16" MacBook Pro RAM: 16GB or 32GB and Why?

[16bitplus]

Quick question for everyone. I am thinking of getting a new BTO 16" but the sticking point is going with either 16 or 32GB of RAM. I do a decent amount of work in Final Cut X and Premiere Pro (4k video). Plus it would be preferred if I can keep doing things in the background at things render.

I was curious, what did you go with for your RAM option on your 16" order and why?

Thanks!

 

[NeroAugustus]

I'm going for 32gb. Not as a necessity, but for comfort and longevity. I feel like 16gb is what 8gb was a long time ago: It was enough, but down the line it's the one thing you usually felt lagging behind the most, much more than the CPU or the GPU (especially this year with the 5500M.)
Assuming your MBP isn't a netflix machine and you're doing actual work on it, 32gb gives you the assurance of a fast laptop for the forseeable future.

I think Apple also knows this is a very important upgrade. That's why it's so expensive and that's why it's not included in any base model, it makes it look like the base models are very well priced but most pros will need to pay that $400 tax.

(In your case, with video editing of 4k footage I think 32gb is a no brainer.)

 

[TeCH-Guruz]

64gb seems like a no brainer to me to get the 32gb you pay 400 for an extra 16gb = 25 per gb vs the 64gb coming in at 800 for an extra 48gb = 16.66 per gb. now thats still massively expensive compare to ram in a normal laptop but either way you get more value from the 64gb upgrade plus the fact the Mac will be usable for much longer in the real world. I'm still on my 2011 17 MacBook Pro running 16gb ram on a machine thats 8 years old. thats why I went with 64gb because my machine will last 8years or more.

 

[Eldar Gezalov]

I got the 16GB, which is going to be fine for me, but I already feel that I should have gone for 32GB. My workflow is way simpler and less depending than yours.

 

[morze]

I got 32gb, editing as well, although mainly offline editing. 64gb seemed like too much for too much money. Whenever I need a new MacBook, I feel its not just one component that drives me to upgrade, it's usually a few such as when something breaks or new features.

 

[Ryan P]

Moved from 16GB 2016 to 64GB 16”, big difference. Interesting that my RAM usage now shows at 40GB with the rest being used to cache files. I have a bunch of time sensitive custom automations for my workflow (stock trading) between multiple applications and virtual machines. The 16GB was a real issue as memory kept getiting swapped out to the SSD. I am now seeing about a 5x performance improvement, which exceeded my expectations.

Pretty sure the RAM payed for itself in first day. Next item is two of the Pro XDR displays....a bit harder to justify at 15K lol.

 

[LoganT]

Get at least 32. I have 16 currently and work in Final Cut Pro X and After Effects and my ram is constantly being used up.

 

[-narcan-]

Went the 16gb, based on current usage. I work with design (Figma, Photoshop, Sketch) and development tools (Xcode, Visual Studio Code) and my reported memory pressure is generally quite low.

If you currently need 32, then absolutely get it, but getting 32gb at current prices just to 'future proof' doesn't make much sense. You're better off saving that money and selling in 2 - 3 years. Then you get all the new features but at similar cost of ownership over that period.

 

[niray9]

Went the 16gb, based on current usage. I work with design (Figma, Photoshop, Sketch) and development tools (Xcode, Visual Studio Code) and my reported memory pressure is generally quite low.

If you currently need 32, then absolutely get it, but getting 32gb at current prices just to 'future proof' doesn't make much sense. You're better off saving that money and selling in 2 - 3 years. Then you get all the new features but at similar cost of ownership over that period.

I agree with you about buying what one needs today..... except, according to the analysis in the following link ->

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-long-should-you-keep-a-macbook-pro-analysis.2113680/

The loss is @$1000-$1200 for a 2-3 year old Macbook pro. Current delta for 16 gb is only $400. So, purely from a RAM space + cost persepctive if anyone needs 32gb, or anticipates will need it in a few years, better to go for 32 now.

Of course, if the needs are iffy or needs lean towards 16gb, then better to save that $400.

 

[Nacho98]

32 just feels good/right, if nothing else.

16 has been available since 2012, its time for that step change.

 

[Sirmausalot]

With fcpx 16 is fine, premiere pro 32....
went with 16 for fcp, would have preferred 32, but too expensive

Quick question for everyone. I am thinking of getting a new BTO 16" but the sticking point is going with either 16 or 32GB of RAM. I do a decent amount of work in Final Cut X and Premiere Pro (4k video). Plus it would be preferred if I can keep doing things in the background at things render.

I was curious, what did you go with for your RAM option on your 16" order and why?

Thanks!

 

[-narcan-]

The loss is @$1000-$1200 for a 2-3 year old Macbook pro. Current delta for 16 gb is only $400. So, purely from a RAM space + cost persepctive if anyone needs 32gb, or anticipates will need it in a few years, better to go for 32 now.

Yeah if you're planning to hang on to it for 5+ years, makes sense.

I know in 3 years I'll be looking for an excuse to upgrade anyway, so might as well help my future self out in that regard

 

[Donnation]

I think you'd be fine with 16GB but if you can swing 32 that's only going to improve things.

 

[dead flag blues]

I’m ditching my week-old MBP that has 32GB for a 64. Definitely get the 32. You’ll be thankful down the road.

 

[Macshroomer]

Running those programs with any degree of regularity I am surprised you would even ask, 64GB is a no brainer with 32GB the bare minimum in a pro environment, time is money.

I’m getting the 2.4, 64GB, 8GB VRAM and 4TB ssd.

 

[gugy]

64gb. No question. Money well spent. I wish they could go 128gb.

 

[Glenny2lappies]

Happy with my choice of 64Gb. Gives plenty of space for applications that absolutely need RAM, especially running virtual machines.

I've always gone for the maximum amount of RAM and disc space as a way of maximising performance. Especially in this "can't change nuffing after you've bought it" world we live in.

More memory affects performance probably more than anything else -- even faster processors are choked by insufficient RAM.

 

[nbjustforfun]

So I have a base model macbook pro 16” i9 (1tb, 16gb, 4gb vram) in front of me for 5 days as I continue to research- 16gb or 32gb. I have a mid 2014 13” pro with 512gb and 8gb. Running xcode, excel, word, PowerPoint, 25 chrome tabs 5 firefox tabs, think or swim from Ameritrade (1gb in ram), multiple docs open in each app and it performs fine with 1.5gb to spare. Sure it’s using a swap disk and the speed of that ssd averages 300MBs. Still snappy! The new ssd is running at 2200MBs. 32gb is necessary. I also reviewed the web and the 16gb to 32gb mem jumps has minimal performance benefits. The jump from 8gb to 16gb was large. Look online and you will see. I get ram is faster than ssd BUT the need to have more ram has been around for a decade and back when hd was a spinning disk and ran like a snail. im focused on ML and Deep learning and evening with these ram jumps will still need to go to a server or cloud to do real deep learning. or Use the 400 toward a legit server for Linux. There are dozens of videos like this out there. also, future proof? There are other features that will come out beyond ram to make you want to get a new laptop. so not sure about future proof. My nApple is a memory ripoff.
[automerge]1574783538[/automerge]
Here is that link for the video

 

[danwells]

I'm going 64 for big-file (50 MP cameras, sometimes more, lots of layers) photo editing... Might end up doing some video as well. 16 is definitely not enough, figured it's worth paying the delta from 32 to 64 against even larger files starting to become more common.

 

[iemcj]

Final Cut X and Premiere Pro (4k video).

Yeah you're going to want 32. I have 32 on my iMac and I'm very often using 20+ when I have FCPX open and firefox and email etc chilling in the background.

A sub 4k 16" screen is really not ideal to be editing video on but if your ONLY option is to be working from a laptop then yeah this should work for ya.

 

[drdimento]

64gb seems like a no brainer to me to get the 32gb you pay 400 for an extra 16gb = 25 per gb vs the 64gb coming in at 800 for an extra 48gb = 16.66 per gb. now thats still massively expensive compare to ram in a normal laptop but either way you get more value from the 64gb upgrade plus the fact the Mac will be usable for much longer in the real world. I'm still on my 2011 17 MacBook Pro running 16gb ram on a machine thats 8 years old. thats why I went with 64gb because my machine will last 8years or more.

Wow! A 17" MacBook Pro. I haven't heard that label in what seems like an eon technically speaking. They were a beast but what a screen size. Loved it. One of my editors had one and it was amazing.

 

[jinnyman]

I went with 16gig as this is my personal machine not meant for work.
It's plenty enough for that purpose.

 

[faust]

You'll be wanting to upgrade your 16" MBP for a future model with a better dGPU sooner than you might think given how painfully weak the 5300M & 5500M are. Unless you are immediately going to need 32-64 GB RAM? Stick with 16 GB. The release of the 16" MBP was a great return to form for Apple's Macbook Pro lineup, but given AMD's huge shortcomings with their GPUs? Don't expect the dGPU inside the 2019 16" MBP to be relevant next year if we're being honest with how much better of a dGPU will come in next year's Macbook Pro lineup, so maxing out a 2019 16" MBP might not be the best idea because the dGPU will age like milk left outside the fridge.

 

[jinnyman]

You'll be wanting to upgrade your 16" MBP for a future model with a better dGPU sooner than you might think given how painfully weak the 5300M & 5500M are. Unless you are immediately going to need 32-64 GB RAM? Stick with 16 GB. The release of the 16" MBP was a great return to form for Apple's Macbook Pro lineup, but given AMD's huge shortcomings with their GPUs? Don't expect the dGPU inside the 2019 16" MBP to be relevant next year if we're being honest with how much better of a dGPU will come in next year's Macbook Pro lineup, so maxing out a 2019 16" MBP might not be the best idea because the dGPU will age like milk left outside the fridge.

Unless your work requires dGPU, MBP is a plenty ok. I earn living from programming, and if I were to use my MBP as a work machine, I'd atleast go 32 gig and perhaps as much as 64 for several instances of VM. You don't need good gpu for that.

So it's still required for someone with right demand. For general users, it's over kill.

 

[elppa]

I think Apple also knows this is a very important upgrade. That's why it's so expensive and that's why it's not included in any base model, it makes it look like the base models are very well priced but most pros will need to pay that $400 tax.

Yep, they know it.

I would have preferred the second model to come with the same GPU as the base model and more RAM as I think it would be more useful for more customers.

Or at least have one off-the-shelf model with 32GB.