8Gb vs 16Gb of ram

[photosaurus]

IMO, for most people, 8 gigs is probably plenty of RAM for the foreseeable future.

For me, I could survive on it, but 16 will make life less aggravating for me. My current mac has 8, and I HATE closing my current projects worth of apps (Project consisting of an IDE, Photoshop, Aperture, 10 or 12 browser tabs, a word doc or two, SQLDeveloper, a web server console, a few TextWrangler instances). If I close my IDE and re-open a few times, or do a massive dif, everything starts stalling with swap. In order to get back on track, I have to close everything down, restart the computer, and then open it all back up.

16 gigs will be an obvious God Send for me. My wife with her 4 gig air has never used more than 2, never shuts her computer down, and would be insane to pay extra for 16 gigs. She does basic photo stuff with Aperture, browses the web, email, word type stuff for the most part.

As for games, I really don't think any game in the next 5 years will run any better on 16 versus 8. But you never know.

 

[Herrow]

double down on the ram, double double out of trouble...

 

[Evil Spoonman]

Anybody who says you shouldn't upgrade to 16GB of RAM in the Retina MacBook Pro should not be giving buying advice. Full stop.

The RAM is not upgradable on the rMBP, you are stuck with what you decide today for the life of the machine.

Data sets are always getting larger. Assets are always getting larger. In one year, in two years... 16GB will be par the course, and plum necessary. If you plan to sell then, your machine will command better resale. If you are still using it then, you will be a much happier person.

$200 is a pittance for this memory upgrade. Just do it.

 

[-tWv-]

Anybody who says you shouldn't upgrade to 16GB of RAM in the Retina MacBook Pro should not be giving buying advice. Full stop.

The RAM is not upgradable on the rMBP, you are stuck with what you decide today for the life of the machine.

Data sets are always getting larger. Assets are always getting larger. In one year, in two years... 16GB will be par the course, and plum necessary. If you plan to sell then, your machine will command better resale. If you are still using it then, you will be a much happier person.

$200 is a pittance for this memory upgrade. Just do it.

I decided to go with 16gb as well, but if you don't have the money for now 8gb is fine for most users.

 

[kate-willbury]

Anybody who says you shouldn't upgrade to 16GB of RAM in the Retina MacBook Pro should not be giving buying advice. Full stop.

The RAM is not upgradable on the rMBP, you are stuck with what you decide today for the life of the machine.

Data sets are always getting larger. Assets are always getting larger. In one year, in two years... 16GB will be par the course, and plum necessary. If you plan to sell then, your machine will command better resale. If you are still using it then, you will be a much happier person.

$200 is a pittance for this memory upgrade. Just do it.

Sorry but this is useless advice.
'In one year, in two years...16GB will be par the course'?

Are you serious? According to what? So you really think all of a sudden Apple is going to jump from the standard 4gb of RAM base install to 16gb in a year or two just like that? or all other manufacturers for that matter?

 

[photosaurus]

I was just reminiscing about the good old days when I had just upgraded the ram in my PC from 4Mb to 24Mb, which was, at the time, a ludicrous amount of RAM. Windows 95 had not yet been released, and I hated windows 3.1, and tried to do everything from the command line.

I was so thrilled! I made a ram drive, and installed games on it for blazing fast load times, and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I'm thinking that was around 1995ish?

So yeah. Maybe 16gigs isn't such a bad idea. You probably don't need it now, but Moores Law is a bitch. I wish I could remember what I payed for that upgrade. Would probably make me sick to think about it.

Edit: Further thoughts:
Tandy 1000 - 1986 or so 256kB - 640kB
Windows 95 - 1995 - Suggested 4Mb ram
Windows 98 - 1998 - Suggested 24Mb ram. Apparently, I was prepared for this 3 years earlier!
Windows XP - 2001 - Suggested 128Mb ram.
Windows Vista - 2006 - 1 gig suggested.
Windows 7 - 2009 - Minimum 2gig for 64bit.

So, I figure we're at the 4 mark, verging on 8 now for a basic system. Another year, we'll be solid 8. Following the pattern, in 3 years, it'll be 16. So, in three years, 16 will be the equivalent of having 4 today.

 

[Poochi]

By the RAM you'll need for the software you'll use in 2016.

Cheaper to save the money and buy a brand new computer in 2016 when you need it.

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16GB is needed if you want to future-proof your Macbook. In 2-4 years, 16GB is going to be standard.

sell the current mac, buy a new one in 2 to 4 years

man... why do people want to keep all the old components and spend all that $$$ to "future proof" when you can spend the same after selling the old computer and buy a new one for exactly the same price...

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First, recognize that 2 types of people are giving you advice: 1, people who say 8 gigs is all you need, mostly based on their *current* usage. 2, people who say 16 gigs will "future proof" your MBP.

A retina MBP is *not upgradable*. This is important to you, even if you don't plan on upgrading the MBP yourself, because it will significantly affect its resale value in 3-4 years time. A big reason why the used market for MBPs is so robust is because people can buy them and upgrade them. However, if you have a machine that simply doesn't have enough RAM, nobody will want it.

Personally, I think the 16 GB RAM is a no brainer. This will only cost 7% of the machine, it will give you enough RAM for the next 3-4 years, and it will *substantially* increase its resale value when you want to buy a new machine.

There are also tangible benefits to having 16 gigs that have been described by other people. For example, you can run Parallels/Boot Camp more easily, it can handle more audio/video editing, you can run new games/apps in 3-4 years time.

"resale" value? Can you recoup $180 + tax that you spend today (can you get at least $180 when you resale?) probably not. Are you going to use the extra 8GB during the lifetime of the equipment before you sell it? THAT should be the decision factor.

 

[Diveflo]

I've tested it pretty extensive over the last 24hours and couldn't get more than 2-3mb page-outs even with 8GB RAM.
Loading MATLAB with 2-3GB 3D-CT volumes, Eclipse coding, Safari with 10+ tabs, Spotify, Win7 VMWare Fusion and a few smaller apps and the thing doesn't even blink.
I'm gonna try it for the next few days but if my first impression doesn't change I'm keeping the 8GB.

 

[calaverasgrande]

thing is, I bet the 8gb RMBP will be going for a lot less on the used market than the 16gb models in a few years.
SO this idea that you should just buy the 8gb model and sell it in two years to buy a new MBP is kind of silly.

 

[Nielsenius]

thing is, I bet the 8gb RMBP will be going for a lot less on the used market than the 16gb models in a few years.
SO this idea that you should just buy the 8gb model and sell it in two years to buy a new MBP is kind of silly.

Not even close. Why do people assume that the $200 upgrade to 16 GB is going to hold any resale value? Last year 16 GB of memory cost over $1000. Now, it costs $100 from a third party. Next year 16 GB will be cheap as hell and you'll have wasted your money "future-proofing" your machine. Has anybody looked at Anandtech's review of the rMBP? He even says in the review that by the time 16 GB of memory is necessary, all the other components will be archaic.

 

[ZipZap]

Not even close. Why do people assume that the $200 upgrade to 16 GB is going to hold any resale value? Last year 16 GB of memory cost over $1000. Now, it costs $100 from a third party. Next year 16 GB will be cheap as hell and you'll have wasted your money "future-proofing" your machine. Has anybody looked at Anandtech's review of the rMBP? He even says in the review that by the time 16 GB of memory is necessary, all the other components will be archaic.

Making the call on this is quite tough. In my case, I have a MBA 2010 with 2 gigs.

Do you think I could sell it faster and for a bit more with 4 gigs. You bet you a--.

Will I recoup the price I paid for the upgrade...probably not but I will get more interest and more $'s on resale.

Seems to me this debate is really about waiting for a future ship of a rMBP or taking one off the shelf. If you can wait....get 16 gigs.

 

[brentsg]

I liked the way that Anand phrased it. If your current workflow demands 16GB then it's a good investment. Otherwise you'll probably run into other limitations of the machine first.

 

[73CortinaV8]

At my company, the newer developer laptops (non-apple) are being configured with 32Gb of RAM.

If you do development, run sort of any VM, run memory hungry applications like photo or video or audio processing, load up the boat on RAM.

 

[MindsEye]

Its going to differ from person to person. Some people will need the extra RAM others wont.

From my perspective, RAM tends to be a huge bottleneck and that has been the case for as long as i can remember. I always think to myself when i buy a new machine, that i have plenty and i always end up dead wrong.

Take my Dell Inspiron desktop which came with 4GB and a 3GHz i3 dual core chip. I use it almost exclusively for entertainment and at a given time i typically have my browser with roughly 20tabs open, a couple of folders, VLC and some processes running in the background e.g. anti-virus, dropbox, windows services etc. My RAM is constantly hovering around the 70-80% region with my browser being the main culprit. Despite the fact that 4GB is considered (or at least was when i bought my machine a few years ago) standard at the same time, my low end CPU is never stretched beyond 30% consumption typically around 25%.

For the most part i use my laptop as a work machine, for me that means things like coding, VM's amongst other things that are far more intensive then what i'm doing on my desktop. While 16GB may be overkill to some, i personally would love the peace of mind of being able to do work with an assortment of things running at the same time and not worry about my system slowing down due to a lack of available memory.

 

[surjavarman]

Anandtech says 16 gigs is not necessary and I hold his opinions in great esteem. Furthermore I don't think people are going to notice the difference between 8 gigs or 16 gigs in 3 years when I try to sell it. I think the 16gb would go for the same price as the 8gb.

I am not even using 3 gb on my current system and that is when stressing it. It doesn't even need to use swap space and it never has any page outs. 8 gigs is plenty and $200 is still a lot of cash. That is cash you could be using on your next mbp. You are never going to max out 8gigs and even if you are maxing out 8gigs its going to have page outs. But this happens rarely and you have an ssd so you are not even going to notice it. 16 gig will give you no performance gains at all. There is no reason to get it other than for bragging rights and ease of mind which is btw a false illusion. Its simply a waste of money for 95% of the average consumer.

 

[mabaty]

This!!!

The current software, apps and programs, 8gb is more than enough. My Mac Pro is even doing well with just 8gb. But this retina is gonna need some new programs and who nows how that'll take a dump on RAM use. And Virtual machines are RAM rapers. I'd say go 16gb and put this issue to rest. This RAM is soldered so might as well take the leap.

VM's only use as much ram as you tell them to.

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Only two people need 16GB of ram. People running VM's, video editing/archiving. If School, internet, or iPhoto is anywhere in your description of what you use your computer for, you don't need 16GB.

 

[shurcooL]

More RAM is less important on rMBP compared to prev-gen MBP with hard-drive, because the rMBP has a really fast SSD so swap file access is pretty quick.

This is precisely why the MBAs with 2 GB RAM performed so well.

Still, if you wanna keep it for 4-5 years, maybe 16 is worth it, I dunno.

 

[kisbys]

To be honest I've been really debating this but then I figured outside of those on here if 16 was so important the apple would atleast spec the stock 2.6/8/526 up to 16 as that is clearly meant to be powerful. The fact that they haven't to me says it all

 

[CKohkah]

I just picked up my first Macbook Pro 13.3 inch model with just 4gb of Ram.

I obviously want to upgrade it, but I don't want to buy faulty ram. Can you guys suggest a few specific brands? I'm thinking 8gb's for now, but 16gb's isn't out of the question!

 

[jbg232]

I just picked up my first Macbook Pro 13.3 inch model with just 4gb of Ram.

I obviously want to upgrade it, but I don't want to buy faulty ram. Can you guys suggest a few specific brands? I'm thinking 8gb's for now, but 16gb's isn't out of the question!

Crucial or OWC are very good choices.

 

[grpaul349]

I just picked up my first Macbook Pro 13.3 inch model with just 4gb of Ram.

I obviously want to upgrade it, but I don't want to buy faulty ram. Can you guys suggest a few specific brands? I'm thinking 8gb's for now, but 16gb's isn't out of the question!

I've always gone with crucial. Fast shipping and dependable. It's usually pretty cheap - tho there are cheaper. Google Crucial Discount and you can usually get 5% off your price.

 

[Mojo1]

Anandtech says 16 gigs is not necessary and I hold his opinions in great esteem.

Would you mind providing a link to the Anandtech article?

I did a search but I didn't find it...

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I've always gone with crucial. Fast shipping and dependable. It's usually pretty cheap - tho there are cheaper. Google Crucial Discount and you can usually get 5% off your price.

OWC and Crucial seem to be the most popular when it comes to buying trouble-free RAM. OWC tends to be a bit more expensive but I find it easier to locate the RAM I need at OWC vs. Crucial's system.

I've always gone with OWC but I will be checking out Crucial for my next RAM purchase.

 

[calaverasgrande]

Anandtech says 16 gigs is not necessary and I hold his opinions in great esteem. Furthermore I don't think people are going to notice the difference between 8 gigs or 16 gigs in 3 years when I try to sell it. I think the 16gb would go for the same price as the 8gb.

Speaking of false illusions, good luck on getting the same price for an 8GB RMBP as a 16GB RMBP in 3 years. There will be at least two updates of Mac OS by then, so I surely expect to be hitting the ceiling on 8GB by 2015.
Personally I actually hope the majority of you DO buy 8gb RMBPs. That way when I buy my 16GB RMBP it will hold it's value better if it is a comparatively smaller share of total RMBPs sold.

 

[Shacklebolt]

Get as much RAM as you can now. If the rMBA were upgradable, it'd make more sense to hold off, but, sadly, it ain't.

 

[surjavarman]

Would you mind providing a link to the Anandtech article?

I did a search but I didn't find it...

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OWC and Crucial seem to be the most popular when it comes to buying trouble-free RAM. OWC tends to be a bit more expensive but I find it easier to locate the RAM I need at OWC vs. Crucial's system.

I've always gone with OWC but I will be checking out Crucial for my next RAM purchase.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6023/the-nextgen-macbook-pro-with-retina-display-review

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94OenZ71ADY @ 22:15