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Do you purchase your MacBook Pro 13-inch with 16GB ram?

  • Yes

  • No


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Originally I voted no, but changed my mind. Whilst 8GB is doable, you'll fair better with 16GB in the long run. especially if you do a lot of Virtual Machine work.
 
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I voted no, but in reflection I should've gone with 16GB. Whilst 8GB is doable, you'll fair better with 16GB in the long run. especially if you do a lot of Virtual Machine work.
what model you got?
 
I voted yes, but in the interest of full disclosure, I do not own a 13" Pro... I have a 15" which ships standard with 16GB RAM. If I had purchased a 13" (or I had an option on the 15"), I wound have gone with 16GB mainly because it is a relatively small fraction of the overall cost of the machine and it is not upgradable later if you find you would benefit from it.

That being said... 8GB is probably plenty for many (the majority?) of mainstream users, and probably will be for the foreseeable future. Also, macOS is very good at memory management. On my 15" with 16GB I do some pretty intensive stuff such as 4K editing (Davinci Resolve and FCPX), Lightroom, and Photoshop, and I have never seen the memory pressure go out of the green zone in Activity Monitor.

What is your intended use for the machine?
 
Some results showed that the MacBook Pro with 16GB consume more power (less 1-2 hour runtime) compared to the 8GB variants. I think it might be a software bug. Anyone experienced this?
 
My original 2016 13" is 8GB. I bought a 2015 13" with 16 and I do like it. Unlikely going back. No swap yet and PS & LR seems zippy. I get my 2nd repair (2016) back today so I'll see what happens. If it's stellar I'll likely sell it and keep the 2015. If not, time to talk to Apple again.

16 is worth a few hundred IMO if you are doing anything more than web and docs. I know many may disagree but it's nice seeing programs have what they need.. it's when I'm OK with no 'sharing'.
 
Because:
1: Too expensive.
2: Don't really need it.
3: Run a couple Windows VM's on 8 GBs already and still able to run apps like Word, Safari, Firefox, iTunes without the machine slowing down.

If I'm going to ever buy another Mac and I choose 16 GBs, its most likely to be the 15 inch.
 
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Some results showed that the MacBook Pro with 16GB consume more power (less 1-2 hour runtime) compared to the 8GB variants. I think it might be a software bug. Anyone experienced this?
I don't know from first-hand experience, but there may be some truth to this. Random access memory is non-volatile (meaning it needs a continuous power source to store information), so more of it will consume more power. I'm not sure about a loss of 1-2 hours all else equal, however.
 
I had macbook pro 2012 with 16 gb and i never used 10 gb in one moment. So when i decided to buy 2017 model i opted for 8 gb.
 
went for this option.
MBP 13-inch.PNG
 
I had macbook pro 2012 with 16 gb and i never used 10 gb in one moment. So when i decided to buy 2017 model i opted for 8 gb.

Is 8GB enough tho? Don't most people say it's better to go with 16GB Ram?
 
Dont trust everything people say. For me 8 gb is enough and when im using photoshop,premiere of fcut pro i'm at 5 or 6 gb at most. Ofc its always better to have more for resale value,but in the end when you decide to sell it,those extra 8 gb will worth 20$.
 

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Dont trust everything people say. For me 8 gb is enough and when im using photoshop,premiere of fcut pro i'm at 5 or 6 gb at most. Ofc its always better to have more for resale value,but in the end when you decide to sell it,those extra 8 gb will worth 20$.
This is true. I just like seeing no memory swap and plenty of RAM for other processes. Basically not required but preference.
 
Considering how fast SSDs are today, even if it has to swap, you are not taking a significant performance hit. But, if you plan to keep it for a long time and want a reasonable resale value, going 16 GB can be a strategic decision.
 
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Considering how fast SSDs are today, even if it has to swap, you are not taking a significant performance hit. But, if you plan to keep it for a long time and want a reasonable resale value, going 16 GB can be a strategic decision.

While SSDs are fast today, there is absolutely no comparison between main RAM and SSD. RAM access speed is thousands times faster. So if you do need 8Gb+, definitely buy the extra RAM, don't rely on swap to SSD.
 
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I bought my 2017 13 mbp /w tb with 16G RAM.

In my day job I usually have to run a couple of different VMs running multiple applications. Previously I was using a mbp w/ 8G ram and it was using about 90%+ of the RAM for the most of the time.
 
8gb ram is certainly enough for almost all, this one I have no doubt. In fact it is a biggest bang for buck ram size at this moment.

Just that I already opted for highest stock model (512gb TB), I might as well add in the extra 8gb ram for future proof even I am not using it at the moment.
 
Hell, I went with 16 GB for my MacBook non-Pro.

I usually don't need more than 8 GB, but occasionally I do...

...and that's in 2017. I keep my laptops a long time, so if it can be beneficial even in 2017, then it's going to be even more beneficial a few years from now.

I remember I bought my 2009 MacBook Pro with 2 GB, and now I think 8 GB is really bare minimum for a modern laptop. I wondered if 4 GB is all I'd ever need for that machine, but for the last several years, 4 GB had been a big pain.

---

Yes, it does depend on your usage pattern, but one thing to keep in mind is if you have more than one user, that will kill about 2 GB worth of space right there for each extra user that hasn't logged out. And of course, VM's will kill another 3-4 GB each.
 
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Hell, I went with 16 GB for my MacBook non-Pro.

I usually don't need more than 8 GB, but occasionally I do...

...and that's in 2017. I keep my laptops a long time, so if it can be beneficial even in 2017, then it's going to be even more beneficial a few years from now.

I remember I bought my 2009 MacBook Pro with 2 GB, and now I think 8 GB is really bare minimum for a modern laptop. I wondered if 4 GB is all I'd ever need for that machine, but for the last several years, 4 GB had been a big pain.

---

Yes, it does depend on your usage pattern, but one thing to keep in mind is if you have more than one user, that will kill about 2 GB worth of space right there for each extra user that hasn't logged out. And of course, VM's will kill another 3-4 GB each.

what is your model? 512gb/i7 one?

8gb is a bare minimum and sweet spot for most now.
 
what is your model? 512gb/i7 one?

8gb is a bare minimum and sweet spot for most now.
I got the 256 GB m3. I typically don't need a lot of storage space on my laptops, as I keep none of my main media on my laptop. Anything substantial on the laptop eventually gets deleted, since my main storage at home is a NAS, and my main Mac is an iMac with 24 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD.

My MacBook is my road warrior, but for the apps I use, raw CPU power isn't a main concern.

But yeah, I agree that for most, 8 GB is both a minimum and a sweet spot on a lower end Mac laptop... for now. Actually, if I could have gotten a 12 GB configuration, that is what I would have gotten, since that would likely last me the life of the laptop. But since I couldn't get 12 GB, I went with 16 GB.
 
I got the 256 GB m3. I typically don't need a lot of storage space on my laptops, as I keep none of my main media on my laptop. Anything substantial on the laptop eventually gets deleted, since my main storage at home is a NAS, and my main Mac is an iMac with 24 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD.

My MacBook is my road warrior, but for the apps I use, raw CPU power isn't a main concern.

But yeah, I agree that for most, 8 GB is both a minimum and a sweet spot on a lower end Mac laptop... for now. Actually, if I could have gotten a 12 GB configuration, that is what I would have gotten, since that would likely last me the life of the laptop. But since I couldn't get 12 GB, I went with 16 GB.

16gb should be ok for future proofing.
[doublepost=1502699607][/doublepost]considered high usage?

Screen Shot 2017-08-14 at 4.27.12 PM.png
 
Yes because I like run Windows 10 and Autodesk Revit or Architectural Desktop via Parallels.
 
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