Worth changing rMBP order for 16 gigs of RAM?

[Wonderhaven]

Hey guys,

So I've got a base model rMBP on order right now that is scheduled for delivery sometime between July 2nd and 9th. When I ordered it I looked at the 8 gigs of ram and thought it would be fine. I currently have 8 gigs of ram in my spring 2011 MBP and haven't noticed any problems. After looking over this forum and thinking a bit I'm starting to wonder if I should have gone with the 16 gig upgrade since the RAM is soldered in and can't be modified.

My thought process is that 8 gigs is currently fine. However, with a new OS coming and more apps going with retina support, the extra ram might suddenly be quite useful.

I'll give you 2 examples of the most stressful things this computer will be doing:

The first is playing games. I'm a big gamer and will be playing a wide variety of games including the latest and greatest. I don't think ram will be much of an issue with this since most aren't made to run on anywhere near that much ram.

The second involves running a vm. In this scenario I would have my retina MBP hooked up to a 27 inch ACD both running at full resolution. During this setup I would be running one vm with windows 7 and a program called fantasy grounds. Meanwhile I would be running multiple PDFs, word and excel documents, iTunes, steam, mail, and safari with multiple tabs open. I do this on my current MBP and it uses between 6-7 gigs of ram.

I plan on using this computer for around 2 years before upgrading. Based on what I'm going to be using it for should I change my order to the base model with 16 gigs of ram? This would push my ship date to the end of July which sucks but I guess would be worth it in the end if I need it. However, if I'll be fine with 8 gigs for the next 2 years or so I'll probably just be happy with what I've ordered.

So what do you think?

 

[monkeybagel]

Absolutely. Since it is not upgradable I would do that, or get the 15" standard with high res screen.

 

[PhaserFuzz]

Yes.. because if you don't, you'll always regret it.. even though you probably will never need that much RAM. Just switch and get it over with for ease of mind.

 

[Sobering]

Do it.

Edit: Like PhaserFuzz says, you WILL regret it.

 

[kamran9558]

I had the same dialemma, my delivery schedule was for 4th july but I cancelled my order and reordered with 16 Gigs all because of the reasons you mentioned, now my delivery date is 20 july. I would say its better to be safe then sorry.

 

[surjavarman]

If you are not using 8gb now and your usage is not going to change much in the next 2-3 years then thats $200 wasted. You'd be better off putting that money on a savings accounts towards the next purchase of your notebook.

Anyway I don't think you are going to even use up 8gb based on your usage. And the performance gain you will be getting from 16gb is not going to be noticeable for the moments that you have page outs on 8gb. That is not worth the $200 in my opinion.

I am getting 8gb and I am keeping mine for at least 4 years. I am never using more than 3 gigs of RAM currently. That is not going to change anytime soon. so 8gb is plenty for me.

 

[G-Mo]

I've said it before... With a non-upgradeable system, always go as high as you can afford!