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rMBP 13" 8GB of RAM?

8GB was worked for me

Recently purchased a 2014 rMBP and 8GB has been fine. I work in web/iOS development. I think the 512GB SSD drives are a bit faster than the 256GB drives (I could be wrong on this, please correct me if I am) so that helps too.
 
phrk said:
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.

But these are just my 2 cents.
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You do not know how to read how much is being used. There is no way those set of apps actually use 12gb. Most of it would be cached memory, not actually used. Those apps would run fine with 4gb ram.
 
You might be right about that.

But I often run into bottlenecks where my system slows down to total slowmo until I close some apps. But I might be a heavy user. Still I wouldn't go for less then 16 GB RAM if I want to work with the machine.
 
phrk said:
You might be right about that.

But I often run into bottlenecks where my system slows down to total slowmo until I close some apps. But I might be a heavy user. Still I wouldn't go for less then 16 GB RAM if I want to work with the machine.
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Ever considered that your system is slowing down for other reasons.
RAM does not make your system faster.
 
No, but not enough RAM makes it slower. As you probably know the data will be stored on your SSD/HDD when the RAM is full. And that slows you system down big time even with SSD storage.
 
That is true

phrk said:
No, but not enough RAM makes it slower. As you probably know the data will be stored on your SSD/HDD when the RAM is full. And that slows you system down big time even with SSD storage.
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but it takes far more than you think to max out the RAM on a computer especially under OSX. To be honest on a 13 inch you are far more likely to be limited by CPU/GPU than 8GB of ram.
 
phrk said:
No, but not enough RAM makes it slower. As you probably know the data will be stored on your SSD/HDD when the RAM is full. And that slows you system down big time even with SSD storage.
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Um...not even with spinning hard drives being used for swap files does that happen to the extreme you're making it seem. I've never experienced massive, system wide slow downs due to swap files like you're referring.

I really believe with SSD's, the need for excess RAM is way overrated, and not like it was pre-SSDs.

Anyway, of course ram is being used in activity monitor - that's the whole point. Even if you had 16GB of ram, most of it will be used by programs. What you should be looking at within activity monitor is the memory pressure graph..as long as it's green, you're good..
 
phrk said:
No, but not enough RAM makes it slower. As you probably know the data will be stored on your SSD/HDD when the RAM is full. And that slows you system down big time even with SSD storage.
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And what makes you believe that this is happening to you?
 
When I bought my laptop, I selected the 16GB RAM option, only because, like you, I intend to keep my laptop for as long as I possibly can. Who knows what will happen in a few years that may require more RAM usage, so I thought, better to be safe than sorry. If you can afford to, then by all means, get the 16GB option, but if you're tight on money, 8GB will work fine for you. I just got the 16GB to keep my mind at ease. I'm sure I could've lived with 8GB, but I chose not to.
 
Striker-UMB said:
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.
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Yet my late 2008 unibody with 6gb is a slug once Safari and Illustrator CS6 are open for awhile. Aperture kills it. I'm running ML right now. SL was my favorite OS on that machine.

My G4 tower is maxed out and does great on Tiger, but I rarely open anything more intensve than iTunes. It's not even bad with Photoshop.

This is why I'm hesistant to stay with 8gb on a 2015
 
diane143 said:
Yet my late 2008 unibody with 6gb is a slug once Safari and Illustrator CS6 are open for awhile. Aperture kills it. I'm running ML right now. SL was my favorite OS on that machine.
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And why do you think RAM is the culprit?
 
Meister said:
And why do you think RAM is the culprit?
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Because when I upgraded the RAM in 2011, it made a huge improvement in performance. After that though, I've upgraded other programs and the OS iteself and it's gone back downhill. I'd put more RAM in it if I could.

I was in IT for years and still dabble in it in my various jobs. Anytime we have older machines that are slowing down, we toss $50 worth of RAM in them and it always speeds them back up again unless it has other hardware issues.
 
diane143 said:
Because when I upgraded the RAM in 2011, it made a huge improvement in performance. After that though, I've upgraded other programs and the OS iteself and it's gone back downhill. I'd put more RAM in it if I could.

I was in IT for years and still dabble in it in my various jobs. Anytime we have older machines that are slowing down, we toss $50 worth of RAM in them and it always speeds them back up again unless it has other hardware issues.
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This was true for old computers. Only rarely works now. Try an ssd instead.
 
Go for 16 you won't regret it..
The more you can cache, the better experience you will have.
No more beachballs.

However for fairness.
I'm on two systems right now, this one is 16GB and the one to my left is an 8GB one. With just Safari open (a few tabs) I'm consuming 5GB - activity monitor shows app memory at just over 2.5GB, file cache is 900MB and the Kernel is consuming around 1GB.

On the 8GB on i have Excel, Outlook, iTunes, Word, Safari and webex and I'm consuming 6GB of app memory, and 2GB is the size of the file cache. So 8GB in reality is OK right now, memory pressure is all green.

Future - NO ONE really knows.
 
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diane143 said:
BTW I read you can't get a 16gb from an Apple Store, just online?
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That is not always the case. I have picked up a few of the maxed out 15" rMBPs from the local Apple Store for work, even though the website said they had none in stock. Your best bet would be to call the store or walk in and see what models they have on hand. I got the model I'm using now (specs below) from the local Apple Store.
 
chipchen said:
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.
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Yosemite only needs 2 GB, so you can certainly run a modern OS X on 2 GB.

For light web browsing (2-4 tabs at most), email, and word processing--which covers the overwhelming majority of basic users--my 1 GB PowerBooks do not run out of RAM in 2015.
 
thunng8 said:
You do not know how to read how much is being used. There is no way those set of apps actually use 12gb. Most of it would be cached memory, not actually used. Those apps would run fine with 4gb ram.
Click to expand...

Completely agree, far too many have misconceptions how OS X manages RAM, and as a result many happily give their hard earned $$$ to Apple, for memory they will likely never need which of course Apple gladly accepts..

FWIW my wife has a 13" Air with 4Gb, she constantly runs higher loads and never once complained of slowdowns...
Q-6
 
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diane143 said:
Yet my late 2008 unibody with 6gb is a slug once Safari and Illustrator CS6 are open for awhile. Aperture kills it. I'm running ML right now. SL was my favorite OS on that machine.

My G4 tower is maxed out and does great on Tiger, but I rarely open anything more intensve than iTunes. It's not even bad with Photoshop.

This is why I'm hesistant to stay with 8gb on a 2015
Click to expand...

Your comparing a Model T Ford to an Audi R8, performance of the stock 2015 Mac`s will blow your mind. I have an Early 2008 MBP still running and the latest Retina`s, there is absolutely no comparison...

Q-6
 
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Queen6 said:
Your comparing a Model T Ford to an Audi R8, performance of the stock 2015 Mac`s will blow your mind. I have an Early 2008 MBP still running and the latest Retina`s, there is absolutely no comparison...

Q-6
Click to expand...

I'm sure it will! I went from a 2005 iBook and there was no comparison there. I just never worried about RAM or HD space when I bought because I could always upgrade. Now that option is gone so I have to think ahead. I wish I could roll them over every year or so but it just never seems to work out that way.
 
FWIW, my close friend is an extreme minimalist and a savvy iOS/OS X developer and back in 2012 he went and brought a base 11" MacBook Air; 64GB SSD and 4GB Ram. He does all his development on that machine and uses and external HD for all the VMs for testing (web application development).

Never once have I heard him complain about ram issues and he uses his external HD regularly to keep the 64GB tidy. We've had many discussions on this topic and he's not interested in spending money to future proof as he will just pick up a new machine roughy every 18 months. Mind you we have to run a few apps that require Java (Sencha Command and Charles, aware they make a non Java version) and still never a single complaint.

Me on the other hand it's an OCD issue, if I don't have max ram it gets in my head, "OH NO I CANT BE PRODUCTIVE WITHOUT MAX BTO". But after witnessing for years someone able to rock a base 11" as a development machine I know the problem lies in my head and not the hardware. Will my next rMBP purchase have 16GB, unfortunately, yes. Do I need it? no.

I have a late-2013 BTO 27" iMac everything maxed but SSD (went with 512) and I bought 32GB ram from macsales. Lately I've been using it in Target Display Mode (sick feeling when I do this) for my 13" rMBP, now only if Apple would release a 27" Display with glare reduction...

tl;dr

Don't have OCD: Get 8GB!
Have OCD: Get 16GB!

Mind you with the new SSD drive speeds "reads/writes" won't slow you down and will most likely go undetected.
 
diane143 said:
BTW I read you can't get a 16gb from an Apple Store, just online?
Click to expand...
Brick and mortar stores have an ultimate build which is every BTO option maxed out. I believe they only do this with the MBA (i7/8GB/512SSD 11/13) and the 15" rMBP (fastest i7/16GB/1TSSD). The 13" rMBP doesn't get a true ultimate build at the brick and mortar, they only carry the 3 versions you see on the online store. This is the case for the iMacs as well, very limited options and I think SSD is online only (iMac).
 
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