Random Access Memory is a temporary storage medium that your Mac’s CPU uses for fast access to data it’s processing. Macworld Lab is currently working on tests that will allow us to take a similar look at how other components-storage, graphics, and CPU-affect performance.) (This article focuses exclusively on the impact of RAM on system performance, but of course RAM isn’t the only component that affects performance. In some situations your Mac may benefit from having as much RAM as you can afford in others, you’ll be fine with the stock configuration.īut before we dive into the results, let’s take a brief look at what RAM is and why it’s important to your Mac. Our conclusion: The impact of more RAM depends on the types of tasks your Mac performs. The crucial question is, How much more RAM do you actually need? Macworld Lab ran benchmarks on a couple of Macs at different RAM configurations and analyzed the results. If this happens to your Mac more than you’d like, though, your system might need more RAM.Īdding more RAM to your Mac-if you can add more RAM-is one of the eaiest ways to improve your Mac’s performance. It happens to every Mac (and every other kind of PC): The system slows down when it’s doing lot of things at once.
