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Am I going to regret buying 8GB RAM?

C

C4FF

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 12, 2012
42
0
I, like the lucky few, bought my Retina MacBook Pro as soon as the store went back up. It's on it's way to me as we speak! I purchased the high end BTO and didn't think I'd look back from it.

But everyone is going on about how much 16GB is a must buy and to have 8GB now is not practical for the future. I'm trying to find out how much truth there is in this.

I'm probably your average user. I mess with photos and graphics and have a lot of music, I play a bit of Diablo and WOW and will be playing Elder Scrolls Online when it comes out. I am not and never will be a video editing mastermind save a couple of clips taken with my iPhone. But I do intend on making this computer last at least the length of It's AppleCare.

Am I mad thinking I might reorder a 16GB version and send this one back when it gets here? I know I have 14 days buyers remorse so I can play with it and see how I do, but It's hard to predict the future.

I'm kind of ruining for myself what should be an excited feeling about my new laptop coming!
 
people are saying it is a must buy because you can't upgrade it. I went for the 16gb, chances are I think it will be alright.

The best thing to do is to wait for it to show up, then give it a really intensive 1st week, lots of programs open and the likes. If it works as required then stick with it, else - take it back and try out the 16gb one.
 
Well with the things you are going to do with it as you describe, 8gb of ram will be more than enough. If you were doing a lot of work with CS6 and graphics intensive programs like me then it's best to upgrade to keep it future proof. When I get mine I plan of keeping it for awhile, I do school work with Maya, Mudbox, and UDK. I think you'll be fine. Just keep track of your activity monitor as you develop more skills with photos and video editing and you'll se how much ram your using.:apple:
 
You don't need 16Gb RAM for your usage scenarios. The only users which would benefit from it right now are people who run numerous virtual machines and/or edit large videos.

My 2009 MacBook Pro still has 4GB RAM and is very snappy running Lion (and I usually have dozens of programs open, with 20 or so tabs in Chrome).
 
leman said:
You don't need 16Gb RAM for your usage scenarios. The only users which would benefit from it right now are people who run numerous virtual machines and/or edit large videos.

My 2009 MacBook Pro still has 4GB RAM and is very snappy running Lion (and I usually have dozens of programs open, with 20 or so tabs in Chrome).
Click to expand...

I guess the question isn't "is 8gb enough now?" but rather "is 8gb enough in 3 years?"
 
C4FF said:
I guess the question isn't "is 8gb enough now?" but rather "is 8gb enough in 3 years?"
Click to expand...

I honestly can't imagine a reason why it won't be. And anyway, with that crazy fast SSD, it also does not matter much if you have a bit of paging now and then.

But if you insist, just be my guest and go 16 GB - its not that expensive anyways (16GB costs around $130 in the store, given that Apple has to solder it on board, $200 seems a fair price).
 
Sadly, the 16GB upgrade is £160 in UK money, which is around $300. So It's actually quite a bit more than than what you guys pay. But I think from what people have said It's not really necessary, its just a safe thing to do.
 
C4FF said:
Sadly, the 16GB upgrade is £160 in UK money, which is around $300. So It's actually quite a bit more than than what you guys pay. But I think from what people have said It's not really necessary, its just a safe thing to do.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I think 8gb of ram will be more than enough for what you use. Let me give you an example.

My current computer is a 24 inch mid-2007 iMac that has 2.8GHz core 2 duo and 3 GB of ram. Yes, only 3GB of ram. To top it off, it's only 667mhz ram. With that 3GB of ram, I regularly use Photoshop CS6, Illustrator CS6 and InDesign CS6. Often I will have at least two of those open at any one time, while still having Chrome and sometimes iTunes going in the background, and the computer only experiences slight lag.

If I can live off 3GB of dinosaur ram since 2007, doing some heavier than normal things (that's 5 years), then you having 8GB of 1600mhz ram will more than easily be fine for the next 3 years.

Buyers remorse sucks, so try to ignore it. 8GB is heaps and upgrading to 16GB would only having extremely marginal differences for what you're going to be doing.
 
I'm going with the 16GB option only because you cannot add ram later. I don't need 16gb today but its cheap insurance.
 
Are you saying you got the 2.7GHZ, 768GB but got 8GB RAM? Honestly, the 2.7 GHZ vs 2.6GHZ will make less of a difference in 3 years than the 16GB might make. If someone was weighing the cost difference of 2.7GHZ vs 2.6GHZ and 16GB vs 8GB RAM, the 16GB is a better bargain. Also, I'd say 768GB drive is overkill as well but people can always find uses for space and hey its your money.
 
JacinTatt said:
Honestly, I think 8gb of ram will be more than enough for what you use. Let me give you an example.

My current computer is a 24 inch mid-2007 iMac that has 2.8GHz core 2 duo and 3 GB of ram. Yes, only 3GB of ram. To top it off, it's only 667mhz ram. With that 3GB of ram, I regularly use Photoshop CS6, Illustrator CS6 and InDesign CS6. Often I will have at least two of those open at any one time, while still having Chrome and sometimes iTunes going in the background, and the computer only experiences slight lag.

If I can live off 3GB of dinosaur ram since 2007, doing some heavier than normal things (that's 5 years), then you having 8GB of 1600mhz ram will more than easily be fine for the next 3 years.

Buyers remorse sucks, so try to ignore it. 8GB is heaps and upgrading to 16GB would only having extremely marginal differences for what you're going to be doing.
Click to expand...

Agree with you, I'm an architecture student and use programs like AutoCAD,3Ds MAX, ArchiCAD, Photoshop.

The heaviest ram i needed is twice a year because I work on 90 cm by 2.5m poster with 300 dpi and photoshop file size would reach 3gb in size, it was using about 6~8gb.

Also guys don't forget that programs use virtual memory and with super fast flash storage the virtual memory is much faster.
 
C4FF said:
I, like the lucky few, bought my Retina MacBook Pro as soon as the store went back up. It's on it's way to me as we speak! I purchased the high end BTO and didn't think I'd look back from it.

But everyone is going on about how much 16GB is a must buy and to have 8GB now is not practical for the future. I'm trying to find out how much truth there is in this.

I'm probably your average user. I mess with photos and graphics and have a lot of music, I play a bit of Diablo and WOW and will be playing Elder Scrolls Online when it comes out. I am not and never will be a video editing mastermind save a couple of clips taken with my iPhone. But I do intend on making this computer last at least the length of It's AppleCare.

Am I mad thinking I might reorder a 16GB version and send this one back when it gets here? I know I have 14 days buyers remorse so I can play with it and see how I do, but It's hard to predict the future.

I'm kind of ruining for myself what should be an excited feeling about my new laptop coming!
Click to expand...

This is exactly the situation I find myself in! I'm almost regretting my purchase. But I'm already over my budget by about £500, and adding the extra 8GB will add another £160... I am in the position where i can go over the budget, but is it worth it?

I do use Photoshop, rarely Final Cut. I use a lot of Pro Engineer via bootcamp as well as Keyshot and other CAD programs. I'm an industrial design student. Should I cancel my order :eek:?

----------
uaecasher said:
Agree with you, I'm an architecture student and use programs like AutoCAD,3Ds MAX, ArchiCAD, Photoshop.

The heaviest ram i needed is twice a year because I work on 90 cm by 2.5m poster with 300 dpi and photoshop file size would reach 3gb in size, it was using about 6~8gb.

Also guys don't forget that programs use virtual memory and with super fast flash storage the virtual memory is much faster.
Click to expand...

so are you saying 8GB will suffice for you?
 
i have seen so many "Pro" uses unable to manage system resources.

the gift of 64 bit OS has made many people ignorant and lazy.

If your doing demanding tasks then all you need to ensure is that memory isn't being wasted on 10 tabs of Facebook and all the other system hogging junk thats people use.

8GB and SSD will ensure top performance for a good 3 years i expect even for all these "Pro" users.
 
Don't sweat it. Most of us who opted for 16GB are just being anal thinking of all the nightmare scenarios that will likely never happen. Yes, more RAM is always a good thing, but certainly 8GB is a very decent amount. All of my machines now have 8GB. I ordered 16GB mostly because of Boot Camp (will donate 4GB to Windows) and also to make more desirable for resale 2 years from now (if I keep it that long).

Truth is Macs generally have fantastic resale value. Take the $200 you would have spent on the upgrade and bank it. Keep up with MR and other Mac sites so you know when the next MBP upgrade is coming. Just before then sell while the market is peak. You'll probably recoup 70-75% of MSRP. Take that plus the $200 and upgrade to the new upgrade model (with new warranty!).

I often do this, and it makes owning Macs quite affordable. Much better than letting the value drop to near nothing over 4 years and have to shell out another full $2K all at once.
 
C4FF said:
Sadly, the 16GB upgrade is £160 in UK money, which is around $300. So It's actually quite a bit more than than what you guys pay. But I think from what people have said It's not really necessary, its just a safe thing to do.
Click to expand...

What exchange rate are you on? :D It's a hair over 1.5USD to the GBP. Around $245 for 16GB. That's not far off what the US pays with tax in most states. Around $215.

And yes, the 16GB upgrade is a smart long-term proposition, especially with unknown OSs around the corner.
 
Ive posted this in another thread but 8 gigs is MORE then enough for the next 5 years for most people. Unless you are working on large photoshop files or heavy video editing you will never even use 8 gigs of ram let alone 16gig. We are running only 6 gigs in our macpro's in a large prepress dept and it is more then enough even in our professional environment. Do yourself a favor and run iStat and see how much ram you actually use, i bet you struggle to use 4gigs most of the time.
 
problem solved:
 

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I went for a 2.6GHz/8GB/512GB soon after the store came back up with a view to upgrading it to 16GB. Delivery was scheduled for 25-27 June.

The following day I found out about the RAM being soldered. So I cancelled my order and re-ordered a 2.7GHz/16GB/512GB. Now I'll be waiting until mid-July.

I'd rather have what I really want (after all, nobody really needs a RMBP - it's all about desire) and wait a bit longer. Neither the RAM or CPU upgrades will make much real-world difference but they'll make me feel good about what I've bought when I finally get it.

Just my tuppence if anyone else is on the fence about this.
 
8GB is plenty for now and the future with very few exceptions (and those are for tasks that you've stated you won't be doing).

As for me, I'm using the student rebate to offset the 16GB upgrade. For me, it's mostly about resale value as I expect video/photo types to be after used models in a couple years.
 
Of course 2 years ago people were saying you will never need more than 4 GB and 2GB runs great, people who upgrade to 8GB will never use it, blah blah blah...

Also insert the claims that I am running programs A,B,C and am only using 1.88 GB of memory.

Short term next 18 months, will you be crippled by 8GB, most likely not, unless your usage changes. Will you encounter problems past 18months, quite possibly.

I personally got 16gb, but I am using over 8gb most of the time right now, so it was an easy choice for me.
Personally given the 3 possible upgrades of : Better CPU, larger SSD, and more ram. The ram upgrade beats the other two by 1,000 miles.
 
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