How Much Memory Do I Need in My Mac^® Computer?

If your Mac computer is getting a little older, you might notice that it doesn’t run as fast as it used to.  A memory upgrade from Crucial.com can give your Mac system the boost it needs – for surprisingly little money.

Computer memory is your system’s short-term data storage. It stores everything your system is actively using at any given point. The more demand the program has on the system the more memory you will need. If you use photo editing, music production, or design applications we are sure you know what we are talking about. If you have insufficient memory you will run into programs crashing and subpar performance. This can be extremely frustrating if you use your computer to complete tasks in any creative application and can really slow down how much you can complete in these applications.  

For example, by simply opening Abobe® Lightroom® or Adobe® Photoshop® your system uses about 1GB of RAM per program. After you open a file or start scrolling through pictures in the program, your system is using about 4GB of RAM. When you combine this with the operating system, which usually uses 2GB, you can see that the amount of RAM used in your system really adds up quickly. We recommend at least 16GB to 64GB of RAM to avoid slow down if you are running the latest Adobe® Creative Cloud® applications. In most cases the more RAM the better.   We have a handy guide here that helps detail the memory requirement of many of these applications and different operating systems.

After learning more about the memory requirements of these programs you may be wondering if your computer needs more memory? If you are running into any sluggishness or are planning on using these creative programs and have less than 16GB currently, then the answer is, “More than likely.”

At Crucial® we make cost effective solutions for upgrading your system so it can easily handle the demand of these memory hungry applications. RAM is one of the least expensive and easiest components to upgrade. It is also one of the best ways to improve the user experience on your computer and extend your systiem's life.  Just use our the Crucial® Advisor™ tool or System Scanner tool to find upgrades that are guaranteed to be compatible with your system.