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Memory or Storage?

Guardsix

Guardsix

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 16, 2011
71
0
San Antonio, TX
Will be buying a new 2015 MacBook Pro 13 w/ Retina. My question: should I go for 16Gb of memory or the 512GB SSD?

For some reason, there is no 2.7GHz Intel Core i5 with 16GB AND 512GB SSD. So I have to make a choice.

Thanks for your comments.
 
Do you need the storage? Do you need the RAM?

Without knowing something about your usage, nobody can help you.
 
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Whatcha gonna use it for? Personally I would choose more storage space but I need to carry around a lot of data with me.
 
I would lean storage if you really don't know why you want that much memory. I need both, but I have a very specific use for 16 gigs of memory. I need to be able to run up to 3 VMs for my work. I am sure that some of the Adobe processing products use huge chunks of memory too.
If I didn't need it for work related apps, I would be totally happy with 8.
 
Guardsix said:
Will be buying a new 2015 MacBook Pro 13 w/ Retina. My question: should I go for 16Gb of memory or the 512GB SSD?

For some reason, there is no 2.7GHz Intel Core i5 with 16GB AND 512GB SSD. So I have to make a choice.

Thanks for your comments.
Click to expand...

If you have to pick between the two, go for memory. You can always add storage internally from a place like OWC or externally if you find you need it. No options to increase RAM later on.
 
inhalexhale1 said:
If you have to pick between the two, go for memory. You can always add storage internally from a place like OWC or externally if you find you need it. No options to increase RAM later on.
Click to expand...
Storage is not upgradable on these machines. I'd take 8GB RAM and spring for the larger SSD.
 
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Thanks for the replies. Yes, knowing what I plan to use my new MacBook for would be helpful.

I don't really do anything heavy, although I would like to run Win8.1 or Win10 in Parallels VM. And I will want to run Fallout 4 when it is available plus I have Skyrim for Mac right now. I do a couple of blogs, updating off-line then pushing the changes to a live site. I do some light photo work, but not with Photoshop or any program that complex.

So, I'm leaning towards the 512GB SSD, but I understood we might be able to swap SSDs on these new MacBook Pros using the newly developed Samsung SSDs. Comments?
 
To be honest the gaming and maybe the VM's could put a little strain on a 13.

Here is a video of Skyrim running on 13 inch rmbp


As long as you don't do too much in the VM you should be fine you'll have to assign it a core and some RAM.
 
Samuelsan2001 said:
To be honest the gaming and maybe the VM's could put a little strain on a 13.

Here is a video of Skyrim running on 13 inch rmbp


As long as you don't do too much in the VM you should be fine you'll have to assign it a core and some RAM.
Click to expand...

Very nice video. Thanks for doing that. How much RAM do you have on your machince?

So, I could do with the 8GB duo-core i5 as far as you're concerned? I know the specs for SkyRim call for just 2GB of RAM but recommended is 4GB.

You know, I think I'll just stick with playing my games on my iMac where I have 32GB of RAM. The 13" MacBook Pro is for portabillity so gaming on it shouldn't be a requirement.
 
These new MBP "might" be able to have their SSD swapped. Its up to someone to make a 3rd party SSD. OWC who makes the most 3rd party mac parts still has not even made a replacement SSD for the last model of SSD. Currently the only way to swap it out is to see if anyone is selling parts from their MBP for some reason. But it is possible someone may make one.

You could play skyrim, but not at retina, should play at 1080p well. Fallout 4 is going to be another thing. You might be able to play it at a very low resolution but its going to be using a newer engine from hat Skyrim uses. Bethesda has been fairly good making games that run ok, but there have been so many games lately that have un-necessary requirements. Most are from Ubisoft from EA has does this as well. Examples: Watch Dogz has FPS spikes between 80-40 randomly for no reason, The Evil Within did not look as good as it should for a title only pulling 68FPS on a dual 780ti rig. Mainly saying if your going with the 13in, more ram is not going in improve that issue.

16GB is nice as it gives your computer more room to breath, but if you need it hard drive space is very important. One thing to consider is externals. Samsung makes an external USB 3 SSD drive that works very well. you can get a 500GB for $219, and its USB powered. Now this would mean you would have to carry something extra with you, but it may help your situation as you could get the ram now, then get that later.
 
chabig said:
Storage is not upgradable on these machines. I'd take 8GB RAM and spring for the larger SSD.
Click to expand...

Yea, just saw the OWC SSD's are for rMBP's 2012-2013. Nothing available for 2014 and later, yet. I'd still upgrade the RAM, since you could go external storage or wait for the (hopefully) eventual internal options from OWC.
 
Ok, I thank everyone for their very civil and thoughtful responses. I just purchased (@ Adorama) the MacBook Pro 13 2.9GHz, with 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD + AppleCare.

I don't want to be carrying other stuff around if it's not necessary. I have a 500GB portable HDD available so I will use that when at home, but I think I'll need the space more. I had a 15" MacBook Pro with a 256GB SSD, but it was also paired with an internal 500GB HDD (I modified my MacBook Pro 15). I had about 100GB free space on the 256GB SSD, so I thought I could put this additional space to good use.

I'm not sure 16GB on a duo-core i5 would do me much good considering I'm probably not going to push this machine that much.

Again, thanks for the input.

Moderator, you can close this thread if you wish.
 
Guardsix said:
Ok, I thank everyone for their very civil and thoughtful responses. I just purchased (@ Adorama) the MacBook Pro 13 2.9GHz, with 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD + AppleCare.
Click to expand...

That is a very capable laptop, I'm sure it will suit you well. Enjoy!
 
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