Member Avatar for Chris_19

Dear Forum:

I am buying a new imac and I wondered if 8 gb of Ram is enough. Due to the expense,I am mainly a webdeveloper, it is difficult to pay $400 more for 16 gb.

I am mainly a web developer but with a lot of design i.e. Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Flash.

<ost imacs come with 8 gb. In general, should that be ernough?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Chris

Edited by Chris_19
  • 5 Contributors
  • 4 Replies
  • 711 Views
  • 2 Months Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by benmar

Dani AI

Generated

This thread dates to July 2014; hardware, macOS and Adobe apps have evolved since then, so treat the original answers as starting points. Below is practical, model‑agnostic guidance to decide whether to pay for 16 GB now or stick with 8 GB and optimize.

As suggested, run a simple workload audit before buying. Reboot, open the exact apps and files you normally use (your typical large PSD, Illustrator file, a browser with the tabs you usually keep open, your local server). Watch Activity Monitor > Memory: pay attention to the Memory Pressure graph and “Swap Used.” If Memory Pressure stays green and Swap Used stays near zero during normal tasks, 8 GB will usually be fine. If Pressure goes yellow/red or swap grows consistently, that’s a clear signal for more RAM.

If you land on 8 GB but need smoother performance, apply workflow fixes rather than immediately blaming hardware. Useful tactics:

  • In Photoshop Preferences > Performance, lower History States and cache levels, and set a sensible RAM allocation (avoid starving the OS).
  • Use a fast SSD for Photoshop scratch disks.
  • Flatten or convert rarely changed layer groups to smart objects, and purge caches between heavy edits.
  • Reduce browser memory by closing unused tabs or using a tab-suspender extension.
  • Avoid running heavy VMs, many database instances, or dozens of dev tools at once.

Hardware buying note for and others: check whether the iMac model you’ll buy allows post‑purchase RAM upgrades. If it’s not user‑upgradable, paying for 16 GB up front is the safer long‑term choice; if you can add RAM later, starting with 8 GB and upgrading when prices drop is reasonable. In short: web development + occasional design → 8 GB can work; heavy, simultaneous Adobe work and many browser tabs/VMs → aim for 16 GB or more.

Recommended Answers

All 4 Replies

Member Avatar for deceptikon

It somewhat depends on how much you do exactly with those tools and if you run them all at once. For example, Photoshop alone can be a massive resource hog. One of my buddies is a photographer, and for several years he used Mac exclusively because of the higher RAM threshold available to Photoshop. IIRC, his photo processing machine had 64GB of RAM and was pegged often.

Your best bet would be to audit your resource needs as you work. Log how much RAM is being used at any given time, how much you dip into virtual memory, and CPU usage. That will give you a good idea of what your needs are for a new machine.

Member Avatar for Dani

I would recommend at least 16 gigs.

Member Avatar for Hiroshe

If your doing heavy graphics, and your workflow is memoery inefficient, then you might want to consider 16gb.

However, 8gb will do just fine if you adjust your workflow such that all of your programs arn't "randomly accessing" everything all the time (giving several open programs a chance to page).

EDIT: Also, web development itself will probably not take much memory, unless your website has some intense backend computations (like a finance site perhaps that needs to compute some combinatorial problem live), or if your using it as a live server and it's relatively popular.

Edited by Hiroshe
Member Avatar for benmar

8 gb is quite good for your web designing,, but 16gb give you more efficient work.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.