RAM vs Processor Speed
I'm running OS X on a 233MHz original iMac; it is, understandably, rather slow.
It has 96MB RAM. Will adding another 256MB help?
What's the actual difference between adding RAM and upgrading processor anyway? What really affects the speed of what? Which would be better, a 233 with 1024MB RAM, or an 800 with 64MB RAM?
Thanks,
u.
It has 96MB RAM. Will adding another 256MB help?
What's the actual difference between adding RAM and upgrading processor anyway? What really affects the speed of what? Which would be better, a 233 with 1024MB RAM, or an 800 with 64MB RAM?
Thanks,
u.
Comments
Though, RAM and the processor are not related in the way I think you are saying.
RAM is a data storage device.
CPU is a data processing device.
OSX is a memory hug. The reason for this is in how its window server works (I'm guessing you're not too technical about things like this; so, I'll skip the explanation unless you request it). In OSX, when you run out of RAM for storage, the system uses the hard drive as "virtual" RAM to store the temporary data it needs. Hard drive access is MUCH slower than RAM access; thus, when you do run out of memory, your system gets much slower. This is why so many people say 256MB should be the bare minimum for a "comfortable" expreience with Mac OS X -- any less and you'll quickly start hitting the hard drive for memory.
The CPU, central processing unit, is your number cruncher. It's what does all those millions of calculations per second to run your software. If you have a slow processor, everything will be slow regardless of what other hardware you have.
[ 10-17-2002: Message edited by: Brad ]</p>
But then, if the processor is only 233, surely I can't improve it that much by adding RAM?
Put it this way: what will adding extra RAM help, and what will a more powerful processor help? Because I could upgrade the processor...
<strong>Thank you!
But then, if the processor is only 233, surely I can't improve it that much by adding RAM?</strong><hr></blockquote>
your cpu is faster than data is stored.
-if it is stored in fast ram -> your system will be faster
-if it is stored on a slow harddrive -> your system will be slow
and harddrives are much slower!
[quote]<strong>Put it this way: what will adding extra RAM help, and what will a more powerful processor help? Because I could upgrade the processor...</strong><hr></blockquote>
first upgrade ram to 512 mb- then upgrade cpu (or get a new mac)
<strong>[I]f the processor is only 233, surely I can't improve it that much by adding RAM?
Put it this way: what will adding extra RAM help, and what will a more powerful processor help? Because I could upgrade the processor...</strong><hr></blockquote>
Your computer is made up of basically three different kinds of components:
1. Things that manipulate data -- CPUs, graphics card processors;
2. Things that store data -- RAM, hard drives, CD-ROMS; and
3. Things that transmit data -- the system bus, processor datapaths, network cards, modems.
System performance tuning is a matter of figuring out where your bottleneck is, and then ameliorating it to the best of your ability.
In this case, you *could* replace the processor, but your system bus (the system bus is the circuits on the motherboard that allow the processor, RAM, hard drives and other peripherals to communication with each other) is slow enough that you probably wouldn't see much of a gain out of it in interactive tasks (though the larger on-chip cache will help).
Applications that spend a lot of time tagging the CPU will of course be positively affected -- you'll crunch a lot more data for SETI@Home, or calculate Juliet sets a lot faster -- but your problems, I fear, go deeper than the processor alone.
Your video card is another bottleneck; as far as I know, there is not, nor will there be, Quartz acceleration for the Rage IIc card that the Rev A iMacs came with. This is going to seriously impair your performance under MOSX.
MOSX *is* a memory hog, and the more RAM it has, the less it will have to page in and out to the (much slower) hard drive, and thus the less time your apps will have to spend waiting for the OS to service memory requests. You would probably derive the most benefit for the price by purchasing more RAM for the system.
If you're really considering purchasing a replacement processor, then the $280 price tag on the iForce G4 isn't too bad. But you should look down the road: you'll have to give up the Rev A at some point, and with prices of recent Macs down below $1,000, it just may not make sense to sink $300 in a system that's destined for the closet in another year or so at most.
I would like to point out that I'm not a total dunce--I just have a particular blind spot for this bit of understanding!
Well, it looks like it'd be worth getting another 256MB RAM, just to keep my iMac going that little bit longer. It's not my main computer, but it's still got a few months left in it, I reckon!
Cheers!
but I can't check till I get to a mac.
page-ins mean that a piece of memory that has been sent out to the hard disk is needed. This is slow, but a normal part of running Unix.
page-outs mean that a piece of memory is being put out to disk. If this is being done to make room for one coming in then you need a write and a read before you can access the memory.
If you get many of these then your machine will be slow as a dog and it's time to upgrade.
some good info on vm in os x <a href="http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20010613140025184"; target="_blank">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20010613140025184</a>;
[ 10-18-2002: Message edited by: stupider...likeafox ]</p>