 8 operations, except that opening big projects takes a LONG time, and viewing/copying/pasting certain CONTENTS of projects from within the browser hardly ever works... long spinning wheel. cool feature, but unless its just one simple track that you're dragging.. good luck! easier to open up the other project and copy, then open up and paste into the new project.
I also like using rather large Drum Racks (and racks within racks) so i've got all the snares, kicks and cymbals i'd ever need right at my disposal. And i find it easiest to work using large template sets with a lotta session clips filled with tracks... (especially after getting the APC40)....
So.... Are these examples of features that would greatly benefit from maximum RAM (above what used to be a rather whopping 4GB)? I'm not about to go out and spend $700 on 8GB, but $350 for 6GB might be an option, if there's conclusive proof that Ableton 8 / OSX 10.57 truly takes advantage of all the RAM you'd throw at it, and that the upgrade would be worth more than just bragging rights. Anybody actually done such an upgrade and noticed a marked difference?
I'd surely appreciate any test results and comments, thanks!
Greg

[ekg]

Wow, nobody knows??

[nowtime]

I was running Live 7 on 2gb ram in my 2.2 Macbook Pro. It worked fine. Then I put in 4gb and, when checking Activity Monitor, I regularly use over 3gb. If you are using huge drum racks and huge sets, I would guess 6 or 8gb ram would def benefit you.

But you should only pay a fraction of that money! Ram has been cheap for a long time (except at Apple).

[ekg]

thanks for your feedback! anybody else?

yeah, 2GB chips are super cheap...
and the 4GB chips are still pretty expensive (at Apple... ridiculous),
and if you shop elsewhere you'll see they're priced all over the place
http://www.ramseeker.com/memory/MacBook ... 066_DDR3)/
$295 at OWC, but their customer service rather sucks.
i got a price of $313 delivered, for good Hynix chips, iRam brand

and maybe i'll go for it

[Zygi]

live uses 3gb max...

i wouldn't waste money on any number above 4gb, unless you want to run Kontakt. (or any sampler that has it's own memory allocation)

[Budbertzerofluff]

Zygi's right. Live on Mac OS X is a Carbon app. That means it's 32-bit and has access to a max of 3Gb of address space.

[dysanfel]

Heck...I have never even hit 3GB of RAM use even with my largest sessions.

[nowtime]

Heck...I have never even hit 3GB of RAM use even with my largest sessions.

What about with Safari open?

[Jomdom]

Heck...I have never even hit 3GB of RAM use even with my largest sessions.

What about with Safari open?

See, some laptop musicians DO check their e-mail on stage!

[john doe by choice]

Check Ramjet.com, or Transcend RAM at New Egg - got 4 gb for my mac pro for something like $100, no issues whatsoever.