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13 vs 15 RAM Question

L

LLCoolJ94

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 13, 2015
11
0
Hi guys, long-time lurker, first-time poster.

I hope that this is not too redundant of a question, but I feel I need to ask for some help. I am deciding between a 13.3" & 15.4" and the two biggest factors for me are RAM and size. I want to use this computer to do heavy multi-tasking. So, to be as clear as possible, I often have 20-30 tabs of Chrome open at one time, often with several streaming videos from youtube, putlocker (movie/TV show), or lectures from my school. In addition, I often have Word, Powerpoint, several PDFs open at one time and sometimes Paint (Windows). This is common when I am putting together lectures (I am in several TA positions as well as a student). All of this is very demanding on memory obviously.

So, my question is whether I am best served opting for 16GB of LPDDR3 from the dual core i7 in the 13.3 or the 16GB of DDR3L in the quad core i7 in the 15.4?

Lastly, I like to place two Word documents side-by-side when writing papers. Is this feasible without straining the eyes to a great degree on the 13.3?

I appreciate any advice and insights you guys have and hope this was not painfully redundant for you!

Thanks!
 
Both specs should do everything you want perfectly fine. It is more so whether the 13" is big enough for you to see what you want. The trade of is portability. I used to have a 13" but recently got a 15" and as much as I always thought 13" was the perfect size, I am very happy with the 15".
 
You won't notice any difference whatsoever in practical usage brought about by the different types of RAM in those machines.It would be like deciding which new car to buy based on different makes of the same tire size...
 
Thanks for the replies, you have helped clear this up a bit. Given that the types of RAM will not elicit any noticeable difference, what do you guys think about the difference in dual vs. quad core processors? Will that yield any noticeable difference? Also, the 4 MB L3 vs. 6 MB? Thanks again guys!
 
8GB of RAM is more then enough for the usage the OP is describing. Having dozens of applications open does not mean that all of them need to be loaded in RAM. The OS is very good at managing the memory and will offload/compress memory chunks that are not needed at a particular moment.
 
leman said:
8GB of RAM is more then enough for the usage the OP is describing. Having dozens of applications open does not mean that all of them need to be loaded in RAM. The OS is very good at managing the memory and will offload/compress memory chunks that are not needed at a particular moment.
Click to expand...

very true, especially with how fast the SSDs that are now used are.
 
Yep, nothing the OP mentions is RAM intensive (unless he is using chrome and fails to use click to flash and Adblock, but hey if they want to spend $100's on RAM for the dubious pleasure of endless flash based ads thats their choice) 8GB is more than enough.

OP choose on screen size for your usage any macbook available will be absolutely fine for years.
 
LLCoolJ94 said:
Hi guys, long-time lurker, first-time poster.

I hope that this is not too redundant of a question, but I feel I need to ask for some help. I am deciding between a 13.3" & 15.4" and the two biggest factors for me are RAM and size. I want to use this computer to do heavy multi-tasking. So, to be as clear as possible, I often have 20-30 tabs of Chrome open at one time, often with several streaming videos from youtube, putlocker (movie/TV show), or lectures from my school. In addition, I often have Word, Powerpoint, several PDFs open at one time and sometimes Paint (Windows). This is common when I am putting together lectures (I am in several TA positions as well as a student). All of this is very demanding on memory obviously.

So, my question is whether I am best served opting for 16GB of LPDDR3 from the dual core i7 in the 13.3 or the 16GB of DDR3L in the quad core i7 in the 15.4?

Lastly, I like to place two Word documents side-by-side when writing papers. Is this feasible without straining the eyes to a great degree on the 13.3?

I appreciate any advice and insights you guys have and hope this was not painfully redundant for you!

Thanks!
Click to expand...
You don't need 16GB for that usage. Especially if you switch away from that POS, ressource hog of a browser that is Chrome.
 
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