Feeding the beast

shiner

Lifer
Jul 18, 2000
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My wife has a new Macbook with Leopard on it and it just seems sluggish. Currently has 1gb in it and I'm looking to upgrade it. 2gb enough for a smoother response or am I going to need to push it to 4?

I'm also wondering if I should wait until after the massive Leopard update that is coming to see if that helps.
 

randomlinh

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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linh.wordpress.com
I always found 1GB to be the minimum for OSX, at least, for my tastes. 2GB was great for me, and leopard was no slower than tiger for me at that spot. I have since maxed out to 3GB (damn you limitations!) on my iMac, but that was mainly for Aperture.
 

SoundTheSurrender

Diamond Member
Mar 13, 2005
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I have a Macbook with 2 gigs of ram. It runs great but I'm also using a 7200 RPM drive in my Macbook. I plan on getting 4 gigs of ram to utlize dual channel since 3.3 gigs is the max mine can take.
 

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
Moderator
Sep 15, 2004
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My MacBook runs like a champ with 1GB of RAM in it.
 

Parasitic

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2002
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Originally posted by: SoundTheSurrender
I have a Macbook with 2 gigs of ram. It runs great but I'm also using a 7200 RPM drive in my Macbook. I plan on getting 4 gigs of ram to utlize dual channel since 3.3 gigs is the max mine can take.

Is dual channel active and beneficial in the Macbook?
I'm running 2.5GB of memory (2GB stick + 512MB stick).
 

randomlinh

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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Originally posted by: SoundTheSurrender
I have a Macbook with 2 gigs of ram. It runs great but I'm also using a 7200 RPM drive in my Macbook. I plan on getting 4 gigs of ram to utlize dual channel since 3.3 gigs is the max mine can take.

ah yes... the 7200rpm drive. that should make a nice difference too. I remember an iBook I had... that was painful.
 

Goosemaster

Lifer
Apr 10, 2001
48,775
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Originally posted by: randomlinh
Originally posted by: SoundTheSurrender
I have a Macbook with 2 gigs of ram. It runs great but I'm also using a 7200 RPM drive in my Macbook. I plan on getting 4 gigs of ram to utlize dual channel since 3.3 gigs is the max mine can take.

ah yes... the 7200rpm drive. that should make a nice difference too. I remember an iBook I had... that was painful.

<--using an external 7200rpm drive via firewire on his mac mini and i feels fantastic:D
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
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2gb minimum for real Leopard, 3gb if you use a VM (XP or whatever), 4gb if you never want to upgrade again (and have a Santa-Rosa MacBook). The 7200rpm drives makes a difference too - faster boot and faster program launches.

200gb 7200rpm Hitachi + 4gb Ram on Santa Rosa MacBook = awesome :D
 

Parasitic

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2002
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Originally posted by: SoundTheSurrender
I would think so. Dual channel is always beneficial. Especially if you have the Intel GMA video card.

I booted into Windows XP and didn't see much difference in games (at least the ones I play)...maybe I'll hold off on that second stick of 2GB for now.
 

secretanchitman

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2001
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i have 2GB and it runs fine although i go up to 1.6-1.7GB in leopard because safari is a ram hog, as well as aperture....just ordered 2x2GB ddr2-800 for my macbook pro though. cant wait!
 

texascrazy88s

Senior member
Dec 29, 2007
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i had same problem, i ran like a champ in 10.4, moved to leopard and thought my ram was faulty, it got real sluggish, and a laggy pos it became.
I took it to apple store, they replaced ram, but still slow as hell. finally, i upgraded to 1 module 2gb, now it runs far better, but still a little laggy.
i'm told it has to do with an update we are still waiting for.