Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

The Great Debate: 8gb vs 16gb -Real world

Y

Youngdubber

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 10, 2015
4
0
With the new 2015 13" rMBP, will you see a real performance difference with the base 8gb vs upgrading to the 16gb?

Particularly in edit GoPro video-


I use a late 2011 15" MBP 2.2 with only 4gb of ram and it doesn't do well with video related stuff. GoPro studio works ok I guess.

This machine will be running Traktor scratch pro 2, creative suite, and most likely final cut pro every so often for fun to cut GoPro videos.

So will 8gb be enough or should I spring for the 16gb?

Also, how much space do the OEM programs take up from the 128gb harddrive?
 
Average user no. If your running memory intensive applications, running multiple virtual machines yes. Majority are likely just upgrading for no other reason than speculation. Put you money into a larger SSD it will make more sense in the long run, you will find the 128Gb SSD very limiting.

Minimum install from Apple you will be look at around 120GB of free-space...

Q-6
 
  • Like
Reactions: mahcus36
Illustrator CS6?
Aperture/Lightroom?

I'm worried 8gb won't be enough. But 128 isn't either.
 
Running VMs? get 16gb. Video editing for a living? get 16gb. Want to go all out and futureproof? get 16gb. Otherwise, 8gb is fine.

For the ssd size, keep in mind that external storage is cheap.
 
If you can afford both upgrades I'd go with 256 SSD and 16GB RAM.. if it's a choice between the two, I'd upgrade the SSD to 256...
 
My ideal computer (ideal if they added a USB C to make it future proof..) with the education discount. I think I will go for 16gb just to future proof it even though hI am not sure I need it now.
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2015-03-10 at 11.17.07 PM.png
    Screen Shot 2015-03-10 at 11.17.07 PM.png
    221.5 KB · Views: 1,417
Even trying to future proof - you're still going to be of the same hardware generation. Nobody goes "man that 2010 MacBook pro - the base model is totally outdated, but not that maxed out model! It's totally comparable to today's computers"

Take advantage of the 8Gb ram model being stock, and get a good size hard drive.

Rather than waste money trying to future proof, set what you were planning to spend aside and collect interest in a savings account.

The stock SSD and ram configs are nice as is
 
  • Like
Reactions: mahcus36 and MisterMillz
David58117 said:
Even trying to future proof - you're still going to be of the same hardware generation. Nobody goes "man that 2010 MacBook pro - the base model is totally outdated, but not that maxed out model! It's totally comparable to today's computers"

Take advantage of the 8Gb ram model being stock, and get a good size hard drive.

Rather than waste money trying to future proof, set what you were planning to spend aside and collect interest in a savings account.

The stock SSD and ram configs are nice as is
Click to expand...

Great advice. I'll do that.
 
I have 8Gb on my machine (ok its an iMac 27) and I have Adobe CS installed , lightroom, as well as office, and the usual iTunes, mail, safari stuff running.

I generally do close out / quit programs once I'm done with them rather than leaving them running in the background (old habits etc)

The 8GB has been absolutely fine for me over the last while. The SSD is where the best improvement has been and as I'm now looking at getting a Macbook, i would put more to the SSD knowing that I have space for programs. I'd rather wait another half second for a program to load than not be able to load it at all cause I don't have the space on the SSD !
 
I have a MBP with 16gb, I open safari , mail, lightroom 5.7.1 with a DSLR image open, it tells me it's using 8gb of ram (2.62gb of which is use for file cache). If I add Xcode to that, it consumes another 1GB but I would never have a reason to use both at the same time. If OS X would need memory it would start by reducing the file cache so 8GB is fine for a majority of people. Unless you're doing serious video editing or 3d animations, 8GB is fine for most configuration.

I went with a 16GB refurb model instead of picking a new 8GB one (for the same price).
 
Freyqq said:
Running VMs? get 16gb. Video editing for a living? get 16gb.
Click to expand...

Pretty much this, but for video editing, you really need CPU to do rendering, thus get a 15" if that's what you really do. I think those guys know that already though if that's what they're doing.

Aside from VMs, 8GB is plenty. I wouldn't suggest 128GB SSD though, you want the 256GB SSD, unless you're running VMs, then bump it up to 512GB. External storage for your other needs.
 
matreya said:
If you can afford both upgrades I'd go with 256 SSD and 16GB RAM.. if it's a choice between the two, I'd upgrade the SSD to 256...
Click to expand...

Ideally I'd prefer the 16/256 but that may be stretching the budget a bit. I do keep my computers a long time though (2003 G4 tower and a late 2008 unibody). My 08 maxed out at 6gb, I think if I could've done 8 it would be a little happier these days.

I'm going end up with another external and probably an SD card as well, so the cost really starts getting up there!

Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back