rMBP irreplaceable RAM is a deal breaker!

[octavianguti]

Hi guys, some might suggest I am trying to make sth out of the retina debate. To start with I kinda want to buy the 15 inch model second fastest cpu, 16 gbs ram and 512 flash drive which isn't cheap for me.

Well, after going online and doing some research. Here is my situation, I have the first gen 2.66 15 inches i7 mbp, 8gb of ram. The performance has been alright, doing preimere, PS, Au. playing some footie manager....though I was told mine should be able to cope with 16 gbs of ram, and with 16 gbs of ram slotted in my old one. I really don't feel like spending over 3gs on a fancier display without the capability to go beyond 16 gb of ram.

Does that make sense to anyone? I mean I buy the idea of a lighter case and better screen, but I'd feel a lot better, if I would be able to upgrade its ram in case I might go broke 1 day, I mean its not like I am not broke enough anyway.

Can anyone confirm whether it is true that my i7 model above can be supported with 16gbs of ram.... And should I wait for the next wwcc or wwc or whatever that annual press con is called, then wait for the 32gb ram model? I heard from the guy b... who has been extremely helpful saying none of the retinas are upgradable ram-wise and I think it really sucks.

Many Thx once again!!!!

 

[JeffiJers]

not really sure the point of your post... I do extensive work on my base model 15R and I have zero problems.

I think only a few people on here even need the 16ram..

32? And i think you are using the wrong tool for your work.


Soldered ram is not going anywhere.

 

[jmdMac]

For the uses you listed, 32gb of RAM would insane overkill. Have you ever checked your RAM usage before?

Download iStatPro and just take a look at your usage. You will see how ridiculous your demand for 32gb of RAM is. Also, this is an awesome app even if you don't care to see your usage so download it anyway.

http://istat-pro.en.softonic.com/mac

 

[Ultra AleM]

I use Adobe CS6 and 8GB of RAM are really good for me.

 

[chrise2]

Yeah, if you need more than 16GB of RAM, you probably need a server. The only downside is say, you want to try and have this laptop be useful in 5 years and iPhones have 16 GB of RAM and you need that much just to launch the calculator. Fixed RAM is a bummer, but you just have to get over it. Its not like you're going to upgrade the RAM in your phone or iPad. Just gotta learn to deal. And hope your RAM doesn't go bad.

 

[octavianguti]

The point that I am trying to make is in the future lets say in 2-3 years time, 16gs will not be sufficient enough. Can it be possible? I really don't wanna buy a mac every year or 2.

I just think the soldier ram thing isn't that great. And from what i was told all foreseeable rmbps are gonna be like that.

 

[B...]

The point that I am trying to make is in the future lets say in 2-3 years time, 16gs will not be sufficient enough. Can it be possible? I really don't wanna buy a mac every year or 2.

I just think the soldier ram thing isn't that great. And from what i was told all foreseeable rmbps are gonna be like that.

If 8 GB works for your uses now,it will work for your uses tomorrow as long as your needs do not change and you do not download the newest software. RAM is standard now at 4-8GB, doubling about every 3-4 years.So depending on how you look at it, 16 might be standard in 2016-17, but by then the improvements will be so vast that RAM will be the least of your worries.

 

[MacKid]

The point that I am trying to make is in the future lets say in 2-3 years time, 16gs will not be sufficient enough. Can it be possible? I really don't wanna buy a mac every year or 2.

I just think the soldier ram thing isn't that great. And from what i was told all foreseeable rmbps are gonna be like that.

Short of Hollywood-level digital video projects, 16GB is overkill right now, and will still be next year. And the year after that. There's no new image or video format on the horizon that anyone working on a laptop will be wrangling.

It's fine to have a philosophical objection. But from a practical standpoint, unless you're going to be editing two 4K-quality videos simultaneously, you aren't going to run into the 16GB ceiling.

Oh, and there will not be 32GB MacBook Pros this year. Definitely not going to happen.

 

[Asuriyan]

Any MacBook Pro only has 2 DIMM sockets and there are no 16gb DIMMs. 16gb is a permanent maximum for any current model.

 

[octavianguti]

thanks for all the input, i guess if 32 aint gonna be out this year, the 15 rmbp does worth a shot, cheers and thx guys!

 

[soulreaver99]

I have a friend using a MacBook Air 13" with Photoshop and Lightroom on the go with only 4GB of RAM installed and it works without any issues.

So what do you really need all that hardware for? As other people mentioned, most people don't really utilize the hardware to the fullest potential on their notebooks otherwise they need to be looking at a custom build PC instead for hardcore gaming.

 

[B...]

I have a friend using a MacBook Air 13" with Photoshop and Lightroom on the go with only 4GB of RAM installed and it works without any issues.

So what do you really need all that hardware for? As other people mentioned, most people don't really utilize the hardware to the fullest potential on their notebooks otherwise they need to be looking at a custom build PC instead for hardcore gaming.

Gaming is not the only activity which uses a lot of the sstem resources. Think video and audio rendering as well as calculations.

 

[bobcan]

I'm also not completely sure of your quest here, but I DO think your current computer with an upgrade to 16GB (which will only cost you ~$100 these days) will last you for another couple of years likely..

I have a late-2011 i7 2.2 with 16GB of RAM and an SSD, I cannot see 'needing' an upgrade for quite some time myself, at least until my AppleCare runs its course, perhaps.. it works very very well, for me..

----------

I just looked, if yours is a 1st Gen MBP 5,1 then it may only support 8GB.. so if you DO need more you may need to go another route.. Check here to see what your particular machine is/ will accept..

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app....66-aluminum-15-early-2009-unibody-specs.html

 

[Trubbles]

Are you running some big server??

There are very few laptops on the market that will take more than 16 GB of RAM even if it is swappable.

After much debate, I ordered my rMBP with 8GB... I'm not a "power user" but I do have a lot of applications on the go at once:

- Parallels / Windows 7 (w/ 2GB RAM allocated)
- MS Office - Word, Excel and PPT always open
- Chrome and Safari
- Programming Tools - Eclipse, and teaching tools Greenfoot and BlueJ
- Messages/iMessage or whatever it's called
- Usually other misc like Preview

I have NEVER had all the RAM in use. My swaps are zero. I also play games in Bootcamp/Windows 7 and RAM has never been an issue.

I'm wondering what you think you need 32 GB of RAM for...

 

[AFDoc]

I love it when people bitch about something that doesn't even affect them. IF there is no need for you to have 16g of ram now, why would your usage all of a sudden change to force you to need 32g?

OP complaining for the sake of doing so it seems.

 

[Doward]

There are a few laptops in the Windows world that have 4 slots for 32GB of ram with the current 8GB sticks out there.

Just because *you* don't need 32GB of ram, shouldn't preclude anyone from having it.

 

[Queen6]

There are a few laptops in the Windows world that have 4 slots for 32GB of ram with the current 8GB sticks out there.

Just because *you* don't need 32GB of ram, shouldn't preclude anyone from having it.

Equally by the time 16Gb of RAM, let alone 32Gb for the average user is a default any present day portable will be well and truly on the replacement list. Most adding 16Gb to their notebooks are unlikely to see any real world performance increase and unlikely to recover any more than 10% on the additional cost.

The majority users simply don't need 16Gb nor will they for some time, even 8Gb is a huge number. Many are still on 4Gb and fairing very well, the need for 16Gb is mainly fuelled by bigger numbers and "bar talk" it`s never about what you have got, it`s what you do with it that counts...

 

[jmdMac]

.....
The majority users simply don't need 16Gb nor will they for some time, even 8Gb is a huge number. Many are still on 4Gb and fairing very well, the need for 16Gb is mainly fuelled by bigger numbers and "bar talk" it`s never about what you have got, it`s what you do with it that counts...

Well put. I have a 2010 MBP(in my sig) with 4Gb RAM, and I am able to run all of my engineering programs while surfing the web and using office. I could definitely use 8Gb which I will likely add myself in the next few months, but 16Gb would be a complete waste.

 

[jafingi]

Also, IF you in a (very very) rare case should use up all the 16GB of RAM (which is sufficient for 99.999% of all people!), the SSD will be fast enough for the pagefile to run great. Pagefiles ran slow with traditional HDD's, but it's not really that noticeable with SSD's.

To be honest, I don't think you will ever exceed the 16GB limit, unless you run some really really bad coded software with huge memory leaks.

 

[richardw]

Short of Hollywood-level digital video projects, 16GB is overkill right now, and will still be next year.

Really? 8GB isn't enough for me and hasn't been for a year. Sadly it's the max my 2009 MBP will take.

 

[Suanmiao]

I'm on 8G rMBP, yes I get some pageout but I don't ever notice any slowing down.
It's nice to have 16G but 8G is plenty enough

 

[joshhedge]

Woooo 16GB, I usually have less than 4GB free at any point anyway.

I hope that input was helpful.

 

[maratus]

Hi guys, some might suggest I am trying to make sth out of the retina debate. To start with I kinda want to buy the 15 inch model second fastest cpu, 16 gbs ram and 512 flash drive which isn't cheap for me.

Well, after going online and doing some research. Here is my situation, I have the first gen 2.66 15 inches i7 mbp, 8gb of ram. The performance has been alright, doing preimere, PS, Au. playing some footie manager....though I was told mine should be able to cope with 16 gbs of ram, and with 16 gbs of ram slotted in my old one. I really don't feel like spending over 3gs on a fancier display without the capability to go beyond 16 gb of ram.

Does that make sense to anyone? I mean I buy the idea of a lighter case and better screen, but I'd feel a lot better, if I would be able to upgrade its ram in case I might go broke 1 day, I mean its not like I am not broke enough anyway.

Can anyone confirm whether it is true that my i7 model above can be supported with 16gbs of ram.... And should I wait for the next wwcc or wwc or whatever that annual press con is called, then wait for the 32gb ram model? I heard from the guy b... who has been extremely helpful saying none of the retinas are upgradable ram-wise and I think it really sucks.

Many Thx once again!!!!

Mobile quad cores currently only use dual-channel IMC, do you realize that having 32Gb (16Gb per channel) is pushing it to a somewhat dangerous region? It will be very high capacitive load for IMC to deal with, especially at extreme temperatures all thin laptops are working at (90C under load). If it's like that, memory instability could be a problem.

P.S. High-density 16GB modules (non-buffered) don't exist even for desktops. They will appear probably in few years though. If it happens when DDR4 is on the market, then you'll have 16Gb DDR4 so-dimms which won't help you at all.

If you, however, want 4 slots in MBP - you can forget it, it's a waste. Same here for retina (unless they remove the heatsink to gain more room )
And even if you have 2 slots and 16GB DDR3 modules finally available it probably won't work at all as current processors aren't designed to deal with 16GB bank per one slot (connector).

 

[renosausage]

Apple soldered the RAM on the 15 and 13 rMBP

This soldering actually increases the speed and efficiency of the RAM.

So 8 Gigs may not sound like a lot, but Apple is able to use this RAM at its full capacity due to the soldering.

I run Premiere and Final Cut Pro X almost everyday. I have never used more than 6 Gigs of RAM while running these task.

I highly doubt you would ever need more than 32 Gigs of RAM for at least the next 4 to 5 years.

Also you have to consider the fact that the rMBP also comes with an SSD as storage.

This SSD greatly improves performance and task management.

I've even run high end games like Modern Warfare and Crysis through bootcamp and never had a problem with ram.

Look, Apple may not have given you the ability to upgrade your RAM, but I would not consider that a deal breaker.

I've had plenty of laptops in the past and I never needed to upgrade my RAM. I think I did it once but that was just to do it, not that I necessarily needed it.

Your rMBP will be fine with 8 Gigs of RAM for a very long time.

The only reason I see you needing 16 Gigs is if you were running AutoCad.

And if you have the money to purchase AutoCad then you probably would be using a MacPro Tower and not a laptop.

 

[xShane]

If 8 GB works for your uses now,it will work for your uses tomorrow as long as your needs do not change and you do not download the newest software. RAM is standard now at 4-8GB, doubling about every 3-4 years.So depending on how you look at it, 16 might be standard in 2016-17, but by then the improvements will be so vast that RAM will be the least of your worries.

I somehow doubt that's a realistic option. Updating your software (which by the way includes the operating system) is almost an essential task to do. No serious user wants to use out-of-date software.

I love it when people bitch about something that doesn't even affect them. IF there is no need for you to have 16g of ram now, why would your usage all of a sudden change to force you to need 32g?

OP complaining for the sake of doing so it seems.

Well I'm glad we're all polite here