Question on Macbook Pro for Designers

[gutiinthebooty]

I'm looking in to the new Macbook Pro 15". The new upgrades from this morning are a welcome addition. My question though is: is 16gb RAM enough long term. Obviously it will eventually not be enough. But is 16gb sufficient, or should I hold off until next year to see if they offer 32gb RAM?

For reference, typical programs I would run are the Adobe Creative Suite, Sketchup, etc.

Thanks in advance.

 

[c.s.]

16 GB should be plenty for years to come. I use all the Adobe CC apps on both a rMBP (16 GB RAM), and a retina iMac (32 GB). The only time I've gone over 16 is with more than 3 or 4 Adobe apps open, usually while working on huge (1 GB +) Photoshop files. But Photoshop will restrict itself to what's available, and just tap the SSD if it needs more memory. And OSX does an excellent job managing even 8 GB of RAM. I think 16 will be perfect for a while. 32 seems like overkill, but it was cheap to buy a couple extra sticks for the iMac so I did it.

 

[gutiinthebooty]

16 GB should be plenty for years to come. I use all the Adobe CC apps on both a rMBP (16 GB RAM), and a retina iMac (32 GB). The only time I've gone over 16 is with more than 3 or 4 Adobe apps open, usually while working on huge (1 GB +) Photoshop files. But Photoshop will restrict itself to what's available, and just tap the SSD if it needs more memory. And OSX does an excellent job managing even 8 GB of RAM. I think 16 will be perfect for a while. 32 seems like overkill, but it was cheap to buy a couple extra sticks for the iMac so I did it.

Thanks for the opinion. How do you like the rMBP compared with the retina iMac? I know the iMac will have better specs, but based on your workflow, which could be the better buy if I had to choose one or the other?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Thanks for the opinion. How do you like the rMBP compared with the retina iMac? I know the iMac will have better specs, but based on your workflow, which could be the better buy if I had to choose one or the other?

If you don't need any portability then a desktop is always a better option for more powerful processors and graphics and better cooling and far more screen real estate, permanent external storage is also a bonus...

 

[eyoungren]

As a point of reference for you…

I'm a graphic designer for a weekly newspaper.

We use Adobe CS4, Acrobat 9 Pro, Suitcase Fusion 2 and 5 and Office 2008 and 2011 daily.

Our Macs:
Mid-2010 Mac Pro 2.8Ghz Quadcore Intel Xeon, 3GB ram 1TB HD. Yosemite. 10.10.3
Feb. 2005 PowerMac G5 1.8Ghz, 4GB ram, 250GB HD. Leopard 10.5.8

The G5 has been used continually from Feb. 2005 to 2013 when it was replaced with the MP and my coworker went to a G4/450 AGP using the same apps running Leopard with 1.75GB ram.

I brought the G5 back to stop the coworker's complaints about slowness on the G4.

In any case we put out two papers a week, monthlies and quarterlies on these two machines. Pagination, Ad Design, Composition, Layout, Classifieds, Legals, etc.

You're asking if 16GB is enough but we do all of this every day with an MP with 3GB ram and a G5 with 4GB ram.

Again…just as a point of reference.

 

[gutiinthebooty]

As a point of reference for you…

I'm a graphic designer for a weekly newspaper.

We use Adobe CS4, Acrobat 9 Pro, Suitcase Fusion 2 and 5 and Office 2008 and 2011 daily.

Our Macs:
Mid-2010 Mac Pro 2.8Ghz Quadcore Intel Xeon, 3GB ram 1TB HD. Yosemite. 10.10.3
Feb. 2005 PowerMac G5 1.8Ghz, 4GB ram, 250GB HD. Leopard 10.5.8

The G5 has been used continually from Feb. 2005 to 2013 when it was replaced with the MP and my coworker went to a G4/450 AGP using the same apps running Leopard with 1.75GB ram.

I brought the G5 back to stop the coworker's complaints about slowness on the G4.

In any case we put out two papers a week, monthlies and quarterlies on these two machines. Pagination, Ad Design, Composition, Layout, Classifieds, Legals, etc.

You're asking if 16GB is enough but we do all of this every day with an MP with 3GB ram and a G5 with 4GB ram.

Again…just as a point of reference.

I appreciate it. I currently have an iMac from 2008 with 4gb RAM. It gets the job done, but will have hiccups here and there (more often recently).

I just put the question out there because I want my new computer to have the same longevity. Just trying to gauge which purchase to get.

 

[Skylitfly]

I'm looking in to the new Macbook Pro 15". The new upgrades from this morning are a welcome addition. My question though is: is 16gb RAM enough long term. Obviously it will eventually not be enough. But is 16gb sufficient, or should I hold off until next year to see if they offer 32gb RAM?

For reference, typical programs I would run are the Adobe Creative Suite, Sketchup, etc.

Thanks in advance.

Well... I'm a designer student and recently I've been doing a lot of heavy work in Photoshop and Illustrator. I also use Autodesk Sketchbook Pro ocassionally and do some minor 3D work in Rhinoceros through Bootcamp.

I have the Early 2013 model with GT650M and 8Gb of RAM. Specwise it's a total overkill for the work I do. My fans basically never kick in etc.

Thought the screen space of 15" is nice even thought at home it's connected to 24" external display.

 

[c.s.]

Thanks for the opinion. How do you like the rMBP compared with the retina iMac? I know the iMac will have better specs, but based on your workflow, which could be the better buy if I had to choose one or the other?

Specs aside, I think the ergonomics of working on a large screen are much better for design. If that's what you're doing all day, and you don't have to travel, the iMac makes sense. Or you could dock the rMBP to an external monitor -- then you're not taking advantage of the retina screen, though.

 

[gutiinthebooty]

Well... I'm a designer student and recently I've been doing a lot of heavy work in Photoshop and Illustrator. I also use Autodesk Sketchbook Pro ocassionally and do some minor 3D work in Rhinoceros through Bootcamp.

I have the Early 2013 model with GT650M and 8Gb of RAM. Specwise it's a total overkill for the work I do. My fans basically never kick in etc.

Thought the screen space of 15" is nice even thought at home it's connected to 24" external display.

Thanks. That is interesting to hear. Sounds like 16gb would work for the foreseeable future then.

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Specs aside, I think the ergonomics of working on a large screen are much better for design. If that's what you're doing all day, and you don't have to travel, the iMac makes sense. Or you could dock the rMBP to an external monitor -- then you're not taking advantage of the retina screen, though.

Yeah, I am somewhat torn. For roughly the same price, I can either get great specs and portability in a rMBP or no portability and even better specs in a retina iMac.

Not a huge dilemma, but something I am still deciding through nonetheless.

thanks for your input.

 

[darngooddesign]

Thanks for the opinion. How do you like the rMBP compared with the retina iMac? I know the iMac will have better specs, but based on your workflow, which could be the better buy if I had to choose one or the other?

Seems like an easy question to answer; do you want a laptop or not? The iMac's screen is lacking if you want to use your computer somewhere other than your desk.