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VictorTango777

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Oct 28, 2017
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Has anyone purchased a new 2018 MacBook Pro with 32 GB RAM? What do you use the extra RAM for?
 
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RAM is useful if you're making professional films, VM, statistics or AI, or any number of things. Usually, if you need 32GB of RAM then you know you need this, most people will be fine with 8GB, 16GB is still a huge amount of RAM, 32GB is obscene for a lot of purposes but useful for a few.
 
Don't forget that if you're planning to keep your laptop for a long time, you may not need 32GB right now, but in the coming years.

It depends how long in the future you may need it. There's no point paying over the odds for something today that you might not need for another 5 years. It's much more economically viable to get what you need today, then get what you need in 5 years. It'll cost roughly the same, and you'll get a host of other benefits to go with it.

Basically, you can't future-proof things, if you don't need something today then don't waste the money.
 
It depends how long in the future you may need it. There's no point paying over the odds for something today that you might not need for another 5 years. It's much more economically viable to get what you need today, then get what you need in 5 years. It'll cost roughly the same, and you'll get a host of other benefits to go with it.

Basically, you can't future-proof things, if you don't need something today then don't waste the money.

It's much cheaper to keep a $5k laptop for 8 years than it is to buy a $3k laptop every 2.
 
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Is anyone here personally using that extra RAM today? What is your workload and is it something you previously could not do with 16 GB?
 
It's much cheaper to keep a $5k laptop for 8 years than it is to buy a $3k laptop every 2.

Why are you buying a new computer every 2 years?

Pay 3k today, and you could keep it for 8 years or whatever. Unless your work is drastically about to change in the next couple of years, it's a fallacy to spend so much on a device when you are unsure if you'll ever use half of the power. Also in 5 years time the computer would be showing its age regardless if you payed 3k, 5k, or 10k, it'll slow down. So you'd suffer 3 years of a slow and tired computer once you do actually theoretically need the power - but the power by then will be so minimal, it'll be the same as a base model. That's my point. $5k laptop today, when you need 50% of it, is $2500 wasted. $5k laptop in 5 years time is say worth $1500, so you've got $3500 on a device where you aren't using it. If you do require something after those 5 years, then getting a brand new machine for the difference will provide a better CPU, faster RAM or possibly even more, faster SSD etc. All for the price of just getting what you need today.

Nowhere else is this future proofing concept so prevalent than with MBP's. I mean you don't buy a house as newlyweds and decide you need a 5 bedroom just incase you get extra frisky. Or go to buy a new car and end up with a transit van just incase you ever need it...
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Is anyone here personally using that extra RAM today? What is your workload and is it something you previously could not do with 16 GB?

There really isn't anything you can't do with 16GB that you can do with 32GB, it's all about efficiency and speed more than capability. All systems will use all the RAM they can to make things run faster, and if you try an application that loads a lot into RAM then it can slow down a little bit more with 16GB if it ever runs against the red limit. If you're patient, or don't need it to be crucially quick, then 16GB is usually a better investment.
 
Why are you buying a new computer every 2 years?

Pay 3k today, and you could keep it for 8 years or whatever. Unless your work is drastically about to change in the next couple of years, it's a fallacy to spend so much on a device when you are unsure if you'll ever use half of the power. Also in 5 years time the computer would be showing its age regardless if you payed 3k, 5k, or 10k, it'll slow down. So you'd suffer 3 years of a slow and tired computer once you do actually theoretically need the power - but the power by then will be so minimal, it'll be the same as a base model. That's my point. $5k laptop today, when you need 50% of it, is $2500 wasted. $5k laptop in 5 years time is say worth $1500, so you've got $3500 on a device where you aren't using it. If you do require something after those 5 years, then getting a brand new machine for the difference will provide a better CPU, faster RAM or possibly even more, faster SSD etc. All for the price of just getting what you need today.

Simple - the 2012 MBP.

Started life as an HDD machine with 4GB of RAM, now wields 16GB or RAM and two SSD's - If it was still running the standard config, it would have been relegated to uselessness 4 or 5 years ago.

Unfortunately you don't have the luxury of upgrading when you need it with the new machines, so you just have to spend the extra up front rather than when you need it.

If you keep upgrading, you're buying lots of things that you don't need over and over again - three touchbars, three displays, etc... at least your dongles will probably work.

Could recoup costs by selling the old ones I guess, but I don't think chasing the depreciation train is particularity smart either
 
Apple's approach is really quite clear at this point. Replace your laptop every 3 years. If you're a power user that's a high end MBPro every 3 years. If you're good with a MacBook every 3 years, they can make that work for you too. They probably came up with 3 years based on market research.

There are very obviously exceptions, and I think it's fair to say that statistically the majority of posters here are at the extremes of the spectrum. Power users who really hammer their devices, and then there are the minimalist users who get by on lower end stuff for an eternity with minimal investment.

The way that I look at is is that I want the performance to last for 3-4 years, and at that point then either I can sell to offset the costs of a new laptop, or hang onto it and let it depreciate. There are game changers in the cycle too. The quad core on the 13". The hex core on the 15". Those are both game changers in my opinion, but in general I think the 3 -4 year rule is a good one; for me at least.

If buying today I would be thinking 8 or 16, not 16 or 32, based on my usage.
 
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Don't forget that if you're planning to keep your laptop for a long time,
I'm planning on keeping my Mac for a very long time, but see zero need for 32GB. I think for the majority of people its over-kill now and in the future. Its not like we'll be seeing macOS changing or apps changing so dramatically down the road that ram requirements go through the roof. Both apps and OS are mature products that won't have much changing in them - just my $.02
 
Don't forget that if you're planning to keep your laptop for a long time, you may not need 32GB right now, but in the coming years.
Unless OP plans on doing heavy 4k video rendering or VM usage, 32 GB would be serious overkill, even in the foreseeable future. In fact I'd argue that unless you are doing the above two things, then 16 GB of RAM is more than "future-proof" enough. There are specific users who need that much RAM, or may need it in the future, but they know who they are.

As a general rule, if you have to ask if its necessary, then you probably don't need it.
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Is anyone here personally using that extra RAM today? What is your workload and is it something you previously could not do with 16 GB?
I can't say that I can. I do photoshop and plenty of multi tasking (iTunes, Safari, Photoshop, and other applications), and even with only 8GB of RAM I never experience a slow down on my 2017 MBP with all that open. I rarely exceed 50% memory pressure.

Having said that I wish I had gotten 16GB because in the long run (5-6 years) I'd anticipate that my 8GB might not be enough. But there weren't any refurb models with 16GB RAM when I bought this computer from Apple.
 
Simple - the 2012 MBP.

Started life as an HDD machine with 4GB of RAM, now wields 16GB or RAM

In 2012 is was fairly clear that 4GB was a bit on the light side from a long-term forward-looking standpoint, and 8GB was a better general use "room for growth" config.

Today, 8GB is just fine for most general usage. In a few years maybe not, so anyone anticipating a 6+ year horizon for replacement would IMHO be well served with 16GB.

IMHO, 32GB ram is a waste of money for anyone who cannot point at the specific reasons they truly need it. "I might ..." doesn't count.
 
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Having said that I wish I had gotten 16GB because in the long run (5-6 years) I'd anticipate that my 8GB might not be enough.
I wouldn't worry too much about that... even if memory gets tight, don't forget the OS can do memory compression for background apps, so 8GB will actually go farther than 8GB in many circumstances. Plus, the SSDs are so freakin' fast now, swapping is much less noticeable than it used to be.
 
More ram is clearly the future and that is where the future is headed. In 2013, I spec'd out my PC w/ 32GB of ram and many people laughed at me for having 32GB of ram and gave me looks like, "Why would you do that? You will never need that much." but 5 years later, look where we are now. Many people run 64GB and I bet we have people in this forum w/ 128GB of rams or more on their machines. Remember when 8MB of ram was considered uber in 1990s?
 
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I've thought about the 32GB but for the same price I am looking at 1TB. I would much prefer the storage to the RAM and don't want to be carrying around Samsung T5 drives with me.
 
I have 32GB of RAM in mine. I run VMs, lots of VMs. I use it today. The thing that kept me from upgrading for quite awhile was the lack of a 32GB option. Since the workflow I had was RAM constrained, and not CPU or storage, I waited for the option to get 32GB of RAM to upgrade.

The VMs I run in particular are for simulating entire networks on my machine for various reasons. Having the extra RAM allows those networks to contain more hosts.
 
I have 32GB of RAM in mine. I run VMs, lots of VMs. I use it today. The thing that kept me from upgrading for quite awhile was the lack of a 32GB option. Since the workflow I had was RAM constrained, and not CPU or storage, I waited for the option to get 32GB of RAM to upgrade.

The VMs I run in particular are for simulating entire networks on my machine for various reasons. Having the extra RAM allows those networks to contain more hosts.


Very cool, can you share more details about what you’re doing, it sounds interesting.
 
More ram is clearly the future and that is where the future is headed. In 2013, I spec'd out my PC w/ 32GB of ram and many people laughed at me for having 32GB of ram and gave me looks like, "Why would you do that? You will never need that much." but 5 years later, look where we are now. Many people run 64GB and I bet we have people in this forum w/ 128GB of rams or more on their machines. Remember when 8MB of ram was considered uber in 1990s?

RAM is increasing at a faster pace than our ability to make use of it. 16GB should be standard due to RAM costs, but average use won't outstrip 16GB of RAM for many years. The explosion in application development is mobile. We see more and more average Desktop/Laptop development moving to the web and Web development is focused also on mobile optimization.

There are specific use cases for 64GB, but if you aren't there today you'll absolutely be best served stopping at 16GB for all the reasons already stated by others.
 
RAM is increasing at a faster pace than our ability to make use of it. 16GB should be standard due to RAM costs, but average use won't outstrip 16GB of RAM for many years. The explosion in application development is mobile. We see more and more average Desktop/Laptop development moving to the web and Web development is focused also on mobile optimization.

There are specific use cases for 64GB, but if you aren't there today you'll absolutely be best served stopping at 16GB for all the reasons already stated by others.

To each his own. Because others recommend 16GB doesn't change my point of view. I respectfully disagree w/ your opinion.
 
More ram is clearly the future and that is where the future is headed
No it isn't. The pace of new features and apps for most users has not changed in a long time. The life cycle of desktop computing has matured to a great degree that most people will not need 32GB for the foreseeable future.
 
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