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16 or 32 gb RAM?

S

Sebastian G

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 5, 2020
13
7
Hey Guys!

I know there are 1000 of threads like this out there, but I still can't make up my mind!

I'm gonna get the Macbook Pro 16", 2,6 6-core i7 and 8GB GPU, but I don't know about the RAM...

I will be using casual word/excel, surfing online, sound editing in Cubase and editing in FCPX. Right now it's just 1080p,
but I might starting using 4K in the future.

I'm upgrading from my Macbook Pro mid 2014, so it will be a huge step up, and I have never
spent so much money on a Macbook Pro before, and I obviously want it to last for the next 5/6+ years.

Is 16 GB enough or should I go for 32 and not be worried?
 
I just ordered the new 13" MBP with 32GB. I've been stuck at 16GB max for 10 years on the other 13" MBPs I've had (dating back to my mid-2010). While I don't do as much development work as I used to, there are still times I need to run multiple VMs and 16GB is much tighter than it used to be since the VMs themselves take more RAM than the used to. Since it is not possible to upgrade RAM later (miss those days) I figured I'd go for it.
 
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On my 2011 I went from 8 to 16 which made a world of difference for my needs. Still using it and never any problems with memory pressure. If you have extra the system will use it for caching so performance can be improved.
 
I do mainly photo editing in Lightroom and Photoshop, and occasional light VM use in Parallels, and I went with the stock 16gb for my MBP i9, based on the fact that my previous machine (iMac Pro) had 32gb that never really seemed to be fully utilized for the work I did, and my 13" MBP with 8gb didn't generally experience noticeable memory pressure issues, so I figured 16gb would be fine. So far it is. Of course, 32gb wouldn't hurt (aside from the price!).
 
Sebastian G said:
Hey Guys!

I know there are 1000 of threads like this out there, but I still can't make up my mind!

I'm gonna get the Macbook Pro 16", 2,6 6-core i7 and 8GB GPU, but I don't know about the RAM...

I will be using casual word/excel, surfing online, sound editing in Cubase and editing in FCPX. Right now it's just 1080p,
but I might starting using 4K in the future.

I'm upgrading from my Macbook Pro mid 2014, so it will be a huge step up, and I have never
spent so much money on a Macbook Pro before, and I obviously want it to last for the next 5/6+ years.

Is 16 GB enough or should I go for 32 and not be worried?
Click to expand...

Go with 16GB. 32GB may be a bit too much RAM for your use.
 
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Spent an entire day debating and I ultimately decided on the 16GB which is more than adequate for my graphic design work in Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.

Edit: ...And thanks to you guys, I cancelled my preorder and bumped it up to 32 instead. Better to be comfortable and happy than have buyers remorse. 😊
 
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Go with 64GB of RAM. Nothing less will be sufficient. (It's easy to spend other people's money!)

There's no reason at all to take a look at your existing memory usage on your existing macbook and use that quantitative data to estimate your actual needs, with some extrapolation for growth. It's not like Apple provides a tool for this or anything. https://support.apple.com/guide/activity-monitor/view-memory-usage-actmntr1004/mac :p
 
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I went 64GB because, well, I dropped from the 2.4 32GB to the 2.3 and saved some cash, so spent more cash on 64GB. That's how it works right? Buy a refurb and focus on what you saved :) Tech life.
 
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As per your requirement, you should go for more than 32GB otherwise it might be possible that you have to change due to 4k and that will be not easy i suppose.
 
I didn't expect so many replies... Thank you so much guys for all the information!

I've decided to go for 32 GB even though it may be an overkill at the moment, but I want
to make sure that I can edit 4K in the future and also the fact that I can have the Mac for at least
5/6 years..
 
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Sebastian G said:
Hey Guys!

I know there are 1000 of threads like this out there, but I still can't make up my mind!

I'm gonna get the Macbook Pro 16", 2,6 6-core i7 and 8GB GPU, but I don't know about the RAM...

I will be using casual word/excel, surfing online, sound editing in Cubase and editing in FCPX. Right now it's just 1080p,
but I might starting using 4K in the future.

I'm upgrading from my Macbook Pro mid 2014, so it will be a huge step up, and I have never
spent so much money on a Macbook Pro before, and I obviously want it to last for the next 5/6+ years.

Is 16 GB enough or should I go for 32 and not be worried?
Click to expand...

You cannot be too thin, too rich, or have too much memory. For a Mac to use for 6 years or more, make the stretch, because the pain of the price will fade quickly but any regrets will last the life of the computer.
 
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Steve121178 said:
32GB especially if you're going to dabble with 4K. Get the best GPU you can afford too. You'll need it.

Helps futureproof your massive investment a little bit...
Click to expand...

200 pounds for 4 GB more GPU sounds "cheap" to me anyway..
[automerge]1588767721[/automerge]
Spudlicious said:
You cannot be too thin, too rich, or have too much memory. For a Mac to use for 6 years or more, make the stretch, because the pain of the price will fade quickly but any regrets will last the life of the computer.
Click to expand...

Very wise words. Thank you!
 
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Sebastian G said:
I didn't expect so many replies... Thank you so much guys for all the information!

I've decided to go for 32 GB even though it may be an overkill at the moment, but I want
to make sure that I can edit 4K in the future and also the fact that I can have the Mac for at least
5/6 years..
Click to expand...

RAM is difficult and very expensive to upgrade retrospectively on a Mac, therefore it'd better to bump up memory when placing an order.
 
Glad you went with 32GB. I think you'd find yourself buying a new Macbook in just a year of two if you had stuck with 16GB. I made the mistake of getting 16GB, but I didn't have much choice in configurations because I was shopping refurbs. I did save $400 over an identically configured new 16" MBP though.
 
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I was on the same boat and made a similar thread a few days ago if you want to check it out. That said, since you're editing with FCP maybe seems safe to go with the 32gb. The running theme seemed to be 16gb should be fine but 32gb you at least know you're safe. 64gb seemed to be for the people talking about virtual machines.

btw I'm coming from a mid-2014 too.
 
Rizvi1 said:
I was on the same boat and made a similar thread a few days ago if you want to check it out. That said, since you're editing with FCP maybe seems safe to go with the 32gb. The running theme seemed to be 16gb should be fine but 32gb you at least know you're safe. 64gb seemed to be for the people talking about virtual machines.

btw I'm coming from a mid-2014 too.
Click to expand...
As far as I can understand on the few minutes I read some of the comments in your thread, you don't need that much Ram and GPU? which one did you go with? I didn't find that out..
 
In 2020, 16GB is fine for most. For me it would go to 32GB as I would keep it around for years and the headroom will be welcome on macOS 22 where 16GB might seem limiting. Example, my 2012 MBA with 4GB which had 7 at shipping and runs 15 has ran 9 iterations of the OS. Lion seemed fine with 4GB, Catalina... Well I would rather have that 8GB model right now if it was able to upgrade.
 
32GB increases resale value and longevity of the machine. Also it gives you the chance for you to possibly skip an entire generation of MacBooks in the future in case Apple makes terrible hardware choices once again. I bet a lot of people who bought MacBooks back in 2013-2015 wished they had maxed out their system so they could skip the butterfly keyboard generation of Macs altogether. $400 seems like an awful lot of money for 16gb->32gb RAM upgrade (and it is awful of course!) but it might not seem so bad 5 years from now when your Mac is still running beautifully and as a result you can either continue to use it or sell it for a good price since it's still a perfectly capable machine.
 
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If you intend to keep your MacBooks for a while, always get the highest spec. This year I'm only getting 13in i5 10th/16GB because I expect to replace it with maxed out 16in after 3-4 years (instead of my normal use of 6+ years), or I would have gotten i7 10th/32GB.
 
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