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16GB or 32GB of ram (MacBook Pro 2020)

DrSarah

DrSarah

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 24, 2020
122
123
Vlaardingen, The Netherlands
Hi peeps,

I am currently selling my 2018 8gb/512gb model and will buy the 2020 one, but I can not decide yet between the following:

i5/16GB/1TB
vs
i5/32GB/1TB

I am by far a heavy user and only use it for browsing the web, RDP and office related apps.
I have a Mac mini at home with i7/32GB/512GB and I absolutely love it.

Money is "no issue" but wasting money would be stupid. Any thoughts?
 
You probably don’t need it. At least not now, that is.

I still might get it in case you come into a need for it some future application.
 
DrSarah said:
Something in me says "take 32GB or you are going to regret it for ever haha"
Click to expand...
I guess I always try to future proof things like that. Thus, my advice is probably biased. :)

Most certainly it would not take a noticeable amount of extra power.
 
DrSarah said:
yes I feel that is the case,, even 512gb SSD would be fine,,
Do you think if 32GB is installed, that would draw more power from the laptop or the other way around?
Click to expand...
The difference is probably marginal either way. I’d save the money and just get the 16GB. I have multiple tabs open, and even an occasional virtual machine and 16GB has never been a problem.
 
KPOM said:
The difference is probably marginal either way. I’d save the money and just get the 16GB. I have multiple tabs open, and even an occasional virtual machine and 16GB has never been a problem.
Click to expand...
yeah, I work on this machine with 8GB and I actually never have any trouble what so ever, even running parallels next to it combined with a bunch of safari tabs open and playing music trough Apple Music.

I do a little bit of light coding in Xcode which I did not notice ant problems emulating an iPhone with my newbie app. 16GB seems the sweet spot...
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iRun26.2 said:
I guess I always try to future proof things like that. Thus, my advice is probably biased. :)

Most certainly it would not take a noticeable amount of extra power.
Click to expand...
wow you think it would draw more power,,, hmm that is a concern because battery life is something I am always a bit aware off.
 
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DrSarah said:
yeah, I work on this machine with 8GB and I actually never have any trouble what so ever, even running parallels next to it combined with a bunch of safari tabs open and playing music trough Apple Music.

I do a little bit of light coding in Xcode which I did not notice ant problems emulating an iPhone with my newbie app. 16GB seems the sweet spot...
[automerge]1590864428[/automerge]

wow you think it would draw more power,,, hmm that is a concern because battery life is something I am always a bit aware off.
Click to expand...
Sorry that was a typo. I corrected it.

(I left out the ‘not’ in my sentence)
 
Since it is not possible for users to simply open up their machine and install additional RAM themselves, it is best to buy the amount of RAM you think you'll need not just now but in the future, a few years from now, depending upon how long you plan to keep the machine. When I purchased my 15" MBP in 2018 I projected ahead as to what my needs might be in say 2022, and also took into consideration what I intended to use the machine for in addition to everyday emails, forum participation, web browsing, etc. Since I do photography and do editing of my images I knew I needed sufficient RAM to handle that. I went with i9, 1 TB SSD and 32 GB RAM and have been very happy with my choice.
 
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iRun26.2 said:
Sorry that was a typo. I corrected it.
Click to expand...
gotcha! I was already searching if people would have noticed this hihi ^^
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Clix Pix said:
Since it is not possible for users to simply open up their machine and install additional RAM themselves, it is best to buy the amount of RAM you think you'll need not just now but in the future, a few years from now, depending upon how long you plan to keep the machine. When I purchased my 15" MBP in 2018 I projected ahead as to what my needs might be in say 2022, and also took into consideration what I intended to use the machine for in addition to everyday emails, forum participation, web browsing, etc. Since I do photography and do editing of my images I knew I needed sufficient RAM to handle that. I went with i9, 1 TB SSD and 32 GB RAM and have been very happy with my choice.
Click to expand...
yes, that has also gone trough my head. I love my Mac mini as it utilizes the 32GB and chases everything, meaning it is so mega fast opening up everything because there is so much ram. Of course the processor is also pretty beefy.

dilema!
 
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DrSarah said:
Hi peeps,

I am currently selling my 2018 8gb/512gb model and will buy the 2020 one, but I can not decide yet between the following:

i5/16GB/1TB
vs
i5/32GB/1TB

I am by far a heavy user and only use it for browsing the web, RDP and office related apps.
I have a Mac mini at home with i7/32GB/512GB and I absolutely love it.

Money is "no issue" but wasting money would be stupid. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

What in your current machine makes you want to part with it? Is it that you want the new scissor keyboard? If that is all, then go with i5 / 16 GB / 512 GB. 2018 machines are powerful machines, and even 8 GB RAM is enough for now (for the use case you mentioned). Consider keeping it till you really need a new one or want a new one.
 
macintoshmac said:
What in your current machine makes you want to part with it? Is it that you want the new scissor keyboard? If that is all, then go with i5 / 16 GB / 512 GB. 2018 machines are powerful machines, and even 8 GB RAM is enough for now. Consider keeping it till you really need a new one or want a new one.
Click to expand...
yes, that is an option. Reason is that this one is pretty new (januari) and I got it for a very low price and could now still sell it for more than I payed for it and get the new keyboard/10th gen CPU and a physical ESC key..
Then the benefit of choosing some more RAM because I have the option sounds alluring.
 
DrSarah said:
Something in me says "take 32GB or you are going to regret it for ever haha"
Click to expand...

I've always regretted not upgrading the internals, as long as I had the funds available to do so at the time.

That said, your usage definitely doesn't require it, but it won't hurt.
 
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One of the benefits of macOS is that its pretty good about adjusting itself dynamically based on the amount of RAM you have. My old 8GB MBP would routinely stay between 6GB of used memory whereas my new 13inch that has 16GB will hover around 13GB utilization.

So really either way you're fine.
 
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A few years ago I had 16gb of ram and after a few hours I was using 14gb of them. I currently have a mbp 15" with 32gb of ram because I like to have a few safari windows open with many tabs with YouTube, twitch and so on. I normally use around 20-24gb after a few days of use because over time tabs like to use more and more ram. I'll be buying the 16" mbp on Monday, again with 32gb of ram so for future proof I think you should do the same.
 
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At the moment you don't need extra RAM, right? OK

So, you don't need it now, you pay for it and it's loosing value. But in 5 years there will be new technology and you are likely to update your mac, and at that time may be you will need 32 gb RAM.

All in all, save it up now and lose less money when selling the MPB in the future, buy new one with 32 gb if it's necessary at that moment.
 
Unless you very hate of current keyboard, are you real need to sell your 2018 8gb/512gb ?
For your usage, it will not have big jump if you upgrade to 2020 model but you need to spend much for upgrade.
 
I'm also wondering if I should get 16 or 32. But I'm coming from a 2013 MacBook Pro with 8GB. If I keep this one another 5-7 years, I might wish I'd picked the 32. If I was upgrading from a 2018 like you are and updated regularly, I'd go for 16. My use case is development work. Xcode, Visual Studio, etc.
 
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