8Gb vs 16Gb of ram

[katmeef]

The benefit of the base model, and this is lost on most people, why I can never tell. Is that the base model will allow you to 'swap' out the laptop if ever you need to repair the machine. As nothing is replaceable basically, except for the SSD, it will be treated like a iphone or ipad. Either that or guy the upgraded model, non-BTO. So you can swap it out.

Try swapping a BTO, isn't going to happen. You will have to wait for your machine to get repaired, instead of getting a 'new' or 'refurbished like new machine. Being a business man, I don't have time to wait. I need my machine now.

Good point, and I'm back to indecision now! After playing with a MBPR for a while the other day, I returned my air and grabbed a 512/8gb at a nearby apple store... And of course yesterday I pulled the trigger, placed an order for a 512/16 online and just planned on returning the 512/8 before 14 days.

I'm pretty on the fence with my current uses if I'll ever use more than 8 in the life of the computer. I could see in the next few years getting a DSLR and I'm concerned (just from reading this thread) the 8 could be a limitation if I wanted to do some photo editing. Also I have a windows laptop from work currently so my personal is really just used for excel, safari (when im not using the ipad), iTunes, vlc, iPhoto; however, the idea of running windows on a vm and working from the retina is pretty inticing ...

I wish the base with 512 also had 16 and the choice (and in store availability) would be so much easier for me . Maybe I'll end up canceling the online, at least with these shipping times I've got lots of time to think (read OCD) about it more.

 

[SteveyAppleSeed]

Cheapest 16 gb kit?

I'm finding it for $188 after CA tax from Crucial.

I thought someone said they found a kit for $129. Any ideas?

 

[burningrave101]

I wish the base with 512 also had 16 and the choice (and in store availability) would be so much easier for me . Maybe I'll end up canceling the online, at least with these shipping times I've got lots of time to think (read OCD) about it more.

Yeah, Apple really should of bumped up the RAM on the 2.6/512GB to 16GB just to make it easier for customers to get the right config they want in stores instead of having to order and wait for a BTO. It wasn't really an issue in the past since users could upgrade the RAM themselves no problem but now that you can't Apple should offer a model that already comes equipped with 16GB.

 

[Feed Me]

I'm finding it for $188 after CA tax from Crucial.

I thought someone said they found a kit for $129. Any ideas?

You can't upgrade the RAM...

 

[stevelam]

Actually, it is.... The operating systems of the future will use exponentially more resources, not even taking in to account moore's law.

'exponentially more resources'? really??

um no they wont. you dont think companies didn't learn from MS Vista's resource-hogging blunder? Or the fact that windows 8 is much leaner? why do you think firefox is losing a lot of marketshare to chrome? one is bloated, the other is not.

 

[azpekt]

16Gb modules for MBP2012

Hi dudes,

I have MD103LL/A (mid-2012 MBP 15), and wish to get 16Gb of RAM.

Question - are these modules compatible:
- PATRIOT 8 GB SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 MHz (PSD38G16002S)

or these:
- PATRIOT 8 GB SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 MHz (AE38G1601S2-U)

They are only I can get in Ukraine, so I`m limited to them.

Thanks!
Nick

 

[Feed Me]

'exponentially more resources'? really??

um no they wont. you dont think companies didn't learn from MS Vista's resource-hogging blunder? Or the fact that windows 8 is much leaner? why do you think firefox is losing a lot of marketshare to chrome? one is bloated, the other is not.

soo every single operating system up until Vista was bloated because it needed more resources than its predecessor?

I see your point.

Give it a decade and we'll be back with 64k of RAM and 1Mb, super fast SSDs.
Processors? Hah! In twenty years we'll be using quartz crystals and a watch battery instead!

 

[stevelam]

soo every single operating system up until Vista was bloated because it needed more resources than its predecessor?

I see your point.

Give it a decade and we'll be back with 64k of RAM and 1Mb, super fast SSDs.
Processors? Hah! In twenty years we'll be using quartz crystals and a watch battery instead!

in case you haven't noticed, OS requirements change VERY slowly unless theres a radical shift (apple moving to intel being one). by the time RAM ever becomes an issue for OS support, the entire computer would have been outdated first.

 

[SteveyAppleSeed]

You can't upgrade the RAM...

Sorry, I meant the regular MBP, which you can upgrade.

 

[mdapple]

I just returned my 2.6/8/512 rmbp because it was paging out several mb's per second with 10 safari windows, ical, mail, itunes, and iphoto open..a pretty common use pattern for me.

I don't even wanna know what will happen when I launch W7 parallel.

tldr; i'd rather get 16gb now than regret it later.

 

[Fortimir]

8GB of RAM was fine until I began working day-in/day-out with 36 megapixel image files. Moving to 16GB made a world of difference. I also regularly use panorama techniques that can push me into the 300mp range.

So yes, even today, 16GB is very practical and *not* overkill. Videographers, high-end photographers, and graphic designers will appreciate it.

 

[surjavarman]

I just returned my 2.6/8/512 rmbp because it was paging out several mb's per second with 10 safari windows, ical, mail, itunes, and iphoto open..a pretty common use pattern for me.

I don't even wanna know what will happen when I launch W7 parallel.

tldr; i'd rather get 16gb now than regret it later.

BS. I also have 10 tabs open in chrome, mail, itunes, iphoto and ical. And I have 5gigs of ram free, 1.95gb is actively being used, page outs is 0 bytes (0 bytes/sec).

 

[katmeef]

I just returned my 2.6/8/512 rmbp because it was paging out several mb's per second with 10 safari windows, ical, mail, itunes, and iphoto open..a pretty common use pattern for me.

I don't even wanna know what will happen when I launch W7 parallel.

tldr; i'd rather get 16gb now than regret it later.

Interesting as I'm on the fence too about returning my 8 for a 16. Earlier today I was trying to exhaust the RAM and found it difficult to get page-outs on my 2.6/8/512 with many more apps open than I would ever have in normal usage (although I wasn't doing much with most of them for the purpose of the test so I'm not sure how great of a test this really was, I've attached a screenshot).

Had you let iPhoto generate the high resolution thumbnails already when you noticed the page outs?

 

[Mongol]

8 gb of RAM is more than sufficient with the rest of this computer's spec.

upgrading it to 16 gb won't future proof anything when core processor architecture will be changing.

 

[mdapple]

Interesting as I'm on the fence too about returning my 8 for a 16. Earlier today I was trying to exhaust the RAM and found it difficult to get page-outs on my 2.6/8/512 with many more apps open than I would ever have in normal usage (although I wasn't doing much with most of them for the purpose of the test so I'm not sure how great of a test this really was, I've attached a screenshot).

Had you let iPhoto generate the high resolution thumbnails already when you noticed the page outs?

Nope iPhoto just open to some random albums. Try opening 10 safari windows and browsing to different sites. I have seen safari take up almost 2gb ram alone doing this as I like to switch between windows rapidly on different sites.

 

[Abazigal]

I would go with 16GB as well...Future proof it since you can not upgrade the ram if you decide later on...

Just curious, how does one tell the difference between 'future proofing' and 'throwing good money down the drain'?

Over at the iPad forums, the general advice is to just max our in the storage, even if the user may not end up needing so much.

 

[katmeef]

Just curious, how does one tell the difference between 'future proofing' and 'throwing good money down the drain'?

Over at the iPad forums, the general advice is to just max our in the storage, even if the user may not end up needing so much.

I'd like to know this as well. I got an 8/512 after returning my ultimate 2012 air, at the time telling myself 8 would be fine as the air maxed at 8 and I was ok with that. But of course, reading the forums got me all OCD again and I placed an order for a 16.

Sigh

 

[mdapple]

Just curious, how does one tell the difference between 'future proofing' and 'throwing good money down the drain'?

Over at the iPad forums, the general advice is to just max our in the storage, even if the user may not end up needing so much.

It's quite simple, if you are getting significant page out's (more than 1mb per second) during your regular use habits, then you are most certainly NOT wasting money by upgrading to 16gb.

 

[mabaker]

It seems to me that majority of users here change computers every year. 8 GB should be more than fine then.

 

[Mongol]

Also, the "ram being un-upgradable" is not a good reason to get this ungrade.

Guess what else is un-upgradable? The CPU, the GPU, the v-ram. those things will become bottlenecks long before the 8gb ram does.

There are some specific use cases where the 16 gb RAM would be useful, but they are very specific. Hosting multiple VMs, and intensive video editing are the only two that come to mind.

 

[katmeef]

It's quite simple, if you are getting significant page out's (more than 1mb per second) during your regular use habits, then you are most certainly NOT wasting money by upgrading to 16gb.

I rarely if ever see page outs in my normal usage today with 8, but I would like to keep this computer 2-3 years then gift it to a family member when I get something new.

My base mid-09 mbp started with 2gb I believe, went to 4 right away then up to 8 for the last year before these models launched. The non upgradeable ram is causing serious indecision issues for me, just don't know how 8 will feel in 2-3 years.

 

[Office Hours]

I work in digital media as a designer/developer. That means I usually have inDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Coda, Chrome, Safari, Firefox all open. I can easily hit over 8GB. Not for everyone but this is a Pro machine, and if you're a "Pro" then it's worth it.

 

[jbg232]

It seems to me that majority of users here change computers every year. 8 GB should be more than fine then.

I don't think that's true, I think that there is a "posting-bias" of people who upgrade constantly. Most users and forum members are normal people who expect the computer to last much more than 1 year. I personally am very active on these forums and have had the same computer coming up on 4 years in a few months.

 

[calaverasgrande]

Just for kicks I fired up my machine and started opening everything I would for web development.
Komodo Edit, Photoshop, a couple browsers, Cyberduck, and of course Outlook and Excel. That is at 8gb before I even fire up MAMP or open a VM.
As far as browsers go. Not all browers are created equal. Heck for that matter, number of tabs means nothing. I can have 100 tabs full of craigslist ads open. It's almost nothing for ram. But open 8 windows full of flash and thats a couple GB gone. I wonder how much different my ram usage would look if I didn't have ad blockers, popup blockers and flash control on my browsers?

 

[stevelam]

I don't think that's true, I think that there is a "posting-bias" of people who upgrade constantly. Most users and forum members are normal people who expect the computer to last much more than 1 year. I personally am very active on these forums and have had the same computer coming up on 4 years in a few months.

i'm also currently running a 2008 macbook and i use it extensively for dev/design.

the problem is people think they absolutely *need* the latest/greatest just to do very simple tasks. even some medium photoshop/illustrator work is just fine on macbooks that are several years old already.

i mean jesus, the designer/dev who created codekit still uses this machine:

What's your hardware setup?

I use an early-2008 Core2Duo 15" Macbook Pro running at 2.5Ghz with 4GB of RAM. I have a 23" Cinema Display which I bought in 2005 and the Apple wired, aluminum keyboard (for the number pad). I have an iPhone 4 and an iPad 2 as well. I may be the only developer on the planet who actually prefers glossy screens.