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MacBook pro

punio75

punio75

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 2, 2015
60
8
Lincolnshire, UK
Thanks to a bonus at work I'm looking at a MacBook pro.
Currently have a 12" macbook.

Despite reading many threads on here I'm still a little unsure on my needs.

i am looking at the 13" with touchbar.

Just need some advice on memory and storage.
Would like to save money if possible so looking at 8GB memory and the 256GB SSD storage.
Would this meet my needs?

I basically use the machine for internet, office tasks- can be a few pages and numbers documents open at one time.
I do have a decent amount of photos but I think I should be ok with the storage.
 
punio75 said:
Just need some advice on memory and storage.
Would like to save money if possible so looking at 8GB memory and the 256GB SSD storage.
Would this meet my needs?

I basically use the machine for internet, office tasks- can be a few pages and numbers documents open at one time.
I do have a decent amount of photos but I think I should be ok with the storage.
Click to expand...
Yes. :)
 
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Concur with above poster. I can do what you want to do (and more) with my 2012 MBA with "only" 4GB RAM with green memory pressure levels in activity monitor.
 
Thanks, sometimes you can get a bit muddled the more you read!
Seemed to be a lot of advice about going for at least 16GB memory.
Will aim to keep the pro for 2-3 years minimum.
 
punio75 said:
Thanks, sometimes you can get a bit muddled the more you read!
Seemed to be a lot of advice about going for at least 16GB memory.
Will aim to keep the pro for 2-3 years minimum.
Click to expand...
Yes, when you don't know a lot about something, it can be really challenging to know whether what others are telling you is informed advice or not.

8GB is still plenty of RAM for most 90% of users. The thing is, it's the other 10% of users who tend to hang out on computer forums, and most of those have a difficult time differentiating between their own needs and what the other 90% needs.

More RAM never hurts, and since you can't upgrade later, and 16GB isn't that much more money, it's not a bad way to go. But based on your stated usage, you'll certainly be fine with 8GB... you would never know the difference because you wouldn't be pushing the memory limits to the point where it would affect performance.

Enjoy the MBP - it's awesome laptop!
 
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For your tasks, @punio75, you can rest assured, you'll only need 8GB of RAM.

For other professional work, like editing HD video or rendering, music production, etc, people usually advice upgrading to 16GB of RAM.

And then, there is the space in between, those like me who read huge PDF documents, several tabs in web browser, media consumption and eventually, maybe casual photo/video editting and playing with Garageband. In my case, it is not as clear to go with 8GB or 16GB of RAM... I got 8 and with an external display attached, and all my workflow, I have 1,5GB of swapped memory, and sometimes I hit the yellow zone in memory compression... Should I take a 16GB MacBook Pro, for future-proofing my purchase? Hmm I haven't decided it yet.
 
IF youre looking for a MacBook Pro,then an option is to skip the touch bar and put some money in an Apple Magic Mouse instead.
 
get the 16gb. with couple tabs open in chrome and word, vlc player, skype, mail. imessage. i'm using 12gb of ram right now. its only gonna get worse from there as apps takes up more space.
 
I think the question referred to multiple open pages in safari,not running office tasks and video at the same time. I got the 8 GB,for the tasks listed in this thread,that's more than enough. I sometimes use mine as a media streamer,streaming video and audio from internet to TV/stereo/movie projector.
 
i have no idea why you guys are rationing ram like its water in a desert. i use common day tasks and i can hit 8gb really easy. having more ram is always better, the less ram you have the smaller the chance of your computer lasting through the years. if you don't need it today there is a good chance you'll need it tomorrow.
 
ilikewhey said:
i have no idea why you guys are rationing ram like its water in a desert. i use common day tasks and i can hit 8gb really easy. having more ram is always better, the less ram you have the smaller the chance of your computer lasting through the years. if you don't need it today there is a good chance you'll need it tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Very good point,but what stops me from visiting Genius Bar and have more RAM installed when I need it?
 
ilikewhey said:
get the 16gb. with couple tabs open in chrome and word, vlc player, skype, mail. imessage. i'm using 12gb of ram right now. its only gonna get worse from there as apps takes up more space.
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This has been discussed dozens of times before around here, so I'm not going to go into detail, but based on your comments, I would suggest you brush up on how modern memory management works in macOS.

(and don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those who tries to talk everyone out of 16GB... quite the opposite; but if budget is a parameter, there's no sense spending money on RAM that isn't really needed)
 
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Stefan johansson said:
Depends on what year and model IT is.
Click to expand...

we're in the macbook section so im gonna stick with macbooks. and since there is a good chance that we're talking about the 2016 model and up then i'm gonna talk about the 2016 model. every modern gen macbook does not have upgradable ram. so i don't know why you even bringing in models in this discussion. if the op is looking at the 2015 and up models, i don't know why you bringing in 2013 models that have upgradable rams.

ixxx69 said:
This has been discussed dozens of times before around here, so I'm not going to go into detail, but based on your comments, I would suggest you brush up on how modern memory management works in macOS.

(and don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those who tries to talk everyone out of 16GB... quite the opposite; but if budget is a parameter, there's no sense spending money on RAM that isn't really needed)
Click to expand...



and i'm trying to make a point that someone estimating whats sufficient may not be sufficient. i listened to you guys previous that 8gb was enough and got a 8gb model. a week later i noticed my system was slowing down, checked my system monitor and noticed its showing yellow under memory usage with my chrome tabs and words and my sms apps.

good thing i was within 14 day return period. went back and got the 16gb model and did the same test and now memory usage is happily in the green.
 
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Ok,but as mine is a bit older,it can be upgraded.
And of course,memory use depends on how much and what you run at the same time.
What works for some,is not very good for others,but if I'm not playing memory soaking games or similar,it's not a problem for me. As long as normal internet browsing and photo editing works,together with other normal home use,my 8 GB is all I need.
 
Stefan johansson said:
Ok,but as mine is a bit older,it can be upgraded.
And of course,memory use depends on how much and what you run at the same time.
What works for some,is not very good for others,but if I'm not playing memory soaking games or similar,it's not a problem for me. As long as normal internet browsing and photo editing works,together with other normal home use,my 8 GB is all I need.
Click to expand...
we're not talking about your macbook here. we're talking about the new models where the ram is soldered.

your advice could be said about your situation, 8gb works for you but doesn't mean it works for others. i don't do photo and video editing anymore but CSS and final cut eats up ram on my mac pro like nothing.

you guys recommending OP to get less ram to save some money is doing just as much damage as me suggesting to get more ram. unless the OP wants to wait for pagefiling back and forth between SSD and the ram. having 16gb is def more handy than 8gb for the future.
 
I love this 8 vs. 16GB of RAM discussions. Without them, the forum wouldn't be the same.

Funny enough, if I had to buy a new MacBook pro, I still wouldn't know which one to buy...
 
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I'm also having this problem, see I'm no techie. I was already sold at 8gb, now I'm confused again lol. Same with TS, I'll use it mostly for web-browsing (about 4-5 tabs at once), Netflix and occassional photo/video editing. Of course all these apps won't be open simultaneously. Intending to keep it for about 4 years.

But the comment about doing only common day tasks and slowing the system for 8gb ram kind of worries me.
 
8gb of ram can easily run multiple professional apps and 10's of tabs in a browser with no slowdown, it seems to me that most peoples issue with RAM is being incapable of shutting anything down when they aren't using it, running 10 apps and 50 browser tabs is pushing it but even that would be fine on 8gb on a mac in safari.
 
Samuelsan2001 said:
8gb of ram can easily run multiple professional apps and 10's of tabs in a browser with no slowdown, it seems to me that most peoples issue with RAM is being incapable of shutting anything down when they aren't using it, running 10 apps and 50 browser tabs is pushing it but even that would be fine on 8gb on a mac in safari.
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Great to hear. I'm getting the base 8gb model, thanks a lot!
 
Akonpex said:
Great to hear. I'm getting the base 8gb model, thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
You will be more than enough on 8gb. I'm using 8gb on parallel, streaming video, safari 10 tabs and playing 3D games altogether for without restart 16 days without slow down or lag.
 
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