16gb vs 32gb Ram benchmarks or real world examples??

[MakeTheMostOfLife]

There are a few threads already on 16 Vs 32 gb RAM options, but they all read as opinion pieces!

I might be showing my ignorance on how ram can be measured (or lack of searching skills), but we have already a stream of processor vs processor threads and YouTube videos with benchmarks and real life workflow time tests but I can’t find yet anything like that comparing like for like with 16 vs 32 gb ram.

It seems to me, when you think about the gains people are talking about compared to the 2017 model kind of inconsequential. Everyone seems to be testing with the 32 gb model and yet the render times and game FPS increases seem modest and only inline with the increase in CPU power.

Has anyone got any data, benchmarks, work flow time tests that can help people decide if it’s worth it splashing for 32gb?

 

[maflynn]

More often then not, many of the people proposing the desire of 32GB want it, just to be safe, or feel more is better. The fact remains that many "pros" are using Macs that have less then that are doing fine, so most consumers and non-pros certainly don't need that much ram.

Its one of those point of contentions that exist because apple decided to solder the ram onto the logic board and so you cannot upgrade after purchasing it. Imo, the actual need of 32GB is far overblown and while I don't have figures or anything scientific, its my opinion that most people don't need that much ram.

 

[3587]

So, under Activity Monitor, this is what my 2018 MBP 15" shows... Physical Memory: 32.00GB / Memory Used: 14.28GB / Cached Files: 16.58GB / Swap Used: 0 bytes. I have five small applications open right now... Not 100% sure what these numbers mean...

 

[Eithanius]

I really hope you don't pay for 32GB just to use these 5 small apps...

Swap Used: 0 bytes...

 

[3587]

I really hope you don't pay for 32GB just to use these 5 small apps...

Swap Used: 0 bytes...

Yessir... Had all this money to burn... Didn't know what else to burn it on... So maxed this baby out! Waiting on the Mac Pro as my addition... I don't do much with these things... But like my cars, gotta have all the options!

 

[Aea]

If you need it, you know you need it.

Not even sure I need it, but it's nice to not even worry about it.

Edit: You will see zero performance difference unless you have something that really needs that RAM and are running low / swapping hard.

 

[Eithanius]

Yessir... Had all this money to burn... Didn't know what else to burn it on... So maxed this baby out! Waiting on the Mac Pro as my addition... I don't do much with these things... But like my cars, gotta have all the options!

Lucky you... Enjoy your new toy...

 

[BayouTiger]

OWC has a bunch of benchmarks showing differences as memory is increased. Keep in mind that they are selling memory upgrades.

There are actually penalties for using more ram that many don’t speak of very often. Your swap file and hibernate files will grow substantially and you machine can take longer to boot and wake, but with today’s SSDs it not as big a deal.

The other truth is that the impacts of having to swap to disc are not as severe as they were with spinning hard drives.

Unless you work with huge files or run multiple virtual machines, there’s just very little to gain moving from 16 to 32.

 

[snaky69]

Unless you're actually running out of RAM, having more will do nothing for performance.

 

[Karnicopia]

I definitely don't need it for my uses (I still have 16) but I understand how people want more RAM because more often than not historically that is what limits the lifespan of electronic devices is RAM and usually the graphics. With eGPU's being a thing now the GPU part may not matter as much as it has in the past, it's easy to add external storage as well and processors just don't even usually advance all that much any more so a processor from years ago is usually fine. So the RAM is one I think people probably do update a lot when they don't actually need it but I think looking at how PC's advance the RAM is a pretty good thing to update so I wouldn't really blame them too much as it's one of the only things you can't upgrade externally. Now I'm not sure if most people actually keep machines long enough for this kind of thing to matter (It honestly doesn't sound like this is often the case any more) but if you do I think RAM is the thing you would want to update.

For usability though I'd totally agree getting off a 256 HD is more important than adding the RAM because while you can add external storage to the laptop it isn't fun and limits it's usefulness as a portable machine. So I wouldn't add any RAM unless I already had a .5-1 TB drive personally but I would probably add it before looking at other upgrades after that. If you only keep your machines for a few years I'd suggest going with the base model and maybe just bumping up the storage a bit (I do use a lot of storage for photos and media so I'm probably biased here).

 

[maflynn]

I definitely don't need it for my uses (I still have 16)

Same here, I'm happy with 16, heck my iMac has 8 and its fine.

I understand how people want more RAM

Yes, its nice to have extra just in case, and apple exacerbated the issue by soldering on the ram, so now you cannot upgrade after purchase, so I do understand the safe or be sorry mentality as well.

 

[Starlights]

Set up my first VM yesterday (OSX 10.13) and allocated it 12GB ram. Still have nearly 20 GB remaining for other VMs (Win-10, Kali etc). Very liberating to not have to overthink Ram allocation for concurrent guest systems

 

[deeddawg]

Had all this money to burn... Didn't know what else to burn it on...

Anyone else with money to burn and no idea what to spend it on, remember there are plenty of community charities who will use that money to help folks in need.

 

[ascender]

I think if your workflow really needs 32GB RAM, you'll already know that for sure.

Otherwise, with the way these machines and macOS are going, I think 16GB RAM is future-proofing the laptop for most users and their needs.

 

[aevan]

Anyone else with money to burn and no idea what to spend it on, remember there are plenty of community charities who will use that money to help folks in need.

But then his cars wouldn't have all the options