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Skg22

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 9, 2014
1
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Long time reader, first time poster. Looking for anyone to comment with a background in architecture/construction that uses at 15" with AutoCAD, Revit, Sketchup. I think 8 gigs would be enough but always read about futureproofing. Would be nice to save $500 if possible, but if not oh well.
 
With some of those higher power apps, you may be better suited with the 16GB upgrade since you cannot add memory to the machine later.
 
Long time reader, first time poster. Looking for anyone to comment with a background in architecture/construction that uses at 15" with AutoCAD, Revit, Sketchup. I think 8 gigs would be enough but always read about futureproofing. Would be nice to save $500 if possible, but if not oh well.

Why $500? Upgrading from 8 to 16 GB of RAM is only $200.
 
16...

Long time reader, first time poster. Looking for anyone to comment with a background in architecture/construction that uses at 15" with AutoCAD, Revit, Sketchup. I think 8 gigs would be enough but always read about futureproofing. Would be nice to save $500 if possible, but if not oh well.

Working with relatively complex sets of data in apps like AutoCAD can consume a good bit of memory. Mavericks does a really good job of handling memory, with things like memory compression, and with the fast PCIe SSDs, swap time isn't terrible (although you definitely still want to avoid it.). My suggestion is to go for the 16gigs. You'll probably be fine with the base model's CPU and GPU, but you don't want to compromise on the memory. You can't upgrade it later, and I often push the 8 gigs in my machine, even when not doing too terribly taxing work. The money you throw at the extra memory is saved in the other end, considering that your need for buying a new computer after this one will be pushed maybe 2-3 years. If I were you, I'd definitely not compromise on the memory.
 
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