Anyone worried about 8GB of soldered RAM?

[EightyTwenty]

It seems 8GB has been the standard for years now and I get the feeling we are right on the cusp of 16GB becoming the new standard. Might even happen with the next generation of Macbook Pros.

Anyone else worried that now is the worst possible time to buy a $1500 laptop with soldered RAM?

CPU improvements are usually gradual (with the exception of Coffee Lake, which seems like a major upgrade). But RAM increases aren't gradual at all. They stay the same for years and years, then all of a sudden they DOUBLE overnight.

I'm tempted to buy a Macbook Pro as I love the form factor, but I would be pissed if the next generation comes standard with 16GB of RAM and quad-core Coffee Lake chips that are 40% faster. Especially considering I plan to keep the laptop for 6 years minimum.

 

[casperes1996]

Seems the solution here is a 15"

 

[Sam Luis Obispo]

If you are planning to keep it 6 years, best bet is to max out the ram upfront. Of course, that is an extra couple hundred dollars...

 

[Sterkenburg]

If you don't need to buy immediately, I'd personally wait to see what the 2018 refresh will bring to the table. Sometimes waiting is pointless (there's always something better around the corner), but when a "paradigm shift" is expected it suddenly makes a lot of sense.

Otherwise, if you need to buy now and plan to keep the machine for 5-6 years, I'd definitely get the 2017 model with 16GB. But it's difficult to say whether 8GB could be a bottleneck without knowing what you would use the laptop for.

 

[lambertjohn]

It seems 8GB has been the standard for years now and I get the feeling we are right on the cusp of 16GB becoming the new standard. Might even happen with the next generation of Macbook Pros.

Anyone else worried that now is the worst possible time to buy a $1500 laptop with soldered RAM?

CPU improvements are usually gradual (with the exception of Coffee Lake, which seems like a major upgrade). But RAM increases aren't gradual at all. They stay the same for years and years, then all of a sudden they DOUBLE overnight.

I'm tempted to buy a Macbook Pro as I love the form factor, but I would be pissed if the next generation comes standard with 16GB of RAM and quad-core Coffee Lake chips that are 40% faster. Especially considering I plan to keep the laptop for 6 years minimum.

I don't think 8GB of RAM is going anywhere anytime soon. It's a lower tier marketing tool to sell more computers at Apple. Apple will keep offering 8GB in the hopes that you'll pony up more of your hard-earned coin for 16GB or even 32GB (when it finally happens with the MBP.) More choices = more profits for Apple. And more profits = bigger yachts for the folks that sign the paychecks. Tim Cook...cough cough...John Ive..cough cough...and so many others at Apple. Richest damn company on the planet!!

 

[Sam Luis Obispo]

I don't think 8GB of RAM is going anywhere anytime soon. It's a lower tier marketing tool to sell more computers at Apple. Apple will keep offering 8GB in the hopes that you'll pony up more of your hard-earned coin for 16GB or even 32GB (when it finally happens with the MBP.) More choices = more profits for Apple. And more profits = bigger yachts for the folks that sign the paychecks. Tim Cook...cough cough...John Ive..cough cough...and so many others at Apple. Richest damn company on the planet!!

Back in 2010, you could have said essentially the same thing about 4GB of ram and be correct. It is open for speculation what will happen in the next 6 years and how much of a memory hog macOS (or whatever they choose to name it) will be in 2024.

 

[FrozenDarkness]

I personally bought a laptop with 16gb of ram, not because I think I need it, but because I think perspective buyers want it. Judging from the number of topics I see on macrumors on this exact topic, I think I'm right

 

[eddjedi]

There's no such thing as a future proof computer. Whatever you buy now will be obsolete in 5 years, that's just life. If you are always waiting for the 'next big advance' you would never buy anything.

As above your 2 options are spend less now and upgrade sooner, or spend more now and upgrade later. Financially there's probably not much in it. Personally I like to upgrade every couple of years.

 

[maflynn]

Anyone else worried that now is the worst possible time to buy a $1500 laptop with soldered RAM?

Apple has been soldering ram onto the logic board for so many years, I'm not sure why its suddenly an issue. Believe me I'm not a fan of it, but time marches on and since my nearly 6 year old laptop has ram soldered onto the logic board. I've moved on to other issues. My recommendation is to properly configure your laptop for the present and an eye towards to the future.

 

[robvas]

I have 8GB in my 2013 Retina, and while the computer is still very usable, I'd feel better about it in the next couple years if it had 16GB

Apple was selling Airs with 4GB until not too long ago...

 

[BrianBaughn]

I'd recommend 16GB over 8GB any day...but I'd have to say that with an SSD the issue isn't NEARLY as big a deal as it would be with a standard spinner hard drive. The "paging" that occurs with low RAM absolutely murders performance on computers with spinners.

 

[ZapNZs]

I think it is hard to say at this point depending upon workload, how well the NVMe SSDs can offset issues called by lack of available RAM, and whether 8GB of RAM or a dual core CPU will become a greater limiting factor before the other. 8GB works on my retina MacBook (just barely) and 16 GB works on my MBP (also just barely.)

 

[Count Blah]

If it makes you feel any better, the base Mac Mini has 4gigs of soldered in RAM. Think of the poor saps buying that, 4 years later, at full price.

Unless you are looking to run some VMs, or do some really high end image processing, I think you'll be fine for the next 3 years. Of course, you might have to shut down your browser daily by then.
[doublepost=1513977554][/doublepost]

There's no such thing as a future proof computer. Whatever you buy now will be obsolete in 5 years, that's just life. If you are always waiting for the 'next big advance' you would never buy anything.

As above your 2 options are spend less now and upgrade sooner, or spend more now and upgrade later. Financially there's probably not much in it. Personally I like to upgrade every couple of years.

Not if you do your homework. My 2012 15" cMBP is crunching along JUST FINE, and it's not going to become a dog, anytime soon. I don't game on it, so it's still perfect for my needs with 16gigs of RAM and SSD. I'm typing on it right now, while running a linux VM

Buying a laptop now, I would not get anything less than quad core. With the 15w 4core/8thread intel Coffee Lake CPUs, I wouln't get a dual core now, in hopes of having it last 5 years.

 

[2IS]

I was concerned. That’s why I configured mine with 16gb

 

[eddjedi]

Not if you do your homework. My 2012 15" cMBP is crunching along JUST FINE, and it's not going to become a dog, anytime soon. I don't game on it, so it's still perfect for my needs with 16gigs of RAM and SSD. I'm typing on it right now, while running a linux VM

Sure, you could buy one two days before a refresh, but that's about the extent of doing your homework. Like it or not a five year old laptop is obsolete. According to Apple's own list, your 2012 MBP is one year (or 8 calendar days) from being 'officially' obsolete:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201624

I'd sell it while it's still worth something.

 

[Sam Luis Obispo]

Sure, you could buy one two days before a refresh, but that's about the extent of doing your homework. Like it or not a five year old laptop is obsolete. According to Apple's own list, your 2012 MBP is one year (or 8 calendar days) from being 'officially' obsolete:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201624

I'd sell it while it's still worth something.

According to that website, "obsolete products are those that were discontinued more than 7 years ago." When did they discontinue that 2012 MacBook Pro? If it was discontinued in 2013, it would go obsolete in 2020.

 

[Count Blah]

Sure, you could buy one two days before a refresh, but that's about the extent of doing your homework. Like it or not a five year old laptop is obsolete. According to Apple's own list, your 2012 MBP is one year (or 8 calendar days) from being 'officially' obsolete:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201624

I'd sell it while it's still worth something.

I'm keeping it until I think it needs to be replaced. That's the good park about being able to upgrade at least some components in your machine. My machine is not going to cease to work in 8 days, unless something shorts out. And my machine does not feel obsolete. It runs what I need it to run, and hooked up to a monitor, I don’t have to deal with the low-res screen, when I’m not on the road.

When I say "do your homework", I'm saying to make sure you get tech that has been updated/reach another level. For example, buying the iPad Air 1 was a mistake, because it was Apple holding out way too long with 1 gig of RAM. That iPad Air 2 will outlast it longer than a year, because of it's 2 Gigs of RAM. That is why I was saying to NOT get a dual core CPU in a laptop, if you want it to last 5 years.