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8Gb vs 16Gb of ram

So I followed you steps and allocated 17 gb on an 8gb machine. Yes things were a bit slower. Not much.

I loaded itunes, safari, and a Win7 VM. All loaded pretty quick.

My swap is now 14 gigs, and there are 9 gb of pageouts.

So on a 256GB SSD machine 14 gb is used for virtual memory, and that will increase as I open additional applications and VMs.

So, depending on how you use your SSD over time, you could impact your performance on an 8GB machine.

I would conclude. 8GB is fine on a 512GB SSD. Otherwise, if you have 256...16 gigs is better if you dont want to give up disk space to run apps.

Performance wise, I think while there are noticable lags....its perfectly usable.

Still my decision is a difficult one. THe difference in price between my 8 gig and 16 gig is $300 (bestbuys price for the base is $100 off)....still I dont really want to be upgrading this device for the nest few years.

Damn this is a diffuclt decision.


Does anyone have any additional suggestions for really hammering on the 8gig machine while its got a huge swap file?
 
I would just go with what your gut or intuition says.

My gut says to keep my base rMBP which I got from best buy, with 200 dollar off, due to price matching the Apple Store. I also signed up for their credit card, and it gives me 80 dollars towards the purchase of a new GPS, which I plan on buying next month. *Also trying to haggle an additional 100 dollars off of the price, with a $100 student discount coupon. Hopefully it works.

However paying online from the apple store I can get an additional $100 dollar cash back from discover card, on top of the $200 dollar off and $100 dollar gift card.

But the negatives are, is it worth waiting 3-4 weeks for? Is it worth the downtime, I would face when returning rMBP and waiting for the CTO 16GB to ship? I am also scared of the build quality of the rMBP and CTO (rMBP), now that there is such a huge demand for them. I would hate to return my current rMBP and get a CTO rMBP with poor QC due to so much pressure on the suppliers, because of the huge demand.

The computer for me, is the best one I have used. I can see that, yes that 16 GB would come in handy, if I really want to optimize my setup. But the thing is that for me would be pre-mature optimization. Since it something I don't need, yet. I don't use allot of hard disk space, and I am not running any VMs nor do I intend on running them; even if I do, I can optimize my work flow, around the memory limitation.

So I have decided instead of paying that extra 180 for the ram, I can use that 180 to toward purchasing Bose Acoustic 15 noise canceling head set. That would boost my productivity so much more, than the 8 GB of ram.

After one year with the base rMBP I will come to know whether I am maxing out it's capabilities and might need more RAM for my next laptop.

Your circumstances are different, so again just go with your gut.

"Premature optimization is the root of all evil" ~ Donald Knuth

ZipZap said:
So I followed you steps and allocated 17 gb on an 8gb machine. Yes things were a bit slower. Not much.

I loaded itunes, safari, and a Win7 VM. All loaded pretty quick.

My swap is now 14 gigs, and there are 9 gb of pageouts.

So on a 256GB SSD machine 14 gb is used for virtual memory, and that will increase as I open additional applications and VMs.

So, depending on how you use your SSD over time, you could impact your performance on an 8GB machine.

I would conclude. 8GB is fine on a 512GB SSD. Otherwise, if you have 256...16 gigs is better if you dont want to give up disk space to run apps.

Performance wise, I think while there are noticable lags....its perfectly usable.

Still my decision is a difficult one. THe difference in price between my 8 gig and 16 gig is $300 (bestbuys price for the base is $100 off)....still I dont really want to be upgrading this device for the nest few years.

Damn this is a diffuclt decision.


Does anyone have any additional suggestions for really hammering on the 8gig machine while its got a huge swap file?
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
theSeb said:
The reason why inactive memory ramps up is because Lion does manage memory well. It uses it for caching quite aggressively. Your effective free RAM is Free + Inactive. This works normally, but sometimes things don't go according to plan. It's good practise to purge (type purge in the Terminal) after using an application that uses lots of RAM (or browsing the web with 20 tabs open).
Click to expand...

porn. it does page out when im loading that many tabs. im planing to upgrade to next years rmpb with 16gb and at least 512 gb SSD. I only paid 400 out of pocket this year, so i think its a good trade.
 
ppone said:
I would just go with what your gut or intuition says.

My gut says to keep my base rMBP which I got from best buy, with 200 dollar off, due to price matching the Apple Store. I also signed up for their credit card, and it gives me 80 dollars towards the purchase of a new GPS, which I plan on buying next month. *Also trying to haggle an additional 100 dollars off of the price, with a $100 student discount coupon. Hopefully it works.

However paying online from the apple store I can get an additional $100 dollar cash back from discover card, on top of the $200 dollar off and $100 dollar gift card.

But the negatives are, is it worth waiting 3-4 weeks for? Is it worth the downtime, I would face when returning rMBP and waiting for the CTO 16GB to ship? I am also scared of the build quality of the rMBP and CTO (rMBP), now that there is such a huge demand for them. I would hate to return my current rMBP and get a CTO rMBP with poor QC due to so much pressure on the suppliers, because of the huge demand.

The computer for me, is the best one I have used. I can see that, yes that 16 GB would come in handy, if I really want to optimize my setup. But the thing is that for me would be pre-mature optimization. Since it something I don't need, yet. I don't use allot of hard disk space, and I am not running any VMs nor do I intend on running them; even if I do, I can optimize my work flow, around the memory limitation.

So I have decided instead of paying that extra 180 for the ram, I can use that 180 to toward purchasing Bose Acoustic 15 noise canceling head set. That would boost my productivity so much more, than the 8 GB of ram.

After one year with the base rMBP I will come to know whether I am maxing out it's capabilities and might need more RAM for my next laptop.

Your circumstances are different, so again just go with your gut.

"Premature optimization is the root of all evil" ~ Donald Knuth
Click to expand...

You're unlikely to see a 3-4 week wait, because demand will have tapered off exponentially since launch, and most buyers are getting their rMBP a week earlier than estimated at the moment (me included).

As for whether you need 16gb, it's likely that, unless you're a heavy user and are experiencing memory problems at the moment, you won't need 16GB. So, unless your computer usage changes heavily over the next few years, 8gb should be fine. On the other hand, $200 is almost nothing relative to the cost of the machine, and there's uncertainty in future usage, so I'd take it back and get the 16.

Personally, I'd buy 32gb if it was offered, because I max out 16gb frequently enough that my computer hangs. I'm probably a tiny tiny minority of users whose work uses memory up very quickly, but we do exist.
 
MyRomeo said:
As promised, update on the 16gb 1600MHz kit I ordered for my 2011 13" MBP base model.

The kit is sold on Amazon UK by Komputerbay and put me back £85 shipped although its just annoyingly dropped to £73! Shipping time from order to delivered was 4 days.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007PZWWYK?ie=UTF8&ref=aw_bottom_links&force-full-site=1

Fitted this to my MBP (2011, i5 2.4GHz, 500gb HDD, 4gb RAM stock) and fired up, no problems at all. I've checked the system info and it reports 2x8gb installed and speed at 1600MHz.

I tested with geek bench as a basic before/after and with 4gb scored 6075, with 16gb scored 6469. I don't really know what this means but just FYI!
Click to expand...

The bigger the better (score).

From geekbench's website:

"Higher scores are better, with double the score indicating double the performance. "

So I guess you've increased your machine's performance by about 6.5%.
 
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ppone said:
My gut says to keep my base rMBP which I got from best buy, with 200 dollar off, due to price matching the Apple Store. I also signed up for their credit card, and it gives me 80 dollars towards the purchase of a new GPS, which I plan on buying next month. *Also trying to haggle an additional 100 dollars off of the price, with a $100 student discount coupon. Hopefully it works.

However paying online from the apple store I can get an additional $100 dollar cash back from discover card, on top of the $200 dollar off and $100 dollar gift card.
Click to expand...

Whats saving a few hundred dollars now compared to having to prematurely replace a $2-3000 laptop later if you make the wrong decision? If you need the ram in your expected workflow, I'd get it regardless.
 
DragonJade said:
The bigger the better (score).

From geekbench's website:

"Higher scores are better, with double the score indicating double the performance. "

So I guess you've increased your machine's performance by about 6.5%.
Click to expand...

yay? heh, hardly seems much! I tried a 64 bit test and it scored about 6900 so a more significant improvement when ran at 64 bit :)

Haven't had a single page out since the upgrade tho and the machine feels snappier when I have a few adobe products running so thats good.

*Note, feels... no proof, just personal observation/opinion
 
MyRomeo said:
yay? heh, hardly seems much! I tried a 64 bit test and it scored about 6900 so a more significant improvement when ran at 64 bit :)

Haven't had a single page out since the upgrade tho and the machine feels snappier when I have a few adobe products running so thats good.

*Note, feels... no proof, just personal observation/opinion
Click to expand...

Well, if it feels faster then you know it was probably worth it. I think I might just get myself the same RAM. I don't have a machine yet, but will do in 6 weeks when I'm off abroad and can pick up a new MBP for over £400 cheaper! VAT is such a killer in this country.

I went from 4GB to 8GB on my 2008 unibody MB and definitely saw an improvement in Parallels, and a slight bit in other things.

A little off topic, but I came across this site a few days ago that's great for seeing the price history of Amazon products. Looks like you got unlucky and got the RAM in between two price reduction points.

http://uk.camelcamelcamel.com
 
DragonJade said:
Well, if it feels faster then you know it was probably worth it. I think I might just get myself the same RAM. I don't have a machine yet, but will do in 6 weeks when I'm off abroad and can pick up a new MBP for over £400 cheaper! VAT is such a killer in this country.

I went from 4GB to 8GB on my 2008 unibody MB and definitely saw an improvement in Parallels, and a slight bit in other things.

A little off topic, but I came across this site a few days ago that's great for seeing the price history of Amazon products. Looks like you got unlucky and got the RAM in between two price reduction points.

http://uk.camelcamelcamel.com
Click to expand...

Tell me about it, Im from the UK too and bought the 2011 MBP in the USA. I scored big time as I happened to be out there at the announcement of the 2012 series and Best Buy had an extra $200 off the 13" MBP!

Oh I noticed the price had dropped by £11 and contacted the seller, they refunded me the price difference with no hassle at all. Even better!
 
MyRomeo said:
Tell me about it, Im from the UK too and bought the 2011 MBP in the USA. I scored big time as I happened to be out there at the announcement of the 2012 series and Best Buy had an extra $200 off the 13" MBP!
Click to expand...

Luck! Did you get an extra one to sell back here?

Oh, did you have a peek to see who manufactured the chips on the RAM you bought?

----------
MyRomeo said:
Oh I noticed the price had dropped by £11 and contacted the seller, they refunded me the price difference with no hassle at all. Even better!
Click to expand...

That, I have to say, is sweet. Looks like you get all the breaks! I'm going to play the price-change wheel and get myself the same RAM now. It might be cheaper in a couple of weeks or could be more expensive, but I'll give it a shot now, and maybe I can even get a refund like you did if there is a drop. I just hope I don't find out six weeks later when I'm abroad that the RAM is faulty.
 
I got the wife a MacBook air but none to sell on, not playing that game!

Nah didn't look who made the ram, it's got a metal heat sink over the chips, not risking it!
 
Just get what you need, not what you think you will need.

Remember, if you have a problem with your machine, these new RMBP are like ipads, iphones, they have to fix them. You will be without your machine a few days if it needs fixed. If you have the base model, they can just swap it out. That is the only benefit of having a base model. And it's a good reason not to upgrade. If you have the base high end they can also swap that out.

I cannot be without my laptop for any length of time, or my business grinds to a halt. I have others to use at the office, literally always have one on hand, but not with my 'work' on them. Only my personal and business laptop has everything I need on it.

Most people who need more ram don't really need it. I ran heavy video editing, on only 4gb, that is just 4gb. You have to adjust your workflow, but it can be done. 8GB is allot. I have never needed more, and I run heavy apps. Run my business on my laptop(laptops). I currently have 16GB, on my late 2011, and I don't use half of it.

Performance going from 4GB to 8GB is not the same as going from 8GB to 16GB. OSX uses 2GB at any one time. That is half of the 4GB, 2GB is only 25 percent of the 8GB. Big difference.

My video editor has 64 in his Mac Pro, but hardly ever uses 16. And he is editing commercials for NBC, CNN, etc. Get what you need, but 8GB is plenty of over 90% of the people out there.

That will go up with time, but 8GB will be good for quite a few years. If you need 16 by all means get it. But if you don't, don't.
 
kvnfo said:
8GB is enough, I personally have 8GB on my desktop and never needed more.

But since you are already spending 2.1k what's another $180 for double the ram?
Click to expand...

It's, 180 dollars you could spend on something you want or need. Getting 16GB of RAM for most people is the same as setting the money on fire.
 
DVD9 said:
It's, 180 dollars you could spend on something you want or need. Getting 16GB of RAM for most people is the same as setting the money on fire.
Click to expand...

What I want and need with that money is 16 GB :) I'm often getting page outs after a few hours of working on an XP VM configured with only 2gb of ram in parallels.
 
DVD9 said:
It's, 180 dollars you could spend on something you want or need. Getting 16GB of RAM for most people is the same as setting the money on fire.
Click to expand...

I think 'most people' that you mentioned must re-think to buy a rMBP. I personally agree with kvnfo. I mean, if you can buy something expensive (>$2000), you must be able to spend a little bit more.

If you can't, that's like buying a ferrari but you can't afford the fuel :). RAM is better, because it is only one time purchase.
 
OSX memory management is pretty lame so we tend to think we need more ram than we actually do. If you have very little free memory left, plenty of inactive memory, but still experiencing slowdowns and pageouts, its because the inactive memory isnt being freed up. In this case, you can use the purge command in terminal to free this inactive memory up. Hopefully Apple sort this out soon.
 
I put 16gb into my 2012 MBP because I knew that I'd be using Windows 7 via bootcamp pretty frequently. On the OS X side of my machine, approximately 8gb of that ram goes unused.
 
Dangerous Theory said:
OSX memory management is pretty lame so we tend to think we need more ram than we actually do. If you have very little free memory left, plenty of inactive memory, but still experiencing slowdowns and pageouts, its because the inactive memory isnt being freed up. In this case, you can use the purge command in terminal to free this inactive memory up. Hopefully Apple sort this out soon.
Click to expand...

True but how long has it been like this? I don't like having to purge occasionally, interrupting my workflow. I'd rather just throw 16GB at it and be done.
 
katmeef said:
True but how long has it been like this? I don't like having to purge occasionally, interrupting my workflow. I'd rather just throw 16GB at it and be done.
Click to expand...

Don't know, I've only been using OSX for 2 years. I imagine it's been a problem for ages though. I agree, it's easier just to buy more RAM and not deal with the inconvenience - it's just a shame that that's the best solution.
 
DragonJade said:
The bigger the better (score).

From geekbench's website:

"Higher scores are better, with double the score indicating double the performance. "

So I guess you've increased your machine's performance by about 6.5%.
Click to expand...

Geekbench is a processor-based test. Increasing your RAM will not increase your Geekbench score significantly, if at all. RAM and CPUs do two entirely different things.
 
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