# suggested RAM for heavy Lightroom and or Photoshop use



## spikey_dave (Sep 23, 2021)

Dear All,

I have a 27inch iMac late 2015 that is in great shape (despite running Big Sur) and it shipped with two 4gb RAM modules so I have a total of 8gb. I can not afford to get a new machine right now but am thinking of upgrading RAM - I have occasionally seem Memory in the RED on activity monitor.

Can anyone suggest if this is worthwhile, should i go for another two 4gb modules, two 8gb modules, where I should put these and if I should replace/carry on using my current 2x4gb modules?

There is a lot of conflicting advice on the web ...

As always, thank you for taking your time to answer,

P.S. My setup





Dave


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## Denis de Gannes (Sep 23, 2021)

I have 24 GB on my iMac mid-2015 27” 5K.
I would say 16 GB would be a bare minimum but more would be better, like 32 GB.


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## clee01l (Sep 23, 2021)

OWC (Mac sales.com) is the source for MAC RAM. You can search by iMac Model and find the right RAM for your iMac. There are even tutorial videos on how to install for your iMac


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Colin Grant (Sep 23, 2021)

My 2017 iMac has 32 gig ram and that performs well. Have an M1 on order, which is due in the next few days.


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## Paul McFarlane (Sep 23, 2021)

I use Lightroom and Photoshop all day on my MacPro - 32MB for sure, I'd suggest. You'll be amazed the difference additional RAM makes.

Cletus is right, if you're in the US, then OWC is the place to go.


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## Conrad Chavez (Sep 24, 2021)

I’ve used Macs with 16GB RAM and 32GB RAM with Lightroom Classic and Photoshop.
16GB seems to cover most but not all situations, and at 32GB there was often plenty of unused RAM (Memory Pressure always green).
From those observations I think 24 to 32GB RAM is the optimal range.

The more of the following are true for you, the more you would benefit from 32GB RAM:

Your image files tend to be on the larger side in terms of pixel dimensions, like above roughly 24 megapixels.
You edit files in Photoshop at 16 bits per channel.
Your Photoshop files tend to have many layers and masks.
You often keep multiple images open at the same time in Photoshop.
You keep Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, and other applications open at the same time. And if one of the other applications is a virtual machine.
You frequently merge panoramas in Lightroom Classic with a large number of images, like over 10 or 15 per panorama. This is more likely if you create two-dimensional or multi-row panoramas as is done for the Brenizer Method.
My Mac RAM upgrades have most recently come from OWC (macsales.com) and crucial.com; both are good.


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## sbancrof-me (Sep 27, 2021)

spikey_dave said:


> Dear All,
> 
> I have a 27inch iMac late 2015 that is in great shape (despite running Big Sur) and it shipped with two 4gb RAM modules so I have a total of 8gb. I can not afford to get a new machine right now but am thinking of upgrading RAM - I have occasionally seem Memory in the RED on activity monitor.
> 
> ...


I don't run Big Sur but I do have the same spec late 2015 machine (2tb fusion drive) but fitted with 24Gb RAM.   I keep Lightroom and PS up to date and generally find performance is OK for RAW file edits using LR & PS.   I don't do video editing just photos.  I am considering fitting  an SSD as I believe there is still some life in the old dog yet!


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## JohnSharman (Sep 27, 2021)

I have the exact same machine as yours but I have 32Gb ram and I don't do heavy lifting in Lightroom or Photoshop but my fairly light work was sometimes restricted its not the ram that's the problem its the graphics card if your going to do a lot of heavy work that AMD card with only 2gb is not really man enough. I found it struggle some time with only light work.


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## sohrabh (Sep 27, 2021)

I have a three-year-old Dell with Windows 10 Pro and a 28" 4k Samsung monitor. I have an SSD for the C drive and my pictures are on an external 4 terabyte USB3 hard drive. I have an i7 processor with 16 gigs of RAM and a 4-gig graphics card. I sometimes have Lightroom, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Topaz Denoise and Sharpening programs open on my taskbar while I am editing pictures. Everything works relatively smoothly until I start My Topaz programs and they do work relatively fast, but the cursor on my mouse gets jerky just while the program is doing its magic. In a couple of years or so when I get a new computer, it will definitely get 32 gigs of RAM and I will have an 8-gig graphics card. At my age that will be my last computer. Hopefully, the graphics cards and ram will be coming down in price.


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## camner (Sep 29, 2021)

It also matters how much RAM is taken up by the other stuff you have open on your iMac on a regular basis.  For example, I tend to keep lots of tabs open in Chrome, and that is a real RAM suck!  I recently replaced my 2015 27" iMac, and it had 32GB of RAM.  Because I kept a lot of stuff open, I found myself using swap files more often than is ideal, so I needed to slim down my menu of RAM hoggers if I wanted to get a better LR/PS experience.  On the other hand, if I tended to keep very little open other than LR/PS, I suspect that 16GB might have been adequate, but probably only minimally so.


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## Colin Grant (Sep 30, 2021)

Took delivery of my 16 gig ram, 1TB ssd  M1 Mac yesterday. It flies. I thought Lr/Ps ran well enough on my old 2017 iMac with 32 gig ram but it is a tortoise by comparison.


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## clee01l (Sep 30, 2021)

Colin Grant said:


> Took delivery of my 16 gig ram, 1TB ssd  M1 Mac yesterday. It flies. I thought Lr/Ps ran well enough on my old 2017 iMac with 32 gig ram but it is a tortoise by comparison.


It should be noted that:

The M1 computers only come with a maximum of 16GB of RAM.
The M1 chips use RAM differently than the Intel Macs. 
The OP is trying to save $ and save an older intel Mac by installing more RAM.


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## Colin Grant (Sep 30, 2021)

clee01l said:


> It should be noted that:
> 
> The M1 computers only come with a maximum of 16GB of RAM.
> The M1 chips use RAM differently than the Intel Macs.
> The OP is trying to save $ and save an older intel Mac by installing more RAM.


I know but this follows on from my earlier post.


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