Will 8GB be sufficient for me?

[jafingi]

Hey guys!

I'm 100% sure I'm going to buy the rMBP 15" when it's refreshed with Haswell in Q3h (hopefully). Have the money, but I won't be buying it now, as I will first need it when beginning school again in September. So I'd rather wait until it is refreshes, as I'm not in a desperate need for it

I currently have an iMac 2011 with 12GB RAM and 7200rpm HDD. I bought it with 4GB RAM and upgraded it myself. 12GB was very cheap, so no problems there. Don't think I ever hit the limit.

So I'm really not sure, if I should go for the 8GB? It cost about $265 for me in Denmark to upgrade the RAM to 16GB and that seems very expensive. So if I could do it with 8GB, I could save some money there.

My normal work setup have the following apps open:

- iTunes
- Chrome
- Coda
- Photoshop
- Paragon NTFS

I have this screenshot from Activity Monitor from a normal workday with a few PSD's open in Photoshop, a project in Coda and 5 tabs in Chrome with iTunes playing some music (and Bowtie to show the current playing song).

Looks like this:

So it looks like I have plenty of RAM available? I would personally go for the 8GB. And IF I should use all that at one point, I guess it would just use the SSD instead for that? And that would be fast enough for those small moments where I break the limit.

Would like to hear your thoughts Thanks!

 

[Ice Dragon]

So what you're asking is... do you double the RAM on the Haswell rMBP?

If so, yes... pay the $265 to go to 16 GB just in case.

I am a bit confused reading your post so pardon my ignorance.

 

[jafingi]

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear.

Will I be fine off buying the 8GB version rMBP?

 

[Weaselboy]

You will get people here who always say "you should do it... you can never have too much RAM", but based on your described usage and the memory usage from your screen shot, you would be just fine with 8GB.

 

[Ice Dragon]

You will get people here who always say "you should do it... you can never have too much RAM", but based on your described usage and the memory usage from your screen shot, you would be just fine with 8GB.

I agree but it also depends on how long he's going to have it and if he can scrape together the extra funds, why not.

 

[Weaselboy]

I agree but it also depends on how long he's going to have it and if he can scrape together the extra funds, why not.

From the OP's "going back to school" comment, I assumed he is not exactly rolling around in money. From the mem usage in his screen shot 16GB is not likely to result in any perceivable difference in operation. I figured he could save the $265 for something important like beer maybe?

I did not mean at all to slam you personally with my comment. I hope you did not take it that way.

 

[benwiggy]

You may want to wait until the refresh is announced, to see how much memory it comes with!

The price for RAM seems expensive -- are you sure you can't get it cheaper?
I bought 16Gb for my 2012 Mini for £61 which is c. €80, $99 or thereabouts.

8Gb seems enough for your usage -- though no one ever complained of having too much RAM. I guess it also depends whether the RAM is upgradeable in the 2013 rMBP, and how long you plan to keep it.

 

[snaky69]

You may want to wait until the refresh is announced, to see how much memory it comes with!

The price for RAM seems expensive -- are you sure you can't get it cheaper?
I bought 16Gb for my 2012 Mini for £61 which is c. €80, $99 or thereabouts.

8Gb seems enough for your usage -- though no one ever complained of having too much RAM. I guess it also depends whether the RAM is upgradeable in the 2013 rMBP, and how long you plan to keep it.

If you'd actually bothered to read the OP's post, he asked about the retina MBP, which has soldered in RAM that is not upgradable except at purchase.


OP, you have nearly 8GB out of the 12GB available twiddling it's thumbs, it seems you could've survived quite well without upgrading your iMac in the first place...

 

[1member1]

wow asking from now to August - september new rmbp ? that's new.

decide when it comes out.

 

[Ice Dragon]

From the OP's "going back to school" comment, I assumed he is not exactly rolling around in money. From the mem usage in his screen shot 16GB is not likely to result in any perceivable difference in operation. I figured he could save the $265 for something important like beer maybe?

I did not mean at all to slam you personally with my comment. I hope you did not take it that way.

Nope not at all. It would just be lame to have to upgrade in 2 years instead of 3 or 4.

 

[benwiggy]

If you'd actually bothered to read the OP's post, he asked about the retina MBP, which has soldered in RAM that is not upgradable except at purchase.

He's actually talking about an as yet unreleased model, the specs of which are pie in the sky at this stage, as I hinted.

But thanks for picking me up over a small detail.

All the best

 

[glenthompson]

Your current usage doesn't indicate a need for more than 8gb however that can always change. I it worth $265 to future proof the machine? If you find out later that you need more will it cost more than 265 to sell the current Mac so you can buy a new one?

I have 8gb and the only time I come close to using it is when running Parallels with Windows.

 

[ppone]

I would get the 16GB at a minimum; retina on HiDPI resolutions will eat up much more memory, mainly due to holding large artifacts in memory.

Hey guys!

I'm 100% sure I'm going to buy the rMBP 15" when it's refreshed with Haswell in Q3h (hopefully). Have the money, but I won't be buying it now, as I will first need it when beginning school again in September. So I'd rather wait until it is refreshes, as I'm not in a desperate need for it

I currently have an iMac 2011 with 12GB RAM and 7200rpm HDD. I bought it with 4GB RAM and upgraded it myself. 12GB was very cheap, so no problems there. Don't think I ever hit the limit.

So I'm really not sure, if I should go for the 8GB? It cost about $265 for me in Denmark to upgrade the RAM to 16GB and that seems very expensive. So if I could do it with 8GB, I could save some money there.

My normal work setup have the following apps open:

- iTunes
- Chrome
- Coda
- Photoshop
- Paragon NTFS

I have this screenshot from Activity Monitor from a normal workday with a few PSD's open in Photoshop, a project in Coda and 5 tabs in Chrome with iTunes playing some music (and Bowtie to show the current playing song).

Looks like this:
Image

So it looks like I have plenty of RAM available? I would personally go for the 8GB. And IF I should use all that at one point, I guess it would just use the SSD instead for that? And that would be fast enough for those small moments where I break the limit.

Would like to hear your thoughts Thanks!

 

[alphaod]

I would get the 16GB at a minimum; retina on HiDPI resolutions will eat up much more memory, mainly due to holding large artifacts in memory.

Graphics are held in video memory.

Even with system integrated graphics, only a certain amount (512MB) is allocated to graphics, so having 8GB or 16GB will not affect the graphics performance.

 

[ppone]

That is not true.

Check out how large the WindowServer Process gets on HiDPI vs Non HiDPI resolution.

You can also check how big Mail, Safari gets on HiDPI vs Non HiDPI.

It gets much larger with HiDPI.

Graphics are held in video memory.

Even with system integrated graphics, only a certain amount (512MB) is allocated to graphics, so having 8GB or 16GB will not affect the graphics performance.

----------

That is not true.

Check out how larger the WindowServer Process gets on HiDPI vs Non HiDPI resolution.

You can also check how big Mail, Safari gets on HiDPI vs Non HiDPI.

It gets much large with HiDPI.

Graphics are held in video memory.

Even with system integrated graphics, only a certain amount (512MB) is allocated to graphics, so having 8GB or 16GB will not affect the graphics performance.

 

[xShane]

Although 8GB RAM sounds fine for now, sooner or later you'll be wanting 16GB RAM. However, what you order on the rMBP is what you get. There's no upgrading down the road. If at some point in time you ever need 16GB RAM, you'll have to purchase a new machine.

Having 16GB RAM will help "future-proof" it.