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Is 4GB ram enough for the new 13" rMBP?

My experience is that it is. I can see the theoretical argument for resale, but for a majority of users this setup will be fast now and plenty fast 2-3 years down the road. Unless you are using known programs that hog ram, it's a waste of money, imo.

These people stating it's not adequate for the average user are hilarious and out of touch with reality.
 
Run Windows using VMWare and with only 4GB you will want to drive over your Mac. It becomes useless.
 
MN7119 said:
Run Windows using VMWare and with only 4GB you will want to drive over your Mac. It becomes useless.
Click to expand...

Not quite useless - though it does slow down by a noticeable degree.

Typical person isn't running a Windows VM though. And I suspect a large majority of Airs (probably 80-90%) are still sold with just 4GB today since those are the basic configs for them.
 
yangchewren said:
So wouldn't you agree that an opinion put forth from ignorance would only mislead others?
Click to expand...
Ignorance is bliss ;)

I don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand that rockets fly.
And I don't need to be familiar with all aspects of ram usage and interaction with software to know that you don't need tons of ram to run basic operations. The average computer user can do everything with 1 or 2gb of ram easily.
Here is why:

- emails can be sent and received on any possible computer. you need 512kb ram
- 2mb of ram where enough to listen to music in the 80s even before mp3
- same goes for Word/Pages. you can't come up with a .doc that uses more than 1gb of ram
- internet is slightly more tricky because demands change here, but since flash is replaced by html5 the only thing that makes my browser lag is my internet connection. and if you need to open 200 tabs at a time then i don't have a clue how u would navigate between them and then u should maybe get 8gb of ram.
- photoshop is fine with 2gb and an ssd.
 
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I currently run Windows using VMWare on a white MackBook with 4GB RAM and I get the spinning pinwheel for many minutes when I try to run VMWare. In my case the computer becomes useless for more than 5 minutes since nothing else works. I finally ordered a brand new MacBook with 16GB. Yes, I know 16GB is too much but I am happy that I am getting it.

neteng101 said:
Not quite useless - though it does slow down by a noticeable degree.

Typical person isn't running a Windows VM though. And I suspect a large majority of Airs (probably 80-90%) are still sold with just 4GB today since those are the basic configs for them.
Click to expand...
 
4GB ram is not enough.

Once you use more than one screen with OS X mavericks, like I do, 4Gb are definitely not enough.
Cause then you will start watching movies on one, while you do "real" work on the other.
Today, I was using Adobe illustrator and watched a movie at the same time and ran a whooping 10.5GB ram out of 16GB - flawless on my 2011 MBP with 2 23" LCDs :)
 
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I really don't understand anyone's drive to buy a premium notebook with such a small amount of RAM. Better yet, you can never, ever upgrade it. While you can live on the edge and save your hundred dollars, what the hell is the point? $100 on a $1300 notebook to just avoid this altogether?


Are you buying this thing for one year of use, or are you spending $1500-2500 responsibly on something that will actually last?


RAM is one of the most commonly upgraded components in a computer, and Apple unfortunately has made upgrades impossible, so you either do your mid-cycle upgrade up front, or you never do it and suffer not too far down the road while also limiting what you can do with your computer. And if you sell it, resale value is going to be a lot less than a properly-equipped notebook since it can never. be. upgraded.


Prioritize RAM upgrades, whether you're a casual user or not. You're gonna want to have those tabs open and you're gonna someday run into an issue much more quickly.
 
raybies said:
What complete and utter rubbish.

I've got 19 tabs open if Chrome, WMP 11, uTorrent, PaintShopPro, IE10 4 tabs, and notepad++ with 6 docs open, couple other apps... on Windows 7 x64 and it's using 1.3GB. Both Windows 8 and 7 x64 use ~700MB, may MBP is still "processing" so I can't compare usage, but I remember 10.8.4 needing more than Windows 7/8.

Image

This should give you an idea...
Image
Click to expand...


Seriously, you're counting PaintShopPro and notepad??? I didn't even know PSP was still around. You don't need windows.... You need a typewriter.
 
4GB of RAM is sufficient for your uses, but I would get 8GB just to be on the sane side. 16GB on the other hand is a total waste of money.
 
sarakn said:
Seriously, you're counting PaintShopPro and notepad??? I didn't even know PSP was still around. You don't need windows.... You need a typewriter.
Click to expand...

Dude, Paint Shop Pro rocks! It isn't around, I'm using v7.4... everything after that is crap.

I'll use CS6 for complicated layered stuff, but day to day PSP is my go to (12 years and counting).

And BTW it's Notepad++ the best text editor on the planet... not Notepad.
 
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Rhinoevans said:
Even if it works as advertised, hardware always better than software to emulate hardware
Click to expand...

You somehow managed to be ignorant twice in the same sentence.

First off, memory compression in no way emulates hardware..
As for hardware being "better" than software.. It's simply a matter of brains vs brawns. You can't replace one with the other... You can double the muscle, but you work smarter, you can get the job done 10 or 1000x more efficiently.
 
raybies said:
Dude, Paint Shop Pro rocks! It isn't around, I'm using v7.4... everything after that is crap.

I'll use CS6 for complicated layered stuff, but day to day PSP is my go to (12 years and counting).

And BTW it's Notepad++ the best text editor on the planet... not Notepad.
Click to expand...

OMG yes. I remember buying Paint Shop Pro 7 back in like '02 while i was in middle school. It was the last good version before they screwed it up. I still have the CD somewhere at my parent's home but I couldn't read the serial-number I wrote on the disc. I've been contemplating getting a copy of Autodesk sketchbook pro since it seems to be like a modern PSP7.

I used to love Notepad++ but then I discovered Sublime Text after switching to OSX. No words to describe how good sublime text is....
 
Given the high cost of the base 13 model,
I can't see why one would not spend a extra $200
to double the ram and SSD size?

Of course it's not absolutely needed,
but since you only get one chance to upgrade seems to be a good choice...
 
fs454 said:
I really don't understand anyone's drive to buy a premium notebook with such a small amount of RAM. Better yet, you can never, ever upgrade it. While you can live on the edge and save your hundred dollars, what the hell is the point? $100 on a $1300 notebook to just avoid this altogether?


Are you buying this thing for one year of use, or are you spending $1500-2500 responsibly on something that will actually last?


RAM is one of the most commonly upgraded components in a computer, and Apple unfortunately has made upgrades impossible, so you either do your mid-cycle upgrade up front, or you never do it and suffer not too far down the road while also limiting what you can do with your computer. And if you sell it, resale value is going to be a lot less than a properly-equipped notebook since it can never. be. upgraded.


Prioritize RAM upgrades, whether you're a casual user or not. You're gonna want to have those tabs open and you're gonna someday run into an issue much more quickly.
Click to expand...
Totally agree.
 
raybies said:
Dude, Paint Shop Pro rocks! It isn't around, I'm using v7.4... everything after that is crap.

I'll use CS6 for complicated layered stuff, but day to day PSP is my go to (12 years and counting).

And BTW it's Notepad++ the best text editor on the planet... not Notepad.
Click to expand...

I used to use PSP, too until I found Fireworks. I'm not a graphics artist and Photoshop was only used when I needed to do something a little heavier. Otherwise, it was FW.

12 years... that's impressive. I wonder how it looks on a newer machine... I imagine it's like running windows 3.1 through Parallels. :D:eek:
 
sarakn said:
I used to use PSP, too until I found Fireworks. I'm not a graphics artist and Photoshop was only used when I needed to do something a little heavier. Otherwise, it was FW.

12 years... that's impressive. I wonder how it looks on a newer machine... I imagine it's like running windows 3.1 through Parallels. :D:eek:
Click to expand...

I have it on my USB keyring. Looks OK to me.
jasc_1.jpg


Most of my day to day stuff is cropping, resizing, gif/png transparency, colour tweaks... PSP does it much faster than PS CS?.

----------
mangotears said:
OMG yes. I remember buying Paint Shop Pro 7 back in like '02 while i was in middle school. It was the last good version before they screwed it up. I still have the CD somewhere at my parent's home but I couldn't read the serial-number I wrote on the disc. I've been contemplating getting a copy of Autodesk sketchbook pro since it seems to be like a modern PSP7.

I used to love Notepad++ but then I discovered Sublime Text after switching to OSX. No words to describe how good sublime text is....
Click to expand...

PSP isn't good for sketching... Painter is.

I'm going to try out Sublime (a little pricey), bcos I've been less than impressed with Text Wrangler.
 
Fallingreason said:
It is definitely enough for more people than it is not enough for.
Click to expand...

Second that. I still have my 2002 (not 2012) Sony VIAO PC with a measly 512M memory running Win XP. My little son still uses it to build Lego robots. The Lego mindstorm IDE still runs, even a bit slow. The kid just said he doesn't care.

I prefer fast machines, though. :D
 
raybies said:
PSP isn't good for sketching... Painter is.

I'm going to try out Sublime (a little pricey), bcos I've been less than impressed with Text Wrangler.
Click to expand...

Dunno how I got it mixed up. I definitely meant to say Painter 7.

Textmate is another popular choice and has recently been open-sourced. You could give that a try too.
 
Meister said:
English is not my mother tongue and this is not an english class.
Don't try to be smart.
For the OP ur advice is bad and here is way:
For his intended use a macbook pro is without a doubt overkill.
He can easily watch movies, write text, emails and surf the web on an iPad.
Most macbook pro models come with 4gb ram by default. (all mba, the cmbp and the rmbp base model)
Most pro modells come with 8gb and thats what the "pro" stands for.
Even 2gb on the old mba models is still perfectly fine. Ive never read any reports on here that anyone was unsatisfied with 4gb. Even lighter video editing in iMovie is effortless with 4gb.
Click to expand...

I'm with you here.
 
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