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Is 16gb RAM overkill? - Mid 2012 13" Non-retina MBP

M

metaxidis

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 19, 2011
12
0
Boston USA/ Cyprus
I bought Corsair Vengeance (CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10) last month for my 13" MBP

It's been running great alongside my intel sata 3 SSD. SUper fast

Logic runs better than it did under heavy loads on my i7 2010 macbook pro

BUT is it overkill? Would 4gb DIMMs run faster than 8gb ones?

I use Mac for Music production, occasional Video editing and as an Media center for my Home Theater

Any opinions would be appreciated
 
For how cheap it is, I don't think so at all. If its not in your budget then just get an 8gb dimm for now and another later on.
 
metaxidis said:
Budget is good for now :)




So there's no way you can realistically max out 16 GB of Ram? (just asking out of curiosity)
Click to expand...

He meant if you have to ask if you need 16GB, you don't need it. Most people who use and upgrade to 16GB RAM are experiencing limitations with their current configuration and know the tasks they are doing requires that additional RAM.
 
that1guyy said:
He meant if you have to ask if you need 16GB, you don't need it. Most people who use and upgrade to 16GB RAM are experiencing limitations with their current configuration and know the tasks they are doing requires that additional RAM.
Click to expand...

Gotcha.. Thanks. I guess since I AM putting my machine under a lot of stress, having it future proof on the RAM side cant hurt
 
Orlandoech.com said:
For how cheap it is, I don't think so at all. If its not in your budget then just get an 8gb dimm for now and another later on.
Click to expand...

That's one of the most non-sense advise I've seen. You need it when you are running out of ram. You don't need it because it's cheap.

If you buy things that's in your budget then you will be buying lots of things you don't need.

If you wait longer then it will be even cheaper.
 
that1guyy said:
He meant if you have to ask if you need 16GB, you don't need it. Most people who use and upgrade to 16GB RAM are experiencing limitations with their current configuration and know the tasks they are doing requires that additional RAM.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

metaxidis said:
Gotcha.. Thanks. I guess since I AM putting my machine under a lot of stress, having it future proof on the RAM side cant hurt
Click to expand...

It can't hurt, but you really don't need to worry too much about future proofing an expandable laptop. Upgrade it as necessary in the future.
 
Installed 16 GB of 1600MHz OWC RAM into my end 2011 15" MBP last night.

Definitely worth it for me, no more lags when opening the huge files from in iPhoto and Aperture (from my 36mp DSLR) and when concurrently running Windows software in Parellels 8.

Was on 8GB 1333MHz RAM before that.
 
As a rule, more is better. It will only hurt your bank balance, not your computer.
I like knowing my machine is maxed, then I just use it without ever having to monitor too closely.
 
Santabean2000 said:
As a rule, more is better. It will only hurt your bank balance, not your computer.
I like knowing my machine is maxed, then I just use it without ever having to monitor too closely.
Click to expand...

Until fairly recently, you had to pay an exorbitant amount to max out the ram on a computer...in some cases, it could cost more than the cost of the mac itself!

True, unless you're doing a lot of intensive work on demanding programs or using multiple VM's, you probably won't truly need more than 8 gigs. But for less than $100 to go all the way up to 16 gigs, why the hell not? The cost difference between 8 and 16 gigs is what, a dinner and a movie for two?
 
clyde2801 said:
Until fairly recently, you had to pay an exorbitant amount to max out the ram on a computer...in some cases, it could cost more than the cost of the mac itself!

True, unless you're doing a lot of intensive work on demanding programs or using multiple VM's, you probably won't truly need more than 8 gigs. But for less than $100 to go all the way up to 16 gigs, why the hell not? The cost difference between 8 and 16 gigs is what, a dinner and a movie for two?
Click to expand...

Exactly, for the price difference between an 8GB (2x4GB sticks) kit and 16GB (2x8GB sticks) kit being just a dinner or 2 eating out, might as well just eat at home one or two more times and max out your RAM and not worry about "not having enough memory" in the future :)
 
hellfire88 said:
Exactly, for the price difference between an 8GB (2x4GB sticks) kit and 16GB (2x8GB sticks) kit being just a dinner or 2 eating out, might as well just eat at home one or two more times and max out your RAM and not worry about "not having enough memory" in the future :)
Click to expand...

I'll cook for y'all and we can chat about our maxed out macbooks ;) lol
 
I thought that the specs for the 13" mid-2012 MBP say that 8GB is the maximum supported RAM?

I know that people are putting in 16GB and apparently the computer runs, but is it really utilizing all that RAM?

If Apple isn't selling 16GB as an option, thus not making more money, why would they not do that unless there was a technical reason? Seriously, Apple is about making money on high-margin tech... if they could sell 16GB of RAM as an upgrade for the 13" MBP, they would don't you think. I do.

Just because the computer will accept 16GB RAM and start up doesn't mean that the RAM is actually being utilized fully.

I wonder if someone has done any benchmarks using 16GB of RAM? I'd sure want to see proof that it's all being utilized and that it provides a measurable improvement of some sort in performance.
 
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I got 16 gigs in mine. I got two win 7 running at the same time, I encode movies (hd) on one os, download on another os, and reading several PDFs on OSx, browsing safari, reading keynote, eclipse running, and I have about 3 gigs left. I couldn't imagine how am I going to get around on 8 gig.
All that in a 13 inch MacBook Pro
 
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