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rMBP 13" 8GB of RAM?
- Thread starter Curtis 92
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What are you using it for?
16 Gigs is mostly very unnecessary for most people..
This is coming from someone who has had 16 gigs on two macs, and realized what a waste of money it was. 8 gigs is more than adequate for most uses...
I've been using a Macbook Air with 4gb of ram for the past 4 years and haven't really noticed. Light to moderate Photoshop, some really light gaming even (Kerbal Space Program and the occasional WoW) all without any issues. I definitely thing 16gb of ram is overkill in most instances.
Personally I don't but
I don't think that RAM needs will change much in 4-5 years they haven't changed much in the last 4-5 years after all.
However who can say how software will go......
To be honest if this is your job then some serious research on RAM use in your applications (How often they are udated, what those updates have done to RAM use in the past, what new features are being planned etc etc etc) is much more likely to reveal what you'll need than a few answers guessed at on Macrumours.
If this is a hobby then I can't see 8gb being your bottleneck unless you run mulitple VM's or some particularly RAM inrtensive apps.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/19384469/
I don't think that RAM needs will change much in 4-5 years they haven't changed much in the last 4-5 years after all.
However who can say how software will go......
To be honest if this is your job then some serious research on RAM use in your applications (How often they are udated, what those updates have done to RAM use in the past, what new features are being planned etc etc etc) is much more likely to reveal what you'll need than a few answers guessed at on Macrumours.
If this is a hobby then I can't see 8gb being your bottleneck unless you run mulitple VM's or some particularly RAM inrtensive apps.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/19384469/
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I always tell people to buy for the long run. 16GB is more than plenty today... but if you're planning on keeping your computer for 3-4 years... I'd say it's a good investment.
It drives me insane that Apple still sells base units at 4GB that's not upgradeable.
It drives me insane that Apple still sells base units at 4GB that's not upgradeable.
Why???
For the majority of macbook users, especially at the low air cost point where they have still got 4GB of Ram, They will not need more than 4GB for the next decade...
All the other notebooks have 8gb minimum and are aimed at more intensive users who are willing to pay for more powerful machines.
Seems a no brainer to me....
For the majority of macbook users, especially at the low air cost point where they have still got 4GB of Ram, They will not need more than 4GB for the next decade...
All the other notebooks have 8gb minimum and are aimed at more intensive users who are willing to pay for more powerful machines.
Seems a no brainer to me....
8GB will be fine 5 years from now. I personally wouldn't go for 16GB unless you had a very demanding workflow.
You really think having 4GB RAM will be enough in 2025?
2GB RAM was fine five years ago... but you can't even run newer OS on it nowadays... You seem to be forgetting that people upgrade software along the way. More so now that the OS upgrades are free.
Maybe we'll revisit this thread in a decades time and see if you think 4GB is still enough.
This is me. I have to run Windows 2012 for SharePoint Development and that eats up 8gigs alone and it annoys me that they don't sell the 16gig model in stores. Not going with 8gigs on an impulse buy, must wait for delivery of a 16gig model.
My late 2009 white unibody Macbook with a 2.26GHz Core2Duo, 2GB ram 9400M and 250GB HDD still runs Yosemite with no problems and is still pretty fast. No wifi drops, scroll lag etc. Obviously its not as fast as an SSD but once its booted up, it runs like any ordinary Mac.
Yosemite runs fine on 2gb
Yosemite runs fine on 2gb for light work, however it really dislikes HDD's. Software Ram usage hasn't changed all that much in the last 5 years, for the basics, in fact some use less due to better coding and streamlining. Of course if you are using proffesional apps for 4k video editing running VM's etc then you need more but the majority of users just doing some office work, browsing the web (as long as they don't use chrome), and editing photos in iphoto 2gb is fine.
Yosemite runs fine on 2gb for light work, however it really dislikes HDD's. Software Ram usage hasn't changed all that much in the last 5 years, for the basics, in fact some use less due to better coding and streamlining. Of course if you are using proffesional apps for 4k video editing running VM's etc then you need more but the majority of users just doing some office work, browsing the web (as long as they don't use chrome), and editing photos in iphoto 2gb is fine.
I plan on re-buying a MB (most likely next week since it looks like the redesign might be next year) and was going to still opt for the 16GB. My paranoia is that if apps are being updated to include more features that they'll eat more memory. Is that rationale sound? I plan to do very light Photoshop work but was thinking more of long-term.
Let me put it like this. By the time 16Gb will become a necessity, you will be severely limited by your CPU/GPU and RAM bandwidth to the point that 16GB of current RAM will not make much difference.
In 4/5 years, there is a chance that stacked RAM (or comparable technology) will start becoming a standard. We are looking at memory bandwidth of around 6x-10x of what we have now. It is likely that this will enable a new kind of software which will take advantage of those insane speeds. But once that software becomes commonplace, your 16GB DDR3/DDR4 laptop will be hopelessly outdated.
So yeah, if you are not going to work with big data (in broadest sense), 16GB will probably not do anything for you. Of course, if you have some money to burn, why not.
P.S. I have 16GB. But I also routinely work with datasets that take around 4-6GB in memory.
In 4/5 years, there is a chance that stacked RAM (or comparable technology) will start becoming a standard. We are looking at memory bandwidth of around 6x-10x of what we have now. It is likely that this will enable a new kind of software which will take advantage of those insane speeds. But once that software becomes commonplace, your 16GB DDR3/DDR4 laptop will be hopelessly outdated.
So yeah, if you are not going to work with big data (in broadest sense), 16GB will probably not do anything for you. Of course, if you have some money to burn, why not.
P.S. I have 16GB. But I also routinely work with datasets that take around 4-6GB in memory.
I really don't understand how people always say that 16 GB RAM is only necessary when you use VM and super heavy apps.
At the moment my "light" working apps are open which are Finder, Adium, Firefox, Mail, Calendar, Tweetbot, Word, Excel, Reminder, PW Safe and Preview. Already 12 GB taken.
If my "heavy" working apps join these apps like Matlab, multiple PDFs, Sente (Bibliography app), VMware then the 16 GB are easily filled.
Also some services are running the whole time like Divvy, Drobox, Owncloud, f.lux, Caffeine and Logitech Software.
So if you are really working with your MacBook I would always recommend 16 GB RAM especially when you want to keep it for more than 1-2 years.
But these are just my 2 cents.
At the moment my "light" working apps are open which are Finder, Adium, Firefox, Mail, Calendar, Tweetbot, Word, Excel, Reminder, PW Safe and Preview. Already 12 GB taken.
If my "heavy" working apps join these apps like Matlab, multiple PDFs, Sente (Bibliography app), VMware then the 16 GB are easily filled.
Also some services are running the whole time like Divvy, Drobox, Owncloud, f.lux, Caffeine and Logitech Software.
So if you are really working with your MacBook I would always recommend 16 GB RAM especially when you want to keep it for more than 1-2 years.
But these are just my 2 cents.