PA: RAM for G5
I need to purchase more memory for my G5 at home because I find myself working from home an awful lot more these days.
512MB just isn't cutting it. I'm working on a 156pp document and I'm placing several hi res images on each page. The document is split in to sections, but the screen redraw is still very slow as is switching between applications. I usually have Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign open, as well as various other aux. apps like Mail and iTunes.
I'm guessing that adding more RAM will make the switching back and forth between the applications a lot faster - but I'm not sure if it'll speed up the screen redraw any.
I was thinking of purcasing 2GB of RAM, but I was wondering if there was any point in stretching to 4GB? Will I see any appreciable difference between 2GB and 4GB or is it just overkill?
512MB just isn't cutting it. I'm working on a 156pp document and I'm placing several hi res images on each page. The document is split in to sections, but the screen redraw is still very slow as is switching between applications. I usually have Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign open, as well as various other aux. apps like Mail and iTunes.
I'm guessing that adding more RAM will make the switching back and forth between the applications a lot faster - but I'm not sure if it'll speed up the screen redraw any.
I was thinking of purcasing 2GB of RAM, but I was wondering if there was any point in stretching to 4GB? Will I see any appreciable difference between 2GB and 4GB or is it just overkill?
Comments
If you purchase 2 GB of ram, you will have 2,5 GB of ram. 4,5 GB of Ram will not bring something more, than an hole in your wallet.
The original poster did say they're working with a 156 page document. Each page holds multiple hi-res images. If this file is >2GB and they want to be able to work on this file along with having multiple other programs (especially RAM hungry apps like Photoshop, Illustrator & InDesign) then more RAM would definitely be necessary.
To the original poster, you are probably seeing slow downs in screen redraws because OS X is busy paging to and from disk because you don't have enough RAM. You should load everything you want to work on at the same time, then run some kind of memory analyzer program (like top) to see how much real + virtual RAM is in use. Then decide if you want to buy that much RAM.
I personally have 2GB in my 20" iMac and I find this amount indispensable when I am working on multiple (20+) RAW images at the same time.