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I used one last week it was fine. If you don't insist on having 15 apps open and 30 tabs in safari, as it seems people are completely incapable of closing anything these days and you keep one or 2 things open at a time (which will be fine for the OP's stated use case) then 2GB runs great. It's not the apps or OSX that is requiring masses of ram these days it is peoples lazy computing habits and unrealistic expectations.

So you're saying use computers like they were used 10 or so years ago to justify having to little ram. Sure if you use a mac with very little open (similar to usage in times past) you'll probably be fine, but in reality a lot of people don't do that, as computer usage has changed. People use a lot of applications and tabs at once.
 
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So you're saying use computers like they were used 10 or so years ago to justify having to little ram. Sure if you use a mac with very little open (similar to usage in times past) you'll probably be fine, but in reality a lot of people don't do that, as computer usage has changed. People use a lot of applications and tabs at once.

100x this

If you have to worry about closing things or figuring out what is consuming RAM to make things run at an acceptable speed, your machine is memory and/or CPU starved. Whether it happens to be a Mac Pro with 64 GB, a Xeon server with 1.5 TB of RAM, or your smartphone.

Sure you CAN work like that, but it wastes YOUR time.

YOUR life. Time you will never get back.

Dunno about you guys, but I'd rather spend my time on this planet doing things other than application and tab/windows management so i can use my computer.
 
. Sure if you use a mac with very little open (similar to usage in times past) you'll probably be fine, but in reality a lot of people don't do that, as computer usage has changed. People use a lot of applications and tabs at once.
No, the average user does use a lot of applications and tabs at once. Only a few like you do.
 
No, the average user does use a lot of applications and tabs at once. Only a few like you do.


Not sure what you actually meant "only a few people use lots of tabs" perhaps?

But my gf is a technophobe and has 50+ tabs open at a time on her machine ("I'll get to them later!").

I think that's likely a bit more common than some might suspect.
 
No it is not common. Just because you know some people that do it doesn't mean it's common.

So you've surveyed all computer users and found that?

You'd find a lot of the younger generation like to keep a lot open.

Even just relatively simple workflows use a lot of ram. According to my activity viewer, webpages are using on average 500 MB to keep open.

Keeping 5 or so applications (web browser, iTunes, messages, mail, word processor for example) is a very normal work flow, and that can often include multiple tabs.
 
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All this you'll need it in 5 years time nonsense, is just that, nonsense, in 5 years time you'll need a new computer as the graphics and CPU's are not up to sctratch.

We are talking a dual core machine with intel graphics here, they'll need a quadcore or better graphics way before they'll ever need 16GB of RAM.

That's not really true though. A 2008-2010 MBP has plenty of raw power for applications, but the bottleneck is usually RAM or the hard drive. RAM tends to be the first thing upgraded when looking for a performance boost. 3D requirements don't really change that much over time unless your gaming, in which case a MBP probably wasn't the best choice in the first place. I think CPUs and GPUs will become even less relevant, as the trend for keeping computers longer and longer has already started.

I do agree 16GB is way overkill (but not ridiculous), and 4GB would probably even be enough. But he's considering a 13" rMBP, not an Air, thus they start at 8GB so the argument for 4GB is completely unnecessary.
 
Most users are going to be fine with 8GB, and those who need 16GB or more already know they need it. This discussion would have more urgency if we were discussing MBA machines being sold with only 4GB of RAM...

Also, we don't discuss it much, but I'd be at least as concerned about video capabilities over the next few years as I would be about RAM, and there's almost nothing (nothing that's cost effective) you can do about that other than replace the machine.
 
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Somewhere I read that most people only need 4GIG, and the rest can use 8 GIG, and 16 is really over kill. I have 16 Gig in my 13 MBP. Only because my friends MBP died and I bought his 16 for $40. If I remember correctly the difference between 8 and 16 at Curcial was less than $50. I would say this: if money no option get 16. If you have to think if you can afford it get 8. I have had my MBP for almost 6 months and have never even come close to using 16 GIG. Even with LightRoom and RAW. AS for the online courses, I do have problems accessing my university website in Safari. I have to use Chrome and everything is fine. Good luck.
 
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I have 8Gig RAM and spent money on the 512G SSD. Along with the 2.9i5 it was a good investment. I do Photoshop, a Win7 virtual machine, occasionally Final Cut and Civ V if there is time left. The laptops handles all the tasks pretty well.
 
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I have 8Gig RAM and spent money on the 512G SSD. Along with the 2.9i5 it was a good investment. I do Photoshop, a Win7 virtual machine, occasionally Final Cut and Civ V if there is time left. The laptops handles all the tasks pretty well.

Yup. 8 GB is plenty capable unless you have specific needs. I could quite easily consume all resources on a box with 32 GB of RAM for example as I deal with a lot of virtual machines, router and switch simulation, etc. 8 GB is a bit limiting, A copy of Cisco Prime for example won't even fire up without 12 GB of RAM allocated to the VM appliance.

But... you have to ask if that sort of workload is something you're best off trying to do on a 13" portable in the first place. Probably not.
 
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Just about everyone I know keeps multiple apps and tabs open .. It is quite common.
Agreed. There are times when I have two instances of Firefox open with 6-8 tabs on each PLUS 6-8 tabs open in Safari and many tabs open in Chrome. I have always done this and think it's normal.
 
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