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Is 4gb of ram enough for MBP 2012?

B

Bluesky2011

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 25, 2012
79
16
London
I'm going to buy base model MBP md101 with 4gb of ram. I often do assignment, so If I open 40-50 tab safari ( or chrome) + using Yahoo + using Office at the same time, could it still work well? Will it be slow? Lacking of Ram or something?
 
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I should still be working fine with 8gb. If you want to future proof your mac get 16gb of ram.
 
Bluesky2011 said:
So is it working fine with 4gb?
Click to expand...

With your stated usage I'd go for at least 8GB, 40-50 tabs in chrome or safari will take a huge bite out of 4GB of RAM(do you really open that many? That seems excessive to me).

Buy the base model and try it with 4GB, if you notice you're running out of RAM, buy more from a third party and install it yourself.
 
Chrome will choke on that # of tabs anyway, it's a 32bit app, can't address enough memory.
 
4GB is a basic minimum. I recommend 8GB. 16GB is an overkill, but if you have the money to spare, why not...
 
Bluesky2011 said:
I'm going to buy base model MBP md101 with 4gb of ram. I often do assignment, so If I open 40-50 tab safari ( or chrome) + using Yahoo + using Office at the same time, could it still work well? Will it be slow? Lacking of Ram or something?
Click to expand...

For what you do it's going to be enough, so I sugerst you buy 4GB. If later you feel you need more ram, you can upgrade yourself for less money than apple BTO option.
 
I had 4GB on my late 2011. Once I upgraded to ML I got constant beach balls. bought 16GB and haven't had a problem. 16GB can be bought for ~$75
 
vladster said:
For what you do it's going to be enough, so I sugerst you buy 4GB. If later you feel you need more ram, you can upgrade yourself for less money than apple BTO option.
Click to expand...

This is the way to go. Buy base and upgrade later. It'll be cheaper and you can go all the way to 16GB (which is overkill for most folks, but works nicely if you run a VM).



___
 
16GB RAM is only an extra $70 in a $1,200+ computer. It will future proof your machine and 99% of users won't get close to that anytime soon, so you won't have to worry abut using it all vs. 4GB, for an extra $30-40.
 
Bluesky2011 said:
I'm going to buy base model MBP md101 with 4gb of ram. I often do assignment, so If I open 40-50 tab safari ( or chrome) + using Yahoo + using Office at the same time, could it still work well? Will it be slow? Lacking of Ram or something?
Click to expand...

Below is a screenshot of my usage on my work computer (snow leopard) using 23 tabs in Chrome.

As you can see Chrome is pretty demanding on the ram. I have 16Gb in my laptop and 8gb in my work machine.

For me, I always like the max out the ram. I probably dont need to but it makes me feel better.
 

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No it's not. Buy the 4 GB version and then pick up for around $30 an 8 GB pack and install it (there's tutorials on the Apple website). I went with 16 GB to future proof my machine.
 
4 gb will be enough for the majority of people but you could order 8gb and install it yourself later on.
 
4Gb wont be enough. Get 8 or 16. Many people say 16 is overkill but I was getting page outs with 8, and 16 is cheap enough.
 
My vote is for 8GB minimum, 16GB if you have the money and want it to last a little longer. I only have 4GB in my 2011 MBP currently (downgraded from 8GB as memory was bad) and it's a terrible thing haha.
 
I have 8gb and typically use 3 to 5 gb in normal use. Only time I get close to using all of the 8 is when Parallels is running too. 4 is too small.
 
Hey,

I just bought some ram for Macbook. I am going from 4GB to 16GB and I know it's overkill. I had sweet deal at my local computer store. One more thing, make sure you get the one specified with your Mac. Unlike me, I have to return my ram so I can ge the correct Mhz. (1600 Mhz for 2012 models just so you know).

Cheers!
 
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