Lol
Politics...how did we get there, Last time I check war is the most frivolous wasteful spending of Nation finances since 2001. But Bush lasted for 8 years.
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8GB Ram vs 16...ugh
- Thread starter Trey M
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Politics...how did we get there, Last time I check war is the most frivolous wasteful spending of Nation finances since 2001. But Bush lasted for 8 years.
Haha, I spent enough time trying to justify why I needed more than 4GB
Besides, 16GB is $100 more than 8GB. That's not "a little bit more money" IMO.No. My Apple products make me money. Therefore your point is invalid.
What is the point of bringing government spending with individual spending? Do you understand how anything works? Don't talk about things you are incapable of understanding.
Que?
The point is there is no such thing as a gigantic waste of money as the other guy claimed. What other people see as "you're spending too much money when you can get better for less", we see it as "money well spent". The value of money is relative.
My sister complains my mother spends too much money on clothes she'll never wear. My mom thinks otherwise. So it's not really a waste of money as she perceives, is it?
Apple products aren't overpriced, really, otherwise I wouldn't have bought my iPhone last year at launch. I used that line to prove the other guy has no idea what he's talking about.
I'd rather have had 16gb but it came down to the cost difference. I got a cheaper price on the base model from Best Buy plus I had a bunch of reward zone bucks that I could use. Out of pocket was over $500 difference between Best Buy and a BTO from Apple, all after tax.
Plus with such a fast SSD having to use the swap file sometimes isn't nearly as painful as using the swap file with a spinning drive.
Plus with such a fast SSD having to use the swap file sometimes isn't nearly as painful as using the swap file with a spinning drive.
As far as I know, Photoshop can use RAM like a much faster scratch disk.
I could imagine similar use of RAM by video editing applications.
Anyway, this laptop is built to last for a while, and RAM demands are always going up, like prices.
Selling a retina MBP 2, 3 years down the road with "only" 8 Gb RAM will put it at a disadvantage against those who have 16 Gb RAM.
It's both good for your own usage and the resale value.
I could imagine similar use of RAM by video editing applications.
Anyway, this laptop is built to last for a while, and RAM demands are always going up, like prices.
Selling a retina MBP 2, 3 years down the road with "only" 8 Gb RAM will put it at a disadvantage against those who have 16 Gb RAM.
It's both good for your own usage and the resale value.
Stick with the 8gb model. I don't know why you'd need 16gb at this time. And I don't know why you'd need it in 3 years. Why? OSs and apps are getting more lightweight. It's not like it was 10 years ago when every new iteration required you to upgrade your computer. Right now,both apple and Microsoft are in the process of combining their mobile and desktop OSs. Windows 8 uses significantly fewer resources than Windows 7. I seriously doubt Mountain Lion will be "heavier" than Lion. And neither will the next version of OS X be.
If there's anything that's going to be an issue in a few years, it's probably the graphics board and you don't have a choice there right now anyway.
Concerning re-sale value: if you believe you'll be able to sell a rMBP for more than 1700$ in 3 years, no matter which version you chose, you're wrong. It's the same for cars: the most expensive models lose 50% of their value in the first year. The less expensive only 20%.
If there's anything that's going to be an issue in a few years, it's probably the graphics board and you don't have a choice there right now anyway.
Concerning re-sale value: if you believe you'll be able to sell a rMBP for more than 1700$ in 3 years, no matter which version you chose, you're wrong. It's the same for cars: the most expensive models lose 50% of their value in the first year. The less expensive only 20%.
It depends on your need if you are doing PRO photo video editing or design definitely go for the 16GB.8GB is not enough nowadays recommended to run lion with dignity.
Recommended by whom? Saying that 8gb aren't enough for Lion is absurd. By far most people are running Lion on 4 and it works perfectly fine.
I agree with the video editing part. As for photo editing: I've been doing most of my work on a macbook air with 4gb of ram over the last two years and there's no perceptible difference in speed running Lightroom and Photoshop now that I have a rMBP with 8gb of RAM. You don't need 16gb of memory for photo editing. Period.
Haha, I spent enough time trying to justify why I needed more than 4GB
Don't know where you are buying your RAM, Apple qualified 8GB (2x4GB) kits are $50 pretty much everywhere, while 16GB (2x8GB) kits can be had for $99.
Keep in mind guys the new Retina display in the Macbook pro will require more memory just having retina compatible applications running. There are 4x as many pixels to handle and that has to be stored somewhere, somewhere with quick accessibility (RAM!)
I think i actually read one comment that someone compared his old macbook pro with the new retina with iTunes running. Apparently iTunes on the new retina consumed twice as much memory as the old macbook pro (with the same library). I believe this is why 8Gb is the default on the retina.
16Gb is a no brainer under these circumstances.
I think i actually read one comment that someone compared his old macbook pro with the new retina with iTunes running. Apparently iTunes on the new retina consumed twice as much memory as the old macbook pro (with the same library). I believe this is why 8Gb is the default on the retina.
16Gb is a no brainer under these circumstances.
I'm happy with 8
I went round the houses on this for ages...
Originally ordered 2.6,512,8 because I was planning to upgrade memory at a later date. That one is going back as unless you need the extra drive space its kind of the odd one out in upgrade terms.
I then ordered the 2.6,512,16 but considered the price and thought for £2450 it was too much for my first mac! The processor speed bump is minimal, the extra drive space something I can easily manage to live without and the 16GB of memory could only be theoretically used by me anyway. That was cancelled before it shipped.
I then went to my local store and picked up a 2.3,256,8 and in the real world it's perfect for my needs. I've saved a good chunk of cash and looking at my activity monitor the 8GB is plenty. Performance is superb and of course Diablo 3 plays nice (JOKE). I haven't used 4GB yet so I'm confident the system has plenty more capacity.
Unless you are going to use more than 1 VM or edit large amounts of large video or raw files then 8GB is already overkill IHMO.
As an aside, I think there should be more emphasis placed on how poor the retina screen looks under Windows 7 and how badly the trackpad appears to work? I installed the 64BIT version via bootcamp and was very disappointed. It certainly wouldn't be an environment I'd want to use a lot!
Just my 2 pennies.
I went round the houses on this for ages...
Originally ordered 2.6,512,8 because I was planning to upgrade memory at a later date. That one is going back as unless you need the extra drive space its kind of the odd one out in upgrade terms.
I then ordered the 2.6,512,16 but considered the price and thought for £2450 it was too much for my first mac! The processor speed bump is minimal, the extra drive space something I can easily manage to live without and the 16GB of memory could only be theoretically used by me anyway. That was cancelled before it shipped.
I then went to my local store and picked up a 2.3,256,8 and in the real world it's perfect for my needs. I've saved a good chunk of cash and looking at my activity monitor the 8GB is plenty. Performance is superb and of course Diablo 3 plays nice (JOKE). I haven't used 4GB yet so I'm confident the system has plenty more capacity.
Unless you are going to use more than 1 VM or edit large amounts of large video or raw files then 8GB is already overkill IHMO.
As an aside, I think there should be more emphasis placed on how poor the retina screen looks under Windows 7 and how badly the trackpad appears to work? I installed the 64BIT version via bootcamp and was very disappointed. It certainly wouldn't be an environment I'd want to use a lot!
Just my 2 pennies.
Great marketing/sales tactic by Apple though by making it non removable. When new stuff comes.......you have to upgrade .) Being in sales and marketing, i respect them on that.
This is a serious problem in my opinion, these "tactics" that they trialled in the macbook airs was relevant for numerous reasons including that they were designed to be simpler, cheaper, minimal, portable and a focus on design aesthetics and the "ultra portable" concept. What apple has favoured is making money over environmental factors, I guess we could somehow forgive the macbook air's due to it's design and idea but now with the retina design apples strategy is to make the most money from customers, now charging apples premiums on upgrades and if you don't you will be left with no choice but to buy a new $3000 machine in 2 years.
I would love to see what apples response would be to this, why have they disregarded the "green" aspects of their product design? It is causing confusion for consumers and essentially creating a bad experience for the consumer. Cornering customers to have no choice but to future proof their machines so they don't have to buy another $2500-$3000 every 2 years and making unjustifiable profits on upgrades. Why not have a more sustainable design, consumers will now buy products more often unnecessarily, one questions if apples previous emphasis on "green" design was just a marketing strategy that capitalised on trends.
Realistically a 256GB SSD and 8GB for a pro ($2500) machine is a joke, you either upgrade now or are will have to replace your machine, apple's ethics are starting to really slide.
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My views at this stage are probably considered un-necessary and irrelevant, but I'm currently on 4GB RAM and honestly don't find it necessary to upgrade currently, at least since I got an SSD. I've found since getting an SSD my PC pretty much flies through everything despite only having 4GB RAM. I've actually still got a credit on my Aria account to get another 4GB RAM for a total of 8 - simply put I haven't bothered using it yet.
That said, if you plan on using your MacBook Pro as your primary computer, especially if you're using it for professional tasks then I'd recommend going for 16GB RAM just so you're not left short, especially since it cannot be upgraded later, but honestly 8GB should be enough for anyone currently (or 720k for that matter).
That said, if you plan on using your MacBook Pro as your primary computer, especially if you're using it for professional tasks then I'd recommend going for 16GB RAM just so you're not left short, especially since it cannot be upgraded later, but honestly 8GB should be enough for anyone currently (or 720k for that matter
).Except that the MBP doesn't use integrated graphics for processes that need a large amount of video memory (games, video editing, graphics rendering etc.). So indeed: next argument, please!
OP, I think 8gb should be sufficient for now and the near future. I did opt for the 16gb model as I plan on using multiple demanding apps at the same time.
Lightroom, photoshop, and vmware.
Even if you find your running low on ram, all that will do is slow the computer down, it won't stop working. OSX has great memory management so it will efficiently use the 8gb
My point - keep the laptop and enjoy it
Lightroom, photoshop, and vmware.
Even if you find your running low on ram, all that will do is slow the computer down, it won't stop working. OSX has great memory management so it will efficiently use the 8gb
My point - keep the laptop and enjoy it
8gb will be plenty. All of these people saying 16 is a must, are you saying the new airs are instantly out dated? 8 gigs will surely get you through the next 4-5 years.
Agreed - its a nice to have, but only if you plan on using many demanding apps at the same time
Depends on your usage, it's that simple, and you can't predict what your usage needs will be in 3-4 years, so, buy the most you can afford. Look at MacBook Air adopters who took 2GB of RAM (double the OS minimum) and now struggle with multitasking in Lion.
I bought my rMBP with 16 GB ram since I have every intention of running Windows 7 (and then Windows 8 once it is released) in VM. I do believe that 8 GB would have been enough, but with 16, I know that I can allocate 8 GB ram to Mac and another 8 GB to Windows 7 while it is running.