imac Do i need more RAM for larger Photoshop images? (iMac 27 Late 2012 entry lvl)

[David Os]

1 hour ago, ch3w2oy said:

I work with files that are in the Gigabyte range with 16gb just fine.. I couldn't do a 50GB with 16GB as I've tried it for shits and giggles and took quite a few minutes trying to open it.. 

Thanks for responding guys. ch3w2oy, i see your rig is listed below your comment, and i see you're using a Ryzen System, nice setup BTW, i couldn'd afford a Titanium Seasonic myself and just bought the Platinum one.

I just read an article from a Photographer talking about recommending at least 32 gb RAM grouped in 2 sticks of 16 gbs ram (as most of the MoBo's for mainstream sockets as AM4 and LGA1151 available cap at 64 RAM support, it makes sense to group sticks that way).

So i bought 2x8gb Ram sticks at 3200 Mhz, is there a problam purchasing another 2 sticks of the same RAm and upgrading to 32Gb? I know those sockets just support dual channul memory and if one uses the 4 slots it lowers the clock speed of the sticks. Did i made a bad decision?

[ch3w2oy]

11 minutes ago, David Os said:

Thanks for responding guys. ch3w2oy, i see your rig is listed below your comment, and i see you're using a Ryzen System, nice setup BTW, i couldn'd afford a Titanium Seasonic myself and just bought the Platinum one.

I just read an article from a Photographer talking about recommending at least 32 gb RAM grouped in 2 sticks of 16 gbs ram (as most of the MoBo's for mainstream sockets as AM4 and LGA1151 available cap at 64 RAM support, it makes sense to group sticks that way).

So i bought 2x8gb Ram sticks at 3200 Mhz, is there a problam purchasing another 2 sticks of the same RAm and upgrading to 32Gb? I know those sockets just support dual channul memory and if one uses the 4 slots it lowers the clock speed of the sticks. Did i made a bad decision?

4x8gb is perfectly fine as long as you have a decent motherboard. 2x16gb would be recommended by most if you were building a new computer and were looking to buy RAM and didn't already have any.. 2x16gb just offers a tiny bit better performance (not enough to justify buying all new).. If you already have 2x8 then the sensible thing to do is just grab another 2x8gb.. Long as they run at their XMP speed I think it will be fine.. That's what I would do anyway.. And now that I think about it maybe the files weren't that big lol. Definitely over 100mb, though, as I use hundreds of layers for building out my websites in the design process.. I'm pretty sure some were in the GB range but I don't really pay attention lol. Now I'm going to check when I home because I need to know haha. 

[David Os]

So guys, i just upgraded my iMac RAM in the following way: 2 (pre-installed) Elpida DIMM's 4gb + 2 (new) Crucial 8gb DIMM's for a total of 24 Gb with all the compatibility specs i could find (Haven't done any benchmarks) [First Image Below]. And its working like a charm, i can now have 5 plus apps opened including LR and PS and switch between them (which is what i wanted) memory pressure in activity monitor is on the floor compared to old 8 gb being always to high with just Lightroom and Photoshop opened, i see workload in PS is not stealing so much from de Hard Drive, files take the same time to save but that's because this is the same ol' 7200RPM HDD but ill be fine with that. Closing multiple programs now is too much faster and that was the most annoying thing happening to me before upgrading.

I assigned 45% of memory to Photoshop, increased Cache levels to 8 and history states to 75 as i do a lot of brushing to my retouching, no problemo working with the 46 mp files even at 4.5 gb file size (with a couple of layers tho)

Now, why the system is not giving me problems if the new kit of RAM Memory is so different from the preinstalled one, considering this as a 6+ years old machine? i thought there would be a problem, is it becasue OSX (El Crapitan) is optimizing in some way? Is it because it's DDR3 and such low Frecuency dont stress the Processor with such slot population? Is it because it's Intel platform?

 

I bought 16Gb kit (2x8) CAS18 3200Mhz (idk single or dual rank tho9 [Details in the second image below] for my new (under construction) PC Rig and it will be a Ryzen Third generation system (But lets assume i buy a Motherboard for 2nd gen Ryzen (lets say Asus Crosshair VII Hero X470 - one of the best in its category, and lets say i buy a R7 2700x just for the sake of realism as Ryzen 3000 isn't launched yet)... Do you think there'll be a problem if i jut buy the same kit of 2x8 as before, populate the 4 slots of RAM and works just as fine as this? i am totally aware i'm working Dual-Channel here.

Thanks, @ch3w2oy, @Bearmann, @badreg, @Origami Cactus, @Brink2Three, @GrockleTD

[Origami Cactus]

10 minutes ago, David Os said:

 Do you think there'll be a problem if i jut buy the same kit of 2x8 as before, populate the 4 slots of RAM and works just as fine as this? i am totally aware i'm working Dual-Channel here.

There shouldn't be. As long as timings and speed are the same it will work fine.

[Bearmann]

I think I am confused. You’re going to have a set of 2x8gb and buy an identical set of 2x8gb for 32gb total?

[David Os]

4 hours ago, Bearmann said:

I think I am confused. You’re going to have a set of 2x8gb and buy an identical set of 2x8gb for 32gb total?

I already have a 2x8 kit and im gonna need another 2x8 so i can have 32gb, at the time i bought i didn't know about all the compatibility issues with even slightly different DIMM's

[Bearmann]

3 minutes ago, David Os said:

I already have a 2x8 kit and im gonna need another 2x8 so i can have 32gb, at the time i bought i didn't know about all the compatibility issues with even slightly different DIMM's

For an identical set you have a very good chance of getting them to work together, but not 100% certainty.