As you see in the above screenshot, Activity Monitor shows you all of your processes, sub-processes, and how much memory each is taking up. The most pertinent portion of the window is the bottom, where it shows you the total memory usage, and how it's affecting your Mac. A better way to monitor your Mac's memory use is with iStat Menus. Upgrades up to 128GB.
Here's how to check how much RAM your Mac has. First, click the 'Apple' menu in the upper-left corner of your screen and select 'About This Mac.' In the window that pops up, click the 'Memory' tab to get a detailed look at the RAM in your Mac. Method 01: Using Activity Monitor Click on the Finder app from your Mac's home screen. Then, click on Applications from the right side. Now, click on the Utility folder. After that, double click on the Activity Monitor icon. Finally, click on the Memory tab to check RAM usage on Mac.
How to reduce size of image in mac. The stickiest question for a potential MacBook Air buyer https://coolgfile741.weebly.com/apple-os-versions-compatibility.html. — especially for those switching from PCs to Macs — is if 4GB of memory and 128GB of storage will be enough for a new MacBook Air.
It's a tough question, but the memory and the storage are really separate issues. So let's talk 4GB of memory first.
https://truedfile897.weebly.com/permute-3-4-4-0.html. 4GB of memory is plenty if you're a basic computing user.
If you plan to mess around with iPhoto and play around making some small movie clips with iMovie, 4GB will work just fine.
If you plan to have several browser windows open while working on a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation — or while messing with a spreadsheet or writing a term paper in college — 4GB of memory will work well for you. Apple's ability to juggle data in and out of memory — even when you're multitasking — is very good these days. Ithoughtsx 5 18.
If you just want to browse the web, play some basic games, email, and do standard work with common apps, you're good-to-go with 4GB of memory. 1blocker 1 4 7 download free.
If you just want to browse the web, play some basic games, email, and do standard work with common apps, you're good-to-go with 4GB of memory. 1blocker 1 4 7 download free.
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So when is 4GB of memory not enough?
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When you get serious about editing video clips or making movies. Sure, you can still do that on 4GB of memory with solid apps like iMovie, but if you're getting into a more professional effort, the investment in extra memory (which used to be called RAM), is probably worth it. If you want to get to 8GB of memory, you have to order directly from Apple online with a custom order to get the upgrade to 8GB on a MacBook Air . . . or, you can make the leap into a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display that comes standard with 8GB of memory. Essentially, you're looking at a much more powerful MacBook Pro with a better screen and more memory for $300 more than the base-level 13-inch MacBook Air. If you consider the $100 extra it costs to upgrade into 8GB on the MacBook Air, the difference becomes $200.
Mac How Much Memory
The difference in weight between a 13-inch MacBook Air and a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display is only a half of a pound — 2.96 pounds vs 3.46 pounds. Both are light.
Also, if you plan to edit large photo files and/or do serious work for long periods of time on your MacBook Air, a move to 8GB might be smart.
Is 128GB Enough Storage?
Mac How Much Memory Available
Ah, the really tough question about the MacBook Air is storage capacity. While third-party storage manufacturers have come up with some new solutions to upgrade storage in older MacBook Airs, the newest MacBook Airs don't yet have options — even if you're willing to crack your case and void your warranty. While there is a reasonable chance that someone will come up with a solution in a year or two, it's not a given.
One solution is essentially jamming a tiny SDXC card (like those from cameras) into the SDXC port on a 13-inch MacBook Air to give you an on-board (yet functionally) external drive for extra space. This works pretty well, but you have to pay attention to where you store your files and libraries of photos or iTunes media. Something to keep in mind — you can read more in 'How to Easily Add Storage to a MacBook Air.'
So is 128GB enough? If you're just using office-oriented apps and documents, as well as emailing and using the web, 128GB is plenty of storage space. Once you get into a lot of media files, though — music, movies, TV shows, video clips, and photos — you need to think hard. If you're streaming most of your movies or TV shows, great — there's no storage space you need to worry about for that. If you buy TV shows from Apple, you just need enough space to store them until you watch them, then you can safely delete them (and re-download them if you want to watch them again).
But once you start editing your own slo-motion videos, for example, with your shiny new iPhone 6, you'll start to eat up storage space if you're not paying attention. And if you're into photography and like to keep your photos in a library — like iPhoto — you can easily start eating up storage space. For example, personally, I can add 2 GB of photos to my hard drive just by having a fun weekend adventure — without even trying. Add more people and more interesting things to photograph, and boom, I'm burning through 128GB of storage within a few months.
Mac Memory
That said, you can always store your photos on an external drive for a Mac, but it's not as tidy as story them on your MacBook drive itself. You can do most anything with a MacBook Air and 128GB of storage if you're willing to spend time managing how and where to store your large media files . . . but I don't think most people really want to think about this all that much. So I tend to encourage splurging on a larger amount of storage up front when potential buyers know they're going to mess around with a lot of photos and potentially video.
If not, don't worry about 128GB. If you end up totally getting into wildlife photography or making silly cat videos and need more space, great! You just expanded who you are as a person, and now you know what's important to you. Seriously, it is this easy. Most people obsess and overthink these decisions.
Check out MacBooks from Amazon:
11-inch MacBook Air with 4GB/128GB
13-inch MacBook Air with 4GB/128GB
13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display with 8GB/128GB
13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display with 8GB/256GB
The simplest answer to the question: how much RAM do I need for my Mac is ‘as much as possible.' You can never have too much RAM, whereas having too little can seriously affect the performance of your Mac. Sadly, however, it's not quite as simple as that. Adding extra RAM, whether you do it when you buy your new Mac or you add it later, costs money, quite a lot of money. So the question of how much RAM to put in a new Mac is comes down to the balance between affordability and the additional benefit you'll get from more RAM.
Why upgrade Mac RAM?
It used to be the case that adding more RAM would improve the performance of your Mac in almost every task. But computers have moved on since then. Better memory management, faster storage for caching files that can't be stored in RAM, and blazing fast graphics processing units (GPUs) with their own dedicated RAM mean that the load on your main Mac RAM is less than it used to be.
Much of the work in generating frames for games, for example, is done by the GPU and its RAM. However, if you work with large images (bigger than, say, 100MB) or with huge databases or monster-sized spreadsheets, more RAM will be a huge benefit.
How to check your Mac's RAM usage
The quickest way to identify whether you need more memory is to check your Mac's RAM usage.
One way to do that is to use the Manu App in CleanMyMac X. This feature will show you immediately how much free RAM you have and allows you to free up memory at the click of a button. It's the easiest way to monitor and free up RAM. So, download the app (for free) and monitor your memory usage.
Alternatively, you can check the RAM usage manually:
- Go to your Applications folder.
- Open the Utilities folder and launch Activity Monitor.
- Click the Memory tab at the top and look at the Memory Pressure graph at the bottom of the screen.
- To the right of the graph, you'll see a table. In that table, Physical Memory is the amount of RAM installed on your Mac.
Keep that window open while you work and check it now and again. If the graph stays green, there's nothing to worry about and you don't need more memory. If it's green and yellow, there's some pressure on your Mac's RAM but it's ok. If the graph is mostly red, however, it's under serious pressure and your Mac's startup drive is being used to store data that should be in RAM. This will slow down your Mac.
Just because the graph is in the red doesn't mean you need to rush out and buy more RAM (assuming you have a Mac that can be upgraded), however. Closing browser tabs you're not using will help, too. And you can free up memory by closing applications you're not using or by logging out of accounts that aren't in use, if you're signed into more than one account.
To find out which apps, processes and browser tabs are using up the most RAM, click the down arrow at the top of the Memory column in Activity Monitor. That will order processes by how much RAM they're using, allowing you to easily see who the culprits are. If you see any apps or web pages that are using lots of RAM and you don't need, close them.
There are also third-party utilities that can report memory usage and ‘clean' RAM when you close applications, so that the memory is freed up for use by other applications.
How can I upgrade Mac RAM?
Some Macs can be upgraded and some can't. If you've bought a MacBook, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air in the last five years or so, you won't be able to upgrade the memory in it. If you have an iMac, you may be able to perform a Mac RAM upgrade, depending on when it was made and whether it has free slots. You can find a complete list of which iMacs can be upgraded here.
The iMac Pro's memory can only be upgraded by Apple or an Authorised Service Provider. Both the Mac Pro and Mac mini can be upgraded.
How much RAM do I actually need?
So, after all that: how much RAM should you have fitted in a new Mac? For most users, 8GB is fine. You'll be able to quite comfortably work on documents, edit photos and video and surf the web without any problems.
If you work on very large image files, databases, or spreadsheets, or if you really need to have lots of applications open at the same time, you might consider upgrading to 16GB. But you'd need to weigh the cost of the extra RAM against the benefit you'd notice.
What else can I do to improve my Mac's performance?
The one and only reason for adding more RAM is to make your Mac run faster and more smoothly. However, there are other ways you can do this. Swapping a hard drive for an SSD, for example, won't just boost startup times, but because macOS uses the startup drive to cache files, it will improve performance too.
Also, freeing up space on your startup drive will help, particularly getting rid of files you don't need and that clog up your system. The best way to do that is to use a tool like CleanMyMac X. CleanMyMac scans your Mac for files it thinks you no longer need. These include system junk, Photos files that can be safely removed, and Mail attachments that can be re-downloaded if you ever need them again, and much more. By the way, the app is free to download, so give it a try!
How Much Is A New Mac Desktop
As you can see, deciding how much RAM you need for your Mac isn't straightforward. There are lots of things to consider. However, adding more RAM isn't the guaranteed performance boost it used to be. For most people, the base 8GB that ships with current Macs is enough. If you do think your Mac could do with a performance boost, try the techniques described above before you rush out and buy more RAM.
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