4, 8 or 16Gb of RAM?

Brian Y · Sep 3, 2014

TechZeke said:
I find it absolutely-amazing how mods will sticky a thread about waiting for a mythical MacBook Pro based on an architecture that's not even released, yet they refuse to sticky a very practical topic that's brought numerous times a week. This forum is even more BS than I thought.

You say that, but this survey is rather flawed.

People who use VM tend to not encode video. And for those that encode video, graphics are more important than RAM.

For example, I keep my machines 2-3 years, sometimes have to run 6VMs with 2GB each allocated, never edit video so according to this thread:

1. How long do you wish to to keep your upcoming Mac?
B: 2 - 4 years

2. How much do you you plan to run VM's (i.e running 2 or more Operating System's at one time)?
C: "I plan to have at least one Virtual Machine, and wish to dedicate 4Gb or more to it"

3. How often will you use your virtual machine (if at all)?
B: "Only when I need to run certain software" or "some of the time"

4. Will you be using your new Macbook Pro for video editing?
A: "Little to none. If I am to make a video, it will only be small videos (like home videos) made in iMovie"

5. Will you be using your new Macbook Pro for photo editing?
A: "I plan to do some basic photo editing using iPhoto, like cropping as well as changing the lighting as well as some basic work in Pixelmator"

6. What is the primary use of your soon to buy Macbook Pro?
C: "All of the above, as well as running Windows software in a VM"

7. How many programs do you see yourself running at the same time?
C: "A lot of applications open at the same time, as well as a VM (or several)"

Which says I need 8GB of RAM, when clearly 16GB is my best choice (and what I have).

Meister · Sep 3, 2014

Brian Y said:
You say that, but this survey is rather flawed.

People who use VM tend to not encode video. And for those that encode video, graphics are more important than RAM.

For example, I keep my machines 2-3 years, sometimes have to run 6VMs with 2GB each allocated, never edit video so according to this thread:

1. How long do you wish to to keep your upcoming Mac?
B: 2 - 4 years

2. How much do you you plan to run VM's (i.e running 2 or more Operating System's at one time)?
C: "I plan to have at least one Virtual Machine, and wish to dedicate 4Gb or more to it"

3. How often will you use your virtual machine (if at all)?
B: "Only when I need to run certain software" or "some of the time"

4. Will you be using your new Macbook Pro for video editing?
A: "Little to none. If I am to make a video, it will only be small videos (like home videos) made in iMovie"

5. Will you be using your new Macbook Pro for photo editing?
A: "I plan to do some basic photo editing using iPhoto, like cropping as well as changing the lighting as well as some basic work in Pixelmator"

6. What is the primary use of your soon to buy Macbook Pro?
C: "All of the above, as well as running Windows software in a VM"

7. How many programs do you see yourself running at the same time?
C: "A lot of applications open at the same time, as well as a VM (or several)"

Which says I need 8GB of RAM, when clearly 16GB is my best choice (and what I have).

i incorporated this test into the ram wiki:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1756865/
I agree that for several VMs 16gb is strongly suggested!

Feel free to suggest changes or even edit it yourself in the wiki thread.
Please post what you changed there, too.

bryan.cfii · Oct 19, 2014

So I came in at a number of 14, but here's my issue.

I do a lot of reasearch stuff for school.

I work Safari pretty hard with many tabs.
Having Mail, Safari, Word, and maybe Xcode open can blow through my RAM pretty quickly. I tend to keep it to a dull roar by usually only having Safari, maybe Mail and Word open gathering data for the various papers I write.

Having only those three open routinely runs me out of RAM and sends me to swap. Like I said, I have 8GB. Does anyone here think I should be using 16GB? I haven't even gotten around to virtual machines this semester or anything which is lucky. I have a late 2011 macbook pro, so 16GB wouldn't be a problem. I just wonder because I go to swap so often, pretty much everyday during a school week.

What do you guys think?

simonsi · Oct 19, 2014

bryan.cfii said:
What do you guys think?

Be guided by your RAM pressure if in Mavericks (if you aren't at Mavericks I'd recommend it as it is much better at utilising RAM), if pressure is green then you are good, if yellow consider an upgrade, if Red then you would be better off with the next increment up.

RAM usage isn't a good measure as OS X tries to usefully use RAM - and empty RAM is never useful.

Some swapping can be going on even on a healthy system so that is only an indicator.

Go by the RAM pressure.

bryan.cfii · Oct 19, 2014

simonsi said:
Be guided by your RAM pressure if in Mavericks (if you aren't at Mavericks I'd recommend it as it is much better at utilising RAM), if pressure is green then you are good, if yellow consider an upgrade, if Red then you would be better off with the next increment up.

RAM usage isn't a good measure as OS X tries to usefully use RAM - and empty RAM is never useful.

Some swapping can be going on even on a healthy system so that is only an indicator.

Go by the RAM pressure.

Will Do! Thanks. It does go yellow and red sometimes, but this is really something I've only just started looking at so I will really look at pressure more closely, versus the swap going on. Thanks for the better understanding in what I'm looking at, or for with all this.

MartinAppleGuy · Oct 19, 2014

bryan.cfii said:
So I came in at a number of 14, but here's my issue.

I do a lot of reasearch stuff for school.

I work Safari pretty hard with many tabs.
Having Mail, Safari, Word, and maybe Xcode open can blow through my RAM pretty quickly. I tend to keep it to a dull roar by usually only having Safari, maybe Mail and Word open gathering data for the various papers I write.

Having only those three open routinely runs me out of RAM and sends me to swap. Like I said, I have 8GB. Does anyone here think I should be using 16GB? I haven't even gotten around to virtual machines this semester or anything which is lucky. I have a late 2011 macbook pro, so 16GB wouldn't be a problem. I just wonder because I go to swap so often, pretty much everyday during a school week.

What do you guys think?

8GB of RAM is more than enough for that. Is the RAM pressure still green? Do you have a lot of apps running in the background, view your open on startup apps to find out what it is. 4GB of RAM should be enough for that.

simonsi · Oct 20, 2014

bryan.cfii said:
Will Do! Thanks. It does go yellow and red sometimes, but this is really something I've only just started looking at so I will really look at pressure more closely, versus the swap going on. Thanks for the better understanding in what I'm looking at, or for with all this.

OK, try and take a screenshot of the Memory tab details when it is Red, sorted with the highest memory at the top and post the screenshot here for us to see.

gugy · Nov 8, 2014

My score here is 13 BUT
I am a heavy Photoshop user and have open at the same time Adobe Bridge and Illustrator as well Safari, Suitcase, iTunes and few more apps.
Adobe PS and BR are RAM sucker apps. I have heard my entire life that Photoshop the more RAM you can throw at it the better will the performance be.
While according to the test here 8GB would be enough for my needs, it makes me a bit skeptical that this is enough. 16gb seems more appropriate.

The site bellow give great hints at how to optimize PS and LR.

http://macperformanceguide.com/topics/topic-Photoshop.html

Either way, kudos for the OP for the effort to comes up with the test.

paolo- · Nov 8, 2014

gugy said:
My score here is 13 BUT
I am a heavy Photoshop user and have open at the same time Adobe Bridge and Illustrator as well Safari, Suitcase, iTunes and few more apps.
Adobe PS and BR are RAM sucker apps. I have heard my entire life that Photoshop the more RAM you can throw at it the better will the performance be.
While according to the test here 8GB would be enough for my needs, it makes me a bit skeptical that this is enough. 16gb seems more appropriate.

The site bellow give great hints at how to optimize PS and LR.

http://macperformanceguide.com/topics/topic-Photoshop.html

Either way, kudos for the OP for the effort to comes up with the test.

It really depends how you use Photoshop. What resolution are the file (possibly what camera if it's photos) and how many layers in those files? The file size of the .psd should gives us a good idea as well. Do you also typically keep several files open at once in Photoshop?

cjmillsnun · Nov 9, 2014

TBF only the 13" cMBP has 4GB of RAM now, and that one is upgradable. If someone definitely has their heart set on a cMBP I would always advise getting the lowest RAM/HD configuration and buying aftermarket parts to upgrade.

Also my advice for the rMBP has always been, and always will be, buy the highest spec (in terms of SSD and RAM) that you can afford (based on the budget that you originally set yourself), prioritising on the SSD unless your needs dictate that RAM is more important.

It's not just about your needs. After you've finished with it, you want to be able to sell it on for as much as you can get.

That larger SSD and RAM will make your computer stand out above the others.

ABC5S · Nov 9, 2014

Meister said:
Your system is working them ram until you need it.
Your memory pressure is close to zero.

I fully understand this Meister, but surprised that many do not and think their is faulty. This question has been asked so many times now that I am surprised this topic is not a Sticky.

gugy · Nov 9, 2014

paolo- said:
It really depends how you use Photoshop. What resolution are the file (possibly what camera if it's photos) and how many layers in those files? The file size of the .psd should gives us a good idea as well. Do you also typically keep several files open at once in Photoshop?

Yes, I keep several files open at the same time and some of then have tons of layers and folders.
Average files sizes would be somewhere between 300mb all the way to 1gb.

If you do light work on PS, I am sure 8gb might suffice but if you are working on large files, RAM is always a welcome thing.

signofthetimes · Jan 17, 2015

how much ram? Early 2011 8.1 macbook pro

The Apple site says my Macbook Pro can only take two 4s of Ram (8 total). Can I add two 8s (16 total), or will bad things happen?

MacBookPro8,1
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011)
Processor 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB

Your Mac contains 2 memory slots, each of which accepts
a 1333 MHz DDR3 memory module.

yjchua95 · Jan 17, 2015

signofthetimes said:
The Apple site says my Macbook Pro can only take two 4s of Ram (8 total). Can I add two 8s (16 total), or will bad things happen?

MacBookPro8,1
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011)
Processor 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB

Your Mac contains 2 memory slots, each of which accepts
a 1333 MHz DDR3 memory module.

I did a 2x8GB setup in my early 2011 15" and it's been running fine for 3 years already.

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4, 8 or 16Gb of RAM?

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