I'm using a MacBook Pro with 1GB Ram, and haven't had many crashes as of late with the last several patches (Vue 5 Infinite was horrible for crashing). Sometimes I have to do other jobs with the notebook (email, internet, etc) at the same time Vue is rendering. Sure everything runs more slowly, but doesn't crash!
The only time I get serious slow downs is when I have a lot of stuff on the desktop, (usually all Vue freebies from various sources that I have not yet cataloged and back up for future use.) Simple enough to clean the desktop, and everything runs much more quickly!

...Insert some witty or thought provoking comment here...