4 ms·

To me, 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB of RAM on a super thin, light, laptop is a pretty big upgrade. I used to be on a maxed out 17", happily switched to a maxed ou

To me, 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB of RAM on a super thin, light, laptop is a pretty big upgrade. I used to be on a maxed out 17", happily switched to a maxed out 11", and am now beyond psyched to get my maxed 15".

petercooper 14y ago
Not to contradict your general point, but the i5/i7 MBPs from early 2011 onwards support 16GB total - it was just not a config Apple sold for some reason.
- colinplamondon 14y ago
  I completely missed that, actually- good call!
- jdboyd 14y ago
  Of course, it is probably too early to be sure, but this model might very well take 32 gigs while Apple just doesn't sell that config for some reason.
  - snikch 14y ago
    It's soldered on :(
    - beedogs 14y ago
      Wait, the RAM on a $2200 professional model laptop is fucking soldered on??? Apple continues to disappoint. This kills any desire I had to buy one of these. If I can't keep upgrading it over the next few years as I need it, what is the point of buying this over an Air?
      - loginx 14y ago
        I had the same concerns so i researched it a bit more. While the processors used in these new macbook pros can address up to 32gb of RAM on the system, the DDR3 standard accomodates for up to 8gb per chip. With 2 chip slots, you are already maxed out, regardless of whether the chips are soldered on or not, so it makes no difference.
      - berberous 14y ago
        Yes, it's soldered on, that's part of the reason they can make it so thin. The point in buying it over the air remains: 15", retina, etc. This is not something to be mad about. If you buy the maxed out 16GB, well, it's maxed out anyway. If you buy the 8Gb, it's a compromise you make. You'll live with the 8GB, or sell the laptop to upgrade. It's worth the trade-off (small size, etc.)
greggman 14y ago
super thin, light? The new mbps hardly qualify as thin or light. 4.5lbs has never been considered "light" (Well, maybe back in the 90s) And thin? It got like 15% thinner. You could fit 2 Airs or 3 vaios in its thickness. I'm not trying to be a hater. I really really wanted to upgrade mac today but I was hoping for thin + light + retina and sadly that wasn't this time.
- taligent 14y ago
  It's 25% thinner - now 1.8cm. And the MacBook Air is 1.7cm at its thickest point. So I really have no idea what you are talking about about you being able to fit 2 or 3 Airs. You would think if you are about to spend $2000 that you would do some basic research.
hesdeadjim 14y ago
Agreed. I've noticed on my 12-core Mac Pro that until I had 2 gigs of RAM per core, building a large C++ codebase would cause extreme disk swapping to the point where the OS would freeze (even with a super fast SSD). The situation wouldn't be as bad on a 4-core/8 hardware thread MacBook, but you start throwing in virtual machines and various other processes and 8 gigs of RAM starts to look pretty anemic for hardware marketed to the "pro" user.

petercooper 14y ago

Not to contradict your general point, but the i5/i7 MBPs from early 2011 onwards support 16GB total - it was just not a config Apple sold for some reason.

colinplamondon 14y ago
I completely missed that, actually- good call!
jdboyd 14y ago
Of course, it is probably too early to be sure, but this model might very well take 32 gigs while Apple just doesn't sell that config for some reason.
- snikch 14y ago
  It's soldered on :(
  - beedogs 14y ago
    Wait, the RAM on a $2200 professional model laptop is fucking soldered on??? Apple continues to disappoint. This kills any desire I had to buy one of these. If I can't keep upgrading it over the next few years as I need it, what is the point of buying this over an Air?
    - loginx 14y ago
      I had the same concerns so i researched it a bit more. While the processors used in these new macbook pros can address up to 32gb of RAM on the system, the DDR3 standard accomodates for up to 8gb per chip. With 2 chip slots, you are already maxed out, regardless of whether the chips are soldered on or not, so it makes no difference.
    - berberous 14y ago
      Yes, it's soldered on, that's part of the reason they can make it so thin. The point in buying it over the air remains: 15", retina, etc. This is not something to be mad about. If you buy the maxed out 16GB, well, it's maxed out anyway. If you buy the 8Gb, it's a compromise you make. You'll live with the 8GB, or sell the laptop to upgrade. It's worth the trade-off (small size, etc.)

greggman 14y ago

super thin, light? The new mbps hardly qualify as thin or light. 4.5lbs has never been considered "light" (Well, maybe back in the 90s) And thin? It got like 15% thinner. You could fit 2 Airs or 3 vaios in its thickness. I'm not trying to be a hater. I really really wanted to upgrade mac today but I was hoping for thin + light + retina and sadly that wasn't this time.

taligent 14y ago
It's 25% thinner - now 1.8cm. And the MacBook Air is 1.7cm at its thickest point. So I really have no idea what you are talking about about you being able to fit 2 or 3 Airs. You would think if you are about to spend $2000 that you would do some basic research.

hesdeadjim 14y ago

Agreed. I've noticed on my 12-core Mac Pro that until I had 2 gigs of RAM per core, building a large C++ codebase would cause extreme disk swapping to the point where the OS would freeze (even with a super fast SSD). The situation wouldn't be as bad on a 4-core/8 hardware thread MacBook, but you start throwing in virtual machines and various other processes and 8 gigs of RAM starts to look pretty anemic for hardware marketed to the "pro" user.