kfoo Loc: Arkansas

I have a 2012 Apple Desktop with 8 GB RAM. How much difference will 4 or 8 GB upgrade help in running Lightroom and Photoshop?

letmedance Loc: Walnut, Ca.

I am not sure you would notice the difference unless you a lot Memory intensive tasks in PS. Your Imac has 2 mem slots so 16GB would require both slots meaning you need to purchase two 8GB sticks, could be a bit pricey. By the way 16gb is the limit according to apple.

Fred Harwood Loc: Sheffield, Mass.

My 27-inch 2012 has 8 GB. Never notice a problem with several programs open and PS.

You can check your memory "load" with the system utility program Activity Monitor.app.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

I run PS CC on a girlfriends computer, that has less than 1GB of ram and I can tell it runs very slow!

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I run into this a lot. Using 16 gb ram is the absolute minimum, especially if your Mac does not have a separate graphics card, which means that the 8 gb ram has to serve your display, operating system and program execution. It will run, but it will be very slow on some operations. I run 32 gb ram in my 2011 Windows machine, and I have a separate graphics card and Photoshop loads in about 2 seconds, Lightroom takes a second longer. All operations are snappy, and judging by adhoc comparative benchmarks, my system nearly as fast as the latest machines. In particular, applying a gaussian blur, using content aware fill, stitching panoramas, merging HDR files, etc take a lot less time than an 8 gb iMac. With 16 gb the machine will feel quicker, especially in Photoshop, which accesses disk space (scratch disk) for program execution when it uses up all the available ram. Since the bulk of Lightroom's operations are done on tiny (by comparison) previews, it tends to be much less ram intensive. A 12 gb ram system should be fine, and you won't see much of a difference if you add more. To speed up LR from a machine resource point of view, a 6 or 8 core CPU will make a noticeable difference. If you are using a dual core machine, it will still work, but it will be slow.

"Never noticing a problem" is not nearly the same as fast and efficient program execution. I never had a "problem" with my 16 gb machine until I upgraded it to 32 gb.

How large your files are from your camera, in megapixels will determine how much ram is efficient. With a D200 and it's 10 mp files 16 gb was ok. With a D800, it wasn't. I have effectively turned off the scratch disk and all program execution takes place in ram.

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

Gene gives you the best answer. Now to the RAM. You can actually add more RAM than Apple claims. Go to OWC's site and look up your model iMac. They will tell you how much RAM you can actually use. Go for the maximum.
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac

mflowe Loc: Port Deposit, MD

I don't think you'll see too much difference unless you're stitching panos or working with a gazillion layers. I have 8gb in my imac and it process the large files from my D800 with no problem. But it never hurts to have more ram. It's fairly cheap.

xt2 Loc: British Columbia, Canada

Good advice! I did this some time ago and am running 64 and it really wakes up the computer quickly...

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

I have a mid 2010 27" iMac that I upgraded to 12 GB shortly after I bought it because RAM was too expensive in 2010 to go to 16 GB. I am surprised that you can even run LR and PS on 4 GB. I would suggest 16 GB if you can afford it. It will cost more because you will have to buy four memory boards instead of two like you are suggesting.

DJO

I have a mid-2007 iMac with a total of 4 GB of ram. I push my computer pretty hard and it handles Photoshop CS6 effortlessly.

bikertut Loc: Kingsville, MO

I have a mid 2011 Apple that had 4 GB RAM. There are 4 slots in the machine so I added 2-4GB upgrade bringing my total RAM to 12 GB. Don't have LR or PS but everything on the machine runs much faster. If I feel it is slowing, I will swap the 2 GB chips for 4 GB or more. Great investment for about $80.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Extra RAM will help up to a point. Diminishing marginal returns starts around 24 GB on a Mac running Mac OS 10.13.5.

As a Mac user, you should know about Other World Computing, a Mac peripherals company near Chicago. http://www.macsales.com is their site. Go there, enter the Model Identifier of your Mac, and they will tell you precisely what upgrades will work in your iMac.

SOME 27" iMacs that Apple said could only handle 16GB RAM really can handle 32GB, and for those, OWC sells the RAM modules.

SOME 21.5" iMacs that Apple says are not user-upgradeable really do have RAM sockets in them. OWC sells kits that allow you to crack the case and install both RAM and drive upgrades. Do your research. The "surgery" is for advanced users who are handy with tools and have very nimble hand-eye coordination and attention to detail. They have a great demonstration video on their site that explains the entire process.

OWC also has some videos on their site comparing the speeds of Macs with various amounts of RAM, and with SSD drives instead of conventional hard drives.

Generally, as upgrades go, adding an SSD and RAM are the two best ways to make a computer run faster than stock. Even a 7200 RPM drive will speed up I/O over a 5400 RPM hard drive. But an SSD is many, many times faster than either speed of conventional hard drive.

fstoprookie Loc: Central Valley of California

You didn't specify 21 or 27 inch iMac. 21in 2012 can ONLY go to 16GB memory, where as 27in 2012 can go to 32GB. I upgraded to 32GB memory and yes it did help in post processing speed.

leftj Loc: Texas

You need a minimum of 16gb total.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

I use LR and PS in combination, so both are usually open at the same time. I have 12 GB of RAM in my mid 2010 27" iMac and it works fine, but it is slow. Since I will be upgrading with a new fully loaded iMac or iMac Pro in the next few months, the amount of RAM will no longer be an issue.