Were you surprised by how little of a difference there was between 32GB and 64GB of RAM? Comment your thoughts below! Buy our Apple Product Shirts / Mask ➡ teespring.com/stores/max-tech-store Subscribe for more videos! Save $$$ on RAM from Amazon ⬇️ 16GB RAM Kit for 2020 5K iMac ➡ geni.us/81u2k 32GB RAM Kit for 2020 5K iMac ➡ geni.us/bARAzRa 64GB Ram Kit for 2020 5K iMac (order 2x) ➡ geni.us/vqZh 128GB Ram Kit for 2020 5K iMac (order 4x) ➡ geni.us/vqZh 2020 5K iMac ➡ geni.us/tYwFgR Xcode Benchmark built for Max Tech by Maxim Eremenko ➡ github.com/devMEremenko/XcodeBenchmark
Honestly not surprised. I was pretty shocked when you guys did a survey last week and around 25% of people said they were getting 128GB RAM. That is way overkill for the things 99% of people do on an iMac.
Excellent comparison! Does the amazon RAM have the same performance as apple RAM, so what about if you compare 16GB Amazon RAM to 16GB apple RAM do you think you get the same results? What is the write and read speed for amazon and apple’s RAM? Thanks
I work primarily in the Adobe Suite and have multiple programs open at once. I think your testing left out a primary segment of users...graphic design professionals. I can say unequivocally that having as much RAM as possible is an absolute must when working in Photoshop, eliminating any need to go to the scratch disks when working in very large files with many layers. My unflattened files files frequently go into the double digit GB realm, often with multiple files open. Or opening architectural autocad files in Illustrator with over a million points/nodes.
Thank you for including music production in your videos. As someone that works in that industry, its hard finding the right information of configurations sometimes.
@@petervansan1054 It will definitely have more cores. The ARM Macbook 12" is predicted to have 12 cores (8 high performance and 4 high efficiency), and that's the base spec. If a very low end (by Apple's standards) machine that costs a predicted $800, imagine what an iMac costing potentially thousands of dollars could achieve. And it's already proven that ARM based CPU's are much more efficient than x86. Almost every smartphone in the industry uses ARM, because it is much, much more efficient than x86. Yeah, maybe it might suck for a while because of backwards compatibility, but I don't think that'll be a problem because the Developer Transition Kit (A12Z SoC) can perfectly run pre-existing apps with the help of Rosetta 2. Plus, developers will probably remake their apps for ARM well within the two years transition period. Also, with Apple Silicon, people will be able to run iOS and iPadOS natively on MacOS. As for the price, reports have already stated that apple is dropping prices, with the Macbook Pro 13" starting at $200 dollars cheaper. I was never really fond of Macs, but I really think Apple Silicon will be a huge jump for Apple.
this is the one i got yesterday and i have 32gb more coming from owc . my 2011 iMac really ran ok but got pretty warm, i stayed up just about all night playing with my new one and i couldn't feel any heat at all. i am very satisfied just hope it last at least half what my old one did. i am 75 so it might outlast me.💚🍏 ps thanks for the ram advice i was going to put the ram in the empty slots now i know what to do.
Thanks to Maxim for making the Xcode Benchmark. Compile time isn't the only side to this though; XCTest is the majority of my wait when I code - Not really sure how you'd make a balanced test though since the speed of XCTest is so very dependant on the way you write the code. Though arguably that's also the case for the compile benchmark in a way. In any case, cool project, and reading the pods he used led me to find R.swift which is bloody awesome! Strongly typed resources is so wonderful
Max Tech Good with the Xcode tests :) If you’re interested, I’ve written some C programs for a course called Computer Architecture and Operating Systems, that benchmarks thread scaling; i.e. how much faster is it to run a program on 2 versus 1 threads, or 3, 4, 5, 6 whatever. I’ve written a few different ones that use different threading strategies. Program allows you to specify how many threads you want to test with, and on my i7 4770HQ MacBook Pro I saw scaling up to 512 threads, but with a thousand threads it actually got a little slower. I’ve also written a little SpriteKit playground recently that tests drawing and moving circles, and my 2014 15” MacBook Pro could only do around 30FPS while my iPad Pro did 120FPS no sweat. If you’re interested in getting any of this or would like a computer science student’s perspective on anything feel free to contact me: www.the parallel thread.com/about.html Or just: Casperes1996@gmail.com (faster response with email from website, this email is lesser used, but written here to avoid too much spam on primary address)
Thank you! Feel free to email us using the email in the About us section on our youtube channel page. If you'd like, you can send us a test project that's as simply as possible with instructions since we don't really know anything about programming. thank you!
Hi Casper! The main goal of creating XcodeBenchmark is to help viewers to choose the right CPU for Xcode development. Since both the compilation and XCTest primarily depend on CPU to get the job done - it does not matter what actually we are going to do in Xcode. To understand the relative difference between the two processors, we just need to perform the same amount of work the same way. I wonder should I spend extra money on i9 or iMac with i7 performs well enough on large projects.
I admire your channel as no other for some simple reasons, you always get to the point, with actually useful information and not repeating what is said on the box as some other UA-camrs. You’ve earned credibility and I hope your channel keeps this quality.
@@MaxTechOfficial not only that, but your main RAM users in DAWs like Logic are the amount of audio files you have loaded into your session, especially samplers. composers using full orchestral libraries quickly gobble up RAM due to the amount of audio samples that would have to be loaded into RAM. most composers using orchestral samplers like Vienna Ensemble have a 2nd dedicated system just for this, or end up buying a decked out Mac Pro like Neil Parfitt. i actually bought the 64gb OWC upgrade kit for my Mac Mini for this reason. you pretty much have to consider your expected workload when buying these things, lol
Max Tech if you produce music based on samples/loops yeah you need more RAM but if it is more MIDI/VST you need more processing power. Due to space restrictions in my setup i have order Mac mini 2020 i7, 1TB SSD and got 32GB ram on Amazon (Corsair vengeance for 130Euro - was oddly on sale) so let’s see how that goes :)
@@nobrainerneeded4229 64GB is the way to go for production of commercial Pop and EDM songs, but 128GB is even better if you compose trailer music and film score with Kontakt, Omnisphere and Nexus. Also if you use Kontakt, make sure to use Purge function, it will reduce your RAM load 10-20 times.
Having both lower capacity DIMMs on the same channel like 9to5 Mac did is such a bad idea. As a result, you will run in single channel mode once you exceed the capacity of this smaller channel (e.g. if you exceed 16GB and have 8GB in Channel A). The performance hit due to this is much larger than it would be going from 2667 to 2133. In terms of bandwidth, it's the same effect as going down from 2667MT/s to 1333MT/s. Take the 2133 and be happy about it.
Le Jac do you mind explaining this in little more detail? There is so many different articles with different conclusions on this? What happens when you exceed the capacity of smaller channel?
@@omCi Your system accesses both channels simultaneously to achieve its best bandwidth. This bandwidth is a product of frequency and channels following the formula _Transfer Rate x 64bit x 2 Channels_. A 2666MT/s memory setup would achieve up to 42672MB/s (= 2667M x 8B x 2). If you only have one channel accessible, this drops by half, down to 21336MB/s (=2667M x 8B x 1), which is effectively equal to two channels running at half the transfer speed (= 1333M x 8B * 2) If we assume you have 8GB in Channel A and 32GB in ChB, your OS by default can address both channels equally until they're filled up. If you have a workload that requires say 20GB of memory, it can and will evenly divide the first 16GB between both channels (8 in A and 8 in B) and transfers in and out of the memory at full dual channel bandwidth. But the remaining 4GB also have to exist in your memory, the OS has no choice but to throw all of those into CHB. Any data past 16GB therefore only runs on single channel bandwidth. Reduced bandwidth can result in increased waiting time for the processor which ultimately hinders performance. How significant this hindrance is, depends on the task. Any task for which memory bandwidth is already a bottleneck, will suffer. @Skulduggery Pleasant As you can see from the formula I've given above, 2133 in dual channel results in higher bandwidth (34128MB/s) than 2666 in a single channel (21336MB/s). This reduced bandwidth only occurs when you exceed 16GB of memory being in use. How significant the performance hit for your individual workload is, that I don't know.
Thanks for this! I ran Cinebench with 72gb RAM AABB and it was running at 1333. Even though they all say in system preferences they’re running at 2667. When I was doing ABAB preferences read 2133. I’ve removed Apple RAM as I’d rather have 64gb at 2667.
Le Jac wow. Thanks. Good explanation. Considering I have a feeling that many people don’t fully understand this. A lot of places are talking about this trick. Maybe something our Mac tech guys can test. Thank again.
Your music production assessment only using Logic Pro X instruments is deceptive. A working media composer who works with many 3rd party virtual instruments, especially high-end orchestral instruments require 128 GB of ram. These types of samples are streamed from external SSD's into ram. A full orchestra can represent 75 to 110 players with multiple articulations for each instrument. RAM management is key to this work and 128 GB is the sweet spot. Now, the problem for audio production then becomes a thermal one. How loud the fans will get with this continual load is a make or break proposition. Any level above 40 db can evoke the Haas effect which will mask certain frequencies that a composer needs to hear in order program and perform music that will convert to different playback systems faithfully. Thanks for the work you put into this video. It brought to light information that will be a great help to other consumers who are considering these upgrades. Good Job!
That would be a great test, if somehow you can get your hands on a test project or similar to what the XCode one proposed and suggested at the end of the video it would be great if they can do a test in depth with different machines and different configurations. I’m not a pro Logic user but quite curious nevertheless.
This is absolute truth. As a LPX user I couldnt get more than 24 tracks to work with 8 gigs of RAM. The thing to consider wih this huge libraries is that they use ONE audio file (sample) for each one of the 128 different velocity values per musical note on a single articulation mode. Easily you could have like 300 audio files per musical note per instrument all loaded into RAM. Not even counting real time DSPs, etc.
I thought about that. I never have anywhere near that many tracks, but I might have 10 intensive plugins on ten separate tracks and overload my system (16 gigs of RAM) easily. Which is why I’m upgrading to 64 gigs (and a better CPU).
Hi there, I just wanted to share, I too purchased a 2020 iMac (8 Core) - I put the new ram that I ordered separately and saw it clocking in at 2133hz instead of 2667hz. Your call out of that, and how to correct were really helpful - got mine running the right way now. So just saying thanks! Appreciate it!
In terms of music production, it's really the audio tracks and sampler instruments (kontakt, eastwest, etc) that will use RAM. Effects plugins and software synths (serum, diva, alchemy) use your CPU. Just so that's cleared up! If you're a composer (which almost every track will be a sampler instrument), more RAM will be very beneficial
Indeed. Unless you are not using any 3rd party VIs (which never happens in the rear world), memory does matter. For example, my LASS uses way more than a GB just for single violin part. My 16GB Macbook Pro couldn't handle VI intensive session at all, so I switched to Mac Pro with 96GB Memory in it. Sometimes memory usage goes up to 50GB for more complicated production.... I believe at least 32GB is needed if you are seriously considering using a DAW for music production. Sidenote: some DAWs load entire audio files in memory (such as Pro Tools, which recommends 32GB of memory) for better performance. In this case memory performs more important role even you are not using any VIs at all.
@@luxembourger Well I'm not a composer. But I've helped quite a few composers setup their templates in their DAW and taught them how to use it. For them, they had 150-200 tracks available at any time. The least RAM one had was 32 GB. The most had 128 GB. Needless to say the one with 128 GB had no trouble at all. haha.
The Logic benchmarks were created to test CPU performance and not memory. Logic's error message also shows quite clearly that the machine isn't keeping up with I/O, not that there wasn't enough RAM for instrument tracks.
In fact, the Xcode benchmark used is also CPU intensive, not RAM intensive. The 8gb probably failed because the modules were marginally larger than 8gb. Getting more ram than 16gb is going to be useless in that case.
I've watched all your videos on the subject of additional RAM and on purchasing a 2020 5K iMac in particular and your advice is greatly appreciated. It's an absolute revelation to me, especially compared to my late 2013 model; but the biggest surprise was the speed at which it is able to export 25 MB raw files into photos.After a short session of surf photography I exported 383 images in Apple photos in an absurdly quick 30 seconds.I would not have believed that this was possible , even with the switch to 32Gb of RAM ; if I hadn't seen it and measured the time precisely.What used to literally take hours can now be accomplished in minutes .
Thank you Vadim, your Apple videos are second to none. About to order a 2020 iMac for music production and this video is super helpful - thanks for the Logic Pro tests, would love to see you guys include this test in future videos but perhaps with audio tracks as well as instrument tracks. Thanks again for the great content!
(Sept 10, 2020) - I'm about to add 32 GB (two 16GB RAM cards) to the 8 GB (two 4GB RAM cards) to get 40GB RAM running at top speed on all cards. Your mention of the '9to5' Video tip of shuffling the RAM cards into two groups is going to be a great help! Thanks!
Max thanks for your videos! I am an audio engineer that uses Logic Pro X everyday, and I think your logic test is a bit misleading. If you didn’t know, the test you ran is a CPU stress test, not a RAM stress test. If you load in 3rd party VI’s for example, you will hit that 16gb limit much much sooner.
Great review. I was considering the purchase of a Core i7 27" 5K iMac with 32GB of RAM from Amazon and this very helpfully confirms my choice. Thank you!
Very interesting Logic results. I've always been told RAM helps a lot, specially with lots of plugins running, and I definitely felt the difference going from 4 GB to 12 GB, way less system overloads. I'll be reading more about those tests!
This test isn't at all relevant if you're running sample libraries. Let's say you wanted to run orchestral libraries for example. They need loads of RAM. It's not just a case of how many tracks you can have open because some tracks require more RAM than others. For example if I run one audio track with my guitar going into it and another software track with a very good woodwind sample library, the latter is going to require way more RAM than the former.
Excellent video. Thanks so much. I've just added 2 sticks of memory in the 2 unused slots and noticed exactly as you said it slowed from 2666 to 2133 Mhz. As you also showed, this is as per Apple's instructions to keep Chanel A and Channel B of the same total value. I'll change it as you suggested, so many thanks for your invaluable help.
Nailed it again. I love that you guys did this real world test. Ram always made a huge difference in graphic design tasks. I knew that more ram would impact the performance the most but these days with these super fast SSD’s ram is clearly not as impactful as paging is super fast. I was thinking of maxing it out but now I will go for 32 Gb maybe 64 because I like having 50 + chrome tabs open for days at the time. I wish you would do a chrome tabs test for web designers that work on multiple projects at the time with bunch of chrome tabs opened at the time.
Thank you Max for this real-life reviews. I think that for me the 32GB RAM (+ the default 8 GB) is the sweet spot for everything, like iOS app development in Xcode, video editing, presentation making, graphic design with Affinity Creative Suite. Glad I found this video. Cheers!
I love that you tried doing a music production performance-test, but that Logic-test doesn't really seem like a fair comparison, especially when it comes to RAM-usage. VST-instruments can take up a lot of RAM, but it depends on the instrument itself. In your case it seems like you used a form of generator (software-synthesizer, for example), which only really taxes the CPU. But VST sample instruments, as for example a playable drumset made up of real recorded drums, takes up RAM to be playable. A library like this can be anything from a few megabytes to orchestral pieces going over 4GB in size. Just a single 4GB+ library should be enough to fill up 8GB of RAM, which is why you see composers with 400GB++ of RAM in their systems. However, big props for actually trying to demonstrate music production performance! That's something I wish more people were doing and I hope you keep doing this, albeit with a test that blends CPU-intensive workloads as well as RAM-intensive ones. I hope you can make that comparison in between the 8-core & 10-core iMacs, as I am in the market for one. Otherwise, great video as always! 😊
This video makes a very valid point, from my own experience, I can say for graphic designers, 32GB would most likely be just fine. I am a graphic designer and I still use a 2014 5K iMac with 32GB of RAM. Honestly, I don’t need more RAM than this. The 2014 specs is also more than I need on a normal day.
@@vidagogo9829 Awesome, thanks man... Do you feel a significant improvement in speed? Also If I was to switch out would I lose all my files saved on my computer? Or does it just add memory?
@@randomrecipes5007 RAM isn't permanent storage, just temporary background stuff. RAM wipes and fills all of the time, especially when you even turn off the computer. So, no, nothing will be lost. The Mac takes an extra few moments after changing (put them in slots 1 and 3), so if it seems like you're getting black screen, it's likely the Mac is detecting. And RAM isn't necessarily for speed, especially when Macs have a max speed of 2667MHz for RAM, it's for multi-tasking and handling high usage programs (often Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro X).
Saving my arse again. I only checked that my RAM was appearing and installed. Didn't even check the speed. It was running at 2100. Fixed now! Thanks so much, what would I do without this channel.... 🤣
If you're reading this, get the 64gb version. MacOS is a memory hoor. I wanted to have a browser, spotify, and 3gb TIFF open in Photoshop and it was gasping at only about 1gb free. My 4 yr old PC desktop does this easy. Splurge on the extra ram. Update: finally got the 64gb version. YES. Webull, PS w/3gb file, Spotify, Safari, Dropbox running, Adobe Creative cloud (ram hoor), and discord running, with a nice 25GB free remaining. What'd it cost? Everything.
The important thing about the Logic benchmark test is that it's a CPU benchmark test, to show comparatively how many softsynth plugin tracks your system can run. In real world usage, music production is probably the use case out of all the ones you tested where RAM is of most importance: ubiquitous sampler plugins like Kontakt & Logic's own EXS24/Sampler eat RAM (sampled instruments are loaded into RAM the second a plugins instrument is opened). In practice, I think 32gb - 64gb is the sweet spot....16gb really is limiting in a pro workflow, unless you're willing to freeze and print tracks etc That said is absolutely excellent and very interesting to Logic benchmarking used in this kind of comparison. Tech reviewers always mention music production / Logic as a common pro Mac user base, put 100% of the tests are usually FCPX exports. Would be interesting to see more in-depth Logic tests (number of sampler tracks, project export time etc)....
Thank you for the suggestion! Do you have any sample tracks that we can export and test? If so, please email us using the email in the about me section on our channel page. Thank you!
But putting original RAMs together can't form a dual-channel...is speed have more impact than dual-channel? I'm so confused that should I form a dual-channel or make the speed to 2666. Not on gaming, I know dual can't do much on gaming experience, but I make videos.
Wow, great advice and information. I am new to the mac and have my 2020 on order and was close to buying 128GB ram! Now I have ordered 32GB - thanks for the video, it was very helpful!
Thank you so much all the way from Melbourne Australia for all of your helpful and informative videos, which assisted us to order our new customised iMac 27" from Apple Education plus 32GB of extra RAM from Amazon (all arriving in early January). It was great to see all the benchmark tests, especially as I am intending to do a lot of video production and editing as well as running a not-for-profit website for the ad astra vita project and general everyday computer-based work tasks. We hope you, your family and colleagues stay safe and well and we are thinking of you all over in the US and hoping the pandemic settles down soon.
While others have their own ways of determining how much RAM they need, the way I've always used on any *nix system (like Linux, BSD, macOS, etc) is to bring up a terminal window and use the "top" command. On macOS, type this: top -s 5 -o cpu ... then press Return and look at the top of the window. On the 4th line, you should see swapins and swapouts. What I've always done is to keep this command running (it will only update every 5 seconds so it won't use very much CPU at all) while you do your work. When your Mac gets slow, look at the swapins and swapouts. The number inside the parenthesis is the number of swapins / swapouts your Mac has had to do in the last 5 seconds. The higher this number is, the faster your Mac would be if you had more RAM in the context of doing what you're currently doing. If swapins and swapouts are 0 (or smaller numbers less than 10 or so), then adding more RAM won't help much in the context of your current workflow. In this case, since "-o cpu" means to sort the list by CPU usage, the topmost items in the list are the programs using the most CPU, and you'll be able to make your Mac faster by quitting those programs.
I believe the biggest performance % gains came from upgrading from 8gb -> 16gb. I’d vote for 16gb being the best overall upgrade for most users in these categories.
All of your recent iMac vids have been super helpful. I ordered exactly what you suggested in the other vid and my next project is installing my own RAM. Fingers crossed. lol. (Video editing, photo editing, graphic design, etc.)
Thanks you guys for bringing back the Build 1:1 previews with LightRoom.. Its still IMHO building 1:1 previews is still a huge bottleneck in LR and doing this test really tells the whole story
Ok I bought my iMac. I bought my 32 gig of ram. I understand stacking them. I just want to know. Should I start up my iMac and get it running first or can I put my ram in before I even start it up
my 128GB RAM will be delivered tomorrow. i have no idea how much it will improve my speed and performance, but at least i'll never wonder. that, plus saving $2,100 vs having apple install it was something i couldn't resist.
As an Apple Computer user since the 1990's, I developed a simple general guide to installing RAM into a new system. My guidance, has always been as follows: for average performance use 25 percent of the max value, for good performance use 50 percent, and for excellent performance use 75 percent of the Max RAM supported by your system. It is nice to see that, my guidance still holds true.
Dude!! I’m so glad I watched your video, I bought a 2020 iMac i7 27inch 8gig ram and I was gonna get 64gb but I’m glad I saw your video since it is not worth the extra money for the 64gb, I purchased the 32gb and am waiting for it to arrive. Thanks again!!
How do you choose the brand of ram (OWC, Timtec Hynix and Samsung)? Can you explain the differences between the brands? Also, the ram that comes with the Mac is by SK Hynix; is SK Hynix related to Timetec Hynix? Excellent video!
I hope you guys add more programming performance tests in future videos too! As a software developer, I really miss this part when watching your awesome videos.. Both of you are doing really great and I am sure everyone appreciates the effort you guys exert, keep it up!
Samuel O'Dan no. Actually I believe specially for iMacs. Mac Pro I have the feeling that they will have a totally different design which is based on closed modules that can be stacked in order to get more power. The size of Mac mini that can stack and provide more performance.
That Logic Pro X benchmark project can be a little bit misleading because all of the instrument tracks were using Logic's Sculpture synth. 3rd party software instruments as well as some of the other stock Logic instruments use significantly more ram than something like Sculpture. Not to mention additional 3rd party plugins used for mixing. With my 8gb of ram, the most tracks I ever really get in a real project is 16ish without using the "freeze" function or "bouncing in place." That's nothing considering a lot of my projects will end up with 40+ tracks.
I’ve just ordered a 27 inch 2020 iMac. I went with the mid tier 8GB model. And got 2x8GB ram from Crucial. Saved myself £130 over getting it from Apple. I mostly use my iMac for web browsing with a bit of occasional photo editing and video editing. So after watching this video it seems like 24 GB will give me some noticeable speed improvements.
You forgot video playback and scrubbing test. For the next test, try loading/reloading 4K video in the time line then adding an adjustment layer or two (simulating color correction), then scrubbing the time line. I'm reasonably sure you'll see an improvement with every addition of RAM.
Before I watch this, I’ve bought iMac with 8GB and bought 32GB Samsung RAM for only $125. Now I have 40 GB RAM and happy. Do’t forget you DON’T want to close all applications but only the one you are using at the moment. Like close your browser before Photoshop launching))) Or don’t open 2 documents in Photoshop!!!))) I have tested Samsung RAM and it’s even a bit faster than Apple’s default RAM.
Being a Mac user for most of my life, I had never entertained the idea of a PC. Until I started watching people building their own rigs in micro PC cases. They look amazing, and they are so small yet very powerful, with the added benefit of the ability to upgrade every part as needed. I just can't justify to myself the prices Apple charges when I can get a rig which is twice as powerful for 1/3 the price. I'll be building my own rig in the coming weeks and selling my MacBook Pro. Hello 100+ fps!
If it was me it would be at least 64Gb, if not 128Gb depending on price, maybe 2x 32Gb then get more later. When I got my 2012 I topped it out with 32Gb I installed the moment I got it out of the box!
Did any of you have a problem with 128 GB RAM? (Imac 2020 / Intel Core I7, AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB) I have 4x32 GB memory from OWC. When all the modules are installed, the computer shuts down from time to time. This usually happens under heavy load (Final Cut Pro, PhotoShop, Lightroom). I am in contact with the OWC, they wrote that they had not reported such problems. I did various tests. I put different modules into my computer one by one, and everything worked until all four were installed. I also checked them in various configurations and I know that all modules are functional. I installed the system from scratch, I did a PRAM and SRC reset. I ran RAM tests and showed no problems. Nothing helped. Now the computer has three 96 GB modules installed and everything works fine.
My take, in a few sentences. Basic users [streaming, non-memory intensive gaming, email, surfing, etc,] can see an improvement worth the expense to bump the basic 8G RAM configuration to 16G. Most everyone else [gamers, occasional light photo and video editing, etc] 32G of RAM is the sweet spot that gets you bang for your buck invested. You'll see significant enough improvement to make spending the money worthwhile. Going above 32G will get you a tiny bit more, but not enough to double your expenditure over 32G. A few [CAD users and heavy photo and video editing]: You are the few who will see aggregate increases of time saved over long periods of this sort of work where you start to see "time is money" savings in increasing to 64G of RAM. Its only going to make sense if you do this sort of CPU work a lot. The very few: Those rare exception who run virtual machines, especially if more than a couple at a time. Being able to designate enough specific RAM to each machine [example: three VMs with 8G+ of RAM dedicated to each VN] makes a difference in how the VMs run. This is NOT something most folks need to remotely consider. So, like I said, the rare few.
Thanks for doing this video. It's always helpful to know where the sweet spot is with RAM on Macs! I self-installed 64GB's in my MacMini, but never come close to maxing it out. 16-32 is definitely the sweet spot.
Your using a cpu benchmark for logic. What matters there is how many _different_ sample libraries you can have open before the ram says goodbye. My 16gb system freezes when I have too many orchestral libraries open
Regarding the Logic Pro X test since DAW's are based on realtime computations, the CPU is very important. BUT, if you're running sample library instruments (Kontakt, Omnisphere and the like) RAM becomes VERY important. That benchmark test is only testing how powerful the CPU is basically. It's a very limited test. A project is much more than just having many synth-based tracks. RAM becomes very important quickly on an actual project!
Thank you for this example I already purchased this model because your recommendations and I can’t wait to see the comparison of this model with the one other 5700xt16gb!
I buy Apple RAM only bc I think theirs are higher production grade than aftermarket. My personal buy since 2017 is 16GB RAM. I will go for 32GB on ARM Mac.
What’s all this talk about showing off to your friends? Should’ve left that mentality in grade school. Otherwise, a very detailed and informative video. Thanks for that. Upgraded mine to 24gb a few years ago and definitely noticed an improvement. Biggest jump I’ve seen in years though has been from hard drives to SSDs. That has been the biggest bottleneck and glad we’re finally seeing the industry embrace full SSD rather than hybrid or fusion setups. Getting data from storage to the processor or the ram is just as important.
very useful. I bought a MacBook 12 2017 for my studies - business informatics. And since I am working at a web dev job, all day video conference etc my mac is constantly working at 90° and really slow... So i am looking for a new mac but did not know what can fit all my tasks and my money :D this helps a lot (especially because I am in a band and use logic for song recordings)
My MPB has 8GB and is perfectly usable, My Thinkpad has 16GB and runs windows 10 pretty snappy. I would be more than happy with 32GB of RAM for any computer I buy this year or the next.
Thanks for the great video man. I’ll be picking 32GB for sure. Glad to see 64 is overkill. Especially since it’s over twice as much as 32. The prices I’m looking at are better than Apple’s but still...
I got 64GB for free (from 32) due to discounts. So I have a 16" all maxed out except storage. Have 2TB. Not worrying about storage because we have SAN on 10Gbps and thunderbolt 3 SSDs that are faster than most nvme drives inside laptops. This thing truly is a portable workstation. If I want to game I have my iPhone 11 Pro Max and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra! :P
Honestly, I do ALOT of Photoshop and Lightroom editing. I mean, ALOT. I have the 2019 Core i9 Macbook Pro with 16 gigs of RAM as I didn't feel like waiting to order my Macbook and wanted mine NOW when I bought it and that's one that's a standardly equipped one that you can buy in-store. And I have ZERO problems. I do not see any problems, importing is smooth, computing is smoothe and I really don't think that getting 32 gigs would have made a big difference.
Another use case for more RAM would be virtual machines. I understand you can’t test everything under the sun, but seeing how this iMac will be the last one running Windows for a while, that would have make for an awesome addition.
That's me sorted. I don't need more than 8GB! It is mostly raw single-core CPU power I need. At least for now. I only need to decide whether to go for the 16" i7 Macbook Pro or the 27" i7 iMac.
Were you surprised by how little of a difference there was between 32GB and 64GB of RAM? Comment your thoughts below!
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Xcode Benchmark built for Max Tech by Maxim Eremenko ➡ github.com/devMEremenko/XcodeBenchmark
Honestly not surprised. I was pretty shocked when you guys did a survey last week and around 25% of people said they were getting 128GB RAM. That is way overkill for the things 99% of people do on an iMac.
Forgot the Logic Pro X benchmark: music-prod.com/logic-pro-x-benchmarks/
iMac 5K 2014 4ghz i7: 42 tracks
Excellent comparison! Does the amazon RAM have the same performance as apple RAM, so what about if you compare 16GB Amazon RAM to 16GB apple RAM do you think you get the same results? What is the write and read speed for amazon and apple’s RAM? Thanks
Yes I was surprised to see such a small difference between 32GB and 64GB. This was very helpful information that I can use for my next purchase.
I work primarily in the Adobe Suite and have multiple programs open at once. I think your testing left out a primary segment of users...graphic design professionals. I can say unequivocally that having as much RAM as possible is an absolute must when working in Photoshop, eliminating any need to go to the scratch disks when working in very large files with many layers. My unflattened files files frequently go into the double digit GB realm, often with multiple files open. Or opening architectural autocad files in Illustrator with over a million points/nodes.
Dude no one does videos like this. Over the top good. Thank you
Thank you for including music production in your videos. As someone that works in that industry, its hard finding the right information of configurations sometimes.
Just order my iMac 2020 with your guy's help. Seems like 32gb is the sweet spot for everything.
Michael Tran just a question - why didn’t you wait for Apple Silicon Macs?
@@aarushsoni3785 that's two years away??? Why do you want him to wait that long?
Moses Jonson it’s not two years away. It’s happening this year
Peter Vaňušanik why? They’re gonna have better battery life, more cores, better efficiency, and they will be cheaper.
@@petervansan1054 It will definitely have more cores. The ARM Macbook 12" is predicted to have 12 cores (8 high performance and 4 high efficiency), and that's the base spec. If a very low end (by Apple's standards) machine that costs a predicted $800, imagine what an iMac costing potentially thousands of dollars could achieve.
And it's already proven that ARM based CPU's are much more efficient than x86. Almost every smartphone in the industry uses ARM, because it is much, much more efficient than x86.
Yeah, maybe it might suck for a while because of backwards compatibility, but I don't think that'll be a problem because the Developer Transition Kit (A12Z SoC) can perfectly run pre-existing apps with the help of Rosetta 2. Plus, developers will probably remake their apps for ARM well within the two years transition period. Also, with Apple Silicon, people will be able to run iOS and iPadOS natively on MacOS.
As for the price, reports have already stated that apple is dropping prices, with the Macbook Pro 13" starting at $200 dollars cheaper.
I was never really fond of Macs, but I really think Apple Silicon will be a huge jump for Apple.
this is the one i got yesterday and i have 32gb more coming from owc . my 2011 iMac really ran ok but got pretty warm, i stayed up just about all night playing with my new one and i couldn't feel any heat at all. i am very satisfied just hope it last at least half what my old one did. i am 75 so it might outlast me.💚🍏 ps thanks for the ram advice i was going to put the ram in the empty slots now i know what to do.
Thanks to Maxim for making the Xcode Benchmark. Compile time isn't the only side to this though; XCTest is the majority of my wait when I code - Not really sure how you'd make a balanced test though since the speed of XCTest is so very dependant on the way you write the code. Though arguably that's also the case for the compile benchmark in a way.
In any case, cool project, and reading the pods he used led me to find R.swift which is bloody awesome! Strongly typed resources is so wonderful
Glad he did a good job! This test will be used for all of our future comparison videos between Macs.
Max Tech Good with the Xcode tests :)
If you’re interested, I’ve written some C programs for a course called Computer Architecture and Operating Systems, that benchmarks thread scaling; i.e. how much faster is it to run a program on 2 versus 1 threads, or 3, 4, 5, 6 whatever. I’ve written a few different ones that use different threading strategies. Program allows you to specify how many threads you want to test with, and on my i7 4770HQ MacBook Pro I saw scaling up to 512 threads, but with a thousand threads it actually got a little slower.
I’ve also written a little SpriteKit playground recently that tests drawing and moving circles, and my 2014 15” MacBook Pro could only do around 30FPS while my iPad Pro did 120FPS no sweat.
If you’re interested in getting any of this or would like a computer science student’s perspective on anything feel free to contact me:
www.the parallel thread.com/about.html
Or just:
Casperes1996@gmail.com (faster response with email from website, this email is lesser used, but written here to avoid too much spam on primary address)
Thank you! Feel free to email us using the email in the About us section on our youtube channel page. If you'd like, you can send us a test project that's as simply as possible with instructions since we don't really know anything about programming. thank you!
Hi Casper! The main goal of creating XcodeBenchmark is to help viewers to choose the right CPU for Xcode development. Since both the compilation and XCTest primarily depend on CPU to get the job done - it does not matter what actually we are going to do in Xcode. To understand the relative difference between the two processors, we just need to perform the same amount of work the same way. I wonder should I spend extra money on i9 or iMac with i7 performs well enough on large projects.
I admire your channel as no other for some simple reasons, you always get to the point, with actually useful information and not repeating what is said on the box as some other UA-camrs. You’ve earned credibility and I hope your channel keeps this quality.
Finally a little bit of focus on music production
keep in mind that more plugins = more RAM required
@@MaxTechOfficial not only that, but your main RAM users in DAWs like Logic are the amount of audio files you have loaded into your session, especially samplers. composers using full orchestral libraries quickly gobble up RAM due to the amount of audio samples that would have to be loaded into RAM. most composers using orchestral samplers like Vienna Ensemble have a 2nd dedicated system just for this, or end up buying a decked out Mac Pro like Neil Parfitt. i actually bought the 64gb OWC upgrade kit for my Mac Mini for this reason. you pretty much have to consider your expected workload when buying these things, lol
But here I am wondering what spec are worth getting for CAD stuff...
Max Tech if you produce music based on samples/loops yeah you need more RAM but if it is more MIDI/VST you need more processing power. Due to space restrictions in my setup i have order Mac mini 2020 i7, 1TB SSD and got 32GB ram on Amazon (Corsair vengeance for 130Euro - was oddly on sale) so let’s see how that goes :)
@@nobrainerneeded4229 64GB is the way to go for production of commercial Pop and EDM songs, but 128GB is even better if you compose trailer music and film score with Kontakt, Omnisphere and Nexus. Also if you use Kontakt, make sure to use Purge function, it will reduce your RAM load 10-20 times.
I just started watching your channel, and i think its one of the most important YT channels out there. big ups
Having both lower capacity DIMMs on the same channel like 9to5 Mac did is such a bad idea. As a result, you will run in single channel mode once you exceed the capacity of this smaller channel (e.g. if you exceed 16GB and have 8GB in Channel A). The performance hit due to this is much larger than it would be going from 2667 to 2133. In terms of bandwidth, it's the same effect as going down from 2667MT/s to 1333MT/s. Take the 2133 and be happy about it.
Le Jac do you mind explaining this in little more detail? There is so many different articles with different conclusions on this? What happens when you exceed the capacity of smaller channel?
Is it better to have 32gb running at 2667 or 40gb running at 2133?
@@omCi Your system accesses both channels simultaneously to achieve its best bandwidth. This bandwidth is a product of frequency and channels following the formula _Transfer Rate x 64bit x 2 Channels_. A 2666MT/s memory setup would achieve up to 42672MB/s (= 2667M x 8B x 2).
If you only have one channel accessible, this drops by half, down to 21336MB/s (=2667M x 8B x 1), which is effectively equal to two channels running at half the transfer speed (= 1333M x 8B * 2)
If we assume you have 8GB in Channel A and 32GB in ChB, your OS by default can address both channels equally until they're filled up. If you have a workload that requires say 20GB of memory, it can and will evenly divide the first 16GB between both channels (8 in A and 8 in B) and transfers in and out of the memory at full dual channel bandwidth. But the remaining 4GB also have to exist in your memory, the OS has no choice but to throw all of those into CHB. Any data past 16GB therefore only runs on single channel bandwidth.
Reduced bandwidth can result in increased waiting time for the processor which ultimately hinders performance. How significant this hindrance is, depends on the task. Any task for which memory bandwidth is already a bottleneck, will suffer.
@Skulduggery Pleasant As you can see from the formula I've given above, 2133 in dual channel results in higher bandwidth (34128MB/s) than 2666 in a single channel (21336MB/s). This reduced bandwidth only occurs when you exceed 16GB of memory being in use. How significant the performance hit for your individual workload is, that I don't know.
Thanks for this! I ran Cinebench with 72gb RAM AABB and it was running at 1333. Even though they all say in system preferences they’re running at 2667. When I was doing ABAB preferences read 2133. I’ve removed Apple RAM as I’d rather have 64gb at 2667.
Le Jac wow. Thanks. Good explanation. Considering I have a feeling that many people don’t fully understand this. A lot of places are talking about this trick. Maybe something our Mac tech guys can test. Thank again.
Your music production assessment only using Logic Pro X instruments is deceptive. A working media composer who works with many 3rd party virtual instruments, especially high-end orchestral instruments require 128 GB of ram. These types of samples are streamed from external SSD's into ram. A full orchestra can represent 75 to 110 players with multiple articulations for each instrument. RAM management is key to this work and 128 GB is the sweet spot. Now, the problem for audio production then becomes a thermal one. How loud the fans will get with this continual load is a make or break proposition. Any level above 40 db can evoke the Haas effect which will mask certain frequencies that a composer needs to hear in order program and perform music that will convert to different playback systems faithfully. Thanks for the work you put into this video. It brought to light information that will be a great help to other consumers who are considering these upgrades. Good Job!
That would be a great test, if somehow you can get your hands on a test project or similar to what the XCode one proposed and suggested at the end of the video it would be great if they can do a test in depth with different machines and different configurations.
I’m not a pro Logic user but quite curious nevertheless.
What’s a computer?
This is absolute truth. As a LPX user I couldnt get more than 24 tracks to work with 8 gigs of RAM. The thing to consider wih this huge libraries is that they use ONE audio file (sample) for each one of the 128 different velocity values per musical note on a single articulation mode. Easily you could have like 300 audio files per musical note per instrument all loaded into RAM. Not even counting real time DSPs, etc.
Graham Palmer eat yourself fitter.
I thought about that. I never have anywhere near that many tracks, but I might have 10 intensive plugins on ten separate tracks and overload my system (16 gigs of RAM) easily. Which is why I’m upgrading to 64 gigs (and a better CPU).
Hi there, I just wanted to share, I too purchased a 2020 iMac (8 Core) - I put the new ram that I ordered separately and saw it clocking in at 2133hz instead of 2667hz. Your call out of that, and how to correct were really helpful - got mine running the right way now. So just saying thanks! Appreciate it!
In terms of music production, it's really the audio tracks and sampler instruments (kontakt, eastwest, etc) that will use RAM. Effects plugins and software synths (serum, diva, alchemy) use your CPU. Just so that's cleared up! If you're a composer (which almost every track will be a sampler instrument), more RAM will be very beneficial
Indeed. Unless you are not using any 3rd party VIs (which never happens in the rear world), memory does matter. For example, my LASS uses way more than a GB just for single violin part. My 16GB Macbook Pro couldn't handle VI intensive session at all, so I switched to Mac Pro with 96GB Memory in it. Sometimes memory usage goes up to 50GB for more complicated production.... I believe at least 32GB is needed if you are seriously considering using a DAW for music production.
Sidenote: some DAWs load entire audio files in memory (such as Pro Tools, which recommends 32GB of memory) for better performance. In this case memory performs more important role even you are not using any VIs at all.
When freezing MIDI tracks, the DAW stores the audio in the RAM as well, doesn't it?
@@TERASSI yup. Exactly right. It's been technically turned into an audio track
How many tracks did you need at max until now?
@@luxembourger Well I'm not a composer. But I've helped quite a few composers setup their templates in their DAW and taught them how to use it. For them, they had 150-200 tracks available at any time. The least RAM one had was 32 GB. The most had 128 GB. Needless to say the one with 128 GB had no trouble at all. haha.
More programming related benchmarks would be amazing! Just showcasing a load and build of a xcode and/or vscode projekt would be much appreciated!
The Logic benchmarks were created to test CPU performance and not memory. Logic's error message also shows quite clearly that the machine isn't keeping up with I/O, not that there wasn't enough RAM for instrument tracks.
In fact, the Xcode benchmark used is also CPU intensive, not RAM intensive. The 8gb probably failed because the modules were marginally larger than 8gb. Getting more ram than 16gb is going to be useless in that case.
One of the reasons I really love your videos is that you always mention and test gaming alongside editing, photo editing etc ☺️
I've watched all your videos on the subject of additional RAM and on purchasing a 2020 5K iMac in particular and your advice is greatly appreciated. It's an absolute revelation to me, especially compared to my late 2013 model; but the biggest surprise was the speed at which it is able to export 25 MB raw files into photos.After a short session of surf photography I exported 383 images in Apple photos in an absurdly quick 30 seconds.I would not have believed that this was possible , even with the switch to 32Gb of RAM ; if I hadn't seen it and measured the time precisely.What used to literally take hours can now be accomplished in minutes .
Thank you Vadim, your Apple videos are second to none. About to order a 2020 iMac for music production and this video is super helpful - thanks for the Logic Pro tests, would love to see you guys include this test in future videos but perhaps with audio tracks as well as instrument tracks. Thanks again for the great content!
That RAM slot tip helped me out massively! I was given contradictory advice on other videos which slowed the ram down.
(Sept 10, 2020) - I'm about to add 32 GB (two 16GB RAM cards) to the 8 GB (two 4GB RAM cards) to get 40GB RAM running at top speed on all cards. Your mention of the '9to5' Video tip of shuffling the RAM cards into two groups is going to be a great help! Thanks!
Dave Boyer no problem! Good luck, just remember to check the speed to make sure it’s worked.
Max thanks for your videos! I am an audio engineer that uses Logic Pro X everyday, and I think your logic test is a bit misleading. If you didn’t know, the test you ran is a CPU stress test, not a RAM stress test. If you load in 3rd party VI’s for example, you will hit that 16gb limit much much sooner.
Good review for touching music production, finally 🙏🏽
Great review. I was considering the purchase of a Core i7 27" 5K iMac with 32GB of RAM from Amazon and this very helpfully confirms my choice. Thank you!
Finally someone who pays attention to programming needs too.
Two more days until spec'd out iMac arrives!!!!
I will live vicariously through you.
SAME!! Too excited!!
That sounds pricey
Lol mac mini m1 is here
@@TechyRich and it looks good. 16gb is a good start.
Very interesting Logic results. I've always been told RAM helps a lot, specially with lots of plugins running, and I definitely felt the difference going from 4 GB to 12 GB, way less system overloads. I'll be reading more about those tests!
This test isn't at all relevant if you're running sample libraries. Let's say you wanted to run orchestral libraries for example. They need loads of RAM. It's not just a case of how many tracks you can have open because some tracks require more RAM than others. For example if I run one audio track with my guitar going into it and another software track with a very good woodwind sample library, the latter is going to require way more RAM than the former.
Ram clock timing (CL) is important as well. Never buy based on price alone, it’s like buying the wrong fuel for a high performance engine.
11:23 yes please to the Xcode benchmark test in a future video or yours.
+1
Excellent video. Thanks so much. I've just added 2 sticks of memory in the 2 unused slots and noticed exactly as you said it slowed from 2666 to 2133 Mhz. As you also showed, this is as per Apple's instructions to keep Chanel A and Channel B of the same total value. I'll change it as you suggested, so many thanks for your invaluable help.
Windows user here who edits with Premiere and Photoshop. 32gb was a noticeable upgrade over 16 (both configs in dual channel)
Bare in mind that Windows and MacOS have pretty different RAM management. You can often get away with less RAM on MacOS.
Douglas Lawrie Absolutely! I’ve tried to explain this to a Mac buddy but he’s not listening
You guys are creating extremely helpful content ! Thank you !
Nailed it again. I love that you guys did this real world test. Ram always made a huge difference in graphic design tasks. I knew that more ram would impact the performance the most but these days with these super fast SSD’s ram is clearly not as impactful as paging is super fast. I was thinking of maxing it out but now I will go for 32 Gb maybe 64 because I like having 50 + chrome tabs open for days at the time. I wish you would do a chrome tabs test for web designers that work on multiple projects at the time with bunch of chrome tabs opened at the time.
Thank you Max for this real-life reviews. I think that for me the 32GB RAM (+ the default 8 GB) is the sweet spot for everything, like iOS app development in Xcode, video editing, presentation making, graphic design with Affinity Creative Suite. Glad I found this video. Cheers!
I love that you tried doing a music production performance-test, but that Logic-test doesn't really seem like a fair comparison, especially when it comes to RAM-usage.
VST-instruments can take up a lot of RAM, but it depends on the instrument itself. In your case it seems like you used a form of generator (software-synthesizer, for example), which only really taxes the CPU. But VST sample instruments, as for example a playable drumset made up of real recorded drums, takes up RAM to be playable. A library like this can be anything from a few megabytes to orchestral pieces going over 4GB in size. Just a single 4GB+ library should be enough to fill up 8GB of RAM, which is why you see composers with 400GB++ of RAM in their systems.
However, big props for actually trying to demonstrate music production performance! That's something I wish more people were doing and I hope you keep doing this, albeit with a test that blends CPU-intensive workloads as well as RAM-intensive ones. I hope you can make that comparison in between the 8-core & 10-core iMacs, as I am in the market for one. Otherwise, great video as always! 😊
Thank you! We might look into trying to make a benchmark with ram intensive instruments. We will definitely test the 10 core
This video makes a very valid point, from my own experience, I can say for graphic designers, 32GB would most likely be just fine. I am a graphic designer and I still use a 2014 5K iMac with 32GB of RAM. Honestly, I don’t need more RAM than this. The 2014 specs is also more than I need on a normal day.
people need this type of video,not just unboxing
That's why we made it :)
Using my new 2020 5K iMac right now. The 32GB of RAM from Amazon should be here tomorrow... hopefully.
How did it turn out? I have the 2020 5k IMac as well, and looking to upgrade to 32GB of RAM...
@@randomrecipes5007 Great. Just take out the 8GB. Whether they say 2667MHz or not, the 4GB sticks and 16GB sticks don't mix well. Just install 32GB.
@@vidagogo9829 Awesome, thanks man... Do you feel a significant improvement in speed? Also If I was to switch out would I lose all my files saved on my computer? Or does it just add memory?
@@randomrecipes5007 RAM isn't permanent storage, just temporary background stuff. RAM wipes and fills all of the time, especially when you even turn off the computer. So, no, nothing will be lost. The Mac takes an extra few moments after changing (put them in slots 1 and 3), so if it seems like you're getting black screen, it's likely the Mac is detecting.
And RAM isn't necessarily for speed, especially when Macs have a max speed of 2667MHz for RAM, it's for multi-tasking and handling high usage programs (often Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro X).
@@vidagogo9829 I gotcha, k thanks man really appreciate it.
Saving my arse again. I only checked that my RAM was appearing and installed. Didn't even check the speed. It was running at 2100. Fixed now! Thanks so much, what would I do without this channel.... 🤣
If you're reading this, get the 64gb version. MacOS is a memory hoor. I wanted to have a browser, spotify, and 3gb TIFF open in Photoshop and it was gasping at only about 1gb free. My 4 yr old PC desktop does this easy. Splurge on the extra ram.
Update: finally got the 64gb version. YES.
Webull, PS w/3gb file, Spotify, Safari, Dropbox running, Adobe Creative cloud (ram hoor), and discord running, with a nice 25GB free remaining. What'd it cost? Everything.
Bruh Windows 10 is even more memory hungry than macOS but anyway
Big fan of your videos. This video clears many doubts about RAM expansion & I now clearly know how much RAM I actually need.Thanks a lot.
The important thing about the Logic benchmark test is that it's a CPU benchmark test, to show comparatively how many softsynth plugin tracks your system can run. In real world usage, music production is probably the use case out of all the ones you tested where RAM is of most importance: ubiquitous sampler plugins like Kontakt & Logic's own EXS24/Sampler eat RAM (sampled instruments are loaded into RAM the second a plugins instrument is opened). In practice, I think 32gb - 64gb is the sweet spot....16gb really is limiting in a pro workflow, unless you're willing to freeze and print tracks etc
That said is absolutely excellent and very interesting to Logic benchmarking used in this kind of comparison. Tech reviewers always mention music production / Logic as a common pro Mac user base, put 100% of the tests are usually FCPX exports. Would be interesting to see more in-depth Logic tests (number of sampler tracks, project export time etc)....
Thank you for the suggestion! Do you have any sample tracks that we can export and test? If so, please email us using the email in the about me section on our channel page. Thank you!
Thanks for Xcode benchmark!
I think I've settled on a model and RAM and screen ... and it's in my cart. And then this pops up. LOL.
Glad you waited until we posted this video!
@@MaxTechOfficial Me too. Since I have no friends = no bragging rights = saved me money. You guys are the best!
Brilliant. Thank you! Bought new iMac 27.
But putting original RAMs together can't form a dual-channel...is speed have more impact than dual-channel? I'm so confused that should I form a dual-channel or make the speed to 2666. Not on gaming, I know dual can't do much on gaming experience, but I make videos.
Wow, great advice and information. I am new to the mac and have my 2020 on order and was close to buying 128GB ram! Now I have ordered 32GB - thanks for the video, it was very helpful!
Thank you so much all the way from Melbourne Australia for all of your helpful and informative videos, which assisted us to order our new customised iMac 27" from Apple Education plus 32GB of extra RAM from Amazon (all arriving in early January). It was great to see all the benchmark tests, especially as I am intending to do a lot of video production and editing as well as running a not-for-profit website for the ad astra vita project and general everyday computer-based work tasks. We hope you, your family and colleagues stay safe and well and we are thinking of you all over in the US and hoping the pandemic settles down soon.
While others have their own ways of determining how much RAM they need, the way I've always used on any *nix system (like Linux, BSD, macOS, etc) is to bring up a terminal window and use the "top" command. On macOS, type this:
top -s 5 -o cpu
... then press Return and look at the top of the window. On the 4th line, you should see swapins and swapouts. What I've always done is to keep this command running (it will only update every 5 seconds so it won't use very much CPU at all) while you do your work. When your Mac gets slow, look at the swapins and swapouts. The number inside the parenthesis is the number of swapins / swapouts your Mac has had to do in the last 5 seconds. The higher this number is, the faster your Mac would be if you had more RAM in the context of doing what you're currently doing. If swapins and swapouts are 0 (or smaller numbers less than 10 or so), then adding more RAM won't help much in the context of your current workflow. In this case, since "-o cpu" means to sort the list by CPU usage, the topmost items in the list are the programs using the most CPU, and you'll be able to make your Mac faster by quitting those programs.
thanks for the advice I was able to cancel my order of 64 lol perfect timing!
Nice. You can now use the money to buy a System76 linux machine :D
Great news for the xcode benchmark! Keep up the great job.
RAM in music production needs for virtual instruments (libraries) usage. Its preloads in RAM
I believe the biggest performance % gains came from upgrading from 8gb -> 16gb.
I’d vote for 16gb being the best overall upgrade for most users in these categories.
No
No its the 32gb
Hey Vadim!!! loved your mac, ipad and iphone reviews. just the best youtuber!!!!
You guys always do a great job on these videos! I can’t wait for the Apple Silicon vs. Intel comparison video
Excellent product review video. You really know your stuff and can narrate like a pro.
All of your recent iMac vids have been super helpful. I ordered exactly what you suggested in the other vid and my next project is installing my own RAM. Fingers crossed. lol. (Video editing, photo editing, graphic design, etc.)
Thanks you guys for bringing back the Build 1:1 previews with LightRoom.. Its still IMHO building 1:1 previews is still a huge bottleneck in LR and doing this test really tells the whole story
Ok I bought my iMac. I bought my 32 gig of ram. I understand stacking them. I just want to know. Should I start up my iMac and get it running first or can I put my ram in before I even start it up
my 128GB RAM will be delivered tomorrow. i have no idea how much it will improve my speed and performance, but at least i'll never wonder. that, plus saving $2,100 vs having apple install it was something i couldn't resist.
As an Apple Computer user since the 1990's, I developed a simple general guide to installing RAM into a new system. My guidance, has always been as follows: for average performance use 25 percent of the max value, for good performance use 50 percent, and for excellent performance use 75 percent of the Max RAM supported by your system. It is nice to see that, my guidance still holds true.
I bought the top iMac model only upgraded the 1TB HD and 10gig Ethernet.
Will this 32 kit work in that model?
Dude!! I’m so glad I watched your video, I bought a 2020 iMac i7 27inch 8gig ram and I was gonna get 64gb but I’m glad I saw your video since it is not worth the extra money for the 64gb, I purchased the 32gb and am waiting for it to arrive. Thanks again!!
How do you choose the brand of ram (OWC, Timtec Hynix and Samsung)? Can you explain the differences between the brands? Also, the ram that comes with the Mac is by SK Hynix; is SK Hynix related to Timetec Hynix? Excellent video!
Got 128gb in my 27" iMac! Blazing fast!
I hope you guys add more programming performance tests in future videos too! As a software developer, I really miss this part when watching your awesome videos..
Both of you are doing really great and I am sure everyone appreciates the effort you guys exert, keep it up!
Yes, especially multi-platform programming and testing with virtual machines. A whole area of professional users totally left out.
I just subscribed cause you did the logic pro x benchmark test.... you the only one! Thanks!
Thank you for the xcode review!
Hopefully you can do this again with the Apple Silicon Macs!
We definitely will!
I honestly believe that Apple silicon macs want have easily accessible memory slots. Most probably soldered memory.
Mohammed Shurrab except maybe for the iMac and Mac Pro
Samuel O'Dan no. Actually I believe specially for iMacs. Mac Pro I have the feeling that they will have a totally different design which is based on closed modules that can be stacked in order to get more power. The size of Mac mini that can stack and provide more performance.
This has really helped me a lot. I’m going for the 32 gig to add to my existing 8 gig for video editing on my 5k iMac. Many thanks 👍🙏
Finally someone talks about Programming
Awesome job! I'm not into buying one right now but if I did, this video would help me a lot.
That Logic Pro X benchmark project can be a little bit misleading because all of the instrument tracks were using Logic's Sculpture synth. 3rd party software instruments as well as some of the other stock Logic instruments use significantly more ram than something like Sculpture. Not to mention additional 3rd party plugins used for mixing. With my 8gb of ram, the most tracks I ever really get in a real project is 16ish without using the "freeze" function or "bouncing in place." That's nothing considering a lot of my projects will end up with 40+ tracks.
I’ve just ordered a 27 inch 2020 iMac. I went with the mid tier 8GB model. And got 2x8GB ram from Crucial. Saved myself £130 over getting it from Apple. I mostly use my iMac for web browsing with a bit of occasional photo editing and video editing. So after watching this video it seems like 24 GB will give me some noticeable speed improvements.
You forgot video playback and scrubbing test. For the next test, try loading/reloading 4K video in the time line then adding an adjustment layer or two (simulating color correction), then scrubbing the time line. I'm reasonably sure you'll see an improvement with every addition of RAM.
Before I watch this, I’ve bought iMac with 8GB and bought 32GB Samsung RAM for only $125. Now I have 40 GB RAM and happy.
Do’t forget you DON’T want to close all applications but only the one you are using at the moment. Like close your browser before Photoshop launching))) Or don’t open 2 documents in Photoshop!!!)))
I have tested Samsung RAM and it’s even a bit faster than Apple’s default RAM.
I think programmers only could need more than 32GB, when they are using Fusion or Parallels for quick multi-platform testing.
this was a good video and i love your reviews.
Dude, you Rock man. Precisely what I needed to know, especially regarding Logic Pro. You did all the homework for me. Thanks a Million 👍🏼✌️
Being a Mac user for most of my life, I had never entertained the idea of a PC. Until I started watching people building their own rigs in micro PC cases. They look amazing, and they are so small yet very powerful, with the added benefit of the ability to upgrade every part as needed. I just can't justify to myself the prices Apple charges when I can get a rig which is twice as powerful for 1/3 the price. I'll be building my own rig in the coming weeks and selling my MacBook Pro.
Hello 100+ fps!
If it was me it would be at least 64Gb, if not 128Gb depending on price, maybe 2x 32Gb then get more later. When I got my 2012 I topped it out with 32Gb I installed the moment I got it out of the box!
upgrading ram is not for faster experience but for minimal multi tasking where OS itself occupies 6 GB RAM
Did any of you have a problem with 128 GB RAM? (Imac 2020 / Intel Core I7, AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB) I have 4x32 GB memory from OWC. When all the modules are installed, the computer shuts down from time to time. This usually happens under heavy load (Final Cut Pro, PhotoShop, Lightroom). I am in contact with the OWC, they wrote that they had not reported such problems. I did various tests. I put different modules into my computer one by one, and everything worked until all four were installed. I also checked them in various configurations and I know that all modules are functional. I installed the system from scratch, I did a PRAM and SRC reset. I ran RAM tests and showed no problems. Nothing helped. Now the computer has three 96 GB modules installed and everything works fine.
My take, in a few sentences.
Basic users [streaming, non-memory intensive gaming, email, surfing, etc,] can see an improvement worth the expense to bump the basic 8G RAM configuration to 16G.
Most everyone else [gamers, occasional light photo and video editing, etc] 32G of RAM is the sweet spot that gets you bang for your buck invested. You'll see significant enough improvement to make spending the money worthwhile. Going above 32G will get you a tiny bit more, but not enough to double your expenditure over 32G.
A few [CAD users and heavy photo and video editing]: You are the few who will see aggregate increases of time saved over long periods of this sort of work where you start to see "time is money" savings in increasing to 64G of RAM. Its only going to make sense if you do this sort of CPU work a lot.
The very few: Those rare exception who run virtual machines, especially if more than a couple at a time. Being able to designate enough specific RAM to each machine [example: three VMs with 8G+ of RAM dedicated to each VN] makes a difference in how the VMs run. This is NOT something most folks need to remotely consider. So, like I said, the rare few.
Well said! I am at 64gb ram although I know 32 would be great too!
Still waiting for the tab s7 review
And this channel is the most underrated channel on you tube
Thank you! We are still waiting to be able to order it. Can’t even order one yet. No idea when it’ll come.
Max Tech Thanks for your reply
Thanks for doing this video. It's always helpful to know where the sweet spot is with RAM on Macs! I self-installed 64GB's in my MacMini, but never come close to maxing it out. 16-32 is definitely the sweet spot.
There is no universal sweet spot. But there is an average.
Your using a cpu benchmark for logic. What matters there is how many _different_ sample libraries you can have open before the ram says goodbye. My 16gb system freezes when I have too many orchestral libraries open
Regarding the Logic Pro X test since DAW's are based on realtime computations, the CPU is very important. BUT, if you're running sample library instruments (Kontakt, Omnisphere and the like) RAM becomes VERY important. That benchmark test is only testing how powerful the CPU is basically. It's a very limited test. A project is much more than just having many synth-based tracks. RAM becomes very important quickly on an actual project!
Guys, you re simply the best out there!
Thank you for this example I already purchased this model because your recommendations and I can’t wait to see the comparison of this model with the one other 5700xt16gb!
Thank you so much Max tech! This was so helpful.... Saved me some bucks for sure! Love from India! 🇮🇳
I buy Apple RAM only bc I think theirs are higher production grade than aftermarket. My personal buy since 2017 is 16GB RAM. I will go for 32GB on ARM Mac.
I have the 28 core Mac Pro and I got 768 Ram for no reason and so happy about it
What’s all this talk about showing off to your friends? Should’ve left that mentality in grade school. Otherwise, a very detailed and informative video. Thanks for that. Upgraded mine to 24gb a few years ago and definitely noticed an improvement. Biggest jump I’ve seen in years though has been from hard drives to SSDs. That has been the biggest bottleneck and glad we’re finally seeing the industry embrace full SSD rather than hybrid or fusion setups. Getting data from storage to the processor or the ram is just as important.
very useful. I bought a MacBook 12 2017 for my studies - business informatics. And since I am working at a web dev job, all day video conference etc my mac is constantly working at 90° and really slow... So i am looking for a new mac but did not know what can fit all my tasks and my money :D
this helps a lot (especially because I am in a band and use logic for song recordings)
What channel memory does this iMac use? That could definitely influence my decision on how many DIMMs of RAM to buy if I want optimum performance.
My MPB has 8GB and is perfectly usable, My Thinkpad has 16GB and runs windows 10 pretty snappy.
I would be more than happy with 32GB of RAM for any computer I buy this year or the next.
Thanks for the great video man. I’ll be picking 32GB for sure. Glad to see 64 is overkill. Especially since it’s over twice as much as 32. The prices I’m looking at are better than Apple’s but still...
I got 64GB for free (from 32) due to discounts. So I have a 16" all maxed out except storage. Have 2TB. Not worrying about storage because we have SAN on 10Gbps and thunderbolt 3 SSDs that are faster than most nvme drives inside laptops. This thing truly is a portable workstation. If I want to game I have my iPhone 11 Pro Max and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra! :P
Honestly, I do ALOT of Photoshop and Lightroom editing. I mean, ALOT. I have the 2019 Core i9 Macbook Pro with 16 gigs of RAM as I didn't feel like waiting to order my Macbook and wanted mine NOW when I bought it and that's one that's a standardly equipped one that you can buy in-store. And I have ZERO problems. I do not see any problems, importing is smooth, computing is smoothe and I really don't think that getting 32 gigs would have made a big difference.
Another use case for more RAM would be virtual machines.
I understand you can’t test everything under the sun, but seeing how this iMac will be the last one running Windows for a while, that would have make for an awesome addition.
That's me sorted. I don't need more than 8GB! It is mostly raw single-core CPU power I need. At least for now. I only need to decide whether to go for the 16" i7 Macbook Pro or the 27" i7 iMac.