iMac Memory Upgrade

unknowndomain

unknowndomain

unknowndomain

Soldato
Joined
18 Apr 2004
Posts
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Location
London
Hey all just need an opinion...

This is my system...

iMac 17" 1.83ghz Core Duo
1GB (2x512) DDR2 5300

However when I run photoshop cs2 especially but also cs3 with several large images, or if I run 3DS Max via Widows XP via Parallels. I find the system spinning (ball) and being very unresponsive now I cant upgrade any thing else in the system so is it likly that upgrading the ram to 2GB will improve this?

Also will this ram be suitable, does any one have any comments with similar imac setup...

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit

I bought the GeIL 1GB 2x512 value DDR for my old PC and it was really good 1.5GB was blazing fast but that was on a 2.8ghz p4 ht and im on a 1.83ghz core duo so its not really compairable.
 
3DS Max is going to be terribly slow in Parallels because Parallels doesn't support hardware rendering. Have you tried running it natively in Windows on the machine?
 
I find the same on my 20" iMac. I tend to close most other apps when running PS. 2GB upgrade is on my list to buy once I have some spare cash
 
AdWright said:
I find the same on my 20" iMac. I tend to close most other apps when running PS. 2GB upgrade is on my list to buy once I have some spare cash
Click to expand...


I need both because I'm using photoshop to edit textures so I cant go closing parallels each time.
 
Have you looked at the Task Manager in Windows when you have both open in Paralells, might give you an indication of whether it's a RAM issue or just a raw CPU problem?

On my MB when I upgraded from 1GB to 2GB paralells certainly got a lot quicker, but I run maths apps as apposed to graphics stuff though.

Cheers

David
 
unknowndomain said:
Also will this ram be suitable, does any one have any comments with similar imac setup...

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
Click to expand...


Pretty sure the iMacs use the smaller SO-DIMMs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SO-DIMM) - you best check, it says in the manual.


edit:

from the manual:

Your iMac comes with at least 1 GB of Double Data Rate 2 (DDR2) Synchronous
Dynamic Random Access (SDRAM) memory installed. You can add 1 or 2 gigabyte (GB)
memory modules for a maximum of 3 GB of memory. Memory modules must meet the
following specifications:
 Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module (SO-DIMM) format
 667 MHz, PC2-5300, DDR2 compliant (also referred to as DDR2 667)
 Unbuffered and unregistered
Click to expand...
 
Achtung!

I got a Crucial 1GB memory upgrade for my iMac 20" core duo and all works well except when waking the computer from sleep it crashes. This goes if I remove the RAM and is also mentioned on the Apple support forums.

If you get non Apple RAM then this is a potential risk I suppose. There is a big price difference between Apple and Crucial though.
 
My housemate's used Kingston RAM on both his Macs (iMac and PowerBook) and it works perfectly. Seems to be the best stuff for them.
 
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