32gb Ram Upgrade Kit for 2019 iMac/2018 Mac Mini: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K3945MM/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07K3945MM&linkCode=as2&tag=signatureedit-20&linkId=49bd833e3ca8add7b219c7d77f358065
I've even chatted with multiple people at OWC, and even they couldn't give me the info I needed. Typically, the most common answer is, "the more RAM, the better" which isn't true in certain circumstances. This was fantastic, and exactly what I wanted to know. I'd love to see you do this test with Photoshop as well! A super huge THANK YOU!
Totally agree haha which is why I figured id test it for myself. Might do a Ps test in the future but im honestly not enough of a power user that i dont know if id use the ram others do with huge projects and tons of layers. My guess would be 32-40gb is great for most people, power users 64gb would be optimal
Great Video... everything on computers is geared towards gaming.... I'm an Artist and wanted to put 32gb in my RAM slots but couldn't find a video with proof it works better...
Nice video. Coming over from Gates-country and dipping my toes in Jobs-technology. You have the right idea on memory, buy aftermarket kits. I am looking at two iMac 27 5K machines, one to edit video on and one to encode, monitor social spaces, etc. How is it working from say 4 or 5 different external hard drives? Work on a 100GB project locally and then export it to external? Just curious about what others are doing with huge data?
Haha welcome to the apple universe. I personally haven't played with HUGE projects.. Most of mine are max 200gb so I just edit on my internal SSD and then export files to my desktop before moving finished projects + exports to an external HD for backup. This works great for me as the less back and forth I have to do the easier my life is and the less likely I am to make a mistake... But I'm lucky enough to only really need to work on 1-2 projects at once. Definitely more experience people out there than me for this kind of video work!
Super incredibly helpful. I was looking everywhere for an answer to this defining question for Lightroom and you answered it clearly and quickly, THANK YOU!
Thanks for this tutorial Ryan. I'm running a mid 2011 27 inch iMac and have recently upgraded from 8gb to 20gb of RAM and there is a definite difference. I'm also planning to run my entire system from an external SSD drive with Thunderbolt connection instead of the internal spinning drive. I'm hoping that this also will improve performance.
Great video, really helpful, clear and straight to the point, thank you Can I ask though for clarification, if the GPU will also greatly help the performance when using lightroom or does GPU doesn't really add that much to help with, eitherway thank you God bless
thanks, you pulled me over the line, been watching so many vids that i got confused. will get some time tec ram 2x 16 gb , fits the best for my specs on my nitro 5 laptop
Thanks for your tutorial for ram info, I am ordering a MacBook pro.and was wondering about how many gb of ram. Do you have a suggestion for the Graphics, Processor options also? Thanks again.
Hmm great question. First off do you need do this professionally or as a hobby? If a professional then it makes sense to spend more. If a hobby, then a slower computer might not matter that much. Personally I would order as much RAM as you can afford for the MBP as it will make a massive difference. Graphics depends on whether you edit videos or not. If no, then spend the money on the RAM instead. If you need it for video, then make sure to max out the graphics if you can swing it. Just my 2 cents based on personal experience.
I hope you didn't purchase the 13" MacBook pro this year. That thing is junk compared to 2020 standards . The keyboard is also shit. They will finally be releasing the new generation of 13" MacBook pros later this year just like they released the new 16"
You're very welcome! The great part about doing the 32gb (at least if you have 4 slots) is you can always upgrade the other 2 slots later on if you wind up needing more!
Thanks for the information. First time I’ve seen anyone talk about ram which is very important. Do you think the 32gig is good enough for photoshop also? Thanks again great video.
Glad to help Micheal! The main reason I made this vid was because I couldn't find anything myself when I wanted to upgrade haha! I would say 32gb is going to be enough for photoshop. If you have an imac or something with 4 ram ports, you can always start with 2x 16gb and then upgrade down the road if you wind up needing the full 64! I've had 40gb for about a month now and I want to say the most I've used has been about 33gb while running LR, Photoshop and several other programs at the same time.
Well done video. I myself used to work with 16 gb and sometimes it was awful. For normal sized images 16gb might be enough using lightroom. But, sometimes you need to do some further editing in photoshop. In case you are doing webdesign, you often hardly are able to close a browser. With 16gb or less everything already started to feel slow. Well, it was still workable. However, if you are doing landscape photography with hdr panoramas using workflows containing lightroom and photoshop, you simply need more than 16gb. Otherwise, everything becomes really slow and the probability of crashes is quite high! It can become quite frustrating.
Absolutely agree - 16gb is now juuuuuust enough for the latest versions of LR to run alright, but not enough for deep & intensive edits or super snappy performance.
I had 16GB and was getting capped around 13-14GB making the system run quite sluggish so I'm upgrading to 32gb. I always thought 16Gb would be more than enough, but when working with 32.5MP photos and tons of complex layering over 50+ photos, I wouldn't be surprised if I'll see it using closer to 20-24Gb when I upgrade.
Absolutely - 16gb works for basic lightroom edits but even then it's not peak performance. I'd say 32gb is a good starting point, and 40gb is about the max MOST people would need before they stop noticing much benefit. (Always exceptions of course)
interesting observations Ryan...the size of images that you are dealing with is crucial too. Someone who works with hasselblad RAW images may require much more RAM than someone who uses RAW 35mm DSLR images. Adobe apps LOVE RAM and can't get enough...please try your test with 100MP RAW medium format digital photos for confirmation. Image compositors might also have something to say here as each layer that they add to an image slows them down . As a reference, I use an elderly late 2012 Imac with 32GB of RAM and when working with component images for billboard production (typically outputting at a minimum of 30dpi at full size - 12metres by 3metres) I find that 32 GB is beneficial but not stellar...I do still get stalls and slowdowns on multi-layer images (5 or more layers). We also have bigger billboards (10metres by 12metres for example) and they are particularly slow to edit whe n I have to rebuild client files that have been badly made. Unfortunately due to the age of my system, it does not support more than 32GB so I cannot give my impressions on higher amounts of RAM, but 32GB sure beats the 8GB base memory that the computer came with (I remember editing back then...)!
Great insights Jabulani! I totally agree - Larger files will require more RAM. At the end of the day more RAM is always going to be better than less! For most users though who are on a budget, I still think around 40gb is the best "bang for buck". Amazing and helpful insights - Thanks so much!
Ram is important, but if you have a bad cpu, you won't get far with good ram. Cpu with at least 8 cores and 12 threads is the minimum for good export without the cpu getting too hot. Raw files require an incredible amount of CPU power.
Thanks for the insight regarding RAM use when using Lightroom. I was thinking of increasing my HP All-In-One 27inch from 16 gb to 32 gb but after seeing your video I will probably not increasing it.
This was super helpful. I am looking at getting a more recent iMac. What are the other considerations such as graphic card and CPU? What is important there?
Glad to help! Great question - With PS & Lightroom your CPU makes a big difference, but the graphics card upgrade is very marginal. So I'd invest in the best CPU you can afford and not worry so much about the graphics card. I wound up upgrading my graphics, but that's only because I do video work for this channel / other projects. For photos, you'll see better bang for your buck with CPU + RAM
i just subscirbe to lightroom and found loading very slow on my laptop. w 16gb ram. and going to upgrade to 32gb. thanks for taking time to figure this out and sharing.
Thanks Just what I was looking for . So if I have two slots filled with 4 each can I put any number in the other two Such as two 8s or do all 4 slots have to match ? Thanks
Thank you, great video. One question please, I am getting two 16gb sticks of ram. I have seen that it is meant to work more efficiently, if i remove my two 4gb sticks and just use the 2 16gb sticks in slots 1 and 3 so it is dual channel, what ever that is?? And before I power down my mac is there anything i need to do before I remove the old sticks and replace with the new ones. and when the new sticks are in place do i just power up as normal. Thanks in advance, much appreciated!!
you will get marginally better performance if all the ram “matches” but you are still better off with 4 slots and 40gb vs 2 slots and 32gb of ram, even if they dont match! for installation check apple instructions :)
Well, nice comparison but: 1. its mac based only and 2nd: even in 2019 8gb is really not much. Windows User rock 16 GB as mostly standard in 2019. So 8 vs 32 is a bit useless... 16 vs 32 is a way more useful comparison. This its only for people who are rocking a mac and upgrading from 8 to 32 GB. The way more common 16 to 32 gb is not mentioned and windows is not included. But anyways, nice video as always.
You just convinced to buy a used macbook pro 15” 2018 model w/32gb of ram instead of a cheaper 15” 2017 model w/16gb, obviously it’s going to be more expensive (450$ more), but I’m not risking to have an underwhelming performance in the upcoming years. So thank you so much for this photography themed review!!!
Hi Marco! Fcpx as well as premiere pro are more about the GPU than the RAM. Ram still makes a difference but for video the best thing you can do is upgrade to the best GPU you can afford.
Very helpful Ryan there are so many 'views' about LRs hunger for RAM it is good too have a practical demonstration of how much is needed to stop windows paging to the HDD. I did my upgrade from 16 to 32Gb some months back to allow for the background programs so I am happy that my decision making is on the correct track- now if I could remember to disable windows upgrades when have a lot of editing to do that would be me sorted. 😁
Right on Derek! I'll also say that switching to a better GPU from the older macs to the M1 also makes a bigger difference than the amount of RAM.. My imac with 40gb is MUCH slower than my M1 Macbook with 16gb
Great advice. I've noticed my system lagging more & more as I use not only Lightroom, but sometimes Photoshop is open at the same time & - what really slowed it down - I recently purchased Luminar, which I use as a plug-in for LR. But it can take up to 5 minutes for ONE photo to process in Luminar after I hit the 'apply' button, so the thought of processing an entire holiday's-worth of photos that way fills me with dread. So yes, I will most definitely be upgrading my 8GB of RAM. Thanks for the video!
Great video and answered a question I too have been searching for... will upgrading my late 2013 27" iMac from 16GB to 32GB be worth the approx $150. And based on your fantastic video I will upgrade... I run Photoshop simultaneously so that is a RAM user as well. Thank you Signature Edits! Sincerely, Joseph
Did you by chance do any work with panoramic, HDR photos? For example, I've taken HDR pano's that end up being 30-40 shots put together. I do a fair number of pano's and when I start trying to edit, things can just die :)
Hi Paul! While I don't personally do HDR or pano (I've only done so a couple times) I know RAM would make a massive difference. The larger the file size and more layers in a project, the more RAM photoshop / lightroom / your application is going to want
Just a heads up wonderful comparison but ram is a very intricate part of the machine which you should preface to do a solid amount of research before just throwing it into a machine. make sure you get a ram kit with similar speed and latency to your current kit. If you skimp and buy some stuff with out proper knowledge your workstation could become unstable and can cost you time and money in an unexpected error.
I have 8GB of Ram on my computer. While it is laggy, I can get by. Where the problems arise is when I export a photo into photoshop. That is when my computer crashes.
starting to feel gutted I've only gone for 8gb non upgradeable RAM on a new Lenovo C940. I've gone out and seen a great price for it and not considered what I might actually need. Will the Iris plus graphics or 512 ssd make any difference?
The graphics will help a little bit, and an SSD is waaaay better than a HDD :) If you’ve already purchased then best just to be grateful for what you’ve got - its still a great new laptop! In the future you can always trade or upgrade if you workload increases and you find yourself editing hundreds of photos regularly. For the avrg hobbyist I dont think its a big deal :)
Finally the video i needed and my me happy with my purchase. I use 2x8gig and now i am putting in another 16gig the next days. even though i wanted to buy 2x16 i ended up buying only 1x16 as i see 32 ist enough. I used that extra money to by myself anew fast ssd. The two things combined will hopefully give me a great performance boost.
Hey Pengin... I hope it works for you, but if you're on an imac I'm pretty sure in the imac RAM works in 2x slots... So you'd need to fill both slots... You can't just fill one half and leave the other one empty. But maybe I'm totally wrong! Please update and let me know. Good luck
@@SignatureEdits hello i am not on an imac om on a windows pc :) i will upgrade my normal ssd to an much fast m2 ssd and upgrade vom from 16gig ram to 32. Just hope i will see a difference in performance.
Im gonna get the MacBook Pro but I don’t know if I should get the 8GB or the 16GB. I’m not doing any photo editing but I might do some light video editing but not regularly. I just need it for assignments, browsing etc
So I usually run photoshop along with Lightroom and 16gb of ram did not seem enough. You explained why perfectly, but do you think 32gb is enough to be running photoshop and Lightroom at the same time? Usually when I’m editing I don’t have anything else running, I might have safari open with a couple of tabs but nothing else.
Hey Loui! Personally if you're on a setup like me, I'd order 32gb in 2x16gb sticks... Then you can switch out the other 2 slots with more ram later if you need to. But in answering your question, probably its enough. You never really USE both PS and Lightroom at the same time... You just have them both running. There is a big difference. Only the app being used is going to be drawing full ram.. The other will just be consuming a background amount.
Another thing to keep in mind is that software changes over time with updates. Just because it doesn't use as much ram now doesn't mean it won't later. Always get more than you need to future proof your computer. When I built my pc I put two 8 GB sticks of ram in it. One stick has gone bad so I'm running on just 8 GB. It was doing ok for a while but is now struggling after updating Lightroom. Photoshop is worse. The brush tool lags when using it. I plan on upgrading to 32 GB. If Lightroom is using up to 20 GB there's no telling what Photoshop uses. Especially when focus stacking or doing other complex tasks. I put the AMD 1800X CPU in my pc. That was 3 years ago. I'm thinking about upgrading it as well. I'm not even going to try to upgrade the GPU for a while. Not that I can right now anyway. They're hard to find and still over priced.
Solid point Carl! My test was more about finding the point at which you start seeing diminishing returns in performance... Which appears to be about 32gb is the sweet spot for bang for buck atm... BUt you're right, this might be 64gb in 2024
i have 128GB ram and photoshop used 90GB of that 128 during digital painting of a huge file with many layers. Then i upgraded to 250GB and it used 120GB of ram. now that's both insane and impressive!
crazy! thanks for sharing. its true you can use huge ram with crazy large projects! for most users though doing general touchups or graphic design they will probably never come close to this :) but it all depends what you use PS for!
I have 16gb on my pc and noticed that it always peaked while using lightroom sometimes kight woulg get a bit slow. I was wondering upgrading to 32 to have more room for lightroom ram usage. This tests proves me that I was right to consider upgrading my ram
So, yeah, kind of, SSD's do help but just not a whole hell of a lot in all adobe stuff...... But some adobe stuff does benefit noticeably if you set it up right... Specifically, The Lightroom "catalog" should be put on your fastest drive, [C: drive presumably] (this is non-negotiable so make sure there's is at least a few GB of space left on your C: drive for that as well as the GB's needed for the OS and the whole adobe suite) and yes it should be as fast as you can afford... It helps with everything, startup, browsing, ps/lr, all of it... The storage for your photos can be on slow drives so dont worry about buying a huge fast C:drive right away.
Hi Stefan! 16gb certainly will work for you - It just becomes a question of whether the speed increase is worth the $$ increase for you. If upgrading to 32gb is an extra $1000, if lets say you edit full time and it saves you 1hr of editing time per day, it's like saving $40 per day if you make $40/hr. That means that $40 per day will pay for the ram upgrade in just 25 days of editing ($40x25) so I would say in that situation it's worth it. That said if you're not using this laptop for full time paid work, then the cost difference might not be worth the time saved. Hope this helps!
@@SignatureEdits Thank you. I'm getting the MacBook Pro 16 in the i9 standard config with 16GB of Ram. I'm not editing full time. It's more for regular every day use. Office work and media consumption and some photo and video editing.
for photophop same goes. 4k display need good graphic card. psd file and psb file with hundred layers in 4k or 8k you need ram. cash history like going to 50 steps to 100 you need ram. and smart object layer consume ram too with smart filters on/off. still you need to change max allocation in preferences. with 32gb i put 20 for photophop and 8 for lightroom when working with both. rest is enough for wi ndows 10
Great breakdown, and good to know! I personally avoid photoshop unless its totally necessary, but if you're looking to use photoshop AND lightroom together a lot then 40gb or even 64gb might be worthwhile for you!
These days, i would say you are fine with any new mac, but id prioritize screen size over other specs! your edits will be a lot more accurate AND fun with a larger screen :)
@@SignatureEditsthank you I think about IMAC 5K RETINA 27-INCH CORE I7 3.8GHZ (2020),1TB,128GB ram with AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16GB…that will enough? I use only Lightroom and photoshop
Yes it definitely would be. Overkill tbh. Personally though I'd recommend going with a new M2 mac over a spec'd out older one. Even though the older one has more RAM etc, it's just not going to be as future proof and take advantage of apples software the way the new chips do. @@fabiankowalski3356
But what If I open photoshop and work and multiple layer. Wouldn’t it saturate my 32go? (Unless you have to close Lr every time) Also where does PS cache goes? RAM or SSD? I often miss space for my cache in PS
Great question Laurent - I wish I had tested this as well. The general gist of it is going to be the same... More RAM is obviously better, but around 40gb is where you start to see diminishing returns on performance vs $$ spent, since LR rarely came close to using that much. Remember RAM is only active memory, so when PS is open but not in use, it's not going to be using that much RAM. Same goes with LR. Only when you are editing / using the app does it start to draw much more significantly. But if you do a lot of work with big PS projects, 64gb would be your best bet just to be on the safe side!
That's a great question that I don't have an answer for! I'm sure there is a way to check though if you want to share how I can. The about this mac seems to show 2666hz.
does that imac have a decent GPU? recent lightroomu versions are hardware accelerated so it can actually take advantage of a powerful GPU especially when exporting or generating previews
Hey Vlad! Yes I have the highest spec GPU - Radeon Pro Vega 48 8 GB. TBH I have noticed only minimal differences with GPU enabled. Definitely not the night and day difference of the ram upgrade - So I'd say spend money on RAM if you're editing photos, whereas the GPU is more handy for video.
@@SignatureEdits im on on pc side of this and recently when ive upgraded to an rtx2060 ive notice quite a different on export times and previews rendering
It will struggle with only 8gb of ram. Upgrade to 16gb minimum - I would recommend more. The i5 and 256ssd will both be fine, although probably eventually you'll need to buy a separate SSD to edit your photos on as that's a small harddrive
I'm not a tech guru, but it sounds pretty clear that the i7 5ghz option would be better in terms of performance... Literally all of the specs you listed are higher with that one!
Great question - It depends on how old your macbook is. Anything early 2015 or older can be upgraded. Anything later is soldered directly to the computer and so can't be switched out afterwards!
Im not sure if you wouldnt have an advantage with 64GB because i dont know what apple calls memory used but its more in your graph than you have installed as RAM means some taks are diverted to the Harddrives you have installed.
True. That's why I found around 40gb is probably the sweet spot in terms of bang for buck! 64gb is definitely going to be better, but it's a diminishing return curve... So you'll notice a HUGE difference going from 8gb to 16gb, a BIG difference going from 16gb to 32gb, a good difference from 32 to 40gb, but maybe only a small improvement between 40gb and 64gb. If you have the $$ and just want the best, then go with 64gb or even 128gb. For those on a budget, 40gb is probably your best compromise between performance and price
One important missing piece of information is how large your files are. How many MP? What bit depth? JPG or RAW or both? The memory requirements will be much larger for 45MP compared to 24Mp. The size of the library may also make a difference to memory usage in LR.
Great point Ciaran - These were 28mp raw files, which I'm assuming is pretty typical to what the majority of photographers are using. Ram usage will increase with larger files - Hence getting a few gb more ram than you think you need is probably a good idea!
Well if 8 GB is already topping and you add 4 times the RAM it will of course perform better, just by lifting the 12 GB recommendation constraint. What about those above the recommended specification, like 16 and 32 GB?
You need a minimum of 16GB for any modern computer whatever you are doing. 32GB for Lightroom. I've got 64GB because my PC used quad channel and I couldn't get anything smaller than 16GB sticks of ECC RAM.
Im sorry but the logic on this video is entirely flawed. Yes you order for 100 people but you only need enough to eat for yourself. The issue is, you ordered 100 meals for any future meal you want to eat. I have 64gb ram, lightroom is more than happy to use 40gb+ . The methodology was based on one upgrade. I didnt see you try 64gb, but nevertheless state lightroom wouldn't utilize more, which it will.
You buy or build for what you will need in the future. Plus, Lightroom and Photoshop will be recoding every year; to use more cores, threads and memory. So, I overbuild because I end up keeping my computers for five years. Then I give them to a family member. There are fifteen year old machines that my family tell me are working great today. Perhaps, a newer GPU improves basic gaming. But, no, overbuild.
Hey John! Whether you should or shouldn't is up to you, but using photoshop I'd definitely go with more than 8gb if I had the choice. 24gb would be great and you'd see significant improvement
@@SignatureEdits No, for the simple demonstration of how easy it is to install your own RAM in the iMac - I nearly fell for Apples horrendously inflated prices!
That's very true! There is also a big difference between the MPG of your average car and how much it actually burns when you put your foot on the floor... But the average MPG is still a helpful thing to know :) If you have a different experience with RAM in LR definitely feel free to share :) Thanks for your comment Zep!
Regarding that "extra RAM sitting there doing nothing". I Added RAM a few days ago (went from 8 to 16 GB). Lightroom performance has increased noticeably! I monitor my RAM usage (CTRL-ALT-DEL --> task manager --> performance tab) and i saw that since I upgraded, the usage went from 5.7 GB (which at first thought made the upgrade questionable) to 8.1 GB. Seems that that LR "allows itself" to use more RAM. So my conclusion is - the more you give it - the more it uses! I guess there is some kind of regulation protocol in windows. So if you're already running on SSD, adding RAM is the most "cost efficient" boost you can give your machine. Cheers from Israel!
Great breakdown Hudi - Thanks for sharing your experience! Yes I totally agree - Lightroom will never use ALL of your systems available ram, as your computer requires some for other tasks in order to function. There IS a point of diminishing returns however when it comes to RAM use, and that point is around 32gb from my tests. Upgrading to 40gb will show some improvement. Upgrading again to 64gb will be minimal. Upgrading after this point would likely not be noticeable!
For Lightroom not as important as RAM, but for other applications like photoshop or premiere yes. In general if you're just doing photos - Spend more on the ram. If you're doing video, the GPU is going to be very important. Newer versions of LR are starting to use a little more GPU too.
You're assuming that Lightroom is the only application that would be running. Also, as soon as you want to edit in Photoshop while Lightroom is running you'll want more RAM. Get as much as you can afford.
You're right! Most of this is done with the assumption that you're only using Lightroom and not Lightrom + Photoshop with intensive edits. I should have mentioned that one! That said, even when I'm using both (Which admittedly is probably a lot less than some people!) I still haven't used up all my available ram - So I'd say anything over 32gb you're going to see diminishing returns on your money vs performance increase. I'd expect most people wouldn't see much improvement if they were to go past 40gb, so the extra $600-$800 to upgrade to 128g is probably not worth as much as a new lens, future computer upgrade etc. But that's totally just my opinion - Great point either way!
What a poor advice. You only have to buy what you need, else it's a waste of money and resources. 32 is already considered overkill by many and it's not like you can actually use both those programs at once.
MJ Not so. When I start Lightroom it immediately grabs almost all of my 16gb of memory. That leaves little left for Photoshop. Often I get windows messages indicating out of memory when I do that.
@@mikedixonphoto That looks totally unreasonable to me. No software without doing anything should use that much of RAM. Not even latest games with massive worlds use that much RAM. And we are talking here about a program that only works with 2D stuff. I would check if your computer is actually working fine. I would scan it for viruses and malware. I'm not too familiar with Macs, but maybe Mac OS just like Windows 10 likes to use RAM for nothing crucial jus tto speed up opening stuff, meaning that everything will work fine with less RAM, but if you have excessive resources, then it will use some of them. It's possible that Lightroom has memory leaks. Anyway, such a massive RAM usage looks totally unreasonable to me.
@@MJ-uk6lu It does. I'm a software developer. I'm an ex-Microsoft employee. I know what I'm doing, and I know how to see how much RAM something is using.
that’s weird....🤔 on my MBR late 2018 full spec Vega 20 32 giga of Ram LR is use almost all the ram available and when I’m using with photoshop ( almost all the time ) LR is getting bugging when exporting the photos and in the main time using the developer menu is almost impossible.... I think 64giga is worth....
Interesting - Thanks for sharing your experience. Honestly a desktop will always outperform a similar laptop BUT that still seems like you've got some serious performance issues. My gut instinct is changing some settings in your catalogue / preferences might make a big difference. Try turning OFF gpu acceleration as I found that slowed things down a lot for me. Also watch things like catalogue size, enable smart previews etc... Let me know if any of these help as I'm super curious as to why it's working so poorly for you... Might be a classic MBP throttling issue more than a "not enough ram"... But I might be wrong
what happens when 6 friends turn up as a surprise on your Chinese take-out evening, oh you have food for all. Lesson, have as much RAM as you can fit/afford as you never know when you may need it ! I edit 2-3Gb tiffs and when lightroom and photoshop are open together along with a few other apps, I can use over 50Gb of RAM, so for me 64Gb is the best level of ram in my iMac and my MBP.
Hahaha that is a unique analogy. I like it. If you can splurge for 64gb by all means! For most hobbyists I personally think 40gb is the upper limit of what they'll use, but of course it depends what you're editing :)
Hmm great question - TBH I would need to research this as I don't know a ton about it. Right now I just use my internal SSD as its a LOT faster than trying to work off of an external HDD. I'll look into it!
32gb Ram Upgrade Kit for 2019 iMac/2018 Mac Mini: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K3945MM/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07K3945MM&linkCode=as2&tag=signatureedit-20&linkId=49bd833e3ca8add7b219c7d77f358065
instablaster
Thanks for sharing these Reggie!
Phew! After 10 videos finally found an actual intelligent guy who satisfied me for the topic ... Thanks bro
Hahaha thanks mate - Glad to help :) I had the same problem which is why I made the video!
I've even chatted with multiple people at OWC, and even they couldn't give me the info I needed. Typically, the most common answer is, "the more RAM, the better" which isn't true in certain circumstances. This was fantastic, and exactly what I wanted to know. I'd love to see you do this test with Photoshop as well! A super huge THANK YOU!
Totally agree haha which is why I figured id test it for myself. Might do a Ps test in the future but im honestly not enough of a power user that i dont know if id use the ram others do with huge projects and tons of layers. My guess would be 32-40gb is great for most people, power users 64gb would be optimal
First video I've found answering my question and backing it up with some real world examples. And a very nicely done video at that... THANK YOU.
Glad it was helpful Steve! I figured if I had the ram question, other people must have it too haha.
You nailed it. I have seen at least 5 videos that weren't so helpful before this. Thank you mate!
Glad to hear it! Thanks Johnny!
This was SO helpfull, thank you so much for making this
So glad to hear it Emil! You're very welcome
Great Video... everything on computers is geared towards gaming.... I'm an Artist and wanted to put 32gb in my RAM slots but couldn't find a video with proof it works better...
I had the exact same issue haha - Which is why I made the video. Glad it helped!
Nice video. Coming over from Gates-country and dipping my toes in Jobs-technology. You have the right idea on memory, buy aftermarket kits. I am looking at two iMac 27 5K machines, one to edit video on and one to encode, monitor social spaces, etc. How is it working from say 4 or 5 different external hard drives? Work on a 100GB project locally and then export it to external? Just curious about what others are doing with huge data?
Haha welcome to the apple universe. I personally haven't played with HUGE projects.. Most of mine are max 200gb so I just edit on my internal SSD and then export files to my desktop before moving finished projects + exports to an external HD for backup. This works great for me as the less back and forth I have to do the easier my life is and the less likely I am to make a mistake... But I'm lucky enough to only really need to work on 1-2 projects at once. Definitely more experience people out there than me for this kind of video work!
Super incredibly helpful. I was looking everywhere for an answer to this defining question for Lightroom and you answered it clearly and quickly, THANK YOU!
Thanks for this tutorial Ryan. I'm running a mid 2011 27 inch iMac and have recently upgraded from 8gb to 20gb of RAM and there is a definite difference. I'm also planning to run my entire system from an external SSD drive with Thunderbolt connection instead of the internal spinning drive. I'm hoping that this also will improve performance.
Awesome, glad to help! Yes hopefully the SSD should make a big difference for you as well - Let me know how you find it!
@Grimmlord Blakk Here's the video instructions that I watched.
ruclips.net/video/VyZlDwV1AOY/видео.html
Great video, really helpful, clear and straight to the point, thank you
Can I ask though for clarification, if the GPU will also greatly help the performance when using lightroom or does GPU doesn't really add that much to help with, eitherway thank you God bless
Your videos are very helpful! Useful content with a concise and captivating delivery. Props!
Amazing! Snapping and to the point - good review!
This was helpful! Was able to buy what I needed right away. Thank you!!
Question, how big are those files you are editing? Great video , tx
thanks, you pulled me over the line, been watching so many vids that i got confused. will get some time tec ram 2x 16 gb , fits the best for my specs on my nitro 5 laptop
Thanks for your tutorial for ram info, I am ordering a MacBook pro.and was wondering about how many gb of ram. Do you have a suggestion for the Graphics, Processor options also? Thanks again.
Hmm great question. First off do you need do this professionally or as a hobby? If a professional then it makes sense to spend more. If a hobby, then a slower computer might not matter that much. Personally I would order as much RAM as you can afford for the MBP as it will make a massive difference. Graphics depends on whether you edit videos or not. If no, then spend the money on the RAM instead. If you need it for video, then make sure to max out the graphics if you can swing it. Just my 2 cents based on personal experience.
I hope you didn't purchase the 13" MacBook pro this year. That thing is junk compared to 2020 standards . The keyboard is also shit. They will finally be releasing the new generation of 13" MacBook pros later this year just like they released the new 16"
Thank you. I was about to get 64gb but I don't really think I'd need all of that.
I'm going for 32gb instead.
You're very welcome! The great part about doing the 32gb (at least if you have 4 slots) is you can always upgrade the other 2 slots later on if you wind up needing more!
are you compositing images...or just applying colour adjustments?
Thanks for the information. First time I’ve seen anyone talk about ram which is very important. Do you think the 32gig is good enough for photoshop also? Thanks again great video.
Glad to help Micheal! The main reason I made this vid was because I couldn't find anything myself when I wanted to upgrade haha! I would say 32gb is going to be enough for photoshop. If you have an imac or something with 4 ram ports, you can always start with 2x 16gb and then upgrade down the road if you wind up needing the full 64! I've had 40gb for about a month now and I want to say the most I've used has been about 33gb while running LR, Photoshop and several other programs at the same time.
Signature Edits thanks very helpful. Now I know what direction to go.
Well done video. I myself used to work with 16 gb and sometimes it was awful. For normal sized images 16gb might be enough using lightroom. But, sometimes you need to do some further editing in photoshop. In case you are doing webdesign, you often hardly are able to close a browser. With 16gb or less everything already started to feel slow. Well, it was still workable. However, if you are doing landscape photography with hdr panoramas using workflows containing lightroom and photoshop, you simply need more than 16gb. Otherwise, everything becomes really slow and the probability of crashes is quite high! It can become quite frustrating.
Absolutely agree - 16gb is now juuuuuust enough for the latest versions of LR to run alright, but not enough for deep & intensive edits or super snappy performance.
Finally someone cracked down what the hell does the ram do and answered the upgrade benefits in real life situation.
Glad it helped! I had the same frustrations which is why I made the video haha
Thanks very much you just helped me to make up my decision
I had 16GB and was getting capped around 13-14GB making the system run quite sluggish so I'm upgrading to 32gb. I always thought 16Gb would be more than enough, but when working with 32.5MP photos and tons of complex layering over 50+ photos, I wouldn't be surprised if I'll see it using closer to 20-24Gb when I upgrade.
Absolutely - 16gb works for basic lightroom edits but even then it's not peak performance. I'd say 32gb is a good starting point, and 40gb is about the max MOST people would need before they stop noticing much benefit. (Always exceptions of course)
interesting observations Ryan...the size of images that you are dealing with is crucial too. Someone who works with hasselblad RAW images may require much more RAM than someone who uses RAW 35mm DSLR images.
Adobe apps LOVE RAM and can't get enough...please try your test with 100MP RAW medium format digital photos for confirmation.
Image compositors might also have something to say here as each layer that they add to an image slows them down .
As a reference, I use an elderly late 2012 Imac with 32GB of RAM and when working with component images for billboard production (typically outputting at a minimum of 30dpi at full size - 12metres by 3metres) I find that 32 GB is beneficial but not stellar...I do still get stalls and slowdowns on multi-layer images (5 or more layers). We also have bigger billboards (10metres by 12metres for example) and they are particularly slow to edit whe n I have to rebuild client files that have been badly made. Unfortunately due to the age of my system, it does not support more than 32GB so I cannot give my impressions on higher amounts of RAM, but 32GB sure beats the 8GB base memory that the computer came with (I remember editing back then...)!
Great insights Jabulani! I totally agree - Larger files will require more RAM. At the end of the day more RAM is always going to be better than less! For most users though who are on a budget, I still think around 40gb is the best "bang for buck". Amazing and helpful insights - Thanks so much!
Useful, to the point video that answers the question raised. Kudos!
Glad to hear it - Thanks EJb!
Ram is important, but if you have a bad cpu, you won't get far with good ram. Cpu with at least 8 cores and 12 threads is the minimum for good export without the cpu getting too hot. Raw files require an incredible amount of CPU power.
For Photoshop and Lightroom usage, 16gb or 32gb? thanks for the video!
Great video! That's super helpful, thanks :)
Thanks Simon!
Thanks for the insight regarding RAM use when using Lightroom. I was thinking of increasing my HP All-In-One 27inch from 16 gb to 32 gb but after seeing your video I will probably not increasing it.
This was super helpful. I am looking at getting a more recent iMac. What are the other considerations such as graphic card and CPU? What is important there?
Glad to help! Great question - With PS & Lightroom your CPU makes a big difference, but the graphics card upgrade is very marginal. So I'd invest in the best CPU you can afford and not worry so much about the graphics card. I wound up upgrading my graphics, but that's only because I do video work for this channel / other projects. For photos, you'll see better bang for your buck with CPU + RAM
I want that CleanClassic2 profile my friend, where is that from? :) nice video overall!
Hi Juliu! It comes with the Clean & Classic Preset pack available at shop.signatureedits.com. Feel free to download the free sample :)
Really helpful, thanks so much👌
Glad it was helpful! Thanks so much
i just subscirbe to lightroom and found loading very slow on my laptop. w 16gb ram. and going to upgrade to 32gb. thanks for taking time to figure this out and sharing.
Thanks Just what I was looking for . So if I have two slots filled with 4 each can I put any number in the other two Such as two 8s or do all 4 slots have to match ? Thanks
Hey Dave! You can put any 2 into the 2 slots, but those 2 need to match... 2 8gb or 2 16gb etc...
Incredibly helpful. Just saved me a BUNCH of $$$
Thank you, great video. One question please, I am getting two 16gb sticks of ram. I have seen that it is meant to work more efficiently, if i remove my two 4gb sticks and just use the 2 16gb sticks in slots 1 and 3 so it is dual channel, what ever that is?? And before I power down my mac is there anything i need to do before I remove the old sticks and replace with the new ones. and when the new sticks are in place do i just power up as normal. Thanks in advance, much appreciated!!
you will get marginally better performance if all the ram “matches” but you are still better off with 4 slots and 40gb vs 2 slots and 32gb of ram, even if they dont match! for installation check apple instructions :)
Very informative video. Thanks dude.
Glad to hear it - Thanks!
Well, nice comparison but: 1. its mac based only and 2nd: even in 2019 8gb is really not much. Windows User rock 16 GB as mostly standard in 2019. So 8 vs 32 is a bit useless... 16 vs 32 is a way more useful comparison. This its only for people who are rocking a mac and upgrading from 8 to 32 GB. The way more common 16 to 32 gb is not mentioned and windows is not included. But anyways, nice video as always.
You just convinced to buy a used macbook pro 15” 2018 model w/32gb of ram instead of a cheaper 15” 2017 model w/16gb, obviously it’s going to be more expensive (450$ more), but I’m not risking to have an underwhelming performance in the upcoming years. So thank you so much for this photography themed review!!!
Glad it was helpful and hopefully saved you some regret haha. The 32gb makes a big difference. Enjoy your new computer!
Too much useful information you gave... I said it as a wedding photographer & cinematographer
Glad it was helpful! Thanks Sougata
Great video!
Glad you enjoyed it!
nice video. what du you think about fcpx. needs thins application 20 gb too? Thanks Marco
Hi Marco! Fcpx as well as premiere pro are more about the GPU than the RAM. Ram still makes a difference but for video the best thing you can do is upgrade to the best GPU you can afford.
I love this channel!!! LOL Could you do an episode where you edit our photos?
Thanks Peter! Great idea - Lets do it!
Signature Edits I would love to donate a picture. You can check me on IG at Parkview Studio
Very useful info. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks Anas
Very helpful Ryan there are so many 'views' about LRs hunger for RAM it is good too have a practical demonstration of how much is needed to stop windows paging to the HDD. I did my upgrade from 16 to 32Gb some months back to allow for the background programs so I am happy that my decision making is on the correct track- now if I could remember to disable windows upgrades when have a lot of editing to do that would be me sorted. 😁
Right on Derek! I'll also say that switching to a better GPU from the older macs to the M1 also makes a bigger difference than the amount of RAM.. My imac with 40gb is MUCH slower than my M1 Macbook with 16gb
Great advice. I've noticed my system lagging more & more as I use not only Lightroom, but sometimes Photoshop is open at the same time & - what really slowed it down - I recently purchased Luminar, which I use as a plug-in for LR. But it can take up to 5 minutes for ONE photo to process in Luminar after I hit the 'apply' button, so the thought of processing an entire holiday's-worth of photos that way fills me with dread. So yes, I will most definitely be upgrading my 8GB of RAM. Thanks for the video!
Wow 5 minutes for one photo is crazy! Must be a great edit haha. Glad the video was helpful Andy!
Great video and answered a question I too have been searching for... will upgrading my late 2013 27" iMac from 16GB to 32GB be worth the approx $150. And based on your fantastic video I will upgrade... I run Photoshop simultaneously so that is a RAM user as well. Thank you Signature Edits! Sincerely, Joseph
Glad I could help! Let me know here what the improvement is like once you've installed!
I been running 32GB since 2018 and about to upgrade to 64GB.
Nice!
great video
Planning on building a custom PC and this helped me alot in my planning. I wish there was a comparison for photoshop and premiere pro
Glad it helped Steven! Yes I hear you. Perhaps I'll do a PS or Premiere compare in the future!
very good video!
Thank you very much!
Did you by chance do any work with panoramic, HDR photos? For example, I've taken HDR pano's that end up being 30-40 shots put together. I do a fair number of pano's and when I start trying to edit, things can just die :)
Hi Paul! While I don't personally do HDR or pano (I've only done so a couple times) I know RAM would make a massive difference. The larger the file size and more layers in a project, the more RAM photoshop / lightroom / your application is going to want
Would love to know how much extra ram would speed up HDR merging using Enfuse. You must be in real estate?
Just a heads up wonderful comparison but ram is a very intricate part of the machine which you should preface to do a solid amount of research before just throwing it into a machine. make sure you get a ram kit with similar speed and latency to your current kit. If you skimp and buy some stuff with out proper knowledge your workstation could become unstable and can cost you time and money in an unexpected error.
Thank u!!!
You're welcome!
I have 8GB of Ram on my computer. While it is laggy, I can get by. Where the problems arise is when I export a photo into photoshop. That is when my computer crashes.
Nice
starting to feel gutted I've only gone for 8gb non upgradeable RAM on a new Lenovo C940. I've gone out and seen a great price for it and not considered what I might actually need. Will the Iris plus graphics or 512 ssd make any difference?
The graphics will help a little bit, and an SSD is waaaay better than a HDD :) If you’ve already purchased then best just to be grateful for what you’ve got - its still a great new laptop! In the future you can always trade or upgrade if you workload increases and you find yourself editing hundreds of photos regularly. For the avrg hobbyist I dont think its a big deal :)
@@SignatureEdits mam you know its totally fine. It's capable of doing what I need it to! 🤓 Even 4k video, so happy days
Great info thanks
You’re very welcome, thanks William!
Good info 👌🏽
Glad you think so! Thanks Jose
Lightroom can use a lot. I already managed to use Lightroom and Windows together with around 24GB.
True. That's why I found around 40gb is probably the sweet spot in terms of bang for buck!
Finally the video i needed and my me happy with my purchase. I use 2x8gig and now i am putting in another 16gig the next days. even though i wanted to buy 2x16 i ended up buying only 1x16 as i see 32 ist enough. I used that extra money to by myself anew fast ssd. The two things combined will hopefully give me a great performance boost.
Hey Pengin... I hope it works for you, but if you're on an imac I'm pretty sure in the imac RAM works in 2x slots... So you'd need to fill both slots... You can't just fill one half and leave the other one empty. But maybe I'm totally wrong! Please update and let me know. Good luck
@@SignatureEdits hello i am not on an imac om on a windows pc :) i will upgrade my normal ssd to an much fast m2 ssd and upgrade vom from 16gig ram to 32. Just hope i will see a difference in performance.
Thanks!
Welcome! Thanks for the super thanks :) I appreciate it!
Im gonna get the MacBook Pro but I don’t know if I should get the 8GB or the 16GB. I’m not doing any photo editing but I might do some light video editing but not regularly. I just need it for assignments, browsing etc
So I usually run photoshop along with Lightroom and 16gb of ram did not seem enough. You explained why perfectly, but do you think 32gb is enough to be running photoshop and Lightroom at the same time? Usually when I’m editing I don’t have anything else running, I might have safari open with a couple of tabs but nothing else.
Hey Loui! Personally if you're on a setup like me, I'd order 32gb in 2x16gb sticks... Then you can switch out the other 2 slots with more ram later if you need to. But in answering your question, probably its enough. You never really USE both PS and Lightroom at the same time... You just have them both running. There is a big difference. Only the app being used is going to be drawing full ram.. The other will just be consuming a background amount.
Another thing to keep in mind is that software changes over time with updates. Just because it doesn't use as much ram now doesn't mean it won't later. Always get more than you need to future proof your computer. When I built my pc I put two 8 GB sticks of ram in it. One stick has gone bad so I'm running on just 8 GB. It was doing ok for a while but is now struggling after updating Lightroom. Photoshop is worse. The brush tool lags when using it. I plan on upgrading to 32 GB. If Lightroom is using up to 20 GB there's no telling what Photoshop uses. Especially when focus stacking or doing other complex tasks. I put the AMD 1800X CPU in my pc. That was 3 years ago. I'm thinking about upgrading it as well. I'm not even going to try to upgrade the GPU for a while. Not that I can right now anyway. They're hard to find and still over priced.
Solid point Carl! My test was more about finding the point at which you start seeing diminishing returns in performance... Which appears to be about 32gb is the sweet spot for bang for buck atm... BUt you're right, this might be 64gb in 2024
i have 128GB ram and photoshop used 90GB of that 128 during digital painting of a huge file with many layers. Then i upgraded to 250GB and it used 120GB of ram. now that's both insane and impressive!
crazy! thanks for sharing. its true you can use huge ram with crazy large projects! for most users though doing general touchups or graphic design they will probably never come close to this :) but it all depends what you use PS for!
Thank you very much. I only have 16gb and slack a lot. You explained this swift like you have a 32 gb speed of RAM! Really appreciated
Haha thanks Gamma - Glad it was helpful!
I have 16gb on my pc and noticed that it always peaked while using lightroom sometimes kight woulg get a bit slow. I was wondering upgrading to 32 to have more room for lightroom ram usage. This tests proves me that I was right to consider upgrading my ram
What about the SSD? Does it make any difference for Photoshop & Lightroom?
So, yeah, kind of, SSD's do help but just not a whole hell of a lot in all adobe stuff...... But some adobe stuff does benefit noticeably if you set it up right... Specifically, The Lightroom "catalog" should be put on your fastest drive, [C: drive presumably] (this is non-negotiable so make sure there's is at least a few GB of space left on your C: drive for that as well as the GB's needed for the OS and the whole adobe suite) and yes it should be as fast as you can afford... It helps with everything, startup, browsing, ps/lr, all of it... The storage for your photos can be on slow drives so dont worry about buying a huge fast C:drive right away.
I'm buying a new macbook. Is 16GB of ram enough? 32GB cost a lot.
Hi Stefan! 16gb certainly will work for you - It just becomes a question of whether the speed increase is worth the $$ increase for you. If upgrading to 32gb is an extra $1000, if lets say you edit full time and it saves you 1hr of editing time per day, it's like saving $40 per day if you make $40/hr. That means that $40 per day will pay for the ram upgrade in just 25 days of editing ($40x25) so I would say in that situation it's worth it. That said if you're not using this laptop for full time paid work, then the cost difference might not be worth the time saved. Hope this helps!
@@SignatureEdits Thank you. I'm getting the MacBook Pro 16 in the i9 standard config with 16GB of Ram. I'm not editing full time. It's more for regular every day use. Office work and media consumption and some photo and video editing.
for photophop same goes. 4k display need good graphic card. psd file and psb file with hundred layers in 4k or 8k you need ram. cash history like going to 50 steps to 100 you need ram. and smart object layer consume ram too with smart filters on/off. still you need to change max allocation in preferences. with 32gb i put 20 for photophop and 8 for lightroom when working with both. rest is enough for wi ndows 10
Great breakdown, and good to know! I personally avoid photoshop unless its totally necessary, but if you're looking to use photoshop AND lightroom together a lot then 40gb or even 64gb might be worthwhile for you!
What iMacs do you recommend for hobbyists photographer? (Budget up to £2000)
These days, i would say you are fine with any new mac, but id prioritize screen size over other specs! your edits will be a lot more accurate AND fun with a larger screen :)
@@SignatureEditsthank you
I think about IMAC 5K RETINA 27-INCH CORE I7 3.8GHZ (2020),1TB,128GB ram with AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16GB…that will enough? I use only Lightroom and photoshop
Yes it definitely would be. Overkill tbh. Personally though I'd recommend going with a new M2 mac over a spec'd out older one. Even though the older one has more RAM etc, it's just not going to be as future proof and take advantage of apples software the way the new chips do.
@@fabiankowalski3356
But what If I open photoshop and work and multiple layer. Wouldn’t it saturate my 32go? (Unless you have to close Lr every time) Also where does PS cache goes? RAM or SSD? I often miss space for my cache in PS
Great question Laurent - I wish I had tested this as well. The general gist of it is going to be the same... More RAM is obviously better, but around 40gb is where you start to see diminishing returns on performance vs $$ spent, since LR rarely came close to using that much. Remember RAM is only active memory, so when PS is open but not in use, it's not going to be using that much RAM. Same goes with LR. Only when you are editing / using the app does it start to draw much more significantly. But if you do a lot of work with big PS projects, 64gb would be your best bet just to be on the safe side!
Great!!!!
Awesome!!!!
When you upgraded were you able to keep the ram running at 2666mhz , some people report it downgrading to 2400 MHz when leaving in the stock ram
That's a great question that I don't have an answer for! I'm sure there is a way to check though if you want to share how I can. The about this mac seems to show 2666hz.
does that imac have a decent GPU? recent lightroomu versions are hardware accelerated so it can actually take advantage of a powerful GPU especially when exporting or generating previews
Hey Vlad! Yes I have the highest spec GPU - Radeon Pro Vega 48 8 GB. TBH I have noticed only minimal differences with GPU enabled. Definitely not the night and day difference of the ram upgrade - So I'd say spend money on RAM if you're editing photos, whereas the GPU is more handy for video.
@@SignatureEdits im on on pc side of this and recently when ive upgraded to an rtx2060 ive notice quite a different on export times and previews rendering
@@moldo.cel.barbos Glad to hear it! Perhaps that will carry over to mac with a future update *fingers crossed*
Hi I’m getting a 2020 MacBook Pro will Lightroom raw photos work with quad core i5 and 8gb ram with 256gb ssd
It will struggle with only 8gb of ram. Upgrade to 16gb minimum - I would recommend more. The i5 and 256ssd will both be fine, although probably eventually you'll need to buy a separate SSD to edit your photos on as that's a small harddrive
Signature Edits too late
whats better i7 9700 (turbo 4.4ghz all core) with 32gb 2666mhz or i7 9700k 5ghz all core with 32gb 3200mhz
I'm not a tech guru, but it sounds pretty clear that the i7 5ghz option would be better in terms of performance... Literally all of the specs you listed are higher with that one!
Can you buy more RAM for the MacBooks too?
Great question - It depends on how old your macbook is. Anything early 2015 or older can be upgraded. Anything later is soldered directly to the computer and so can't be switched out afterwards!
Im not sure if you wouldnt have an advantage with 64GB because i dont know what apple calls memory used but its more in your graph than you have installed as RAM means some taks are diverted to the Harddrives you have installed.
True. That's why I found around 40gb is probably the sweet spot in terms of bang for buck! 64gb is definitely going to be better, but it's a diminishing return curve... So you'll notice a HUGE difference going from 8gb to 16gb, a BIG difference going from 16gb to 32gb, a good difference from 32 to 40gb, but maybe only a small improvement between 40gb and 64gb.
If you have the $$ and just want the best, then go with 64gb or even 128gb. For those on a budget, 40gb is probably your best compromise between performance and price
One important missing piece of information is how large your files are. How many MP? What bit depth? JPG or RAW or both? The memory requirements will be much larger for 45MP compared to 24Mp. The size of the library may also make a difference to memory usage in LR.
Great point Ciaran - These were 28mp raw files, which I'm assuming is pretty typical to what the majority of photographers are using. Ram usage will increase with larger files - Hence getting a few gb more ram than you think you need is probably a good idea!
Well if 8 GB is already topping and you add 4 times the RAM it will of course perform better, just by lifting the 12 GB recommendation constraint. What about those above the recommended specification, like 16 and 32 GB?
I got the iMac 2019 8gb of ram. And once I added 2 more 8gb of ram my light room became faster
You need a minimum of 16GB for any modern computer whatever you are doing. 32GB for Lightroom. I've got 64GB because my PC used quad channel and I couldn't get anything smaller than 16GB sticks of ECC RAM.
how about ram for Lightroom mobile ?
Im sorry but the logic on this video is entirely flawed. Yes you order for 100 people but you only need enough to eat for yourself. The issue is, you ordered 100 meals for any future meal you want to eat. I have 64gb ram, lightroom is more than happy to use 40gb+ . The methodology was based on one upgrade. I didnt see you try 64gb, but nevertheless state lightroom wouldn't utilize more, which it will.
You buy or build for what you will need in the future. Plus, Lightroom and Photoshop will be recoding every year; to use more cores, threads and memory. So, I overbuild because I end up keeping my computers for five years. Then I give them to a family member. There are fifteen year old machines that my family tell me are working great today. Perhaps, a newer GPU improves basic gaming. But, no, overbuild.
Hi all I have an Intel 7th on windows 10 pro gpu 1050 4gb with 8gb should i put 16gb more =24gb ? I use photoshop, illustrator and Autocad
Hey John! Whether you should or shouldn't is up to you, but using photoshop I'd definitely go with more than 8gb if I had the choice. 24gb would be great and you'd see significant improvement
Signature Edits ok thank you
Mate, you've just saved me literally *HUNDREDS* of pounds. For that you get a subscribe :)
Haha that's awesome Tom - I take it you contacted Adobe?! Glad it worked out for you!
@@SignatureEdits No, for the simple demonstration of how easy it is to install your own RAM in the iMac - I nearly fell for Apples horrendously inflated prices!
There is a big difference between how much ram an application actually needs and how much it requests.
That's very true! There is also a big difference between the MPG of your average car and how much it actually burns when you put your foot on the floor... But the average MPG is still a helpful thing to know :) If you have a different experience with RAM in LR definitely feel free to share :) Thanks for your comment Zep!
Is 8gb ram good enough for Filmora 9 editor?
I can't say! Probably enough to run it, but these days 16gb is the minimum I would recommend someone get if they are upgrading.
@@SignatureEdits Oki, thank you so much! 🙂
16Gb RAM / 1TB SSD / I7 gen 10 / Quad core (4) / 1.8Ghz speed / Turbo speed 4.9Ghz / Cachespace 8mb / Intel UHD graphics
Will such laptop runLR classic smooth?
RAM could be higher ideally, but yes it should do so just fine.
@@SignatureEdits and the 1.8ghz ? adobe reccomends 2.0 or higher
Regarding that "extra RAM sitting there doing nothing". I Added RAM a few days ago (went from 8 to 16 GB). Lightroom performance has increased noticeably! I monitor my RAM usage (CTRL-ALT-DEL --> task manager --> performance tab) and i saw that since I upgraded, the usage went from 5.7 GB (which at first thought made the upgrade questionable) to 8.1 GB. Seems that that LR "allows itself" to use more RAM. So my conclusion is - the more you give it - the more it uses! I guess there is some kind of regulation protocol in windows. So if you're already running on SSD, adding RAM is the most "cost efficient" boost you can give your machine.
Cheers from Israel!
Great breakdown Hudi - Thanks for sharing your experience! Yes I totally agree - Lightroom will never use ALL of your systems available ram, as your computer requires some for other tasks in order to function. There IS a point of diminishing returns however when it comes to RAM use, and that point is around 32gb from my tests. Upgrading to 40gb will show some improvement. Upgrading again to 64gb will be minimal. Upgrading after this point would likely not be noticeable!
is GPU important?
For Lightroom not as important as RAM, but for other applications like photoshop or premiere yes. In general if you're just doing photos - Spend more on the ram. If you're doing video, the GPU is going to be very important. Newer versions of LR are starting to use a little more GPU too.
I’m using 4 gb ram and my macbook is hell for me lol
Oh wow - Yes I don't doubt it! LR and PS would both really struggle with that haha
You're assuming that Lightroom is the only application that would be running. Also, as soon as you want to edit in Photoshop while Lightroom is running you'll want more RAM. Get as much as you can afford.
You're right! Most of this is done with the assumption that you're only using Lightroom and not Lightrom + Photoshop with intensive edits. I should have mentioned that one! That said, even when I'm using both (Which admittedly is probably a lot less than some people!) I still haven't used up all my available ram - So I'd say anything over 32gb you're going to see diminishing returns on your money vs performance increase. I'd expect most people wouldn't see much improvement if they were to go past 40gb, so the extra $600-$800 to upgrade to 128g is probably not worth as much as a new lens, future computer upgrade etc. But that's totally just my opinion - Great point either way!
What a poor advice. You only have to buy what you need, else it's a waste of money and resources. 32 is already considered overkill by many and it's not like you can actually use both those programs at once.
MJ Not so. When I start Lightroom it immediately grabs almost all of my 16gb of memory. That leaves little left for Photoshop. Often I get windows messages indicating out of memory when I do that.
@@mikedixonphoto That looks totally unreasonable to me. No software without doing anything should use that much of RAM. Not even latest games with massive worlds use that much RAM. And we are talking here about a program that only works with 2D stuff. I would check if your computer is actually working fine. I would scan it for viruses and malware. I'm not too familiar with Macs, but maybe Mac OS just like Windows 10 likes to use RAM for nothing crucial jus tto speed up opening stuff, meaning that everything will work fine with less RAM, but if you have excessive resources, then it will use some of them. It's possible that Lightroom has memory leaks. Anyway, such a massive RAM usage looks totally unreasonable to me.
@@MJ-uk6lu It does. I'm a software developer. I'm an ex-Microsoft employee. I know what I'm doing, and I know how to see how much RAM something is using.
that’s weird....🤔 on my MBR late 2018 full spec Vega 20 32 giga of Ram LR is use almost all the ram available and when I’m using with photoshop ( almost all the time ) LR is getting bugging when exporting the photos and in the main time using the developer menu is almost impossible.... I think 64giga is worth....
Interesting - Thanks for sharing your experience. Honestly a desktop will always outperform a similar laptop BUT that still seems like you've got some serious performance issues. My gut instinct is changing some settings in your catalogue / preferences might make a big difference. Try turning OFF gpu acceleration as I found that slowed things down a lot for me. Also watch things like catalogue size, enable smart previews etc... Let me know if any of these help as I'm super curious as to why it's working so poorly for you... Might be a classic MBP throttling issue more than a "not enough ram"... But I might be wrong
what happens when 6 friends turn up as a surprise on your Chinese take-out evening, oh you have food for all. Lesson, have as much RAM as you can fit/afford as you never know when you may need it ! I edit 2-3Gb tiffs and when lightroom and photoshop are open together along with a few other apps, I can use over 50Gb of RAM, so for me 64Gb is the best level of ram in my iMac and my MBP.
Hahaha that is a unique analogy. I like it. If you can splurge for 64gb by all means! For most hobbyists I personally think 40gb is the upper limit of what they'll use, but of course it depends what you're editing :)
can you do a short video about LR/PS scratch disks?
Hmm great question - TBH I would need to research this as I don't know a ton about it. Right now I just use my internal SSD as its a LOT faster than trying to work off of an external HDD. I'll look into it!
Interesting results! However, we're not all slaves to Adobe creative suite, Capture One Pro & Affinity Photo get the job done with less fuss!
Haha yes there are some great alternatives out there - Although I haven't yet given them a try! Glad to hear they work for you :)