Retina Macbook Pro - Is 8GB RAM enough?

[rockyroad55]

Personally, I tend to support those in favor of trying to future-proof their purchase by spending the extra $200 to increase RAM. Sure 8GB is more than enough for most people now but if your keep your MacBook for 4-5 years you may indeed need those extra 8GBs down the road.

True but based on the OP needs, it's highly unlikely that browsing the web or YouTube will need 16GB.

 

[OneEyedJack]

Apparently, it's much less important these days, as the SSDs now can stream anything. It used to be that with memory intensive apps you would get drop-outs and all sorts of warnings/errors. You just don't see that now. Most apps have been updated to stream off the fast flash drives.

Exactly the conclusion I came too when deciding. I stayed with 8GB and put the $200 towards the larger SSD betting that the SSD's speed would help smooth out any memory swaps that might need to happen. Very happy so far.

FWIW, I run Autocad, Lightroom, and typical office apps. I am not heavy into games or video production.