iMac RAM Upgrade mixing different memory sticks: 27” iMac late 2013

[@GeekDetour]

Timetec Hynix 16GB (the kit I bought) on Amazon: ▶︎ geni.us/sAiI Compatible with the following 27" iMacs: - iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Mid 2015) - iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) - iMac (27-inch, Late 2013) - iMac (27-inch, Late 2012) The important specs for these models are: PC3-12800, Unbuffered, Nonparity, 204-pin, 1600MHz, DDR3 SDRAM Other iMac RAM Kits on Amazon: ▶︎ geni.us/J41q As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

[@ryzen2514]

If your this smart on tech why still use apple products I'm actually confused 🤔 because from the specs and the price on there products and also he ui isn't that great, Apple's products is garbage compare to any phone or pc. Pls respond I'm actually curious

[@weddingtree_]

*Hello Geek Detout* *I'm your new subscriber* *I like your videos very nice* *I need to upgrade my iMac 5k* *2017 can you suggest me a less* *and the best price of Ram*

[@OTCRock4one]

This is such a good video I had to subscribe to your channel. I was wondering about mixing ram etc and which slot to put them in, great job!

[@wizbangFLL]

@@ryzen2514 Well I've had my iMac running for over 9 years and only changed out the hdd with a ssd and increased ram. Every windows machine I have ever had couldn't be upgraded to the next OS without replacing the machine. IE: Win 7 to 10 (No way I was playing with Win 8 and the "Metro" of hell) I have had friends with really nice Windows machines that had to replace them before 5 years. But the other Apple selling point is how their products work together. I couldn't do 1/2 of what I do with Graphics, Video, or Audio on a Windows Machine. But windows has better versions of Office why I run it in a Virtual Machine. Beyond Office and some proprietary apps that clients use I have no need for Windows.

[@wizbangFLL]

@SLAN _FFA If the memory specs meet the requirements of the 27" iMac you are wanting to put the memory in.

[@mm277hb]

literally the best video i’ve found that answered all of my questions in one video.

[@GeekDetour]

Thank you! 😄

[@ChongHwi]

+1

[@johntancsics7362]

I agree well done video, great yet simple explaination

[@GeekDetour]

Hi everybody! I edited half of this video using 8GB of RAM (as I always did)... and later I tried 16GB and finally 24GB. Does it make a huge difference? From 8 to 16GB, A LOT! Moving from 16 to 24GB, hard to tell.

[@jomontanee]

I upgraded from 16 to 32. Hard to tell too. Waste of my money.

[@benjaminsher5164]

@@jomontanee I was getting "out of memory errors" in the software I run, other then that error going away, I see little difference as well.

[@NClayGary]

Hi. I have a Late 2013 iMac 27 with the I5 and NVDIA GT755 and 16GB of original factory RAM (two 8GB sticks). I have been a light user, but I left my corporate job to start a new business and I need to do start doing more video editing. I have already upgraded to an external SSD as my startup, which has been life-changing: I thought I would need to buy a new computer for my business, but I think I will keep this one now. Two questions: 1) Should I upgrade to 24GB (two 4GB sticks based on your explanation), 32GB, or am I good with 16GB? 2) My Mac seems to be running fine on Catalina, but I am wondering what you are thinking about yours as we reach the stage where Apple might stop supporting Catalina updates. I know you did this video 2-3 years ago, but the topic seems still relevant today. Thanks!

[@youletgowhy8843]

I love how you use the classic stopwatch instead of a phone or something.

[@GeekDetour]

Ha ha ha! I love using it! The touch feedback of real buttons is like nothing else - you won’t miss the mark 😁

[@johnbarbuto5387]

Very helpful. One comment: I upgraded from two 8GB sticks by adding two 16GB sticks. I used your instructions on order. It worked. But, it took maybe 20 seconds for the Apple startup chime to sound. I wasn't used to this and thought it wasn't working. I took the old chips out and restarted with just the new chips. I noticed that it took longer to make the startup sound. Since Geek Detour said mixing does work (and the people who sold me the new sticks also said it would work) I then re-installed the old sticks (using the correct order, as described herein), and it did work. So, if you make the upgrade then be sure to give the machine enough time to do whatever it does when it restarts.

[@teilorcapanema]

Man, you made the exact video that I needed. My situation is the same as yours. Thank you very much! Greetings from Brazil.

[@GeekDetour]

Glad it helped! É nóis 🤣🇧🇷

[@automatic250]

This guy is absolutely the best. He understands all the right iMac questions and how to answer them

[@davidjohnson9074]

This is exactly what I needed, went from 8 to 24 on my mid 2015 iMac but didn't notice much difference. When I reordered them the change was amazing, Thanks.

[@GeekDetour]

Hi David 👋 I am really happy for you, man! Thanks for sharing your experience!

[@JoonKang]

I was always wanting to upgrade my RAM, I discovered this video, after watching this video I order 2X8GB RAM right away and installed in the order you recommended, thank you!!!

[@GuyNoirxyz]

After several Google searches that did not result in answers to my RAM upgrade questions, you answered them all in one clear and entertaining video. Great job!

[@GeekDetour]

Thank you GuyNoir 😁 Really happy you enjoyed it!

[@automatic250]

Thanks for testing all those RAM combinations. I have 8GB of RAM and bought some new 16GB sticks. I loaded them in the optimal way just on a guess, but I appreciate your confirmation of my intuition.

[@tomberesnyak2686]

Thank you for the advice and perfect instructions! Upgraded my iMac to 24GB at a terrific price and it took less than 5 minutes!

[@GeekDetour]

That’s great, Tom! I am glad it helped you 🤗❤️

[@samchen587]

I did open 21.5" (2013) iMac for SSD (SATA) and memory upgrade (to 8gb x 2 = 16gb). Opening the slim line iMacs, with the right tools, is not that intimidating (actually, way easier than iPod classic). 21.5" iMac SSD upgrade (SATA) was a breeze, but memory -- took a lot of patience and time to complete. Fast forwards, my whole household only use 27" iMac (2013 x 2 and 2015 x 1). I bought all base models (i5, 8GB and HDD), but did the SSD (SATA) and memory upgrade on my own. Now, they all have 4gb x 2 and 8gb x 2 = 24 gb, like yours. I found SSD (even just SATA) would be the most single improvement from the upgrade. 27" iMac will need a hard drive bracket, into 3.5" for the SSD portion. I will highly suggest you to do an internal SSD replacement - I think you would be the right person to explore this task. Just get 1. the "pizza cutter" blade to cut the glue, 2. reseal strip and 3. hard drive bracket 4. the SSD of your choice When applying the reseal tapes on the aluminum case - do not bother to use the bottom strip AND do not peal the "second side of the double tape" until MUCH LATER. You first align the screen , connect the 2 cables to the screen. I usually use an electric tape to hold them together -- boot it up and restore, to make sure all is working first. I stressed test them for few days, before completing the seal process. I later removed the electric tape, then by holding the screen close to the case, you can gently pull the taps from the double-side take to seal it -- all three-sides. I found pure SSD experience is much better than Fusion drive. I mainly do music, sound editing. Good luck and Thank you for the opening iPod Classic tricks.

[@GeekDetour]

Sam, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED your comment! This type of exchange is so precious - thank you for giving your perspective and personal experience. I must confess I am very afraid of opening my iMac... it is my main computer - I really depend on it to work and pay the bills. The iPod Classic was a superfluous project... it was already unusable, so, I had nothing to lose. If I break my iMac, right now it would be a huge financial problem to me! This fear is leading me to try an external SSD - although I really feel the best thing would be an internal upgrade. Let’s see...

[@nowlaj]

I purchased a 32gb kit for my wife’s new iMac 27 2020 edition. Took it from 8gb to 40gb and it helps a lot when you have photoshop, word, and acrobat open. It only came with a 256gb ssd so I added a 2tb Samsung ssd with usb c native connectivity. Wow it’s fast. While I kept an admin account on the main ssd, I moved her home folder to the ssd to help with space. Works great.

[@GeekDetour]

Interesting! Moving the user folder to the external SSD seems nice! Your iMac already came with an internal SSD, that should be enough for the apps. On my iMac I am considering installing everything on an external SSD, it should be faster than the internal Fusion Drive (that only has 128GB of SSD). Happy 2021!!!

[@cholulized]

I just followed your steps and it is now 40gb of Ram in my 2019 iMac 27 " instead 8gb. I got the Tecmiyo brand and it's working... Awesome video, thanks dude!!!

[@rasputinnz666]

My tip is about speeding up your iMac. Never restore from TimeMachine. You just keep all the conflicts of software from days gone by. Use Time Machine by all means as your backup device but drag your documents and library files from Time Machine to the equivalent locations on your iMac after you have returned it to new through the Cmd+R command/erase Disk and Reinstall OS - or if you have bought a new iMac. You will need to show hidden files to get access to the Library using Cmd+Shift+. - Apple updates the OS every year and this eventually slows your system down. That is why a clean install is best. You will be amazed how much longer your iMac will last you if you follow this basic housekeeping tip that almost nobody recommends because Apple is supposed to take care of it for you. They don’t. They WANT you to upgrade your machine! Using this method you can regain the speed and efficiency you had when your iMac was new.

[@bernhardnizynski4403]

Would the same increase is speed be achieved by removing all the previous/older software updates?

[@rasputinnz666]

Bernhard Nizynski I imagine there could be some improvement but a clean install is what Apple recommends on a newly formatted hard drive. Think about how many upgrades there are over the years. Mine went back 2010 on my time machine. I wouldn’t ever do a partial clean out after the astonishing results I achieved. I won’t need to upgrade for at least 2 years now. My iMac will be a high performance machine much longer than any PC at a similar price. Plus you dump all those useless and unused installed software you never use anymore and everything sitting on your system related with them.

[@2RGGrannyJeff]

Thanks for your video. I pulled an old 2013 27" iMac out of the closet that had a bad HD. When I originally replaced it, I could barely click on an icon without it beach-balling on me for 3-4 minutes. Surprisingly, when I plugged it up, it worked pretty good for web browsing. I wasn't running Final Cut or PS at all. So I made a Time Machine backup (which took about 5 days, yikes!) When it was fully backed up, I replaced the old HD with a 1TB SSD HD and bought 2 8GB sticks of RAM to upgrade from the two original 8GB (16 total) in the iMac. This almost 10 Mac is REALLY fast with just the SSD. I look forward to added 16 more GB of RAM (32 total). Thanks for your help on this one. I'm not a computer wiz, but youtube videos like yours made this an easy process and I have an extra iMac to use downstairs that's blazing fast and about to be even faster.

[@GeekDetour]

Yeah! The change to an SSD shows how much the Hard Disks were a bottleneck in computers’ performance! CPU waits A LOT for things to come from disk, or to be saved to the disk - this is definitely one of the greatest revolutions of the new M1 and M2 Apple Silicon: they are working on eliminating bottleneck that the industry was not tackling.

[@2RGGrannyJeff]

@@GeekDetour Oh man, there's such a night and day difference between SSD and regular HD. I've had a Macbook Pro with SSD for years. Got it like 9-10 years ago when SSD was way more expensive, so it only has a 256 SSD HD but it still works and runs pretty quick. By the way, updated the ram on the old iMac. This thing is a beast now.

[@GeekDetour]

You are so right! I also use a 2011 MacBook Pro (i5) and with an 1TB SSD it is still very usable - for web browsing, programming, as a teleprompter generator, to write all my scripts. I just cannot edit videos on it. It is crazy to think is is an 11 years old computer, and I still use it. SSD and RAM upgrade - sick! 🤘

[@WarriorsPhoto]

I agree with you about 24GB of Ram. I went from 32 to 24 GB of RAM in my Mac Pro. Much better performance as I initiated triple channel memory and that made a huge difference. Thank you. Now as my needs grow maybe I will upgrade the Mac Pro further. ;)

[@KempireRadio]

This was probably the best informed description on how to install and whether you can mix RAM. Thanks!

[@GeekDetour]

Thank you! I am happy you enjoyed it 😊

[@ivanivanov-ii6mp]

I have a silly question, where did you get all of this charisma ? I mean you’re the most interesting to watch geek blogger out there. And by the way what do you do out of youtube ?)

[@GeekDetour]

Ah, Ivan... thank you! You just made my day! ☺️😆 I studied advertising - but I always worked with WebDevelopment (I began as a webdesigner, but in 2003 I moved more and more to programming). I also made 2 iOS Apps with a dear friend: iMimic (for iPhone and iPad) and MaxiCalc (for iPad only). I am trying to be a full time KZbinr, while (trying) being a good father 😁

[@JeffreyOakarPhotos]

@@GeekDetour all that and a little bit of Brazilian ginga mixed in? :) Or am I wrong about that accent?

[@armandomarinoartist]

yes he is!

[@ignacioramirez8240]

also i feel the same!!

[@oscarbenschop5094]

Hi, I have experienced a lot of problems with my Late 2015 iMac, spontaneously freezing and rebooting itself since - as far as I can remember - Mojave. Currently running under Catalina, same issues. When I bought my iMac in 2015 I ordered it with 2x 8GB 1867 DDR3 original Apple memory and at the same time I ordered OWC memory elsewhere: 2x 16GB 1867 DDR3 memory of the same brand, exactly the same modules. I installed the as follows: from top (slot 1) to bottom (slot 4): channel A slot 1: 16GB module, channel A slot 2: original 8GB module / channel B slot 3: 16GB module, channel B slot 4: original 8GB module. Now that I’m experiencing so much troubles, I decided tot downgrade my 48GB RAM to 32GB RAM which should also be enough for me, and by which configuration I no longer have a mix of two capacities and probably more important: no mix of brands. Question1: What’s your opinion about this decision? Could it free me from the freezes and reboots? Question2: Now that I want to have only the two 16GB modules, should I place them in slot 1 and 2 (from the top of the memory housing, as Apple states them as Channel A slot 1 and 2. Or should I place one 16GB module in Channel A slot 1 and the other in Channel B slot 3? Question 3: when I bought the iMac, factory installed were my two 8GB’s original Apple memory as follows: one in Channel A slot 2 and one in Channel B slot 4. So the question rises: would I alternatively install my two 16GB’s in those same slots 2 and 4? Would that be better than slot 1 and 3? Thanks so much for your support!

[@rajatdogra8856]

Thanks for the well explained video. I had 8GB of the original RAM sitting idle for 3-4 years that I had replaced with 16 GB RAM I bought after market. Your suggested configuration worked perfectly and I now have 24 gigs of usable RAM for my 27" iMac (late 2013). Thanks a ton!

[@GeekDetour]

Hey, that’s great!

[@msazone]

I am using an old iMac 27" i7 late 2009 model. I upgraded the memory from 4GB to 12GB(OWC) after I got the Mac. I didn't feel performance was improved too much. Recently, my internal HD had SMART failure even it worked fine after reformatted, but it could be dead in a period of time. Some say few hours, some say few days and some say FEW YEARS! Anyway, I then just bought an OWC ssd with an installation kit. After the installation, damn my old iMac is flying! I can feel the performance just boosting crazy! I no longer need to wait for the machine to turn on or for the background processes finish. I would recommend everyone to upgrade the internal storage to ssd.

[@gonorsilvet2581]

How did you open it up and do the upgrade? I want to replace my late 2013 27 inches drive. It has gotten rather slow.

[@bernhardnizynski4403]

@@gonorsilvet2581 - I have the same idea, but am considering an external drive, as I don't want to have to open up the machine?

[@gonorsilvet2581]

@@bernhardnizynski4403 external drives are nice but they will be hogging up my ports.

[@gordonmculloch4904]

Upgraded my Mac tonight as per your video mixing original 2x4gb with new 2x8gb , and it works great. Thanks 👍

[@GeekDetour]

I am glad it worked fine for you too! I am still using the same iMac with 24GB of RAM.

[@gordonmculloch4904]

Geek Detour thanks for the reply: my next upgrade will be booting up with an external ssd drive. Cheers 👍

[@DylanHawkey]

You have literally just answered all my question in this one video, legend ! I’m wanting to upgrade my wifes 2013 27inch iMac and was wondering if I buy and mix the ram haha I’m so happy thank you!!

[@GeekDetour]

Hey 👋 My pleasure! Thank you for letting me know! 😃

[@AlissonDepizol]

Thanks a lot for this video, it's becoming very hard to find short but useful videos, like yours, on youtube nowadays. Sorry for the bad english, non native speaker here.

[@GeekDetour]

Thank YOU for your kind words 😊 Your English is totally cool - and it is not my native language either! I am from Brazil, but I live in Spain 🤣

[@mavicminiflyeruk2437]

Thank you. I've been up all night trying to find the answer to updating my late 2012 27" Imac... I couldn't find the right answer to which of the card banks were best for my new 8gb sticks (x2)... This video answered every question almost as if you'd heard my struggle!! Many thanks. I have subscribed. And now I can sleep :)

[@GeekDetour]

Wow! I am so glad you found exactly what you needed 😁 Let’s keep our old iMacs running awesome!

[@Dragonssire]

I just purchased a used 2013 27in iMac that came with 16gb of ram and after watching your video I was able to put 2 4 gb memory sticks that I had laying around to good use, Thank you for the excellent video.

[@GeekDetour]

Hi Gerald 👋 I am really happy it helped you 😁

[@Dragonssire]

@@GeekDetour I am not sure if you have done a video on this but I am trying to get photos off my non working 2009 mabook pro using the iMac. I understand you can do this using a thunderbolt cable or a usb c cable but I am not entirely sure of the process. if you have done this already can I get a link to it, if not thanks again for this one on the Ram upgrade,

[@GeekDetour]

Gerald, I never did a video about it - I am sure there is at least one on KZbin already that can help you. But it will depend a lot on what you mean by “non working macbook”. Does it technically work fine, just not in use? Or is it broken somehow? In the worst case you would need to remove its hard disk and put it on an external hard disk case to plug it via USB. Anyway, if you do not pay for iCloud, after you move your photos I highly recommend you the service. If my iMac suddenly burns up in flames, I will not lose a single photo! This is an important peace of mind: knowing your important things are also in the cloud.

[@Dragonssire]

@@GeekDetour I have seen a couple similar videos to my problem but none with the detail and clarity your videos offer. I had been using Flicckr until they stoped being free. I was looking into setting up my own home cloud when the laptop fell of the table. I can get into disk recovery and have used it to look for problems on the hard drive and it found none but every time I try and boot it up it gets stuck rebooting over and over. I will in the end do something along the lines you suggest.

[@michaelyoung8864]

I'm new to all this and am moving with caution, but your style and quiet yet bubbly confidence are a great encouragement to me tackling this RAM capacity improvement myself. (Currently I have four x 4 GB RAM cards in my increasingly elderly Late-2013 27"and thought that was the maximum it could handle running macOS Catalina 10.15.7) Recently been wasting so much time frustratedly waiting, during editing of still photographs, and being halted by repeated messages of 'You are running out of RAM". Thank you, Mr Geek Detour. Will let you know how it goes. :)

[@GeekDetour]

Hi Michael! I am still using this same iMac 27” from 2013 - still with 24GB. If I would do the upgrade today, I would completely remove the 4GB sticks and install 4 x 8GB sticks, for 32GB which is the maximum Apple says this machine supports. Something that also made a big change was installing Mac OS on an SSD (I used an external USB SSD, 2TB). I wish you good luck with your machine! It is sad Apple stopped supporting it, it still feels like a very capable machine to me.

[@LalitJagwani]

@@GeekDetour Hello Buddy, Thank you so much for your amazing video and the way you explained every thing is super good - I have 2020 Imac 27"inch 5K Retina which supports upto 128 GB RAM. I have 4 RAM Sticks of 8GB Each Crucial Brand and 2 RAM Sticks of 4GB Each Apple Stock. Can you please help me what stick should I use to get maximum of MHz and Dual Channel Use . You reply would help a lot Thank you

[@ALLIENYC]

This was great, it answered the exact questions I needed. Hold on to your glasses but I am upgrading a late 2012 Imac. I could certainly buy a new machine but I don't want to pay the monthly subscription for the Adobe products. SO anyhoo one thing I could was upgrade the RAM which makes a big difference. I did a lot of research and bought Crucial RAM from New Egg. I bought the right RAM and I followed your instructions and it was great. My machine is running much faster and I have had no issues thus far. Good job! 👍😊

[@GeekDetour]

Hi there! Wow, it makes me super happy! Enjoy your super fast 11 years old Mac 🤣🎉 I am also still using the iMac you saw in the video, from 2013… 10 years old machine 🤷‍♂️

[@BlueTigerReal]

I like your vids I hope you will make more in the future

[@GeekDetour]

Absolutely, Blue Tiger! Already working on the next one 😁 It takes time because... of me! I am complicated, ha ha ha. But I love making videos - slowly, but I love it! 💕

[@derekfromtauranga6012]

When I went to replace the ram I disconnected the power cord and pressed the start button on my 2017 iMac to drain the capacitors. After I fitted the two 8gb Crucial brand ram (very cheap) in the same placement as you had shown and started it, it asked for a screen password which I didn't know so had to do the restart and hold down command R to change the password. Once it started up it was asking for my password for iCloud which it wouldn't accept until I tried it several times. Eventually I have it up and running and it certainly more responsive with 24 Gig of ram. There must be memory that I upset by draining the system. Now trying to find a driver for an older Fuji Xerox printer is a bit like needle in a haystack stuff. Mac is certainly more difficult than my win 10 computer when it comes to finding drivers ect.

[@GeekDetour]

In the world of PC, "Dual Channel", "Single Channel", "Quad Channel" are hot topics with lots of discussion. But in the Mac world, it is hard to find good information about it. For sure macs also have these technologies - but if you don't set up your memories properly, the system simply don't warn you! THAT WAS UNEXPECTED :(

[@gugajedi]

Go to LinusTechTips channel and got your answer there...

[@GeekDetour]

Hi there! I watch LinusTechTips - awesome channel! But I found NO VIDEOs discussing Dual Channel VS Single Channel on Macs. A bunch of great videos discussing dual-channel on PCs. That was exactly what I commented :)

[@gugajedi]

@@GeekDetour okay you probably will find little information about Mac's at Linus but you did learn a lot about memory and its configs... so if you do not know already check Louis Rossmann channel and you can also try to contact him. He will probably be THE ONE to help you about Mac computers...

[@Djmatrix2310]

Doesn't warn you when upgrading PCs either. With macs I imagine it works exactly the same because the RAM and CPU are designed to work that way. Since technology has gotten faster I think the difference is pretty negligible with single vs dual. I tend to find stuff of the past are so ingrained with people they remember a lot of tech myths or things no longer true.

[@surajsharma10008]

Many thanks for the video, I have an iMac late 2013 27 inch, I order 16GB (8GB x2) and did the upgrade today. On the 1st try I made an error and place the 4GB-8GB-4GB-8GB, its started beeping and will not boot, I try again with the suggested order 8GB-4GB-8GB-4GB and now enjoying 24GB in dual channel. Thanks again.

[@GeekDetour]

Thanks! Wow, this is interesting 🤔 I suspect that previously you could have something not well positioned - once my iMac also beeped and I had misaligned one of the sticks. Anyway, the position you have them now is the best 😁

[@Rekz00]

You're a really good youtuber because you anwser almost every comment. :)

[@GeekDetour]

Ha ha... I wasn’t really in the mood to answer comments today - but I want to continue being a good KZbinr 🤣 Thank you!

[@GeekDetour]

Great videos about RAM upgrade (from other channels): ▶︎ Can a Normal Person Upgrade the RAM in the 2017 21.5" iMac? kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJmbqISMgc2YlbM ▶︎ Can You Upgrade the 2018 Apple Mac mini?! - RAM Upgrade Tutorial and Teardown kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZqSmg5WYpNqHb5I ▶︎ Whats the Optimal amount of RAM for Video Editing? Final Cut X & Premiere Pro Tested kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmnCYXSkndWehZI ▶︎ What is Dual Channel Memory and Why Does it Matter? (w/ Benchmarks) kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2HNk2OeeLKLnNE

[@asharhussainkhan1]

Hi, It's a great video. You explained in absolute detail. Thanks a lot.

[@GeekDetour]

Thank you Ashar, I am glad you liked it 😁

[@wizbangFLL]

Yes I swapped out my 2010 iMac Core I-7 2.93 quad core equipped with a SATA 1TB 7200 Speed HDD for a 512MB SSD. Then added a 2nd one about a year later (because my motherboard had an unused SATA Port!) The only problem I ran into is needing to buy a molex splitter to power the 2nd SSD. Upgraded memory as well to 24GB. But after almost 9 1/2 years I just ordered a replacement iMac (a 6 core I-5 @ 3.0 with 8GB of DDR4 2666 ram) I've already ordered the memory upgrade from Hynix (They make the original mac memory) to add 32GB to my Mac. It's useful for me because I run a few Virtual Machines and the memory can be dedicated to each one and I don't get hanging with memory swapping when I toggle back and forth.

[@mrj1534]

Thanks for your videos. Its very interesting. From mother Russia with respect))))

[@GeekDetour]

Hey 👋 Thank YOU for watching! Ha ha, I don’t know exactly why... but here in the channel many people ask me if I am Russian! I find it very funny and somewhat flattering 😁

[@patmacnealy1839]

One of the best videos for upgrading RAM Great Jog

[@GeekDetour]

Thank you Pat!

[@lirio_a_ponte]

Parabéns cara mesmo assistindo os vídeos legendados,gosto muito do jeito que você explica e etc,passa uma experiência de uma pessoa comum sabe?,como se fosse no dia a dia,gosto muito dos vídeos e espero que continue crescendo

[@GeekDetour]

Yuri, gostei demais dos elogios 😁 Quando escrevo os roteiros dos vídeos, fico sempre na luta entre passar um monte de informação, ou deixar a coisa mais casual... Tento abraçar as duas coisas e fico parecendo aquele amigo esquisitão que quer te mostrar um monte de coisas em 5 minutos 🤣 Obrigado por assistir!

[@blardofresh2040]

Very helpful! Thanks!! I just ordered more RAM and I wasn't sure if 24 would be enough. I'm very glad to see that it was enough for you.

[@t-banggaming8414]

Computer when ram is installed : ohh yeah i feel it (8 gb) Ahan feels good (16 gb) Tastes like coconut and metal ( 24 gb) Tony love you 3000

[@webbsk8r]

Finally, an answer to the order of installation. One additional note when installing RAM. After you press the sticks down, press the individual sticks down again as they may move out of their slots (enough to mess the install up) when the pack is pushed back down in order to put the cover on. If this happens, you will probably get 3 beeping sounds, which indicates an installation problem - no other explanation is given. This drove me nuts until I thought to do the extra press.

[@GeekDetour]

Hi David! I am happy the video was useful for you 😁

[@fireteehee]

Coming up on Geek Detour!

[@GeekDetour]

Ha ha ha - you have no idea how happy I get when I finally change a video to "Public" and hit "Save" :)

[@jamesmurray2690]

Thanks for this video. I am thinking of upgrading my 2013” 27” iMac to the new 2020 model, as I have noticed a fair amount of slow down since moving to Catalina. I was shocked at how much a Apple charge for upgrading the ram, compared to its actual cost,. My current iMac was part of my college work and it was all done for me. 👍😁👍 So your video will be a great help moving forward. Thanks again.👍

[@kennyespinel4453]

Its very funny, I have an iMac 27” 2019 40GB ram and the time to rendering compare when I put out the 32GB and keep the 16GB ITS THE SAME!!! Just 2 seconds difference! Saaad!

[@mchild1983]

Thinking of the same...dont want too buy another 32gb so instead of apples 8 I was thinking of going 16 8 16 8...?? Or should I just take out apples..8 and just run the 32 I got?

[@dsbaehler]

RAM has virtually no impact on rendering speeds. It will only load more information at one time to work on before the computer has to resort to writing data to the hard drive (which is usually much slower than the RAM.) For faster rendering times, you'll need a faster CPU or graphics card or both. Like he said in the video, if you're on a limited budget, getting a faster hard drive will make the biggest impact of the two.

[@J1Z06]

I used 32g on My 2009 27 inch iMac... 24g on My twin 2011 21.5 inch iMac's. Much smoother...big audio/video programs load faster. Very impressed.

[@RaviYadav-ds4dd]

I don't own a imac but still i watch all ur videos because they are entertaining

[@GeekDetour]

Thank you Ravi! It means a lot to me! 😊

[@tclarke971]

I watched many videos on this subject and they left me asking more questions. Your video answered all my questions clearly. Really well done video. Thank you for your help on adding RAM to my iMac.

[@GeekDetour]

Thank you! I wish you all the luck in your upgrade!

[@billjones1571]

I have a 2015 5k imac and am upgrading from 16k to 48k. This video was very helpful and I will check out the SSD external vid as that was something I was considering as well.

[@GeekDetour]

Thank you 😁 I still need to make my external SSD move 🤔 About your iMac, the official documentation from Apple say the Maximum RAM for your computer is 32GB (check it out: support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191#1a ) Anyway, it is possible that you can find a kit larger than 32GB that would work on your machine... but if you try to mix it with the original ram you might be stretching your luck 😆 It could work or not, just saying. Good luck! 👍🍀

[@timmygregsonn]

Lol wow, the exact specifics of this video are what I was looking for and you answered them all for me. Got a late 2013 27” iMac with 8gb of ram, bought an extra 16 with different chips than what originally had come with the computer. All because I wanted fcpx, LR, and PS to run better! Thank you sir!

[@FunkSoulBrotherUK]

Did it improve the performance in LR and PS? I also have a late 2013 with 8 gb :)

[@timmygregsonn]

@@FunkSoulBrotherUK it absolutely did! I can have LR, PS, FCPX, and Watching a YT video while rendering things any of those programs with barely if any lag! worth it 100%

[@FunkSoulBrotherUK]

@@timmygregsonn Awesome :) I will look into to this soon. Thanks @Geek Detour!

[@fernandofonseca1304]

Excellent video!! I purchased one stick of 16gb today, so should i go 4,16,4 ? Or 16,4,4

[@GeekDetour]

You should buy another identical stick of 16 to match the other one, otherwise it won’t operate as Dual Channel.

[@fernandofonseca1304]

@@GeekDetour Got it! Now I’ll have to save money again haha. Thank you for your help 😉

[@KevinMillard68]

i upgraded my late 2013 imac 27. inch to 16 gigs of ram and it helped a little bit but iam gong to max it out the biggest difference is the new SSD drive i just installed even under catalina my mac boots 5 times faster programs load and run faster as well and smoother to so the SSD is a huge advantge on its own but yes maxzing out the ram good idea as well and prices have come down alot over the last 4 years sence i bought my imac brand new,., iam upgrading my PC latop to SSD it has 12 gigs of ram which is good for it my new gammer tower i just ordered has 16 gigs and comes with a small SSD drive so its going to get upgraded fast and for now ill leave the Terra drive thats in there but it will be upgraded to SSD down the road.. i use my imac for some video stuff but moslty for as few choice games and it runs my recording studio gear ,, i dont have final cut pro i tried it once but i movie works just fine and on my PC laptop i use and iolder copy of windows movie maker under windows 10 and it works fine for all the stuff i do. .. so when i want quick and dirty and simple i use the PC for more complex stuff i use both the mac and the pc

[@RickP2012]

Just upgraded my imac 2017 to 24gb last week. Set them up in exactly the same way in the slots. I couldn't find any advice when I was looking two weeks ago - this would have been perfect.

[@GeekDetour]

Hi Rick! Well, you are all set already! You purchased the same speed as the ones you had, right?

[@casaducos]

thank you for having a watchable personality especially with this subject matter ..my brother bought me this new imac 27in and he gives me little homework assignments so i understand what i am using.. You are an excellent teacher and fun to watch.

[@GeekDetour]

Oh, thank you! I really appreciate!

[@investcoa2442]

Hi, good video and nice and fun way of explaining tech issues. Can I check with you, does the arrangement (4GB-8GB-4GB-8GB from bottom to top) works for iMac 27 inch late 2015 model. Thanks

[@loracjackson2665]

Brilliant... Thank you! I keep getting the round ball of death on my 2019 27" iMac. I am hoping more memory will give more stability.

[@kalyanxlnc68]

Literally the best video ever never I have seen before. Most presentable way and excellent language and presentation. Wonderful. Keep it up

[@GeekDetour]

Thank you Kalyan!

[@IMDANIELAUSTIN]

The exact video i was looking for. I was trying to mix the base 8GB RAM on my 2020 iMac with a new 32GB stick.

[@GeekDetour]

Hi Daniel! Important: you could use a single 32GB stick but you shouldn’t. The maximum performance is obtained when you use RAM sticks in pairs.

[@hanifalibaloch7452]

Hey man, thanks for the wonderful video guide. I have a late 2013 27inch iMac with only 4gig of PC3L RAM and now I want to upgrade it with another 8GB slot. How do I do that? Do I need 8GB PC3L or should I go for non L model as apple website says. And what order should be used for RAM slots? Importantly we don't have those unbuffered and nonparity mentioned on old used RAMs. And we also don't have Them new. Thanks again.

[@GeekDetour]

Hi there! Your iMac runs with PC3 RAM (1.5V) - but most PC3L (“L” is for Low voltage, 1.35V) will run perfectly because they very often are double-voltage (can run at 1.35V as well on 1.5V). So, it shouldn’t matter if you get PC3L or PC3 sticks. Just remember that, for the best performance, RAM sticks should be installed in pairs. EX: 2GB + 2GB… or 4GB + 4GB… You can mix 2 different pairs (as I’ve shown in the video), like: 2 + 4 + 2 + 4…. or 4 + 8 + 4 + 8GB. Good luck! By the way, where on Earth are you that you cannot have new Ram Sticks?

[@hanifalibaloch7452]

@@GeekDetour 😀😄 thank for the wonderful reply. I live in Pakistan and they say it's 2022 no more old tech in new boxs though most would try to sell you used items in new boxs, but what to do. So, here I am running my iMac with a 4GB PC3L on bank 1/Dimm1 and 8GB PC3L on bank 1/Dimm0. How is that? I'm really new to Macs and learning things out at the age of 41.

[@hanifalibaloch7452]

@@GeekDetour actually I bought my iMac used, which came with a 4GB PC3 12800 and a 4GB PC3L 12800s. And surprisingly, the PC3 one got faulty after a couple of hours Mac running. I don't know if it was my fault or the RAM was faulty because I swap them once or twice I don't remember. And I also didn't know the fact that those 4 RAM slots act completely differently. I would send you a picture of my screen but I don't have such connection yet.

[@GeekDetour]

Oh man… yeah… an iMac in Pakistan seems challenging to find parts or tech support 😬

[@hanifalibaloch7452]

@@GeekDetour Yeh of course it is. Big city markets are dumped with old products but costly and non professionals are making those more scrape kinda things. Believe it I bought my 27inch iMac 14,2 with 1TB fusion drive and 8GB ram at around 200$, the main fault is it's cracked screen glass, which has almost two complete lines in the middle of screen, otherwise it's good 👍.

[@Alex-yk1cn]

Very informative, it gave me confidence to buy an extra 32GB (2 16GB sticks) for my new 2020 iMac 27” and I know what order to do them in now too. Thank you

[@GeekDetour]

Thank you Alex!

[@mandala1963]

Thanks so much. Upgraded my Late 2014 27" iMac from 16GB (2x8Gb) to 32Gb (2x8Gb) with the recommended RAM. Easy to do and works perfectly!

[@GeekDetour]

I am glad you could do it perfectly! 😁

[@paulamiel1672]

excellent video and answered the main question i had. I have this exact IMAC (but I5 vs I7 core). its been sitting idle in my office while i worked from home during covid using my PC. now that i'm back in the office i've returned to using my IMAC and i was curious if i could get a boost in perfomance. RAM for this machine is crazy cheap these days and i was trying to decide if i needed to buy four sticks or just two. i opted for two and will use the older ram and put in the order you described and see how things go! Thanks for the video!

[@charlesincharge1517]

my iMac did not work with any combination like you Said, I just would not boot up. So I remove the original 8gyg memory and I just left 2 memory sticks of 16 gyg each and it worked fine with the 2 new ones Corsair Vengeance 32 Gygs 2400 Mhz DDR4. by themselves only.

[@GeekDetour]

Which iMac is yours? My iMac 2013 supports a maximum of 32GB - maybe thats what happened with yours.

[@Pifman]

I can't thank you enough for this video! You answered damn near every question I had on this topic after coming up short everywhere else on the web (including Apple's own memory installation guides!).

[@GeekDetour]

Wow Ty, I really appreciate your kind words! Thank you!

[@CorbisVids]

Same for me! I just wondered if it‘ll work with my new iMac from 2019 which will arrive next week...but I think at this point, I just might be paranoid because I don’t want to mess anything up!😂

[@kamuts7]

Are they still working now with no problems, or do they make the the computer crash?

[@GeekDetour]

Hi there! My iMac 27" i7 2013 still runs with the exact configuration I showed in this video. It works 24 hours a day, non-stop 👍 Of course, that has been MY experience with the sticks I bought.

[@hussainbarakat9667]

I have late 2015 iMac 27 inch , I use Xcode and photoshop, and my mac become stuck and I can’t use Xcode and photoshop together because its become too slow with my 8 GB ram .I order new 16 gb ram from I Amazon and still waiting but your video help me and I will do same as you , will mix the ram and follow same order as you mentioned. Thanks !

[@GeekDetour]

Hi there! Yeah, you can try to see if they work nicely together as it happened for me and many others. Although, I might say I am now very tempted to just drop the original 4+4 (8GB) sticks and repeat my purchase of the 8+8, so I would have 4 identical sticks and max the 32GB my iMac 2013 supports. The price is always dropping and I could now buy 16GB for half of what I paid when I made the video. I think it is worth buying 32GB now.

[@shajithashygilshygil1709]

Brilliant video mate. Very useful. Just upgraded my iMAC based on your recommendations. 8+4+8+4. It was fun watching your videos, so engaging. Keep going, all the best - stay safe and healthy

[@GeekDetour]

Thank you! Happy to help 😄

[@JohnMRaggio]

Thanks for the video. Does this still apply to the 2019 iMac 27"? Apple site had confusing instructions support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191#install1, "If your DIMMs are mixed in capacity, minimize the capacity difference between Channel A (slots 1 and 2) and Channel B (slots 3 and 4) when possible." The numbered the slots 1,2,3,4 in the diagram. I alternated them as described in this video starting with an 8 on the bottom. System reports I have 4GB and seems to be running fine. Hard to know for sure. How can. verify?

[@masssalt]

Thanks for such a helpful video, it was just what I needed. My 2x8 ram upgrade just arrived, and I needed to know the correct order for installation. The 2x8 upgrade is currently selling around $ 70 USD and 24 MB is more than enough for most of us, making it a real bargain. Thanks again!

[@GeekDetour]

Hi 👋 my pleasure! I am glad it helped you 😊 I agree: 24GB is A LOT of memory 😄

[@masssalt]

@@GeekDetour Just home from work, took me five minutes, thanks again!

[@jimineedles]

been on hold to apple for 18 minutes, googled this, and you have answered ALL my questions. thank you so much!

[@GeekDetour]

Hey! Awesome 👏 Which iMac model is yours?

[@jimineedles]

@@GeekDetour late 2013, i5 with a hd, I'm pimping the RAM tomorrow and will probably get a specialist to instal the ssd. I gather from what you were saying that the boost in ssd and ram really work in tandem off each other, so im looking forward to a practically new machine in theory!

[@GeekDetour]

The SSD has a HUGE impact on performance - you won’t believe it. I changed the SSD on a MacBook white 2009, a MacBook Pro 2011, a Samsung Windows PC and they are still very usable machines despite being so old - watch: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r17Uh6hmj82Kb8U

[@algizmo7079]

Just recently acquired a couple of iMacs (1x 21,5" and 1x 27" i5 3rd Gen and i7 4th Gen respectively). Was thinking to upgrade the 27" and wondered if the old bank: 0, and bank: 1 convention for PC memory was true also for iMacs. Your video suggests yes. Enough to confirm my expectation. Good to know. Very soon though, both will have original HDDs replaced with (internal) SSDs, should be able to keep the total outlay to less than 300Euros. Must say, the screens are very nice, especially 27". Thanks for your video.

[@GeekDetour]

Hey! My pleasure! I though about replacing my internal HDD+SSD (Fusion Drive) with an SSD, but for that I would need to disassemble the iMac (it’s deep inside, ungluing the display is my biggest concern), so for years I’ve been using an external SSD over USB 3 as my OS disk. It’s capped to the 500MB/s limit of the USB 3.0 ports of this 2013 iMac… but that’s fine. I still use this now 11 years old computer to worm my KZbin videos 🤣

[@algizmo7079]

@@GeekDetour Well, took me a couple of days, but typing this on 27" 2013 iMac running Sonoma on 500Gb Western Digital NVME stick. An adapter said to work for 2013-2017 MacBooks enables the drive to work. The WD drive took great pleasure in presenting me with a forgotten Ubuntu login, getting the Mac to behave and give me access to Disk Utility, to erase it for new installation was my toughest hurdle (booted another linux pen drive to delete partitions with Disks) then reinstall macOS Monterey, then OpenCore Legacy Patcher to update to Sonoma. Barely noticed the stress of detaching the screen.

[@GeekDetour]

Really?! I am glad that detaching the screen was not a problem for you! I am a bit scared. By the way, I also use OpenCore Legacy Patcher: both on my iMac 27” 2013 and also on an even older MacBook Pro 2011.

[@ramirez_porras]

Thanks a lot for your video! I have a 21.5 iMac (2017, Retina 4k), and I will have to open it in order to upgrade to a 500GB SSD, so I was thinking about upgrading the RAM as well. My iMac only has 2 memory slots (both holding 4GB cards), so I wanted to ask you which one of these settings you consider the best, and why: 1- 8GB + 8GB (single rank) 2- 16GB + 4GB (matching speeds, etc.)

[@GeekDetour]

Hello Santiago! The option #2 is bad... your RAM won't operate in dual channel mode and you might experience a worst performance than in the scenario #1. If buying 32GB is to expensive, consider that you would be better served by a 3rd scenario: Two identical sticks of 8GB, for a 16GB pair - at least it will operate in dual channel. I hope to have helped you.

[@ramirez_porras]

@@GeekDetour Thanks a lot for your quick reply! I finally went for the 32GB (+1TB SSD). Quite an improvement from the terrible original set up.

[@giantthetom40]

This video is exactly what I was looking for I just brought extra ram for my 2014 iMac and I also brought a 2 TB external SSD I will now re put the ram in the way you explained it and see if it helps Thanx!!

[@GeekDetour]

Hey, my pleasure! Good luck with your installation - you will certainly notice a huge difference with the SSD change.

[@badoona]

Less than a minute in and already best video on this subject. Bravo!!

[@GeekDetour]

Wow man! Thank you very much 🥰

[@nmgzerberuz]

What is the smartest thing to do with an 2011 mid-year iMac? Should I upgrade it to 24 gigs, my kids are trying to learn video editing and I want to use an old computer to teach them. Thank you for your time😁😁😁

[@GeekDetour]

16GB will be enough for editing videos with iMovie - they will be able to make very nice videos with iMovie (you don’t need Final Cut Pro right away. Replacing the internal hard disk with a 512GB SSD (or 1TB if you are not money constrained) will make it really responsive. If opening the iMac is too hard, an external USB SSD can be used as your system disk as well. AND, finally, if you want to install the latest OSX (Catalina) search for a patch called DosDude1 - it allows you to run recent OSX on older Macs (I run Catalina on a 2011 MacBook Pro thanks to DosDude1 patch).

[@nmgzerberuz]

You are awesome thanks alot for your fast response. This helps allot you are cool 💯💯💯

[@WhittyPics]

Video RAM helps you more with video editing than system RAM. System RAM helps more with photo editors. Max Tech did some tests with moving the RAM around on a 2020 iMac. If you put more RAM in the empty slots from the factory it will slow the RAM down to 2100MHZ instead of 2666. If you put the factory RAM in the top 2 slots and the new RAM in the bottom 2 slots it will run at the top speed but be in single channel mode and it run programs slower. It is best to have all 4 sticks the same size. I just upgraded to a 2020 27" iMac and I maxed my RAM out to 128GB. I am selling the same late 2013 27" iMac you have on Ebay. I wasn't thinking about saving money on RAM upgrades when I ordered it from Apple a little over 6 years ago so I maxed it out at 32GB from the factory with a 4GB video card. The mechanical part of the factory fusion drive crashed a couple of years ago and I had a 2TB solid state Samsung drive installed. That computer still runs great but I got a new one because I know this will be the last of the Intel based Macs and the new ones likely won't have user upgradable RAM. Also Apple stops supporting these computers after about 6 years, so the 2013 iMacs are obsolete now and only 3rd party shops will work on them if they break and no more Mac OS updates. The 2013 iMacs will still be good for a few more years as long as they are fast enough for your needs. I can tell the new one is a little faster and the retina display is a little sharper but in reality, my old 2013 iMac was fast enough to do what I need. I don't do video but I do still images from a 45 MP digital camera in Adobe Lightroom.

[@GeekDetour]

Thank you for sharing your experiences and knowledge with lots of details! 😃 Absolutely: the easiest path for the best performance is using 4 identical Ram Sticks. AND Ram prices are falling all the time: today I looked and the same 16GB pair I bought 2 years ago now cost less than half of what I paid - I most probably will take off my 2x4 (8GB) and buy the other pair 2x8 (16GB), so it gets maxed at 32GB, all identical. This week I am finally back at editing videos - and this is the first time I am using almost everything 4K (even though it will be exported at 1080p) - OH BOY am I suffering... The external Thunderbolt magnetic hard disk I use to edit videos doesn’t cut it - is is past time to edit on an SSD. Anyways, this 2013 iMac is still a great machine - disk speed is clearly the bottleneck for editing videos.

[@interpol007]

Speaks of you upgrading to a 2tb ssd. I got one for my ps4 pro. Sure it’s not anywhere near as effective as using it for a pc, but I don’t really care and I could always use the SSD for something else....Anyways, even on the PlayStation I noticed a huge difference in the day to day stuff, loading from sleep, menu scrolling, install times etc

[@GeekDetour]

Hi 👋 Oh yeah, I totally believe you! I have a very old MacBook White (2009!) that I use to write my scripts (I go to beautiful public places here in Madrid) and the only reason it is still a productive computer is because I replaced its hdd for a Samsung 500GB SSD. My wife also has an old windows laptop that went much faster because of an SSD. My doubt about using an external SSD on the iMac is because it already has a Fusion Drive - so, the most frequently accessed files are already kept on an internal SSD that is faster than an external USB SSD would be... But, the SSD part of the fusion drive is only 128GB. My bet is that if everything is on an SSD - even being a slower external ssd - on average it will beat the fusion drive... let’s see! 😁

[@antogoul]

Hello, very nice video. You explain plainly a lot of things and I would like your opinion pls. I have a late 10,1 iMac 2009 27inch (initially 3.03 core 2 duo, 4Gb ram 1067Mhz (2X2gb ) - upgraded it myself a few years ago to 3.33 Ghz, 8gb ram 1067Mhz (4X2gb), added ssd 120gb and replaced the DVD player with the HDD disk. Everything works fine. Now, the rams I have are 2 X Samsung and 2 X Gskill. I cannot remember which ram came with the Mac when I bought it. Do you know? According to your video is there a correct order placing my rams in the slots as far as dual channel benefit and brand differences are concerned? I am thinking on buying 4X4gb 1067Mhz of ram to get the maximum performance. Samsung and Gskill brands are more expensive than other brands. Does it matter if I use any brand I wish but with the correct specs? Can I combine 2X4gb 1067Mhz new rams with any pair of my 2gb rams and to which slots will I put them? I also did a test the other day, I used only one module of ram of 2gb 1333Mhz by samsung and it worked. System information also showed it 1333Mhz. If I buy 4X4gb 1333Mhz will the computer work? Will system information show all modules at 1333Mhz? I know I have so many questions but as you can tell I want to decide correctly before I spend money. I would appreciate your answer at your earliest convenience. Thank you very much.

[@Minipic]

Great video. I too, Have the late 2013 iMac 27" I actually got it maybe 3 years ago and I did it for the same reason. I bought so I could adjust ram. 2021 now and its time to upgrade so taking your advice and going with 4 identical cards and filling the slots.

[@GeekDetour]

Absolutely! Since I made this video, prices of RAM continued dropping... Now it makes much more sense to buy 4 identical RAM sticks and max the supported capacity.

[@ProgrammingWithOsku]

@@GeekDetour so ist good for coding and bulding apps I just buy one and can you please answer me ist possible to upgrade cpu to 10 gth or what is the limit of upgrade of cpu please answer

[@MichelleCaluag]

Where did you pay extra for the quad core i7? how much is that? Im planning to buy one imak 5k soon..

[@GeekDetour]

Hi there! When you are at the Apple website and you hit “buy” you are presented with a few choices: amount of RAM, CPU options, sometimes different video cards, SSD capacity, etc... You can totally play with those options and see how it affects the final price - all before actually purchasing.

[@TechDR100]

Watched Video - Thanks for the HELP Recently Upgraded -- from 2009 27" iMac with 16gb -- to 2013 27" iMac with 8gb...... noticed I was seeing quite a few of the 'Rainbow Pinwheels" and tasks were taking much longer than I was used to. upon looking at memory usage in Activity Monitor - we see 6 - 6.5 gb of memory usage constantly - with leaves very little for extra load, cache and memory page swapping....so upgrade time. Went with 16gb more (2x8gb) (from OWC).... price increase from (2x4gb = $50) to (2x8gb = $84) ...(2x16gb = $170 as of June 2020)... existing memory in slots 1 & 3.....new memory installed in slots 2 & 4 -- took about 3 minutes to install - very easy and everything works great ---- keep up the good work with these videos

[@GeekDetour]

I am so happy the video helped you. Yeah, when we are pushing the computer to handle more data than there is physical RAM to accommodate, everything goes slow - and sometimes unstable. Then you put enough RAM and everything simply works fine! But let me tell you: the biggest difference will be if you move from HDD to an SSD. The hard disk is some serious bottleneck!

[@AverageDadOfficial]

Hey, really helpful! I am upgrading my 2017 Mac from 16 - 32gb tomorrow 👍 I also purchased a 1TB Samsung T7 SSD drive to go with the internal 256SSD I have. This should mean I have no issues going forward (not that I had any anyway to be fair) Ok starting out my tech channel and would love it to be as informative and fun as yours 👍

[@GeekDetour]

Hi Average Dad 👋😄 Thank you, I am glad you liked the video. I hope you can tune up your iMac without any glitches - merry Christmas 🎁🎄 for you all and GOOD LUCK with your channel!!! Every year the competition on KZbin gets harder, but it will be always possible for good content to find its audience.

[@AverageDadOfficial]

@@GeekDetour thank you so much 🙏 Competition is a good thing, lots of space for all us tech geeks to thrive 😆 I will keep creating and maybe one day I will have people like you subscribe and collaborate 👍 Have a great festive time 🌲

[@blinko656]

Thank you so much..I have 8 gigs, went to 32 in hopes of downloading my camera footage faster. we will see.:)

[@GeekDetour]

Hi there! I think you will be disappointed: more RAM certainly help you when editing, but when you are transferring videos from an SD Card to your Hard Disk, these are disk operations... RAM will have little impact on that. Moving files to an SSD, on the other had, is much quicker than to a Hard Disk - that you would find a huge improvement when “downloading” footage from your camera.

[@cirleno]

You are wrong about de upgrade the ram on 21.5 inch. The access is easy to, the slots on this are just under the Apple logo with two screws to remove.

[@GeekDetour]

Hi there! Which year is your iMac 21 inches? All new 21" iMacs don't have the door you are mentioning at the very bottom - the bezel got 5mm thin, no door there. So, if someone is buying a new iMac considering to easily upgrade RAM later, the only chance is the 27"

[@marcleeds8104]

hi, are you still reading the comments. ?? i am running a mac its a 27 inch with a 2019. and this is interesting for me the right way to upgrade the ram.

[@GeekDetour]

It is basically the same - the difference is that Apple says your iMac 2019 can have up to 64GB of RAM, so, 4 sticks of 16GB. If you have 4 identical sticks it doesn’t matter the order. Check this page and look for the 2019 model: support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191

[@pensivemonk]

Very well explained.. Interesting that Apple's own instructions on RAM placement is a bit confusing on that front. Thank you!

[@GeekDetour]

Thank you! 😄🥰

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

You put so much effort into your video. Music, cuts, titles, loads. Kept your energy high and clear, and that can't be easy in a second language. Really impressed! Thanks for the info. I edit on a 13 inch MBP retina with 8 gigs and 256 SSD. Recently made a project with 3 layers of 2d titles for a 25 minute video and it takes 2.5-3 hours to render and export!! It's crazy slow. What can I do to speed that up?

[@GeekDetour]

Hi there! Thank you! You are right: I cannot improvise (gets terrible). I write everything prior to the video and I use a teleprompter 🤣 Are you using Final Cut? Is it 4K? Is the footage in your SSD or on an external disk? Several factors 🤣 Anyway, 8GB of RAM might be too little now. At least 16GB would help you. Tell me about these details!

[@FrenchinPlainSight]

@@GeekDetour Yes to using FCPX, the footage is on my external Samsung T5 SSD 500GB. 1080p footage. I think having a huge library is affecting it. I've decided to give each new video its own library to see if that improves it, but any advice you can think of would still help.

[@johnsteed9083]

Everson, you are so watchable and a very useful vid too. Just about to install 8+32+8+32Gb for Dimension rendering.

[@GeekDetour]

Thanks! I don’t know which is your Mac - you must carefully see what is the maximum arrangement your specific model supports. Take look at this page: support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201191 I still use this old iMac 27” from 2013, the one you watched on the video. The Maximum I could put is 32GB.

[@KarikaturaLv]

Good video. Is there a big difference between 1.35V (DDR3L) and 1.5V (DDR3) memories? I ordered two 8GB memories for my iMac late 2012, but they are 1.5V. I heard that 1.35V produce less heat. Is there a big difference?

[@GeekDetour]

The memories themselves don’t “generate” voltage - they are designed to work “with” a certain voltage. The DDR3L seem to work on both voltages. So far what I read on forums is that the iMacs accept both types of RAM... Important: I am not assuring that!!! Please research a little more! I think it will work fine - but it is YOUR machine 🤣

[@instructionalmathvideos9130]

I am about to do this upgrade. thanks for the video. BUT... I will be upgrading with 2x16 GB. Will the order still be the same? from bottom to top? 16, 4, 16, 4?

[@GeekDetour]

You must check how much RAM your iMac support (maximum). Mine is 32GB (officially).

[@instructionalmathvideos9130]

​@@GeekDetour Mac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) 3.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 I believe it is 64GB max...so I got 2x16 GB by crucial to add to 2 open slots... will this be optimal with bottom to top - 16, 4, 16, 4? if you know...

[@GeekDetour]

Yes, this is the positioning I would put them.

[@instructionalmathvideos9130]

@@GeekDetour Thanks so much buddy, keep up the good work.

[@eslew8361]

Thank you for the video. I'm buying an additional 16 GB this weekend and wondered which way I should install the RAM. This video helped a lot.

[@ThisIzGrizzly]

I use my Mac for music, late 2019 is the order the same from bottom 8gb 4gb 8gb 4gb

[@GeekDetour]

I cannot say it… modern Macs can be quite different!

[@Baluchishair]

If I have an 8gb ram and and a 4gb ram what would be my RAMs order for iMac 27inch 14,2. And and and what if I have only one 8gb stick which slot would it go on?

[@flybeeson7950]

Excellent video - informative, interesting and entertaining as well! I have a 27" 2017 iMac and have just started to do some video editing with iMovie. iMovie crashed a couple of times and I thought extra RAM might help, so I bought 2x8GB RAM sticks to add to my existing 2x4GB ones. I watched a different video about installing the extra RAM where the guy just added the 8GB sticks in the two remaining slots. This seems to have worked fine and iMovie seems to work better just as you described with Final Cut Pro. I also have Parallels VM installed to run Windows applications so I decided to increase the VM allocation from 3GB to 6GB which has also improved things working in Windows. My question is a bit technical. In your video you say that Geekbench test shows that the optimum configuration is (from the bottom up) 8,4,8,4, but my current configuration is 4,8,4,8 i.e.achieved by leaving the 4GB sticks in their original positions, as recommended in the first installation video I watched. What I am now wondering is if it is worth re-arranging my sticks to your optimum configuration. Do you remember, or can look up the speed benefit that you got over my current configuration?

[@flybeeson7950]

I'm answering my own question here because I just scrolled through people's questions and the answers below and found that you answered QuestRunner Channel's exact same question a year ago. Answer -"no noticeable difference in real life situations".

[@TheAggroculture]

absolutely fantastic guy.to the point and very very watchable with a brilliant personality.good work my friend

[@GeekDetour]

Thank you Mark!

[@DesmondNgBC]

Thanks for showing this video, I've learnt a lot! I've also just upgraded my old iMac (mid 2011) to 32GB. Although Apple website said that the max was 16GB, my 32GB worked perfect. FYI :)

[@GeekDetour]

Hello Desmond! (Wow, I wonder how LOST was funny to you 🤔) Thank you man! Absolutely, it happens very often: Apple releases the initial specification stating a maximum RAM capacity and some time later some third party vendor offers a larger Ram Kit that works perfectly 😄

[@haprocreativesmedia7584]

After some time of using that 32Gb RAM upgrade, did you run into any problems and is it the 21" iMac.

[@felipeleal2069]

I second HaPro Creatives Media’s question 😊

[@glenn8206]

Okay finally you have gotten to a question I have had and no luck getting an answer until watching your video. Thank you! Here’s my situation. I am awaiting a new iMac and went as you suggested and ordered it with the standard 8gb ram, spending the money I saved on the SSD. I went on line and went a little crazy and purchased 64gb (32gb x 2) DDR4-2666. My question is 1. Do I leave the 8gb in there? And 2. Which slots would be best for the new RAM? Thanks again!

[@GeekDetour]

Hi Glenno! Have you bought your 64GB in 2 sticks of 32? I am a bit concerned if it will work fine with your iMac - have you checked the official documentation? support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191#27inch2019 Anyway, it is quite common that Apple says it should be 4x16 and latter on appears a 3rd party vendor with a 2x32 kit that works perfectly... there is only one way to discover for sure: testing! 😄 I hope it works fine for you! Would you let me know?

[@glenn8206]

Thanks and yes I already bought it but it’s still unopened. I will test it. FYI, like you suggested Apple specs iMac at 64gb max. But on KZbin someone added 4 32gb and 128gb was achieved and worked. Does it matter which slot I put mine in and should I keep the original 8?

[@drivevibes6996]

Here is my story! Hopefully it helps someone in the comments! I have a base model late-2013 iMac (27” inch). It worked fine until the internal HDD started giving out. It still works but it was soooo slow. I got a Samsung 850 EVO SSD and an external ssd case because I didn’t want to risk breaking the glass display of my iMac. I cloned the internal HDD to my new 500 SSD. Now I boot-up from the external SSD and I did the exact RAM upgrade (2x8gb & 2x4gb). Wow! It is running so fast and smooth!

[@GeekDetour]

That’s great! Thank you for sharing. Yeah, I still didn’t make the move to the external SSD: I need to buy 2TB (there is A LOT of stuff on this iMac... just in photos I have +700GB) and the money is a bit short now 😆 But it is a solid move everyone should consider!

[@korndog76]

I followed this advise, and it worked perfect. I'm back up to full speed. Thank you so much!!!

[@GeekDetour]

Excellent! I am glad you are happy with the results!!!

[@kalevilukko1523]

Thanks for the video. I just installed one 16 GB stick on my iMac 2017, so I have one free slot left. Now the machine is running 2133 MHz instead of 2400 MHz, which is the normal frequency (all sticks are 2400). I tried with Novabench and it seems that now RAM performance in total is better, but RAM speed is now 15 GB instead of 21 GB, which is the case with just the 8 GB stock setup.

[@ArfurFoulkesayckee]

just watched the video - loved it - just brought 2 x 4gb to add to my 2012 iMac - thanks great videos

[@GeekDetour]

Hi Michael, thanks! I am happy it helped and you liked my videos 😁