There is a lot of talk that you should go with the 32GB Ram, cause nowadays 16 is the new 8, so I'm just curious to know the people who decided to go with 16GB of ram, what are your main use for the MBP.
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People who went with the 16 GB of Ram for the new MPBs, what are you using your computer mainly for?
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That talk is silly. There are only specialized uses for 32Gb RAM. There are no general uses for it. Heck, I have a 50mp camera, use Photoshop, video edit on a regular basis with Final Cut Pro, and I only need 16Gb.
I agree, I ordered the base 16in with 16 gb of RAM, because mostly I’m using it for us typing papers, web browsing, music, and I do want to start doing videos on YouTube, but nothing too intense. So I think the base 16 in model will be fine for the next 4-5 years. I was just curious to know what everyone uses will be.
I’m going with 16GB of RAM on one of the two standard 14 inch models. My usage is:
Work - MS Teams for video calls most of the day, MS Outlook for Mac, MS Office with multiple PowerPoint, Excel and Word docs open at any time, MS OneDrive, Chrome with on average 10-15 tabs open.
Non work - Photos app, Safari typically with 6-8 tabs open, Mail, Apple Music, FaceTime. Also use the MS Office for Mac suite for personal docs.
Connected to a 34 inch ultra widescreen monitor.
I currently have a 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro that I loaded with 32GB RAM, but activity monitor shows that it’s hardly used (memory pressure graph) even when the fans are noisy and heat is pumping out. I went for the “future proof” argument and in reality it was a wasted expense. So I’m going for the standard configs this time and will do the same again in 3-4 years if it runs out of steam. I really doing think it will though.
Work - MS Teams for video calls most of the day, MS Outlook for Mac, MS Office with multiple PowerPoint, Excel and Word docs open at any time, MS OneDrive, Chrome with on average 10-15 tabs open.
Non work - Photos app, Safari typically with 6-8 tabs open, Mail, Apple Music, FaceTime. Also use the MS Office for Mac suite for personal docs.
Connected to a 34 inch ultra widescreen monitor.
I currently have a 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro that I loaded with 32GB RAM, but activity monitor shows that it’s hardly used (memory pressure graph) even when the fans are noisy and heat is pumping out. I went for the “future proof” argument and in reality it was a wasted expense. So I’m going for the standard configs this time and will do the same again in 3-4 years if it runs out of steam. I really doing think it will though.
In fairness one of the reasons you don’t notice is that you do have the extra head room 32GB gives you. There’s also performance and swap memory timings that come into play with more memory.
My 2014 MacBook Pro 15 came with 16 GB of RAM.
It's 2021.
It's 2021.
To be fair, 16gb seems to be more than enough for what he works on. This video from iJustine, she is using the base 14in with 16 GB Ram, doing high end work, with other stuff open, and the computer is flying through it
Was just saying this in another thread.
She ran an 8K 12-bit RAW (!!!) video files from a Canon R5 on a base 14” MBP in both FCP and Resolve. Applied a butt-load of filters to the video. Played without a stutter. 🤯🤯🤯 The MBP was also connected to a 5K external monitor, because why the heck not.
Another person on DPReview edits photos his 102 MP photos from his Fujifilm GFX on a MacBook Air. I think it only has 8 GB of RAM. He applied upwards of 20 layers to some of these photos. 102MP. My goodness.
I’m not that guy. I’ll be fine. 😂
I won’t be fine for 3-5 years with 16 GB. I’ll be fine for 8+ years, but will probably upgrade at around 6-7 years no matter what because I like shiny things.
Also, I don’t edit videos or render in 3D. I can’t think of what the equivalent of live 8K RAW edits and filters would be in the photography world. Maybe a 1000MP panorama and exporting as a TIFF?
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Very light usage like yourself, picked up my base model today 16" will be using it for safari, YouTube and a few other light tasks.
Overkill for me, but really wanted that larger display.
I picked up the 1TB pro model 16" as my usage is also fairly light but I like the screen real estate
I went with 16Gb anything more is overkill. I don’t have any demanding tasks other then office 365 for when I am doing homework and multiple browser tabs open. This is a computer for the next 5 years easily. Unless I get tempted to trade in earlier for new tech which is why 32gb is not needed unless you have a use for it.
That was my rationale too.. If my use case changed it won't be for a year or two and then if necessary I will just upgrade but I think 16gb ram is still a perfectly fine amount. Apple are still selling machines with 8gb too which they're going to support for a decent few years yet anyway.
I totally get why people buy more and if I could have justified it I would have gone 32gb with the Max chip, but the £700 is just too much for nothing other than FOMO. Plus I can spend that money on a nice monitor now which I have been meaning to do for ages!!
Like you said, 16GB is very safe for the next 5 years, but obviously depends on what you’re doing. Some people really need 32GB.
It’s not that 16GB is the new 8GB. Most laptops are still being sold with 8GB today. Same with 10 years ago. The difference is that RAM has gotten MUCH faster and better, as have SSDs.
There are gaming laptops sold today with 16 GB. Sure, they have dedicated graphics cards with their own vRAM, but they also use Intel chips and run Windows. 🤷🏻♂️
It’s not that 16GB is the new 8GB. Most laptops are still being sold with 8GB today. Same with 10 years ago. The difference is that RAM has gotten MUCH faster and better, as have SSDs.
There are gaming laptops sold today with 16 GB. Sure, they have dedicated graphics cards with their own vRAM, but they also use Intel chips and run Windows. 🤷🏻♂️
True, that’s a fair point. Although the memory pressure is very low in the green zone, never gets above that. And based on the reading I’ve done on M1 performance with 16GB RAM, I’m very confident that the M1 Pro with 16GB will be more than good enough for my usage. I don’t do video editing, develop code or game on my MacBook Pro so it’ll be fine for a few years I’m sure. I don’t think I’d get a return for the £400 upgrade fee for 32GB RAM.
First, let me say I think you are correct - you should be just fine for 4-5 years or so on 16 GB of RAM.
As to the question though, I have had 3 Apple laptops now, and each one I used for 8+ years as my main device. I always purchased each laptop with the base RAM configuration, but after 3-4 years found that I always ended up having to upgrade the RAM to keep the computer useable. What was I doing? Not much really, mainly working with multiple PDF files (large files, a few GB each), photo editing/processing, graphic design, etc.
What I mainly found was that over time various Apps and Mac OS just kept getting more and more resources intensive, such that I really needed to upgrade from the stock RAM to keep my computer from locking up/freezing while editing/processing images.
Currently I am running a 2012 15" unibody with 16 GB of RAM (started at 4GB upgraded to 8GB after 4 years and than 16 GB after another 4 years).
Anyway, currently trying to decide between grabbing the new MacBook Pro in 32 GB (which might give me the option to keep the device for longer) or get it with 16 GB and just plan to upgrade in about 4 years. I am assuming Apple Silicon will be seeing better yearly improvements than the last decade of Intel chips, so 16 GB might be the smart option, considering Apple's stupid RAM prices. At the same time, if I am using 16 GB of RAM on my 2012 MacBook, it seems a bit silly to be buying a brand new computer in 2021 with the same spec.....
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I have similar usage... my 2017 MBP with 16GB handles it quite well. If I am doing all of the above AND editing in Photoshop with Xcode open in the background, the system gets a bit stretched. I'm getting 16GB for the new 2021 MBP.
Oh wow—thanks for the link. That’s kind of crazy.
I got the off the shelf 14 inch (1TB, 10/16, 16GB) partly due to the time it would take for a BTO to arrive, and also partly because my plan is to trade it in next year for what hopefully will be a higher spec’ed, long term device when the M2 Pro/Max comes out.
I am using it to edit 4k video and photo (also R5) on location, and track and mix audio at home, and was concerned about the 16GB of RAM, but it sounds like it should handle that just fine, especially if it’s swapping to that fast ssd.
If I do feel the need to upgrade next year, I just hope 32GB of RAM isn’t a $400 upgrade…
I got the off the shelf 14 inch (1TB, 10/16, 16GB) partly due to the time it would take for a BTO to arrive, and also partly because my plan is to trade it in next year for what hopefully will be a higher spec’ed, long term device when the M2 Pro/Max comes out.
I am using it to edit 4k video and photo (also R5) on location, and track and mix audio at home, and was concerned about the 16GB of RAM, but it sounds like it should handle that just fine, especially if it’s swapping to that fast ssd.
If I do feel the need to upgrade next year, I just hope 32GB of RAM isn’t a $400 upgrade…
I’ve just ordered the 14-inch M1 Pro 10/16 with 16GB RAM to replace my 2019 16-inch i9 that has 32GB RAM that is overkill for my usage. I’ve finally learned not to pay for over specified add ins when in all likelihood I will want to upgrade again to take advantage of whatever goodness Apple have added to the base MacBook Pro in 3-4 years. I’m not one for keeping a laptop for 8-10 years, I can’t resist new shiny things that long
And right now I think you are correct, we’re at the early stages of M1 capabilities for Apple, it will probably develop at a good pace in the coming years and after 3-4 years I know I’ll want some of that.
I went with 32 GB but only because I know I will be able to get 64 GB for an M1 Pro mini.
Illustration - Zbrush, some Blender and large, heavy Photoshop and CSP files. 16Gb was more than I needed in the past 10 years and it will be more than enough for the next 5 years (for my needs).
While USD 400 is insane, they are charging USD 600 in some countries. Daylight criminals.
I paid $360 for 64 GB of DDR4 for my desktop this year. Apple's using LPDDR5 and I do know that DDR5 will cost more than DDR4. Amazon doesn't even list DDR5 RAM for sale. Newegg has it in small sizes but I couldn't find LPDDR5 for sale anywhere. There are significant price differences for types of RAM and RAM speeds so it may just be a premium you pay for this stuff. Or it may just go to Apple's bottom line.
I currently just run stuff that needs a lot of RAM on my Windows desktop and run other stuff on my M1 mini. The new MacBook Pro with 32 GB changes the balance of where I can run things but I haven't figured out what I want to do. I have over 256 GB of RAM in my systems and it's nice to be able to move work around to other machines if my current stuff isn't enough. This MacBook Pro with 32 GB of RAM, though, is a game-changer. I look forward to getting a mini with 64 GB of RAM whenever they come out and I will be able to retire my Windows desktop then.