Memory in OS X

shatteringglass

I just bought a 256 MB stick of memory for my iBook/500. It currently has 128 MB, which would add up to 384 when i install it. How much of a difference will the extra memory make in OS X. I heard that the speed increase will be dramatic. Approximately how much faster will my machine be? 10%? 50%?

macasaurus

pretty big of a difference

blueflame

I did exactly what you did after getting OS X on my G4 400 (mystic). The speed improvement, multitasking ability and hard drive grinding improved so much that the only way for me to tax my system to prior memory upgrades is to simultaneously run many many applications. 'Course, the fact that you're on an iBook may reduce the perceived speed increase. Still, I'm sure you'll be quite happy, and with 10.2, performance should go up even more.



Enjoy!



Blueflame



PS - improved hard drive grinding = less of it...



[ 08-16-2002: Message edited by: Blueflame ]</p>

ghost_user_name

I suspect the performance increase will be pretty dramatic -- specifically because the OS won't be hitting the hard drive so much.



If you are interested, Ars has an excellent explanation of Mac OS X's memory management. It also explains why Mac OS X uses so much memory (in short, it's because of the new window server).



Section 6 of the Mac OS X 10.1 article:

<a href="http://arstechnica.com/reviews/01q4/macosx-10.1/macosx-10.1-6.html"; target="_blank">http://arstechnica.com/reviews/01q4/macosx-10.1/macosx-10.1-6.html</a>;