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8Gb vs 16Gb of ram

I have a 2011 13" MBP, I went with the i7 then upgraded everything myself. Hard drive and Ram. First from 4gb to 8gb($80) then 8gb to 16gb($80 6 months later). Since you can't replace this on the new rMPBs, and see it as a long term investment get the 16gb.

Get at much ram as you can afford - end of story. If you are getting a Pro you will need it - if not get an air. the SSD really is the speed/game changer here. More apps - the retina display - all that will start to chew ram over the next few years. Hell try to push 4 displays they are claiming with 4gb ram lol.

I do run VM's on mine, most of you will not. But I noticed that each time that I put more RAM in, OSX was not shy about taking more of it up!! Finance that extra 180$!!
 
It's not unreasonable to expect 5+ years of use from a Mac. I am using a 2006 model 24" iMac as my principle computer; in October I will have owned it for five years.

I know someone who used an early Mac In-The-Box for around 15 years in his law practice. 15 years.

The main thing showing its age in my iMac (aside from a dead optical drive...) is its maxed-out 3GB of RAM. I plan on replacing the iMac before the end of the year with either a refreshed Mac Mini or 13" MBP if I find a good enough deal on a previous-generation model. Whichever Mac I get it will be upgraded to at least 8GB RAM and probably 16GB.

I usually keep my Macs for 3-5 years. I take into account how well the Mac is meeting my needs, its resale value and the cost of replacing it. Since I rarely pay full price I generally get a decent percentage of my original purchase price when I sell the Macs, with the best return after about three years.

Last summer I purchased a new base model 13" MBP for around $900. The sale of my early 2008 15" MBP, for which I originally paid around $1500, covered the cost of the new MBP.
 
MrManilow said:
I have a 2011 13" MBP, I went with the i7 then upgraded everything myself. Hard drive and Ram. First from 4gb to 8gb($80) then 8gb to 16gb($80 6 months later). Since you can't replace this on the new rMPBs, and see it as a long term investment get the 16gb.

Get at much ram as you can afford - end of story. If you are getting a Pro you will need it - if not get an air. the SSD really is the speed/game changer here. More apps - the retina display - all that will start to chew ram over the next few years. Hell try to push 4 displays they are claiming with 4gb ram lol.

I do run VM's on mine, most of you will not. But I noticed that each time that I put more RAM in, OSX was not shy about taking more of it up!! Finance that extra 180$!!
Click to expand...

please do not try and give tech advice if you dont know anything about tech. your ram rarely has anything to do with how many displays you can push and largely depends on your gpu.
 
daleski75 said:
Can't see any reason why not as they use the same base chipset (ivy bridge)
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Well Apple has in the past artificially limited MAc ram capacity. My first gen Intel Mac Mini can only run on 2GB ram max. However I have a Lenovo thinkpad with teh exact same chipset and processor (I've even swapped components between the machines!) and it runs 4GB no problem.
I am actually waiting to see if the non-Retina MBP can run 16GB ram. If so I may go for one of those instead of the Retina model.
 
to me, an important consideration is being able to walk in and pick up the computer from a store (ie not BTO). So, a 16gb model is either not available or if they do have one it woudl probably be the fully loaded one (so more than a couple hundred bucks difference).

Given the small size of the HDD, I will use bootcamp instead of vmware/parallels for my windows needs anyway...but I could see folks choosing one route or the other.

I would imagine the specs are overkill for most users, except for GPU limited tasks (those games) and of course civilian video encoding work (handbrake).
 
calaverasgrande said:
Well Apple has in the past artificially limited MAc ram capacity. My first gen Intel Mac Mini can only run on 2GB ram max. However I have a Lenovo thinkpad with teh exact same chipset and processor (I've even swapped components between the machines!) and it runs 4GB no problem.
I am actually waiting to see if the non-Retina MBP can run 16GB ram. If so I may go for one of those instead of the Retina model.
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The Late 2011 Model Mac Book Pro's can handle up to 32GB of RAM. Once they get the 16GB stick alone right now they only have 8GB ram stick.
 
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Mac-Tech said:
The Late 2011 Model Mac Book Pro's can handle up to 32GB of RAM.
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That's not true. The maximum RAM in any MBP is 16GB. The iMacs and Mac Pros can go up to 32GB, but no Mac notebooks can use that much, as the RAM modules don't exist.

You can find specs on all Apple products, including maximum RAM:
 
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i think if you not a extreme proffesional photo/video/design you don't need that much RAM maybe 4 years ahead 12gb it's more than enough just for casual.

my analysis it's 8gb to 16gb it's very big gap i think, different than 2 to 4 to 8.
i don't know many today's hardware too overkill i think.

maybe if you're a proffesional you really need or more than 16gb now or later
 
8 has been more than enough for me. I have tried and tried to get this thing to slow down but it just won't stop. The retina screen is quite the site too
 
I haven't heard really convincing arguments that you need 16gb in the next 5 years.

2gb became the norm in 2007. That is 5 years ago. Now we are 5 years later and I have a 2011 MBP with 4gb. Guess how much ram I am using now? I am using about 2gb of RAM and I still have plenty of left for a VM if I want to. I barely have any page outs either.

Now how is that going to change in the next 5 years? Why do the next iterations of OS X suddenly need 16gb of memory?
 
Have reordered my MBP with 16 keeping in mind the retina display, new heavier apps, to be future safe ans piece of mind
 
GGJstudios said:
That's not true. The maximum RAM in any MBP is 16GB. The iMacs and Mac Pros can go up to 32GB, but no Mac notebooks can use that much, as the RAM modules don't exist.

You can find specs on all Apple products, including maximum RAM:
Click to expand...

I was saying when they get the 16GB stick ram in the future then the Mac Book Pros can handle two 16GB ram sticks.
 
surjavarman said:
I haven't heard really convincing arguments that you need 16gb in the next 5 years.

2gb became the norm in 2007. That is 5 years ago. Now we are 5 years later and I have a 2011 MBP with 4gb. Guess how much ram I am using now? I am using about 2gb of RAM and I still have plenty of left for a VM if I want to. I barely have any page outs either.

Now how is that going to change in the next 5 years? Why do the next iterations of OS X suddenly need 16gb of memory?
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What happens if you want to run multiple VM's with only 4gb/8gb?

For example to have an Exchange 2010 server running inside a VM requires 4Gb minimum so that is more than half of your available RAM gone right away and you would need another 4Gb for an 2008 R2 Active Directory Server which would mean swapping out to disk.

That for me is a big enough reason to go to 16gb as what you use your laptop for today could be vastly different in a years time.
 
I have 8GB but yesterday setting up Paralells and giving it half the ram,
started thinking 16GB might have been a better choice?
 
OSMac said:
I have 8GB but yesterday setting up Paralells and giving it half the ram,
started thinking 16GB might have been a better choice?
Click to expand...

If you went with the Retina Model Mac Book Pro's then 16GB would have been your best bet as the ram CAN NOT be upgraded in the future if you decide applications on your Mac is getting a little slow.
 
In my experience, by the time to need more than 8GB of RAM, the 1GB VRAM on the graphics card, and heat issues become relevant. By the time you spent $3000 on high end laptop, it makes more sense to have a $2000 desktop and a $1000 laptop.

Temps over 70c will shorten the life of your CPU.

The only app I'm aware of that needs as much RAM as possible is After Effects and more sense to use a desktop with fans on the GPU and case just to keep it cool.
 
surjavarman said:
I haven't heard really convincing arguments that you need 16gb in the next 5 years.

2gb became the norm in 2007. That is 5 years ago. Now we are 5 years later and I have a 2011 MBP with 4gb. Guess how much ram I am using now? I am using about 2gb of RAM and I still have plenty of left for a VM if I want to. I barely have any page outs either.

Now how is that going to change in the next 5 years? Why do the next iterations of OS X suddenly need 16gb of memory?
Click to expand...

Everyone's usage pattern is different. I ran over 2gb of RAM in early 2010. For me, that is reason enough.

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islanders said:
In my experience, by the time to need more than 8GB of RAM, the 1GB VRAM on the graphics card, and heat issues become relevant. By the time you spent $3000 on high end laptop, it makes more sense to have a $2000 desktop and a $1000 laptop.
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Your reasoning is sound IF you have the space for a desktop. I don't. I unfortunately need to reuse my workspace for multiple reasons and routinely clear all computing devices from my table. I also frequent coworking spaces as well.
 
FastEddiebags said:
What would be the point of having 32gb of ram? I can't imagine anyone needing that much ram on a laptop.
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Multi media files get larger more RAM needed to edit them. The Nikon D800 is a 36.3Mp camera, try loading about a few hundreds photos in Lightroom 4. It will eat all the RAM up quick. A raw file from that camera is about 80mb for one photo. This is not unusually when photographing weddings where there's about 800 plus photos to be edited. More RAM is always welcome for photography.
 
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kaydot said:
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Your reasoning is sound IF you have the space for a desktop. I don't. I unfortunately need to reuse my workspace for multiple reasons and routinely clear all computing devices from my table. I also frequent coworking spaces as well.
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Well yes I meant to imply that for most people a desktop makes more sense. As far as clutter on the desk, for video editing, would require two external drives so putting everything in one case reduces clutter and wires going everywhere across your desk. I also share projects with co workers and we use an external drive to move them from station to station, especially when we aren't in the same state.

Although, I am interested in how 16MB of RAM would be used on a laptop? With video editing as soon as you get into large still images the VRAM is an issue. Also for Adobe Premiere and other apps that use accelerated graphics CUDA cores plays a huge part.

Edit: For my clients the highest end MBPR would be too slow, as they have deadlines with tight budgets.
 
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Cypther said:
Multi media files get larger more RAM needed to edit them. The Nikon D800 is a 36.3Mp camera, try loading about a few hundreds photos in Lightroom 4. It will eat all the RAM up quick. A raw file from that camera is about 80mb for one photo. This is not unusually when photographing weddings where there's about 800 plus photos to be edited. More RAM is always welcome for photography.
Click to expand...

Makes sense.
 
surjavarman said:
I haven't heard really convincing arguments that you need 16gb in the next 5 years.

2gb became the norm in 2007. That is 5 years ago. Now we are 5 years later and I have a 2011 MBP with 4gb. Guess how much ram I am using now? I am using about 2gb of RAM and I still have plenty of left for a VM if I want to. I barely have any page outs either.

Now how is that going to change in the next 5 years? Why do the next iterations of OS X suddenly need 16gb of memory?
Click to expand...

Well you obviously arent using the same suite of apps that some of us are.
I like to be able to run Photoshop, MAMP, Cyberduck, Komodo Edit, a few browsers and a Windows VM (or two) with browsers open in each.
I have no problem at all running out of ram like that.
Heck even opening a few dozen photos from my 2Ti and doing some cropping and adjustments I can start running into ram issues.

Another point that I think we should all keep in mind about all of these kind of processor/ram/gpu debates. Developers don't use "good enough" machines to put together the apps and operating systems we use. They buy best of class systems. They work stupid long hours and make crazy loot. So they buy overpriced office casual sneakers and maxed out laptops. (my sources? Well my brother is a developer and I have worked IT at various dot coms in the bay area).
SO they are always putting together the next generation of stuff on the maximum gear today. When you try and run their apps on middling gear, surprise, all your ram and clock cycles get gobbled up.
 
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