MacOSX 768MB or 1.25GB?

robin · Post by **robin** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:28 pm

Quick question:

I'm upgrading the memory in my Powerbook 12" (rev c 1.33GHz). Do I go with a total of 768MB (512MB is £60)or do I stump up the huge amount of money ( 1GB is £200+) for the total of 1.25GB?

I'm running Live4 with a few plugins at the moment.

Any comments?

cheers

karate · Post by **karate** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:48 pm

Of course, more ram...

andreX · Post by **andreX** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 2:15 pm

I have installed "Menue Meters" which always tells me the memory usage statistics (among other infos - a great free app!).
With my 1GB on the Powerbook I never am close to running out of RAM, even though I have all samples loaded into RAM.

But that can be different for you, depending on how you work.

I had to run my live set from my 800MHz iMac (768MB Ram) and this worked smoothly also.

I think I went for the additional 512MB for it´sd so much cheaper.

only my 2 cents...

ashley_k · Post by **ashley_k** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 2:43 pm

You should be OK with 768MB Lives minimum system requirement is 256MB.

Generally it’s best to get as much ram as you can but unless your running lots of applications at once or using Adobe Photoshop I wouldn’t bother spending the extra money for the 1GB, for that sort of money you could buy Operator!

Ashley_K

sqook · Post by **sqook** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 2:52 pm

Get as much ram as you can afford... it'll make a much bigger difference than you think. Also, here's a hint... don't buy apple ram. You can usually get it cheaper elsewhere on the net (check out crucial.com, even though they're more expensive than they used to be, and pricewatch.com too)

jdg · Post by **jdg** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 2:58 pm

get 2GB, seriously.

osx loves it.

Hardtoe · Post by **Hardtoe** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 3:24 pm

Yo,

Hey, don't worry about having more than 768 megs of ram. It is true that osx loves ram, but this is only really true if you have less than 512 megs. The only reason you need more ram with Live is if you use alot of sample based instruments with big samples and load some big loops into your ram...for me it has never been an issue and I have produced two full length albums using Live (iBook g4 933 640 megs of ram). Save your money and buy something else which will be more useful to you...(like, perhaps, operator???)

Orion

robin · Post by **robin** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 3:50 pm

thanks for the replies guys.

i'll probs go with the 512 stick (i have one free slot in the 12", 2GB not possible).

if that proves to be lacking i'll worry about finding the money to max the machine out

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 4:43 pm

get more ram, it will allow you to load more clips INTO ram, thus increasing your track counts.

it makes a huge difference with track counts, especially with Macintosh. start from loading your smallest clips into ram first, and then work up to the larger ones. watch Activity Monitor to make sure you still have at least 100MB of ram left.

alot of times once macs get above 75% on the cpu load, your track count will top off, because the computer does need a little bit of cpu to stream so many things from the disk at once. so adding more tracks will usually give you glitches. and since we all value low-latency, Ram is the best way to remedy the situation and keep building your track count.

ekko · Post by **ekko** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 4:51 pm

I say max out that RAM. My iBook runs on 768, which is fine, but 1.25 would be fantastic.

You can never have too much RAM.