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4, 8 or 16Gb of RAM?

Freyqq said:
The problem with this test is that heavy video or photo editing alone could be a reason to get 16gb. VM is a separate good reason to get 16 gb.

The test makes little sense, as it is unlikely that anyone would be running all three at once.
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The reason for this test is for people that don't know how much RAM to get. The people that do "heavy video or photo editing" know how much RAM they need.

And just for reference, I do extremely heavy video and photo editing on my iMac with 8Gb of RAM. It is only when I am working with 2hr long HD 1080p video with several layers of video and audio, lots of video and audio enhancements, video stabilisation, colour corrections... where my 8Gb of RAM starts to compress. And it only compresses around 1Gb. I have been able to push my iMac's RAM to use of 20.5Gb, with 2Gb being swap so Mavericks can compress around 10.5Gb for an 8Gb user before heavy swap occurs.

It would be different if I ever to edit several large PSD's while doing this, but I don;t. If I video editing, I'm video editing. If I'm photo editing, I'm photo editing.If people wish to run a VM or two while doing heavy video or photo editing, then 16Gb of RAM should be considered but for those that don't wish to run VM's while doing all of that will be very happy with 8Gb of RAM.

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cube said:
No Mac laptop is enough for me.

32GB RAM, 2TB SSD. That's my current need.

And only a 5Kg laptop meets my CPU needs currently.
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Yes, there is people like you where a maxed out Macbook Pro will not cut it. But you know it won't cut it for your needs. This thread is for those that don't know what they need.

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int3 said:
1. c
2. c
3. b
4. a
5. a?(no editing)
6. c
7. c

total:16points (8GB RAM) and yes it is enough for me actually.
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Hope you enjoy your MBP then :)

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AlexxRyzhkov said:
Well I scored 11, so it seems like my 8gb rMBP should serve me well for the next 2-3 years.
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Defiantly (I'd go as far to say that if you scored 11, it should see you through 5 years) :) Hope you enjoy it!
 
I just recently purchased my rMBP and went with 8GB of ram. Probably could have went with the base config but for $100 bucks I upgraded. The wifeys school discount paid for that anyways.

I'm using the system for various tasks but one of them is Xcode and app development so IMO the extra RAM was a good call. Each user is totally different and that's why in many cases, 4GB is perfectly fine.
 
s2mikey said:
I just recently purchased my rMBP and went with 8GB of ram. Probably could have went with the base config but for $100 bucks I upgraded. The wifeys school discount paid for that anyways.

I'm using the system for various tasks but one of them is Xcode and app development so IMO the extra RAM was a good call. Each user is totally different and that's why in many cases, 4GB is perfectly fine.
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I totally agree. Hope you enjoy your purchase :)
 
s2mikey said:
Each user is totally different and that's why in many cases, 4GB is perfectly fine.
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Agreed but there have been reports that Mavericks doesn't play as nice with 4GB and more importantly, 4gb may be too meager for the newer versions. I think given upgrade cost, 8GB is a no brainer for future proofing the machine a bit and peace of mind.

The same argument can be made for many users who have more demanding apps like VMware and what not where 8GB is fine for now, but 16GB may be better for a machine that will last 4 or 5 years.
 
maflynn said:
Agreed but there have been reports that Mavericks doesn't play as nice with 4GB and more importantly, 4gb may be too meager for the newer versions. I think given upgrade cost, 8GB is a no brainer for future proofing the machine a bit and peace of mind.

The same argument can be made for many users who have more demanding apps like VMware and what not where 8GB is fine for now, but 16GB may be better for a machine that will last 4 or 5 years.
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Yeah, for a hundred bucks you've just doubled your RAM. In most cases it's less than one tenth of the cost of the laptop. Hard not to. But, people have budgets and it's very easy with this stuff to keep saying "for just another hundred I get this, another hundred I get that, etc". Next thing ya know, your $1000 dollar laptop is now a $1600 laptop! Ouch.

Future proofing is probably the biggest reason to upgrade the RAM. Probably more so than immediate performance improvements.
 
s2mikey said:
Future proofing is probably the biggest reason to upgrade the RAM. Probably more so than immediate performance improvements.
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I opted for 16GB for that very reason. I don't need 16GB right now, but I may in the future. I use VMs, sometimes multiple sessions, some photo editing apps and aperture. Many times I'll have a mixture of them open so I'm using 8gb of ram rather nicely. I've never seen my ram pressure go into the red with 16. Memory requirements in apps or operating systems never go down with upgrades but rather increase so its a safe bet to bump up to the next tier just to be safe imo
 
maflynn said:
I opted for 16GB for that very reason. I don't need 16GB right now, but I may in the future. I use VMs, sometimes multiple sessions, some photo editing apps and aperture. Many times I'll have a mixture of them open so I'm using 8gb of ram rather nicely. I've never seen my ram pressure go into the red with 16. Memory requirements in apps or operating systems never go down with upgrades but rather increase so its a safe bet to bump up to the next tier just to be safe imo
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I am right in thinking that multiple accounts/users of a Mac can also take up RAM?
 
MartinAppleGuy said:
I am right in thinking that multiple accounts/users of a Mac can also take up RAM?
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Maybe with fast user switching but I really don't use multiple accounts. I tried that with my kid's Macs but tbh it was a pain when I needed to use it and didn't have access to my stuff. I found OpenDNS a better parental control.
 
maflynn said:
Maybe with fast user switching but I really don't use multiple accounts. I tried that with my kid's Macs but tbh it was a pain when I needed to use it and didn't have access to my stuff. I found OpenDNS a better parental control.
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Thanks :) Just wondering.

I bought an iMac (2.9-3.6Ghz i5, 8Gb of RAM, GT 750m) for heavy video editing (pushing iMovie to the limits, not at the FCPX stage yet ;) ), heavy photo editing (I have moved over to Pixelmator), as well as a little bit of gaming as well as usual stuff. I knew the type of users I was though, as when I am video editing (my most advanced edit was a 2hr long 1080p video with several layers of video and audio, colour corrections, many video stabilisation, lots of sound corrections and optimisations, and some picture in picture and titles), I am only running one app. I only run what I need, I may have had Chrome open for something basic, but I am not the type of person that uses several apps at once.

I hope to keep my iMac for at least 5 years, but I have been looking into only upgrading to OSX 10.10 (so if the rumoured redesign comes, my iMac will still look fresh), but it will run as good as ever. What do you think of this idea? I would only continue upgrading if the performance of the new OS is as good as what it is on the current.
 
MartinAppleGuy said:
I am right in thinking that multiple accounts/users of a Mac can also take up RAM?
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Yes. I use two accounts and that will use up your ram fast!
I always log out completely.

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maflynn said:
Agreed but there have been reports that Mavericks doesn't play as nice with 4GB and more importantly, 4gb may be too meager for the newer versions. I think given upgrade cost, 8GB is a no brainer for future proofing the machine a bit and peace of mind.
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I dont know where these reports come from, but I have two machines with 4gb at home and they both run perfectly fine with 4gb of ram under mavericks. For normal use 4gb is already overkill.
 
Meister said:
I dont know where these reports come from, but I have two machines with 4gb at home and they both run perfectly fine with 4gb of ram under mavericks. For normal use 4gb is already overkill.
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I must agree, I know someone who has both a MBP and an iMac with 4Gb of RAM (both running Mavericks) and they get used for Photoshop, Cinema 4D, Premiere Pro, iMovie... and it all works just fine.
 
s2mikey said:
Yeah, for a hundred bucks you've just doubled your RAM. In most cases it's less than one tenth of the cost of the laptop. Hard not to. But, people have budgets and it's very easy with this stuff to keep saying "for just another hundred I get this, another hundred I get that, etc". Next thing ya know, your $1000 dollar laptop is now a $1600 laptop! Ouch.

Future proofing is probably the biggest reason to upgrade the RAM. Probably more so than immediate performance improvements.
Click to expand...

But the extra amount spent on upgrading your RAM could be put towards getting your next Macbook a year or two sooner. I suppose both options are future proofing, but getting a new one would gain you a newer CPU and GPU (and maybe more RAM too).
 
The designers of the equipment, such as Apple, could make future proofing better, by providing a way to update or replace parts, I agree that not everything can be updated, but at least for a period of not more than 5 years, parts such as hard drives, and RAM should be replaceable and update capable.

To have to throw a perfectly functional laptop in the skip after 18 months as the OS is no longer capable due to RAM issues makes no sense...
 
more memory i find not as important anymore.

my virtual machines run the same with 1gb or 4gb.

programs now seem to be written using less memory now a days anyway.
 
MacModMachine said:
more memory i find not as important anymore.

my virtual machines run the same with 1gb or 4gb.

programs now seem to be written using less memory now a days anyway.
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I agree. With OS's no longer having vast increases in RAM requirements, the industry should start optimising applications to be less RAM intensive.
 
MartinAppleGuy said:
But the extra amount spent on upgrading your RAM could be put towards getting your next Macbook a year or two sooner. I suppose both options are future proofing, but getting a new one would gain you a newer CPU and GPU (and maybe more RAM too).
Click to expand...

Yeah, true.... But at some point ya just gotta say EFF it and buy something. So I did. And, there is a spending limit that most of us reach and I was right there as is. Sure, if I could have I would have got a terabyte of everything but just couldn't swing it. :)
 
s2mikey said:
Yeah, true.... But at some point ya just gotta say EFF it and buy something. So I did. And, there is a spending limit that most of us reach and I was right there as is. Sure, if I could have I would have got a terabyte of everything but just couldn't swing it. :)
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Well I do agree as those moments do happen :)
 
Well, this is a nice thread, but I took your survey and ended up with a 15. 8GB was good enough 80% if I shutdown periodically, but that other 20% was rough and now I only sleep most of the time, so now I have 16GB.

I semi-freqently run a VM and on my old system with only 8GB of RAM things got tight. I gave the VM 2 gigabytes of RAM, but the rest of my stem suffered from some rough "Inactive" memory. Mavericks helped, but it didn't alleviate the problem. Plus, I often had like 8 or more apps at the same time.

Activity Monitor, Safari (3-8 tabs), Mail, iTunes, Word, Skype, Pages, Reminders, etc. kept the system at 7.99 of 8 a lot of the time. Now I have no problems.
 
Traverse said:
Well, this is a nice thread, but I took your survey and ended up with a 15. 8GB was good enough 80% if I shutdown periodically, but that other 20% was rough and now I only sleep most of the time, so now I have 16GB.

I semi-freqently run a VM and on my old system with only 8GB of RAM things got tight. I gave the VM 2 gigabytes of RAM, but the rest of my stem suffered from some rough "Inactive" memory. Mavericks helped, but it didn't alleviate the problem. Plus, I often had like 8 or more apps at the same time.

Activity Monitor, Safari (3-8 tabs), Mail, iTunes, Word, Skype, Pages, Reminders, etc. kept the system at 7.99 of 8 a lot of the time. Now I have no problems.
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If you have 8gb ram your system will always use 7.99gb.
Post an activity monitor screenshot and systems specifications please.
 
Meister said:
If you have 8gb ram your system will always use 7.99gb.
Post an activity monitor screenshot and systems specifications please.
Click to expand...

I would but that system died. Now I only have rMBP with 16 GB. On my old system I would generate large sums of inactivity memory. Mavericks helped this tremendously but I still felt it with certain apps and running Windows via VMWare slowed my whole system down.
 
Meister said:
If you have 8gb ram your system will always use 7.99gb.
Post an activity monitor screenshot and systems specifications please.
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Here is mine using just about all the 8 Gb of ram
 

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I find it absolutely-amazing how mods will sticky a thread about waiting for a mythical MacBook Pro based on an architecture that's not even released, yet they refuse to sticky a very practical topic that's brought numerous times a week. This forum is even more BS than I thought.
 
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