Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

shivaswrath

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 24, 2019
29
10
I am tired of waiting on the fence, so I am hoping I can ignore the speaker pop and screen ghost issues after pulling the trigger ...
0818bb74770f43dae3becc1a309b41e7.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: chrono1081
What would you consider the unnecessary upgrades?
Storage and RAM.
I wanted to go with a similarly over-configed 2018 i9 15" 560X 32gb/2tb last november - it cost a little more but roughly the same as this machine. Luckily i could return it because it had issues...

in 1 month, Vega Pro 20 came out, couple of months later, 8-cores came out, and about a year later since i first ordered it, a 16" came out with better everything and 5500m.

If i kept it, and if i'd gotten the baseline in 2018, i'd get another 16" for the money i spent on upgrades. Or sell it at a loss of couple 100 and get a new baseline 16"... It wouldn't have been future proofed because the baseline 16" blows it away in both CPU and GPU.
Most upgrades are incremental %% performance. Next model baseline usually overperforms last years "future proofed" config.

If you think the baseline is not going to be adequate in 2 years, its better to go baseline and get the new thing that comes out in 2 years.
 
Most upgrades are incremental %% performance. Next model baseline usually overperforms last years "future proofed" config.

If you think the baseline is not going to be adequate in 2 years, its better to go baseline and get the new thing that comes out in 2 years.
Very true. Trying to future proof a MBP with upgrades is objectively a bad value proposition when you know that. The only upgrades you should buy are those you know you already need at the time of purchase.
 
But the OP may have a need for these upgrades right now, not after a year or so.
If there is a need right now and the solution is available (upgrades) you move on.
In that case, sure! However, I think the number of people who are remotely close to needing an absurd 64GB of RAM in a laptop is really, really small. From what I'm reading on these forums, a lot of people who upgrade are greatly overestimating their needs because of fundamental misunderstandings about how memory management works in macOS (I'm not implying this is the case for the OP, as he didn't state his use case).
 
Speaker pop issue really was eliminated for me with the most recent Catalina update so I think your odds on that not being a problem are high. The screen ghosting issue.. sure it's a thing but I got used to it after a few weeks.

I'm sure you'll love it, also epic spec - Congratulations!
 
  • Like
Reactions: shivaswrath
In that case, sure! However, I think the number of people who are remotely close to needing an absurd 64GB of RAM in a laptop is really, really small. From what I'm reading on these forums, a lot of people who upgrade are greatly overestimating their needs because of fundamental misunderstandings about how memory management works in macOS (I'm not implying this is the case for the OP, as he didn't state his use case).

I actually posted a few weeks ago about the ram situation, and I felt I only needed 32 but wanted the option to upgrade later.

After finding out it's all soldered in unlike my current ancient MBP, I figured $400 more wasn't a big deal since I keep these laptops 9 years.
 
You spent too much on unnecessary upgrades and drove the price too high for a laptop.

Respectfully, but strongly, disagree. I maxed out my 2015, and now that I’m selling it (love my new 16”), the selling price is MUCH better, because the 16GB RAM and 1 TB SSD make it a very viable pro machine in 2020. Plus... I got to use every inch of that power for the past 5 years, which, after all is said and done, is the whole point.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ScreenSavers
For the most part, the “vibe” really only seems to exist on this forum. I think most people buying these machines are happy with them.

I agree that maxing out these machines only for future-proofing purposes doesn’t make a lot of sense, since you end up nearly doubling the price of the base model. Most people would be better off saving that money and buying another in 2-3 years
 
  • Like
Reactions: NewWaveGuy
+1 for future proofing. My wife purchased a fully loaded Early 2015 MacBook Pro and she will continue to use it until it either dies or can no longer handle what she uses it for. She has no desire to chase the latest upgrades (especially when they bring with it migrating data, re-installing apps, etc.).

I, on the other hand, might be caught looking at the latest and greatest, but with that said, I tend to max out anything I cannot upgrade in the future. If my system can last as long as possible my return on investment is higher IMHO.
 
Respectfully, but strongly, disagree. I maxed out my 2015, and now that I’m selling it (love my new 16”), the selling price is MUCH better, because the 16GB RAM and 1 TB SSD make it a very viable pro machine in 2020. Plus... I got to use every inch of that power for the past 5 years, which, after all is said and done, is the whole point.
16 GB was the standard amount in 2015, there were no upgrades available at the time. For RAM future proofing, this is the rough guideline I follow:
  • 4 GB - avoid
  • 8 GB - good for 2 years
  • 16 GB - good for 5 years
  • 32 GB - good for 9 years - this is the sweet spot
  • 64 GB - good for 10+ years - this is overkill, other components like the GPU will show their age before the RAM does
Some use cases can, of course, justify more RAM. For example, if someone is regularly working with large RAW files, all of these should be moved up a tier.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Ploki
I adore mine. No ghosting here. Also the only way I ever noticed speaker popping was loading logic, using one of the violin instruments (I forget which one), and playing specific notes. Otherwise I've played music and videos through the thing all the time and have had no popping. I got similar upgrades as you.
 
You'll be really happy with it, congrats! The keyboard and the awesome speakers are definitely the biggest improvements in this machine.
Agreed, the keyboard is a big improvement over the 2016-2019 models with the Butterfly keyboard. Apple did finally get a lot of things right with the 16" including smaller bezels, prioritizing cooling and battery life improvements over thinness for the first time in years.
 
I am tired of waiting on the fence, so I am hoping I can ignore the speaker pop and screen ghost issues after pulling the trigger ...
0818bb74770f43dae3becc1a309b41e7.png
I’ve just got mine today. Same exact specs. So far no speakers pop and no ghosting (I think?). Mine came literally with the latest update 10.15.2. I’m not sure about the ghosting problem though. Maybe I just have bad eyes.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.