Should I upgrade to 8gb RAM?

[Tim-LR]

I have a Late 2008 MacBook (Aluminium) currently running with 4gb RAM. I know I can upgrade to 8gb and that has been my intention for a long time. I am currently running MacOS Sierra.

If I upgrade to 8gb, would I notice much of a performance improvement? I've noticed recently that the memory pressure occasionally goes yellow, but most of the time its green. More recently Safari has been performing poorly an some websites, but I think thats down to the sites rather than my hardware. Also booting up is quite slow and opening apps can take a while.

 

[fancarolina]

Have you ever replaced the hard drive in this machine? If not I would suggest that you install an SSD. You would see more benefit from that upgrade then upgrading the RAM. Upgrading the RAM will not improve boot times or application load times. That is all hard drive dependent. Once it's in RAM then it's a different story upgrading will allow you to run more things at once. If you can swap out the hard drive for an SSD and upgrade the RAM then you will get improvements on both fronts.

 

[Jwpanz]

More RAM is always a good thing especially on your daily-use laptop. I would upgrade to 8GB and throw in a decent SSD to compliment the extra RAM. Your machine will fly and feel like a brand new MacBook with new RAM and an SSD.

 

[Tim-LR]

Have you ever replaced the hard drive in this machine? If not I would suggest that you install an SSD. You would see more benefit from that upgrade then upgrading the RAM. Upgrading the RAM will not improve boot times or application load times. That is all hard drive dependent. Once it's in RAM then it's a different story upgrading will allow you to run more things at once. If you can swap out the hard drive for an SSD and upgrade the RAM then you will get improvements on both fronts.

It has been upgraded to a Samsung 640gb 5200rpm hard drive. My plan is to eventually get an SSD but I don't want to spend that much yet (I'd want a 512gb minimum).

 

[Jwpanz]

If you don't plan on upgrading your HDD then the extra RAM will help for programs that demand the extra RAM. It won't speed up your system across the board but it will speed up demanding programs.

 

[fancarolina]

I'm not sure what you consider as spending a lot but a good budget SSD.
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX300-525GB-Internal-Solid/dp/B01IAGSD68/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492623314&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Curtial+MX300

 

[wrtahir]

I also want to change my RAM.

 

[jsmithepa]

If my box RAM PRESSURE is mostly green, I would spend the money somewhere else, specially if I don't already have a SSD, but if wallet is getting too heavy go right ahead!

 

[stickemup]

I would go for the ssd upgrade over the ram upgrade.

 

[therv]

I just upgraded from 4GB to 8GB on my MacBook Late 2008 under High Sierra. The investment is really worse it, the computer is MUCH faster for web browsing, photo browsing and editing under Photos. Moreover, the MacBook will be ready for Mojave!
NB : I already had an SSD inside, but the SATA connection is quite slow compared to a MacBook Pro 2012 SATA connection, so RAM memory increase much more the speed on an old computer like this