20
If you’re just using it for that, install Linux Mint on it. I have a 2010 MacBook that runs Mint great with no upgrades
Edit: oh shit, I’m on of them now.
Thanks, I'll look into that
Basically no difference. You may get some small differences in synthetic performance benchmarks but for web browsing and video playing it should be negligible.
Beautiful, thank you
from the software perspective its just ram addresses from xyz to 123, so the CPU will be the factor
but the hardware will have a bus route (makes division of the full RAM address range) for quick access to the address that is the second chip which is the only thing that makes 2x4 just a touch faster then 1x8
basically two lane road to the full addresses vs a 1 lane road
Nah. Get the 8gb now and leave the other slot empty. Then later on you can grab another 8gb and double your ram if needed.
Probably find some cheap sticks on ebay, just be sure to get the same specs for speed and timing and you should be fine.
Ya I was looking in a store today and the cheapest 8gb ddr3 sodimm was $35. Will definitely check online.
Don't buy anything by crucial, as you'll have trouble getting a 2nd stick in the future. They are shutting down their end user business.
Those are very memory non-intensive applications, so you almost definitely wouldn’t notice a difference.
The reason it’s better for gaming is that games need to load big textures and models into ram to show new content, and that can cause stutters when the ram is too slow (running in single channel mode is slower than dual channel). Since you’re gaming, you’ll notice the stutters.
While watching a video, the video is buffered into ram much faster than you can watch it, so there won’t be any difference.
While browsing, pages might take around 10 to 50 ms longer to load, but you’re not going to notice that. Most pages load bits and pieces when you click around anyway, so there will be negligible difference after the initial page load.
Thank you!
The speed difference is double, but you will only really notice if you're pushing something memory intensive like a game of Factorio, a video render, or an AI model.
this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
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