8GB not enough on rMBP - need to replace

[alexiszorba]

I bought my rBMP 15" base config in June 2012.

This machine is awesome, I love it.

I didn't buy the 16go because there was very long waiting time for online orders. I should have waited...

I am all the time at almost full or full RAM usage. And I don't do virtual machine. I like to keep many programs and tabs open at the same time.

This machine is using more RAM due to its display, or so it seems. I had more than enough with 8go on my previous machine.

Now I am forced to sell my machine and buy a new upgraded one because I find it frustrating to work without available RAM. I am forced to take a big hit on the transaction to the benefit of Apple and the second-hand buyer.

If you plan on buying this machine and you like to keep multiple programs and tabs open at the same time, don't even hesitate. It's the 16Go only. In my opinion the 8Go should not even be offered on such an expensive machine. It could be ok for some users for today but even then it is not future-proof. It is not even enough for my humble needs of today.

Any advice on resale value of my rMBP 15" base config no apple care ?

If you want a rMBP on second-hand that has no lag or retention issue and that just functions flawlessly and if you think you can survive long enough on 8Go, send me a message, I didn't put it on ebay yet.

Cheers,

 

[Radiating]

I bought my rBMP 15" base config in June 2012.

This machine is awesome, I love it.

I didn't buy the 16go because there was very long waiting time for online orders. I should have waited...

I am all the time at almost full or full RAM usage. And I don't do virtual machine. I like to keep many programs and tabs open at the same time.

This machine is using more RAM due to its display, or so it seems. I had more than enough with 8go on my previous machine.

Now I am forced to sell my machine and buy a new upgraded one because I find it frustrating to work without available RAM. I am forced to take a big hit on the transaction to the benefit of Apple and the second-hand buyer.

If you plan on buying this machine and you like to keep multiple programs and tabs open at the same time, don't even hesitate. It's the 16Go only. In my opinion the 8Go should not even be offered on such an expensive machine. It could be ok for some users for today but even then it is not future-proof. It is not even enough for my humble needs of today.

Any advice on resale value of my rMBP 15" base config no apple care ?

If you want a rMBP on second-hand that has no lag or retention issue and that just functions flawlessly and if you think you can survive long enough on 8Go, send me a message, I didn't put it on ebay yet.

Cheers,

base model is worth around $1700. 8GB is a lot, I use an absurd amount of ram with 30 megapixel photos with 200 layers in photoshop and sometimes 150 tabs open and usually hover around 6gb. I got the 16GB just in case to never experience a slow down after checking my usage habbits. You might just want to try not having such an extreme number of programs and files open.

 

[alexiszorba]

I use WebKit instead of Safari because its more smooth.

I have put my RAM usage in attachment.

Right now I only have photoshop, WebKit, Preview, iTunes, iPhoto, Skype, Keynote, Chrome, VLC and a few others. Less than 20 tabs open in WebKit and 20 in Chrome. Nothing really extreme.

 

[robvas]

You have almost 3GB inactive.

 

[yusukeaoki]

Restart you computer.
You have 52GB of Pageouts.

 

[AndersBrohus]

Have you tried reset the SMC and PRAM/NVRAM?

I have the base model too but with the 16GBs of ram.. 🙂

For me i need more space, but didnt have the money at that moment.. So :/

But because of AppleCare i can't upgrade to the OWC drive... So for me the problem solver is an external hdd with 1tb and USB 3.0 🙂

 

[Interstella5555]

I use WebKit instead of Safari because its more smooth.

I have put my RAM usage in attachment.

Right now I only have photoshop, WebKit, Preview, iTunes, iPhoto, Skype, Keynote, Chrome, VLC and a few others. Less than 20 tabs open in WebKit and 20 in Chrome. Nothing really extreme.

Looks normal to me.

 

[Ploki]

Looks normal to me.

52GB of page outs isn't exactly normal.

Few are. I work with 0.

 

[locoboi187]

Seems like 16gb of RAM would have no benefit for you

 

[Radiating]

I use WebKit instead of Safari because its more smooth.

I have put my RAM usage in attachment.

Right now I only have photoshop, WebKit, Preview, iTunes, iPhoto, Skype, Keynote, Chrome, VLC and a few others. Less than 20 tabs open in WebKit and 20 in Chrome. Nothing really extreme.

16Gb would make little difference to your performance. You'd need 48GB+ of ram to see a difference with what you're doing. How is it even possible to get usage like that?

 

[alexiszorba]

Seems like 16gb of RAM would have no benefit for you

I have illustrated what I had at this moment only.
I usually have more programs open. I do video editing, animation on after effects...

----------

16Gb would make little difference to your performance. You'd need 48GB+ of ram to see a difference with what you're doing. How is it even possible to get usage like that?

Sorry, I am asking you.

It might have to do with the fact that I really don't like to reboot. I keep it in sleep during the night for many days without restart or shut off.

 

[Ploki]

16Gb would make little difference to your performance. You'd need 48GB+ of ram to see a difference with what you're doing. How is it even possible to get usage like that?

SWAP + Active + Wired... under 20GB.

not nearly 48gb+ though...

How the **** is your WebKit using up 1.9GB ram?

you don't need to restart necessarily, but you can close/reopen safari from time to time to clear its RAM contents.

 

[leman]

Wow, that really doesn't look good... your page-outs are beyond any sane limits, which is weird, because most people seem to do ok with 8Gb. Did you do something very ram intensive at some point? Try restarting it and then track the RAM statistics for a few days, maybe you can pin-point the moment the most page-outs occur.

 

[alexiszorba]

I have no clue why WebKit uses so much ram.
When I restart it it's better and then it goes up fast during use...

 

[robvas]

I have no clue why WebKit uses so much ram.
When I restart it it's better and then it goes up fast during use...

Misbehaving plugins?

I usually kill FireFox and Safari every other day depending on what I'm doing.

 

[Brian Y]

I have illustrated what I had at this moment only.
I usually have more programs open. I do video editing, animation on after effects...

----------



Sorry, I am asking you.

It might have to do with the fact that I really don't like to reboot. I keep it in sleep during the night for many days without restart or shut off.

When was the last time you rebooted?

You know, even with 16GB, or 32GB, if you never reboot you're always going to run into that issue. OS X is good at memory management, but NO OS is perfect.

Unless your using heavy virtualisation, or doing a lot of 3d rendering, 16GB is overkill. What you've described doesn't need 16GB.

 

[yusukeaoki]

Try restarting your mac every time it reaches 2GB of page outs.
Thats how I keep mine nice and fast.

 

[alexiszorba]

Ok so I just rebooted now.

Just launch WebKit, there is like 8 tabs, nothing special in them and already 1 Go of WebKit content !

As you can see attached, after a reboot I have only 2.5 Go of Ram free which doesn't feel like enough to me.

I appreciate all the input to this discussion.

 

[alexiszorba]

Try restarting your mac every time it reaches 2GB of page outs.
Thats how I keep mine nice and fast.

If I have 16Go, am I going to make it longer before I reach that point ?

 

[robvas]

I have 8GB in my iMac at work - I mostly use a bazillion browser (Chrome, FF, Safari) and terminal windows and text editors, as well as 1-2 virtual machines (I do web development). I also have MySQL Workbench, LibreOffice, GIMP, and things like FileZilla open quite a bit as well. This is across 3 virtual desktops, and dual monitors.

I only reboot every 30-60 days. Usually when I have to either unplug from the wall or install updates that require a reboot. Otherwise I would go longer.

 

[Brian Y]

Ok so I just rebooted now.

Just launch WebKit, there is like 8 tabs, nothing special in them and already 1 Go of WebKit content !

As you can see attached, after a reboot I have only 2.5 Go of Ram free which doesn't feel like enough to me.

I appreciate all the input to this discussion.

You can see quite clearly there that the culprit is webkit. You're using a nightly build which can and will have bugs - including memory leaks.

 

[alexiszorba]

You can see quite clearly there that the culprit is webkit. You're using a nightly build which can and will have bugs - including memory leaks.

I know this. But it is the only browser that gives me a good experience on the retina macbook. On safari the text input lags.

 

[leman]

Ok so I just rebooted now.

Just launch WebKit, there is like 8 tabs, nothing special in them and already 1 Go of WebKit content !

As you can see attached, after a reboot I have only 2.5 Go of Ram free which doesn't feel like enough to me.

The amount of free RAM is irrelevant, what is more important is the number and frequency of page outs. Your previous screenshots shower very high number of page outs, which means that for this or other reason RAM is being extensively swapped out to the disk. Even more, the screenshots showed swap file sizes of over 15Gb - this basically means that 16GB of RAM wouldn't help you that much, as you'll still have to swap multiple Gbs of data.

It seems that there is indeed some software with a bug in memory management, which is causing an issue. It might very well be the unstable Webkit build. Try not to use it for a few days and see how the machine fares.

P.S. True, the current Safari is really buggy 🙁

 

[bogatyr]

I know this. But it is the only browser that gives me a good experience on the retina macbook. On safari the text input lags.

I use Safari, FireFox and Chrome. All work quite well. Safari text input acts weird but it has better Java support for our BladeCenter AMM. FireFox is my preferred browser and Chrome is there just in case something doesn't work in the other two.

None of them have memory issues or scrolling issues.

 

[tillsbury]

As you can see attached, after a reboot I have only 2.5 Go of Ram free which doesn't feel like enough to me.

Remember always to add back in the "inactive" RAM figure, you have 3Gb free, so no benefit there at all from having more RAM. As others have said, the nightly build is often a cause of this kind of problem, and also review the add-ons you have on the browser...