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

Is 8gb enough rMBP for photographer?

H

hulk2012

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 13, 2012
336
5
Is 8gb of ram enough to power rMBP i7 2.4ghz 8gb rMBP? I do photography using aperture 3, capture one pro 7, Photoshop cc and few apps opened in the background like safari (few tabs), email + few osx running plugins. Also I'm on 10.9 Mavericks which I like very much.
 
Last edited:
How long do you intend to keep this notebook?

I ask because I usually keep my notebooks for 3 to 4 years. And so while 8GB would be enough now 3-4 years from today that may not be the case and of course with these new Retina MacBook Pro's you cannot upgrade the RAM after purchase.

Something worth thinking about.
 
Quu said:
How long do you intend to keep this notebook?

I ask because I usually keep my notebooks for 3 to 4 years. And so while 8GB would be enough now 3-4 years from today that may not be the case and of course with these new Retina MacBook Pro's you cannot upgrade the RAM after purchase.

Something worth thinking about.
Click to expand...
3-4 years? Damn, that's a long time.
I always sell mine and buy the new model when it's released. :D
 
If you plan on keeping the computer for more than a year or two, as a fellow photographer, I'd definitely say yes.
 
hulk2012 said:
I'm considering i7 2.4ghz 8gb rMBP but for extra £350 could get same model with 16gb. I do photography using aperture 3, capture one pro 7, Photoshop cc and few apps opened in the background like safari (few tabs), email + few osx running plugins. Also I'm on 10.9 Mavericks which I like very much.
Click to expand...


  • Thee days, literally any MBP has plenty of horsepower for photographers. I'm using a 2011 MBP13 with 27" external display. The bottleneck in the early days was working with large RAW files on a conventional drive. Moving in/out of PS was tedious.
  • Since memory is now soldered in place, you're stuck with what you get so max it out to 16GB. (Memory management in 10.9 is different which is supposed to free up more RAM but I haven't quite wrapped my head around that yet).
  • I'd also upgrade the SSD to at least 512GB.

Please tell me your budget so I can spend more.
 
I think 8gb is fine; given the speed of the SSD, caching to disk is now a hell of a lot quicker than it used to be, somewhat reducing the need to increase the amount of RAM.
 
I'm running Lightroom and Photoshop CS6 on a rMBP 2012 base model with 8GB of memory, and have not had any issues with it. On both OS X 10.8 and 10.9 everything runs very smoothly. Although I don't use a lot of plugins, so I don't know if that would change things.

Where did the £350 for the memory upgrade come from? It's £160/$200/200€ for the 8GB memory upgrade only, so the £350 must include something else. Possibly an SSD upgrade too? http://store.apple.com/uk/configure/ME664B/A?
 
laurihoefs said:
I'm running Lightroom and Photoshop CS6 on a rMBP 2012 base model with 8GB of memory, and have not had any issues with it. On both OS X 10.8 and 10.9 everything runs very smoothly. Although I don't use a lot of plugins, so I don't know if that would change things.

Where did the £350 for the memory upgrade come from? It's £160/$200/200€ for the 8GB memory upgrade only, so the £350 must include something else. Possibly an SSD upgrade too? http://store.apple.com/uk/configure/ME664B/A?
Click to expand...

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1379001146.764796.jpg
These are refurbished prices apart from no.6 which is under student discount tag.
 
I'm a freelance photographer and have been running 8GB of RAM in my MBP for a few years. I think that it's safe to say that 8GB will be fine for the next 3-4 years. Do not buy into the fear that Apple wants you to feel because you cannot upgrade.
 
hulk2012 said:
View attachment 432744
These are refurbished prices apart from no.6 which is under student discount tag.
Click to expand...
Ah, I understand now. The refurbished you have listed for £1319 is 2.3Ghz not 2.4GHz as it's the 2012 model.

You're not paying £350 for another 8GB. You're paying £350 for the new non-refurbished 2013 model + 8GB RAM.
 
snapper64 said:
Ah, I understand now. The refurbished you have listed for £1319 is 2.3Ghz not 2.4GHz as it's the 2012 model.

You're not paying £350 for another 8GB. You're paying £350 for the new non-refurbished 2013 model + 8GB RAM.
Click to expand...

Do you think no.1 is 2012 model?
 
hulk2012 said:
You referring to the middle tab one year?
Click to expand...
The middle tab is the standard 1 year warranty every country receives for an Apple product. Everyone in the EU is eligible for 2 years and in the UK we're potentially covered for a maximum of 6 years.

Claiming outside of the standard 1 year period is unlikely to be as easy and hassle free as with AppleCare though, so it may be worth paying more for that. It's really up to you.

As to you're original question I think 8GB RAM will be sufficient for your needs. That said, if you plan to keep this computer for 2-3 years or more I'd probably upgrade if you can afford it.
 
snapper64 said:
As to you're original question I think 8GB RAM will be sufficient for your needs. That said, if you plan to keep this computer for 2-3 years or more I'd probably upgrade if you can afford it.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. If you're not a "compulsive upgrader" and intend to use this computer for more than two years, I would suggest getting 16GB. Better safe than sorry...?


And I've always found Photoshop to be a bit of a RAM hog. I had 8GB on my last MBP, and while I can't remember all of it ever being in use, I think I came pretty close a few times--mostly working with very high-resolution scans of negatives.
 
hulk2012 said:
So you would recommend 8gb of ram with no problems?
Click to expand...
If you plan on keeping it for a year, maybe two – go with 8. Any longer and I'd really, really recommend 16. I haven't capped once with 16 gigabytes on my workstation, but I've been above 8.
tcphoto said:
I'm a freelance photographer and have been running 8GB of RAM in my MBP for a few years. I think that it's safe to say that 8GB will be fine for the next 3-4 years. Do not buy into the fear that Apple wants you to feel because you cannot upgrade.
Click to expand...
3-4 years as a photographer above "hobby"? I kindly disagree.
 
fratey said:
If you plan on keeping it for a year, maybe two – go with 8. Any longer and I'd really, really recommend 16. I haven't capped once with 16 gigabytes on my workstation, but I've been above 8.

3-4 years as a photographer above "hobby"? I kindly disagree.
Click to expand...

I after. Working on my iMacs (12gb) I am hitting 10-11gb on average (gotta upgrade to 16gb). I hate changing computers, shifting stuff around etc. I got attached to my tools as we grow together so changing it after a year would be painful. £1664 with student discount (£1995 regular) for 15" i5 2.4 16gb 256gb SSD seems like a good deal in comparison to 8gb (£1400)
 
I would get 16GB RAM, I was doubting when I decided for a rMBP, and ended up at 16GB, since you cannot add more later on, and I plan to keep my machine for 3-4 years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back