Is it necessary to upgrade to 16 gigs of Ram, or will 8 gigs do?

[Andrew Ryan]

I mainly use writing programs, and use Photoshop and Final Cut as a hobby. I recently purchased a Macbook Pro and was wondering if I should upgrade to 16 gigs of RAM or just settle for 8 Gigs. I wanted to do that before I download Mountain Lion.

They are both pretty cheap off crucial, but was curious on if 16 is overkill.

 

[derbothaus]

Depends on your projects. If you have to ask though, probably not. If you have rMBP it could be a problem in the future.

 

[Raunien]

If you are noticing a system slow down, check the memory section of the activity monitor - specifically how many page outs you have. If the page outs reads a significant amount, it might be wise to upgrade to 16gb. If page outs are reading close to 0, then 8gb is plenty.

 

[Nukemkb]

Is there such a thing as too much RAM? If you can afford it...get it.

 

[Dark Void]

Sounds like 8GB will be more than enough. You can always upgrade from that in the future if you find that you need more or if your usage increases in terms of RAM.

 

[Andrew Ryan]

If you are noticing a system slow down, check the memory section of the activity monitor - specifically how many page outs you have. If the page outs reads a significant amount, it might be wise to upgrade to 16gb. If page outs are reading close to 0, then 8gb is plenty.

I see Page in, but I don't see where it says "page out"

----------

Ah, I see it.

It says, 939.1 MB

 

[gngan]

Is there such a thing as too much RAM? If you can afford it...get it.

Yes, there is such thing as too much RAM. If you don't use it then you are wasting it. "If you can afford it...get it" is the worst advise you can give. Why dump the money that you won't utilize it.

 

[theSeb]

Yes, there is such thing as too much RAM. If you don't use it then you are wasting it. "If you can afford it...get it" is the worst advise you can give. Why dump the money that you won't utilize it.

This was true in the past, but the difference in price between 8 and 16 GB aftermarket RAM is not even a night out with a couple of drinks. This should not be an argument. 16 GBs will come in handy, because of the way OS X memory management and caching works, even if the user seemingly does not need it. Considering the prices we're talking about here, it's probably a bigger waste of money to upgrade to 8 GB and then throw that away and upgrade to 16 GB next year when the need arises.

 

[Macman45]

First thing I did with my top spec Imac was to take the RAM up to 16GB...As posted above, it does depend on what you use your Mac for...I do a lot of Video and photo editing work, and the extra RAM has been a performance enhancer in certain areas for me.


It's also cheap, so I'd go for it personally.

 

[epigenome]

It really, really depends on what you do and how you use your computer. Honestly, when doing a semi-normal workload (for me) - I find it pretty easy to eat through 8 GB of RAM... I never get too far over, but I'll use up all of 8 GB easily.

Here's an example of the work I was doing tonight that landed me around 8-9 GB used running:
Adobe Illustrator
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Powerpoint
Safari
Itunes
Terminal
Cyberduck

Admittedly, I could have altered my workflow so I was focusing on one program as I go - but that's not how I prefer to work and I like having a system that runs smoothly. If you're just running Final Cut or Photoshop combined with a browser and maybe itunes - you could easily get by with 8, but if 16 GB isn't significantly more expensive, go for it.

 

[Nukemkb]

Yes, there is such thing as too much RAM. If you don't use it then you are wasting it. "If you can afford it...get it" is the worst advise you can give. Why dump the money that you won't utilize it.

If you have to ask - you dont understand.

 

[Iphone4sinwhite]

My cMBP has 4 gb of ram. My page-outs are typically 50% of my page-ins or higher (probably due to continuously using fusion 5 and a lot of math software). However, I came from an old windows machine so any slow down is yet to be detectable by me

 

[steve217]

This was true in the past, but the difference in price between 8 and 16 GB aftermarket RAM is not even a night out with a couple of drinks. This should not be an argument. 16 GBs will come in handy, because of the way OS X memory management and caching works, even if the user seemingly does not need it. Considering the prices we're talking about here, it's probably a bigger waste of money to upgrade to 8 GB and then throw that away and upgrade to 16 GB next year when the need arises.

This ... plus when manufacturing shifts to a new memory type, your type will become rarer and thus, more expensive. The trick then, is when to jump. I waited on a Dell Desktop (DDR2 SDRAM) and now an 8gb kit is $300.

Since you can get a 16 gig kit for less than $80 now, the decision should be pretty easy.

 

[gngan]

This was true in the past, but the difference in price between 8 and 16 GB aftermarket RAM is not even a night out with a couple of drinks. This should not be an argument. 16 GBs will come in handy, because of the way OS X memory management and caching works, even if the user seemingly does not need it. Considering the prices we're talking about here, it's probably a bigger waste of money to upgrade to 8 GB and then throw that away and upgrade to 16 GB next year when the need arises.

If the logic of being able to afford it then get it is how people buy stuff then they will be buying a lot of things they won't need.

Moreover, RAM will just get cheaper therefore wait till you need it then upgrade it later. I don't think a 16gb RAM will be the standard within a year or someone will just randomly need the extra 8gb of RAM after a year. I would say maybe 2-3 years later then app will require more RAM and by then 16gb RAM will be cheaper.

 

[iAppl3Fan]

I upgraded my ram to 16gb. No regrets here. Do as you please as your computer will still perform. If it was me, I would upgrade as aftermarket prices are very reasonable.

 

[NutsNGum]

Get 16. It has shot down in price insanely over the past few days.