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Is 16GB too much?

E

erandall38

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 24, 2007
463
1
I was considering getting 16GB for the new MBP.

I always have quite a few application open but nothing that is too power intensive. I do run an intensive trading platform though. Besides that I always have quite a few safari windows/tabs open, quite a few firefox tabs/windows open, mail, ichat, 2 dozen text edit windows, and open office.

Please don't judge me on my lack of organization with web browser tabs, I literally have 30 open minimum at all times.

I've noticed running all this slows down my system a significant amount. MBP 2.53 4ghz ram currently.

I find I get the spinning ball quite often changing from one app to another or even when changing from one tab to another.

I'm excited for the potential of 8GB ram... but would 16 GB make sense for me? Speed is probably the number one priority for me on my macs.
 
If you are doing the updated MBP, then I'd wait and see if you need it and replace it yourself if necessary.

If you are doing the MBP Retina, then I'd go ahead and do the upgrade since it looks like you won't be able to after the fact on your own.
 
It's soldered onto the board. It's either now or never.

I personally am spending the money because I'll need it for work but 8 should work for you. I've been using 8 for 2 years now with no issues but I rather play it safe.
 
I think 16MB is overkill.

8MB Ram will serve you well -- even when using a program like Parallels which splits the memory usage.
 
Personally, I feel there's no such thing as too much ram. But if you're mostly doing web stuff and nothing too extreme, 8gb should be fine. Video editing, photo editing, motion graphics, rendering, this is where the added ram definitely pays off. If you're not getting all up into any of that stuff, I wouldn't worry about it. I do feel that for 180, the 16gb upgrade is priced fairly well - at least compared to the past.

I'm a video producer and I just ordered the base retina model with 8gb. It'll be just fine and I didn't really want to fork out the extra money for the upgrade.

So the short answer is, there's no such thing as too much memory, but 8gb is just fine :)
 
Thanks guys.

Ya, I am looking at the retina display version. So as some said, its now or never.

I agree with most in the sense 8gb is likely good enough.

At the same time 200 for double ram isn't that much money. (I remember paying 400 to go from 2gb to 4gb a few years ago! - and that was much cheaper than apples option)

As someone else mentioned.. never can have too much ram. I think I'll be going for the 16gb.
 
still not sure myself. i will be using the laptop for photo editing but it is usually only a small batch at a time so maybe 8gb will be fine. will have to be a spur of the moment decision when i order it
 
Is it confirmed that the RAM is soldered on the new Retina Macs or just the SSD chips?

This will be a very important bit of info to know upon ordering. If it is indeed non-user upgradeable I'd say to just splurge for the 16GB. May be overkill but you may use it and it will help retain some higher resale values down the road a bit.
 
I'd be very interested to hear what applications people have to run in parallel to require 16GB worth of RAM.

The HDD bears nothing on me as I carry around a HDD. I also try and keep local data to a minimum in an attempt to keep good backups of the full system.

The SSD and Quad i7 alone is enough to blow my mind mentally and digitally.
 
Considering the new RAM solution is soldered to the internals and $200 to double the capacity from 8GB to 16GB is actually a pretty reasonable deal, I might just bite for the 16GB. The Retina MBP is one that I plan to keep around for a long time if I purchase one, and I can see the par for desktop & notebook memory requirements hitting that mark in the near future even if its not there quite yet.
 
Having too much is always better than not having enough.Its cheap to get 16gb so I think most people just say get it and I agree.
 
auero said:
It's soldered onto the board. It's either now or never.
.
Click to expand...

I don't think that type of thinking is wise with Apple resale value being so high. In my experience, getting a base model and upgrading every two years by selling the old one is the cheapest way to stay up to date. If you can use student discounts, even upgrading every year is not too expensive.
 
You know what? In an above post I said this:

I think 16MB is overkill.

8MB Ram will serve you well -- even when using a program like Parallels which splits the memory usage.
Click to expand...
But I changed my mind...

...in fact, I went with 16GB memory.

This is one of the few times that $200 is a real bargain for doubling the memory. Apple made it very tempting to do this.

I do a lot of video editing and like to multi-task while encoding, so 16GB may be perfect.

As for the Parallels question...

When using Parallels, usually you have to split the memory in the virtual machine with the memory in the Mac....if I am explaining this correctly.

16GB would enable you to reserve more GB for your Mac while running the virtual machine.
 
FastEddiebags said:
Having too much is always better than not having enough.Its cheap to get 16gb so I think most people just say get it and I agree.
Click to expand...

I agree. I was just sitting here racking my brains over whether or not to do the upgrade, but just ended up decided that having more is better in this situation! :D
 
OS X loves memory and if I were buying one I'd definitely go for 16GB seeing as how what you buy today is what you're stuck with for the life of the machine.

I've got 16GB in my iMac and Activity Monitor tells me my current usage is 9.55GB (that's with Safari, Mail, Chrome, iTunes, Evernote, Word, Crashplan, Calendar, Terminal and a 3GB Fusion VM running)
 
ckeck said:
Is it confirmed that the RAM is soldered on the new Retina Macs or just the SSD chips?

This will be a very important bit of info to know upon ordering. If it is indeed non-user upgradeable I'd say to just splurge for the 16GB. May be overkill but you may use it and it will help retain some higher resale values down the road a bit.
Click to expand...

they have a picture of the internals. yes the RAM is soldered. the SSD seems to be "upgradable" like the airs, which means sending it in to a custom shop for insane money.
 
I've got 16GB in my iMac and Activity Monitor tells me my current usage is 9.55GB (that's with Safari, Mail, Chrome, iTunes, Evernote, Word, Crashplan, Calendar, Terminal and a 3GB Fusion VM running)

I would imagine with 16GB of ram I could have a ********* of programs running at once and the laptop is not going to slow down...right?

The spinning balls should be a thing of the past?
 
To not upgrade the retina to 16gb is a massive error in my opinion, it costs so much already and you can't do it later too. It's totally irrelevant that you don't need it now, it's a fact that you'll need more down the line
 
$200 is a pretty damn steep upgrade price for another 8GB. That said, you might as well, if you can afford it.

I still haven't seen my Mac Pro max out 10GB yet. I can have PS, LR, Bridge, Chrome, Sparrow all open and active, and still have 3 or 4GB of RAM free.
 
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