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I will admit, 32GB sometimes sounds too little. I emulate entire environments on my laptop from the multiple HyperV Clusters complete with multiple VM's running inside VM's and the SAN that they connect t and it's important having a lot of ram.

I'd think that in this scenario you will run out of CPU capability before running out of RAM.
 
I will admit, 32GB sometimes sounds too little. I emulate entire environments on my laptop from the multiple HyperV Clusters complete with multiple VM's running inside VM's and the SAN that they connect t and it's important having a lot of ram.

Get a mac pro...problem solved...or any computer that isn't a laptop tbh...sometimes a macbook just isn't the right tool for the job
 
in this case, it's none of my/your/our business what someone will do with 32GB RAM.

I think you need to calm down, he only said he would "love to know", he didn't strap the poster down and interrogate him, the poster may choose to explain (just as you did - why not accept others have the same choice), or not, his choice.
 
I can pull that off with 4gb of RAM on my Air. Are you sure you need 32gb?

I am 100% sure you can't pull of the multiple VM's on a MacBook air with 4GB of RAM he's running. He's allocating 3.5-4.5 GB of RAM to VM's alone, in some cases that's more than your total RAM for the whole system. Plus, you need to have RAM for the OS. When doing development and running multiple VM's that are being actively used, it's easy to come close to or fully use 16GB of RAM. While 32GB may be a little overkill, you defiantly can use 16GB or more.
 
Seems very much improbable considering they downgraded the 13-inch rMBP to 4GB of RAM. Plus, 32GB of RAM in a laptop, at this point, is not very profitable. Then, there's the technological aspect where it's not very practical.
 
32GB?!? I'd love to know what you're doing.

Tons of virtual machines. Give me about 60 seconds, and I'll show you a MacBook Pro that is completely out of memory even with 16GB installed.

My friend rubbed it in that his ThinkPad has 32GB RAM. When they revealed the new MacBook Pro, I was sad that it came with "only" 16GB RAM.

I think we would have paid $1,000 more if the new 2013 Retina MacBook Pro came with a 32GB and anti-glare display option.

We switched from older MacBook Pros that had anti-glare displays. These new Retina displays are very nice, but the glare and reflections drive us nuts. We have to keep some overhead lights turned off to reduce the glare. :(
 
Tons of virtual machines. Give me about 60 seconds, and I'll show you a MacBook Pro that is completely out of memory even with 16GB installed.

My friend rubbed it in that his ThinkPad has 32GB RAM. When they revealed the new MacBook Pro, I was sad that it came with "only" 16GB RAM.

I think we would have paid $1,000 more if the new 2013 Retina MacBook Pro came with a 32GB and anti-glare display option.

We switched from older MacBook Pros that had anti-glare displays. These new Retina displays are very nice, but the glare and reflections drive us nuts. We have to keep some overhead lights turned off to reduce the glare. :(

I'd pay $1k in a heart beat for 32gb of ram. I have never owned a machine with anti-glare display. I would be curious what it is like.

I would be curious what % of apples sales of rMBP's are maxed out versions. I personally don't even hesitate to simply max everything out on the order form. Anything that can make my life easier is well worth the money.

And to the 10 or so people that have said get a mac pro. As I stated, I am trying to stay semi-mobile or I would have already bought one.

I probably will still buy one, but not till we can get HiDPI on a 27 inch screen or so. There is no going back from a retina display if you spend half your life in front of a computer screen.
 
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I can pull that off with 4gb of RAM on my Air. Are you sure you need 32gb?

Depends on what he is doing with the VMs. Yeah, I can start up several VMs just to say "yea!! I can start a couple VMs in less than X Gigs of ram", but it is pointless if nothing is running in them. In my last job, I was struggling with ram a lot on my portable because of the ram required to run certain programs in my VMs.

So I can sympathize with the OP, to a certain degree. By as a grad student, I have to believe that the requirements generally do not require a PC with greater than 16Gigs of RAM. So he is going above and way beyond - good for him.
 
Depends on what he is doing with the VMs. Yeah, I can start up several VMs just to say "yea!! I can start a couple VMs in less than X Gigs of ram", but it is pointless if nothing is running in them. In my last job, I was struggling with ram a lot on my portable because of the ram required to run certain programs in my VMs.

So I can sympathize with the OP, to a certain degree. By as a grad student, I have to believe that the requirements generally do not require a PC with greater than 16Gigs of RAM. So he is going above and way beyond - good for him.

I completely agree that it's easy to max out RAM using VM's, my concern was where he said he was doing browser testing. To me, that means IE6 compatibility checks and the like, which don't require so much RAM.

Thinking ahead is good, but thinking too far ahead doesn't accomplish anything.
 
I completely agree that it's easy to max out RAM using VM's, my concern was where he said he was doing browser testing. To me, that means IE6 compatibility checks and the like, which don't require so much RAM.

Thinking ahead is good, but thinking too far ahead doesn't accomplish anything.

ah no. Browser is only half of it. I also have to run the app server and database parts. So I have a bunch of vms to run the application on different combos of java/app-server/os/db. Then I also have a bunch of vms to test accessing the application from a particular browser/os combo.

Also need to be able to test clustering of the apps and stuff like that.

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Depends on what he is doing with the VMs. Yeah, I can start up several VMs just to say "yea!! I can start a couple VMs in less than X Gigs of ram", but it is pointless if nothing is running in them. In my last job, I was struggling with ram a lot on my portable because of the ram required to run certain programs in my VMs.

So I can sympathize with the OP, to a certain degree. By as a grad student, I have to believe that the requirements generally do not require a PC with greater than 16Gigs of RAM. So he is going above and way beyond - good for him.

The grad school work would just be an added bonus. I can run my school stuff on the department machines no issue. Just easier to do locally most of the times. The memory is more for work related tasks. Running a few copies of oracle and sql server, stuff like that.
 
Several of the Adobe CC products (after effects, premiere, etc) will benefit from as much ram as you can throw at them and there are a lot more people than you might think using MBPs for video and film production. I am and it works great. I love being able to have everything on a centralized machine that I can do my post production on, take to shoots, take to production meetings, hook up to projectors for screenings, and bring home if I need to work on something in the evenings.

There are a handful of mobile workstation laptops (which is exactly what the 15" rMBP is) already on the market. It's a certainty that someday there will be a 32gb option. Whether or not it happens anytime soon, I don't know, but I'd love to have the option.
 
Get a mac pro...problem solved...or any computer that isn't a laptop tbh...sometimes a macbook just isn't the right tool for the job

I will have to agree :D

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Tons of virtual machines. Give me about 60 seconds, and I'll show you a MacBook Pro that is completely out of memory even with 16GB installed.

My friend rubbed it in that his ThinkPad has 32GB RAM. When they revealed the new MacBook Pro, I was sad that it came with "only" 16GB RAM.

I think we would have paid $1,000 more if the new 2013 Retina MacBook Pro came with a 32GB and anti-glare display option.

We switched from older MacBook Pros that had anti-glare displays. These new Retina displays are very nice, but the glare and reflections drive us nuts. We have to keep some overhead lights turned off to reduce the glare. :(

x2

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I think you need to calm down, he only said he would "love to know", he didn't strap the poster down and interrogate him, the poster may choose to explain (just as you did - why not accept others have the same choice), or not, his choice.

I think why people get so defensive is because their laptop of choice can't hold more than 16GB. And apple didn't include 32GB in their options so why does anybody need it??!?! :confused:
 
If Apple decide to introduce a 17" rMBP, it might have 16GB in the standard configuration with 32GB as a BTO option. Other than the 17" possibility, there is zero chance of a 32GB rMBP prior to Broadwell and only a slim chance with Broadwell.
 
I don't have the same needs as you and can survive with 16GB but wanted to mention http://www.browserstack.com to you as it may reduce your need to run so many VMs and thus give you some more time before needing to step up to 32GB giving time for Apple to catchup. Sorry for the derail.

Thank you that is great. I'll need to give that a try. This will definitely make my life easier.
 
Yes the 16 GB DIMMS are being produced! See:

http://www.intelligentmemory.com/dram-modules/ddr3-so-dimm/
 
Yes.

It could have been done last refresh on the 15" actually. The 13" uses half the number of memory chips (16) as the 15" (32) and has been bumped to 16GB so the 15" could have used the same chips to reach 32GB.

iFixit doesn't seem to tell the exact RAM chip model but I believe it's Hynix H5TC8G83AMR (8Gb/1GB), assuming they haven't changed supplier since 2012.

But of course the fact it's technically possible doesn't mean Apple will necessarily offer it, as it was the case with last refresh.
 
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