Skip to main content

⚠️ Please note that this topic or post has been archived. The information contained here may no longer be accurate or up-to-date. ⚠️

How much RAM

Jill Kuchar

I'm thinking of upgrading to the iMac 27", Intel not M1.

It can take up to 128 MB RAM. How much is too much? Will 64MB suffice for heavy lifting with C1? Or should I go all the way? There is not a small price difference. I currently have 32 MB and my machine is sluggish, though I realise there are other factors involved in that.

Thanks

 

0

Comments

6 comments

Date Votes
  • Permanently deleted user

    I have 1 machine with 32 GB and 2 machines with 64 GB of RAM, and none of them come anywhere near using all of it for Capture One. OTOH, if you're doing heavy lifting with Photoshop, processing astro photo stacks, simultaneously running background video processing, etc., then more RAM "may" be useful.

    That said, if the extra cost of the extra RAM doesn't stress you, more RAM can't hurt and you eliminate the possibility of wanting to add more later.

    0
  • HeKoVS

    My tests have shown that from 16 GB to 128 GB RAM there is no additional speed increase with the CO21. The bottleneck is the CPU + GPU (clock) and mainly the outdated implementation of OpenCL. As long as they do not implement "Metal", we will be sitting in front of a spinning hamster wheel during actions. Graphics-heavy apps (stitching, panoramas, etc.) benefit from RAM> 64 GB.

    1
  • Jill Kuchar

    Thanks Abbott and Helmut for that information. I can get 64 MB of non Apple memory from an authorised supplier here which will save a few hundred dollars but they are unable to supply 128 except using Apple.

    I'm certainly suffering now from "spinning hamster wheel during actions". Could also be I'm on a quite full disk — 93%.

    On the issue of CPU, Apple has an option of i7 3.8 GHz or i9 3.6 GHz processors. From what I have read the i7 may be a better choice.

    I just noticed my current machine is running i7 4,2 GHz. Strange that they have gone down in speed?

    0
  • Jill Kuchar

    Given that it is not clear when Apple will drop the Intel processors, though for now the M1 doesn't seem to be ready for replacing by the high end intels, another option for me may be to upgrade my current machine, which is not that old — config below — with an 8 Tera disk and perhaps more memory. I'm not sure how much computer extra power I'll get from the new intel chip anyway? Perhaps increase RAM?

     

     

     

     

    0
  • Permanently deleted user

    I looked it up and it appears that your machine's i7 has only 4 cores (total of 8 including virtual cores). The i9's have more cores, and I found that the greater the number of physical cores, the lower the clock speed of each core (but of course a much higher aggregate speed). More cores mean faster processing for operations that are properly coded to take advantage of the cores. So IF you decide to buy a new machine, I'd go 3.6 GHz i9, which looks like the sweet spot from the performance numbers I'm finding; the faster i9's going to cost a premium and not deliver much better performance. The i9's also have quite a bit more built-in cache, which also helps speed things up.

    Also, the newer graphics card will greatly speed operations that use the GPU. Not all C1 processes use the GPU, but other apps (Affinity Photo, Safari 14, video editing, etc.) also use the GPU, so it can't hurt.

    Then there's storage. If your "Macintosh" HD is a Fusion drive, the new machine's SSD will help a bit, depending on which part of the drive (SSD or HDD) macOS decided to store the C1 Catalog (I assume it will store the original images on the HDD after a while).

    So bottom line: the new machine should greatly improve the performance you see.

    If you decide to upgrade, the first thing I'd suggest is using an external SSD instead of the internal Fusion drive. Reason: All of the SSD is, well, an SSD, whereas the Fusion drive has a relatively small SSD it uses as a cache, and a large slow HDD it uses for general storage. Also, when (not if) the HDD fails, the entire Fusion drive is dead and an external SSD "should" be more reliable than Fusion, as well as faster. Go for an external SSD that has native USB 3.1 or 3.2 connectivity and use an adapter cable to connect it to your iMac. That way you'll be able to move the drive to your next computer.

    Given the state of Apple's current offerings and the relative newness of your iMac, I'd be inclined to keep the old one going for at least another year until Apple finishes fleshing out their M1 line. If you believe Tim Cook, macOS will continue native Intel support for "at least a couple of years" after Apple discontinues their Intel Macs, and I've already seen rumors about a new Intel Mac Pro coming out next year. If that's true, then any Intel Mac you buy today "should" be able to run current OSes for at least 3 more years (maybe 4), and get security updates for the last OS for two years more. If that's long enough for you, then go for an Intel iMac now, otherwise see how a nice external SSD does for your boot. I've read a number of reports that look pretty promising.

    0
  • Jill Kuchar

    Thanks Abbott. I was starting to lean towards upgrading. I think the fusion drive didn't live up what it was made out to be.

    Also given a new intel iMac in the next few months seems to point to the upgrade path.

    I'll get some prices for upgrading and then make a decision.

    Thanks again.

     

    0

Post is closed for comments.