2 GB should be enough for anyone
October 9, 2009 at 2:06 PM by Dr. Drang
…but 3 GB is even better.
A couple of weeks ago I was looking at a set of C-sized (18″ × 24″) architectural drawings, scanned into TIFF files at 300 pixels/inch. The files didn’t take up much disk space because the big white areas on the drawings made them very compressible, but Preview needed a lot of RAM to display them. And as I opened more and more drawings to track down some details, my Mac got slower and slower as it had to keep swapping to disk and back. The SPOD and I spent a lot of time together, and it wasn’t quality time.
It was then that I realized that 2 GB of memory isn’t so much anymore. Apple says my iMac is limited to 3 GB (although there are indications that you can squeeze in a bit more), so I ordered a new 2 GB stick. It arrived this morning, and I replaced one of the 1 GB SODIMMs with it. Apple’s instructions are very clear, and it took only a 10-15 minutes, much of which was spent making sure the cables didn’t slip down behind my desk as I detached them from the back of the Mac.
As is always the case when adding memory, the machine feels so much faster now. More legroom, too.
