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Retina Macbook Pro 13inch 2015 (2.7GHz) - 8GB or 16GB

A

andy8

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 6, 2009
156
1
Hi All,

I've planned to purchase a rMBP 13inch (2.7GHz) but I'm not sure which RAM configuration to go for. Should I simply get the base model with 8GB RAM or get an upgraded 16GB ?

I won't be doing much Video editing or photo editing but the machine must be snappy (very quick) during boot-up, sleep & wake, launching many apps and should be extremely responsive. That's my expectation.

It'll be good to understand more about RAM and the difference it makes, considering there's already an SSD in the Macbook.

Thanks !
 
If you will simply use the system for general use, such as web browsing/ YouTube/ streaming/ word processing and the like 8GB will suffice.
The rMBP are extremely fast anyway, especially the 2015 model

Edit:

Even light video editing and photo editing will be more than good enough with 8GB.
 
andy8 said:
Hi All,

I've planned to purchase a rMBP 13inch (2.7GHz) but I'm not sure which RAM configuration to go for. Should I simply get the base model with 8GB RAM or get an upgraded 16GB ?

I won't be doing much Video editing or photo editing but the machine must be snappy (very quick) during boot-up, sleep & wake, launching many apps and should be extremely responsive. That's my expectation.

It'll be good to understand more about RAM and the difference it makes, considering there's already an SSD in the Macbook.

Thanks !
Click to expand...

Unless you're running virtual machines, you've no need for 16GB.
 
andy8 said:
I won't be doing much Video editing or photo editing but the machine must be snappy (very quick) during boot-up, sleep & wake, launching many apps and should be extremely responsive. That's my expectation.
Click to expand...

None of those are affected by the quantity of RAM you have. All have 100% to do with the read speed of the computer's hard drive. Since retinas have a SSD that is extremely fast, all of those will be quite snappy.

Think of the processor as an office worker, RAM as his desk, and the hard drive as the desk's drawers. To do work the worker must pull stuff out of his drawers, put it on the desk, and get going.

The faster and more efficient the drawer opening is (the hard drive's speed), the faster the worker can put stuff on the desk (put apps into RAM), and the faster he can work on it (CPU cycles).

More ram = bigger desk. You can put more stuff in front of the worker before he bogs down and needs to put stuff back in the drawers to make room for other work (caching to the hard drive), this slows down his workflow when it happens and is not desirable. (This happens when the machine doesn't have enough RAM for the tasks at hand).

See where I'm going with this?
 
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16 is wasting your money ....even for virtual machines.

the SSD is 1.3gbs per second in that laptop , ram is much faster but were talking about less than a second difference in speed between ram and SSD.

i have used all the physical ram in my 8gb on virtual machines 2 4gb allocations and the laptop still runs pixelmator and all my other software as fast as it did before.
 
aodesigns said:
That's actually a good analogy!
Click to expand...

Thanks. I recall reading something similar and I personally think it's a great way to explain things to someone who isn't too computer literate.

You can add a few things to do for the complete picture: the worker can only work so fast (clock speed) and can only work on so many things at once (number of cores).
 
Unless money is super tight, I would go with 16GB. I waited to replace my 2009 13" MBP with a new computer until the 13" rMBP was available with 16GB; both had SSDs. I put a widget in my menu bar to show my RAM usage and I am always close to eating it up. You see, it matters more HOW you do things on the computer than WHAT you actually do (with the exception of single resource-intensive programs). The upside of ADD is a brain that is extremely quick and connects things on instinct. I open windows all the time to mark what I thought of or found, and then go back to later. The downside is trouble finishing things, so there are frequently lots of things open. I liken it to people who can put things in drawers and still remember to pull them out to complete before the due date, versus people who leave things out in order to be reminded that they need completion. If you are extremely organized and linear, or finish things promptly, 8GB is probably fine. If you are a rapid mind mapper, go with 16GB. Plus, it will have better resale if you decide to part with it.

As for me? I am now waiting for the 15" rMBP with 32GB RAM. :D
 
MacModMachine said:
16 is wasting your money ....even for virtual machines.

the SSD is 1.3gbs per second in that laptop , ram is much faster but were talking about less than a second difference in speed between ram and SSD.

i have used all the physical ram in my 8gb on virtual machines 2 4gb allocations and the laptop still runs pixelmator and all my other software as fast as it did before.
Click to expand...

That's an overly broad statement without knowing what somebody's doing with their VM('s).

For instance, I have to run Outlook with a bunch of plug-ins to access my work email in a VM. Ugliest memory pig you'll see. Perversely, it makes email more memory intensive than photo-processing software. For me, I need 16GB.

So, YMMV.

In other words, never listen to anybody who makes broad declarations. ;)

Greg
 
snaky69 said:
None of those are affected by the quantity of RAM you have. All have 100% to do with the read speed of the computer's hard drive. Since retinas have a SSD that is extremely fast, all of those will be quite snappy.

Think of the processor as an office worker, RAM as his desk, and the hard drive as the desk's drawers. To do work the worker must pull stuff out of his drawers, put it on the desk, and get going.

The faster and more efficient the drawer opening is (the hard drive's speed), the faster the worker can put stuff on the desk (put apps into RAM), and the faster he can work on it (CPU cycles).

More ram = bigger desk. You can put more stuff in front of the worker before he bogs down and needs to put stuff back in the drawers to make room for other work (caching to the hard drive), this slows down his workflow when it happens and is not desirable. (This happens when the machine doesn't have enough RAM for the tasks at hand).

See where I'm going with this?
Click to expand...

I have always wondered the best way to explain RAM to non-techies. Can't get better than an analogy like this ! Thank You
 
Definitely go with 8.

To the guy who uses a ram widget... please note that even with 0 apps open your computer will often say virtually all memory is used. It's not actually in use. You have to look at the memory pressure, for me that's always in the green (memory available) while I've got tens of tabs open in Chrome, multiple apps open on multiple screens on which I do software development, while listening to music and running a server.

8gb really is mooooore than enough if you're not doing photo/video editing or heavier gaming. You'd have to come up with a specific use case for 16gb, if you can't then odds are, you don't have one and 8gb is fine. Hell with the work the user describes, 4gb is fine.

The application and OS startup times aren't related to RAM size, but rather SSD speed and Memory speed, both of which are excellent in the base model rMBP 2015. When you need to store very large files in memory (like video editing), then having too little will slow you down, but as you're not doing that your speed is going to be excellent.

So get the base model.
 
Abbara said:
Definitely go with 8.

To the guy who uses a ram widget... please note that even with 0 apps open your computer will often say virtually all memory is used. It's not actually in use. You have to look at the memory pressure, for me that's always in the green (memory available) while I've got tens of tabs open in Chrome, multiple apps open on multiple screens on which I do software development, while listening to music and running a server.

8gb really is mooooore than enough if you're not doing photo/video editing or heavier gaming. You'd have to come up with a specific use case for 16gb, if you can't then odds are, you don't have one and 8gb is fine. Hell with the work the user describes, 4gb is fine.

The application and OS startup times aren't related to RAM size, but rather SSD speed and Memory speed, both of which are excellent in the base model rMBP 2015. When you need to store very large files in memory (like video editing), then having too little will slow you down, but as you're not doing that your speed is going to be excellent.

So get the base model.
Click to expand...

mac's use all of the RAM available to them. If you have 4gb, it will try to use all 4. If you have 16gb, it will try to use all 16.
 
greg99 said:
That's an overly broad statement without knowing what somebody's doing with their VM('s).

For instance, I have to run Outlook with a bunch of plug-ins to access my work email in a VM. Ugliest memory pig you'll see. Perversely, it makes email more memory intensive than photo-processing software. For me, I need 16GB.

So, YMMV.

In other words, never listen to anybody who makes broad declarations. ;)

Greg
Click to expand...

i tested it in many different scenarios , either way, maybe you do not know how to use your computer , there are several great articles on here if you want to read about your computer and how to use it properly.

never trust anyone with zero experience ;)
 
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