MacBook Pro Buy the 8gb Or 16gb?

[Saabtastic]

Hello Everyone, I did search this topic and could not find a thread discussing it.

I consider myself a heavy multi-tasking user of apps such as, Mail, Excel, VPN, Adobe, Team Viewer.
Sometimes Parallels... Really not much video or audio stuff.

I am retiring my slower base config 2017 12” MacBook.
Upgrading to 2019 MacBook Pro 13” w/ 256gb.

Do you think I would see a NOTICEABLE see the difference in performance with the 16gb ram option?
Since I multi-task, I am leaning towards it, but build time does take an extra week.
I get a new computer every 1.5-2.5 yrs....

(Anyone aware of this discussion anywhere? Performance gains w/ 16gb option)
I could not find any threads/talks about speed difference. Back in the PC days, power users ALWAYS bought as much memory as they could afford but now with macs you dont see it as much.

Which memory config did you get and WHY?

 

[ruslan120]

It's less of a performance difference, unless you're doing video or audio.

The real difference is how many apps you can run at once. MacOS is fairly robust in terms of managing memory, so you won't notice a decrease in performance for the apps you're using, but you will notice one in terms of how many apps you can run at once. Those that are "above the memory threshold" will simply appear unresponsive or crash.

2013 Macbook Pro (16GB RAM) -
Robust, main machine, great portability (it was just not cutting it in terms of video editing)
to
2019 iMac (8GB RAM -> 40GB RAM (upgraded)) -
Due to Apple's upgrade prices on Macbook Pros. Would've gone with a 2019, 8core MBP with 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD.

 

[theapplehead]

Hello Everyone, I did search this topic and could not find a thread discussing it.

I consider myself a heavy multi-tasking user of apps such as, Mail, Excel, VPN, Adobe, Team Viewer.
Sometimes Parallels... Really not much video or audio stuff.

I am retiring my slower base config 2017 12” MacBook.
Upgrading to 2019 MacBook Pro 13” w/ 256gb.

Do you think I would see a NOTICEABLE see the difference in performance with the 16gb ram option?
Since I multi-task, I am leaning towards it, but build time does take an extra week.
I get a new computer every 1.5-2.5 yrs....

(Anyone aware of this discussion anywhere? Performance gains w/ 16gb option)
I could not find any threads/talks about speed difference. Back in the PC days, power users ALWAYS bought as much memory as they could afford but now with macs you dont see it as much.

Which memory config did you get and WHY?

I’d go ahead and get it with 16. You can’t go wrong with it. As time goes by you’ll be glad to have the extra RAM. For a while I debated how much memory I should get for my MBP, but I eventually decided on 16. Now I am certain I made the right choice. I use my laptop mostly for email, Microsoft office, movies, and music production. It easily handles all of that. If you get 16GB you’ll know your Mac is future proofed which is a great peace of mind to have.

 

[Stephen.R]

now with macs you dont see it as much

[Citation needed]

Buy as much memory as you can afford and is available. Seriously.

With more physical memory, macOS will use it for file caching, which means you're reading files from memory rather than the SSD. Yes SSD's are faster than mechanical spinning rust. But memory is still faster.

If you intend to run VMs, particularly Windows VMs, consider that in that scenario you probably need to dedicate at least 2GB to the VM.

Which memory config did you get and WHY?

On my 2018 MBP15 I only have the standard 16GB because I needed a machine they had in stock at the time - previous machine had a failure and needed to be replaced ASAP, and BTO options from resellers can be [*months*] here. If I'd had the time I'd have gotten 32GB. Not the end of the world as it's a spare/travel machine anyway.

On. my 2018 Mac mini, I got a 64GB BTO.

Almost all of my work involves Linux (and very occasionally Windows) VMs. While a single headless (i.e. no GUI) Linux VM can be just half a GB - sometimes I'll have up to 10 or 12 running at once, and generally I don't limit them to just half a GB - the same things that make your Mac run faster with more memory (file caching, less swapping, etc) also make a VM run faster when it has more assigned RAM.

 

[ghostface147]

Whatever you feel you need and then double it, unless it's financially prohibitive. As you know, you can't upgrade these Macs anymore.

 

[Saabtastic]

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR VALUABLE INSIGHTS!

IT WAS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED... ordering the 16gb machine, just wanted to confirm what I thought..

AGAIN THX, GREATLY APPRECIATE EACH OF YOUR REPLIES!!!

 

[pshufd]

[Citation needed]

Buy as much memory as you can afford and is available. Seriously.

You don't know what additional applications you're going to be running down the road and there's no downside performance issues with more RAM. I have two programs that do use a lot of RAM and have 16 GB machines - the next will allow for at least 32 GB.

 

[ZeitGeist]

Bear in mind that the latest models have SSDs that come close to RAM speeds, making the importance of RAM largely negligible, except in very specific cases.

You’re better off investing in a larger size SSD than worrying about RAM beyond 8GB.

 

[Stephen.R]

You don't know what additional applications you're going to be running down the road and there's no downside performance issues with more RAM. I have two programs that do use a lot of RAM and have 16 GB machines - the next will allow for at least 32 GB.

Im not sure if you quoted the wrong person or just didn't understand my post.