7 ms·

You can max it out with 16GB of RAM for an additional $200. I'm not sure I can see myself putting more than that into a laptop during its useful life.

nicksergeant 14y ago
Exactly, and although similar statements have been made in the past, I think 16GB shall be sufficient for at least 5 years out.
- ioquatix 14y ago
  I have a current MBP with both 8GB and 16GB of memory. I found that with 8GB, performance is excellent. With 16GB, I normally have about 6-7GB free - Mac OS X normally uses the rest for a filesystem cache but it doesn't really affect performance that much in my experience. 16GB is going to be enough for quite a while...
  - wfarr 14y ago
    Not to mention, the glaring problem people like to ignore when discussing this is the motherboard in the MBP is only going to support so much memory anyway (would not be surprised if it could only support 16gb), so talking about not being able to upgrade it to 32/64/whatever is common then is kind of moot.
    - eli 14y ago
      Sure, but I think the issue is that if you ever want 16GB, you have to buy it now at Apple's price: $200 for an extra 8GB.
  - tlianza 14y ago
    I'm not sure why we keep saying things like this. "X MB/TB of resource Y will be plenty for a while" is almost always something we laugh about 2 years later.
iuguy 14y ago
I have the late 2011 MBP with 16gb of RAM and I maxed out RAM usage earlier today just with Postbox, Steam, a backgrounded 2Gb VM, a large file copy in forklift and chrome. While that's a rare occurence now, I imagine that over time it will become more common.
- taligent 14y ago
  I don't think you understand how RAM works. Hint: there is lots of caching goes on.
  - iuguy 14y ago
    I don't think you understand how my laptop use case works. Hint: I run a lot of VMs and emulators, do a lot of debugging and have a lot of tabs open.
raverbashing 14y ago
Yes Also, the SSD makes you need less memory, since reading from it is so fast So 16Gb will go a long way really.
uzero 14y ago
Yes I know but that wasn't the point. The point is that if I now buy the laptop with let's say 8GB because I think I don't need more than that because all I do is code. After 6 months I get assigned to doing work with BIG databases that easily eat 10GB memory. Now I'm stuck with 8GB because it's soldered and even Apple can't upgrade it.
- sneak 14y ago
  Upgrading the RAM on a new Macbook Pro is a user-serviceable operation. It consists of four steps: 1) Back up data, wipe drive 2) Sell MBP on eBay 3) Buy new MBP with desired amount of RAM 4) Restore data Now stop it. You're buying a Mac because you don't like to waste time dicking around with your computer, remember?
  - orangecat 14y ago
    You're buying a Mac because you don't like to waste time dicking around with your computer, remember? And I do like to waste time dealing with backups and Craigslist scammers? I'm buying a Mac because I want a Unix workstation with a solid UI. Lots of MacBook Pro owners are not terrified of screwdrivers.
    - sneak 14y ago
      > And I do like to waste time dealing with backups Ha. Best of luck, friend.
  - Kerrick 14y ago
    No, I'm buying a Mac because I need a UNIX-based operating system that can run the Adobe Creative Suite. My fiancee, who is practically hardware illiterate, just installed brand new RAM and a new SSD into her 4-year-old MacBook. If she had originally purchased it with those upgrades, it would have been $500+ extra at the time of purchase. This week, it cost $150 for the parts on Amazon. User-serviceable operations that don't require completely replacing the computer are important, and will surely affect many people's buying decisions. You don't get to say that everybody who wants a Mac will never want to waste time dicking around with their computer.

nicksergeant 14y ago

Exactly, and although similar statements have been made in the past, I think 16GB shall be sufficient for at least 5 years out.

ioquatix 14y ago
I have a current MBP with both 8GB and 16GB of memory. I found that with 8GB, performance is excellent. With 16GB, I normally have about 6-7GB free - Mac OS X normally uses the rest for a filesystem cache but it doesn't really affect performance that much in my experience. 16GB is going to be enough for quite a while...
- wfarr 14y ago
  Not to mention, the glaring problem people like to ignore when discussing this is the motherboard in the MBP is only going to support so much memory anyway (would not be surprised if it could only support 16gb), so talking about not being able to upgrade it to 32/64/whatever is common then is kind of moot.
  - eli 14y ago
    Sure, but I think the issue is that if you ever want 16GB, you have to buy it now at Apple's price: $200 for an extra 8GB.
- tlianza 14y ago
  I'm not sure why we keep saying things like this. "X MB/TB of resource Y will be plenty for a while" is almost always something we laugh about 2 years later.

iuguy 14y ago

I have the late 2011 MBP with 16gb of RAM and I maxed out RAM usage earlier today just with Postbox, Steam, a backgrounded 2Gb VM, a large file copy in forklift and chrome. While that's a rare occurence now, I imagine that over time it will become more common.

taligent 14y ago
I don't think you understand how RAM works. Hint: there is lots of caching goes on.
- iuguy 14y ago
  I don't think you understand how my laptop use case works. Hint: I run a lot of VMs and emulators, do a lot of debugging and have a lot of tabs open.

raverbashing 14y ago

Yes Also, the SSD makes you need less memory, since reading from it is so fast So 16Gb will go a long way really.

uzero 14y ago

Yes I know but that wasn't the point. The point is that if I now buy the laptop with let's say 8GB because I think I don't need more than that because all I do is code. After 6 months I get assigned to doing work with BIG databases that easily eat 10GB memory. Now I'm stuck with 8GB because it's soldered and even Apple can't upgrade it.

sneak 14y ago
Upgrading the RAM on a new Macbook Pro is a user-serviceable operation. It consists of four steps: 1) Back up data, wipe drive 2) Sell MBP on eBay 3) Buy new MBP with desired amount of RAM 4) Restore data Now stop it. You're buying a Mac because you don't like to waste time dicking around with your computer, remember?
- orangecat 14y ago
  You're buying a Mac because you don't like to waste time dicking around with your computer, remember? And I do like to waste time dealing with backups and Craigslist scammers? I'm buying a Mac because I want a Unix workstation with a solid UI. Lots of MacBook Pro owners are not terrified of screwdrivers.
  - sneak 14y ago
    > And I do like to waste time dealing with backups Ha. Best of luck, friend.
- Kerrick 14y ago
  No, I'm buying a Mac because I need a UNIX-based operating system that can run the Adobe Creative Suite. My fiancee, who is practically hardware illiterate, just installed brand new RAM and a new SSD into her 4-year-old MacBook. If she had originally purchased it with those upgrades, it would have been $500+ extra at the time of purchase. This week, it cost $150 for the parts on Amazon. User-serviceable operations that don't require completely replacing the computer are important, and will surely affect many people's buying decisions. You don't get to say that everybody who wants a Mac will never want to waste time dicking around with their computer.