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8gb or 16gb RAM 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina
- Thread starter madele
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Get 16 GB. The MacBook Pro is NOT upgradeable, so therefore you have to deck it out up-front.
It's also definitely worth it for someone who uses it as a professional; I purchased a 16 GB 15" MacBook Pro tonight.
It's also definitely worth it for someone who uses it as a professional; I purchased a 16 GB 15" MacBook Pro tonight.
If you need pro media editing? the 16. For normal use? The 8 is more than adequate. So if you're talking about serious audio editing you'll neeeeeeeeed the 16.
Do you guys have any idea how much 16 GB of RAM really is? Sad that OP probably already went through with a 16 GB order.
For the most part, I can live with the "non upgradeable" factor of the newer Macs. I always did like to be able to easily get under the hood, as I keep my computers a fairly long time, but.... I could theoretically give that up for smaller, lighter designs.
But... this RAM factor essentially resulted in my not buying a shiny new laptop this season. Not that Apple is probably dashed or anything by it
Reason is, the 13" with 16GB of RAM is not available immediately, and due to travel I needed to be able to get one within a week or so. If they were upgradeable, I could have simply bought the one with 8GB of RAM. It's available, and.. heck, I might not NEED more than that. BUT... what if I do? Since there is no way to add it later, if/when I do want it, I feel like I "have" to get the 16GB when I buy it, just in case. And they are a couple of weeks out, which can't work for my schedule.
Not really germane to the thread, but perhaps answers your question about why someone would get 16GB when they may not need it. There is no way to "try" 8GB if you think you might EVER want the 16GB. I'm still wishing I had been able to pick up a computer yesterday during the sale. Hmmph!!
(Instead I bought a Black Friday SSD for my older MBP 13")
But... this RAM factor essentially resulted in my not buying a shiny new laptop this season. Not that Apple is probably dashed or anything by it
Reason is, the 13" with 16GB of RAM is not available immediately, and due to travel I needed to be able to get one within a week or so. If they were upgradeable, I could have simply bought the one with 8GB of RAM. It's available, and.. heck, I might not NEED more than that. BUT... what if I do? Since there is no way to add it later, if/when I do want it, I feel like I "have" to get the 16GB when I buy it, just in case. And they are a couple of weeks out, which can't work for my schedule.
Not really germane to the thread, but perhaps answers your question about why someone would get 16GB when they may not need it. There is no way to "try" 8GB if you think you might EVER want the 16GB. I'm still wishing I had been able to pick up a computer yesterday during the sale. Hmmph!!
(Instead I bought a Black Friday SSD for my older MBP 13")
I'm pretty sure it's about 6 more than 10 and 4 less than 20, somewhere thereabouts.
On the real, it's about investing in the machine's future. In 2013 do you really need 16gb on a laptop? Maybe not. What about 2014? 2015? It's going to turn more noticeable as the years go by or even as the months do. Having a machine that claps along seamlessly for a few years is well worth the extra couple hundred as opposed to grumbling at slowdowns and wishing you'd done it.
Agreed. But, part of that is accounting for most used tasks and how many simultaneous tasks. It's all speculation since RAM is not the only thing that influences slow downs. I understand future-proofing; however RAM management is improving and I still don't think most people truly understand how much 16GB of RAM is.
Yes, as you'll see above many posters use more than 8GB quite frequently. I've noticed that Mavericks is more liberal with the memory than ML was if you have it. Under lightish to moderate workloads my free memory will dip below 9GB free (thus using 7-8GB) fairly often, whereas under ML I never used more than 6GB unless I was running a windows VM.
Get the 16GB.
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That's not just Mavericks, it's happens with Windows 7 and other operating systems. I have two MacBooks with Mavericks installed; for one with 4GB installed most of the time it says "memory used 3.99GB." This even happens with only one browser running. Same with the other MacBook with 6GB installed,it says, 5.98GB used. This does not mean that all the memory is being used. As long as excessive swapping isn't occurring, there won't be an issue.
8gb or 16gb RAM 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina
If he writes for Hollywood he is using massive instrument/sound libraries. Get 16 or wait for the new MacPro
If he writes for Hollywood he is using massive instrument/sound libraries. Get 16 or wait for the new MacPro
Nonononono. Modern OS'es always try to utilise a lot more RAM that is needed. It is used for various caches etc. But with fast PCI SSDs they don't do much. Modern OS'es even use swap way before out of memory situation. "Free memory" tells you NOTHING really.
The whole Activity monitor is more about Apple marketing than any actual info. All these 8GB vs. 16GB threads are just sad. Most you guys don't even need 8GB. 4GB would be more than fine for normal usage.
We (the kids) have a 4GB machine and it's slow under ML & Mav - in significant part becuase of pageouts to an HDD (in ML), and it pages out becuase 4GB is not enough for ML and Mav. It's been slightly better under Mav (with the memory compression), but its still slow.
And that's under a relatively light usgae load.
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Finally, another knowledgeable poster. But anyway, I love how you are so certain that your machine is slow because of 4GB of RAM. There are millions of users with 4GB of RAM who haven't experienced any slowdowns, myself included. All computers experience the eventual slowdown for several reasons. One of the main reasons is the traditional hard drive.
"4GB is not enough for ML and Mavericks." I don't even know what I can say to you at this point...
"4GB is not enough for ML and Mavericks." I don't even know what I can say to you at this point...
I only have 8gb and its been more than sufficient for my uses. I have multiple programs open at a time (word,safari,excel,acrobat 11) and I don't experience any slow downs. I do get some page outs but never anything excessive. In the end, it depends on which programs you use.
Under ML my 4GB iMac was slow because it was paging out a lot
...because it didn't have enough RAM
Under Mavericks it's a little better and fine for my children, but for my purposes, 4GB is nowhere near enough.
Love how you know so much about my uses that you can tell me how much RAM I need or don't need. Obviously its because you've used my computer to do the same things I do.
Get over yourself.
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What ever helps you go to sleep at night. But, don't go spouting rubbish like "4GB is not enough for Mavericks."
Yeppey!! Another ram thread
Havent had one of those in a while
And to keep it exciting the OP doesnt say this time what he needs his >2000$ machine for.
Thats th secret this time.
If you can afford >2000$ for a computer, but dont know wether u need 16gb of ram or not maybe u shouldnt buy the computer because u dont need it. Or maybe just max it out all the way cuz u r rich anyway.
Feel free to send me money then btw
Havent had one of those in a while
And to keep it exciting the OP doesnt say this time what he needs his >2000$ machine for.
Thats th secret this time.
If you can afford >2000$ for a computer, but dont know wether u need 16gb of ram or not maybe u shouldnt buy the computer because u dont need it. Or maybe just max it out all the way cuz u r rich anyway.
Feel free to send me money then btw
It sounded like the OP was buying the computer for his/her hubby. Maybe for a holiday gift? Coming here to seek input before purchasing seems reasonable to me.
With no info on the intended use the OP should max it out. Go all the way!
Its guessing in the dark otherwise.
