This conversation puts a smile on my face.
Back in early 2015, when I was about to purchase the 13" Macbook Pro I'm writing this post on, I ended up feeling pretty stressed about whether I should go with the base 8GB of RAM or bump it up.
I'm a commercial photographer. Back then I had just finished an apprenticeship and was hanging out my own shingle for the first time, so I did plenty of internet research on the computing equipment I'd need. As you can all imagine, I ran into all the posts insisting I'd better get "at least" 16GB of RAM and that I still probably wouldn't be happy with that. "Oh, you'll have to do all of your real editing on a [Trash Can] Mac Pro desktop!" Heard all the cautionary tales, all the weird insistence, all the folks people in this thread now call "the RAM police."
But ya know, I just couldn't get my head around the idea that Apple would fill their stores with a stock of configurations that would disappoint a swath of users in short order. Ya I understand the marketing ladder / profit-margin aspects of the way Apple handles RAM and storage upgrades, but fundamentally: the configurations they're ready to sell on the spot have to work well, have to last a reasonably long time, have to offer a throughly non-janky user experience that won't completely alienate a customer base. Right? Is that really such a crazy thought to have? (I guess the "butterfly keyboard" era would suggest Apple sometimes doesn't sweat customer experience as much as they should?)
Anyway, I figured I'd save my $$$ and go with the base 8GB.
TL;DR it was great. No complaints.
NINE years later, it's still completely fine. I still have no complaints. I tether to this (ancient?) Macbook daily, slice-and-dice 50-ish megapixel photos from my Canon R5 in Lightroom Classic and make large-layer-count Photoshop retouch runs all day every day. It works smooth-as-silk. I do all my prep on it--big PS moodboards and artboards for customer pitches; I do all my shop billing and finances on it--big excel sheets; web updates, comms, everything. It's a champ!
As I have come to realize, lots of software is really well-optimized. Take Lightroom Classic, for example: it uses 4-megapixel "Smart Preview" proxy-RAW files in the "develop" module to speed editing / grading procedures. Even an older, far less capable computer than mine can manipulate 4-megapixel files handily.
I noted then--and still note now--that many self-appointed "performance experts" on the net structure their arguments with observations and measurements that aren't necessarily useful. Case in point: they seem obsessed with timing batch RAW photo exports, and they insist this is the reason you need whatever configuration they say you need. I mean . . . I just shrug. That (like so many other) measures of "performance" means nothing to the productivity of my professional day: whether the batch takes 5 minutes or 30 minutes, I'm not going to be sitting there twiddling my thumbs waiting on a progress bar; big project batch exports of hundreds of frames in several output configurations = your cue to get a coffee or a little lunch or schedule that client meeting, whatever the computer that's crunching the frames for you. What really matters is whether the computer is snappy while I'm shifting RBG curve points or brushing in a layer with my Wacom stylus. Whether it's with me when the creativity is flowing. And my now-9-year-old MBP with 8GB ram is snappy as can be in that regard.
I'll replace it later this year just to keep getting Apple security updates, which will finally run out for in the fall. What a great run! But honestly, I'm not going to sweat the replacement. At some point this summer, I'm gonna walk down to the Apple store, buy one of the 14" Macbook Pro configurations they have in stock (it'll probably be the base M3 version with 8GB RAM?), save my $$$, and be completely productive for another 9 years.
(And the RAM police can keep arguing it out!)
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
. Can’t search “16 Madera Street” or “Jake’s 997 Turbo.” I haven’t tried, but I also doubt Photos can understand all parts of a car or house. Maybe rooms, but not “network rack” or “front fender.” I sometimes wonder if Apple’s media team uses it.
