Really? You thought I might be asking how you returned your machine and got a new one with more RAM? And you're still evasive about what I obviously was asking. Again, that answers my questions well enough to know what your comment was worth.
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16gb MBP in 2021 isn’t enough for long-term
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If and when in 4-5 years I don't have enough RAM I'll worry about it then. These "future proofing" discussions are completely laughable.
Imagine not knowing how an operating system works while arguing about RAM.
These tech blogs and their useless benchmarks have made everyone think they're an expert on computers.
These tech blogs and their useless benchmarks have made everyone think they're an expert on computers.
Haha yes,
Also the ssd speeds are so fast swap isn’t an issue. But you will still get someone saying “oooooo that will kill your SSD” Yeah maybe in 10 years or so!!!. By then I will be rocking the M5 Pro
What it comes down too is quite a few salty people out there that are figuring out they are not even using 10% of the power on the MacBook, they have to try and justify the extra 1k by trying to troll the intelligent quota who bought what they actually need
long time never heard sgi brand.. hehe ... those big boxes...
Oh man SGI had some of the most beautiful cases though. I'd love to get one today to reuse as a home built machine.
I agree. A lot of these FOMO and GAS people buying these new Macbooks when last year's M1 MBA/MBP will actually do the job!
Well they will not for my workload and for my media consumption.
But for some people yes, depends what you do. I’m emulating computer network devices so the extra 2 cores does help towards that.
Also love the Mini LED screen and proper function keys. There are lots of reasons to jump from the M1 to the M1 Pro. In my view not a lot of reasons to move from 16 to 32GB if you are not even using 75% of that.
But who are we to tell someone what to buy? It’s just annoying that there are so many people trying to validate their purchase by saying that 16GB isn’t enough.
Just weird…
Yeah, even more so trying to invalidate other people's decisions. Very few people have the exact same needs or use cases for what they use these things for.
They weren't for consumers, but they were a very, very well known company at the time and pretty much anyone that was into computers highly coveted their machines. The main google headquarters was originally the Silicon Graphics headquarters.
My first 'work' machine was an SGI Iris that I believe was about $60k at the biotech lab I worked at back in '96, my supervisor in particular used it for VR manipulation of molecules (he had a glove and stereographic glasses to manipulate). In '99 I almost took a job working at General Atomics on the Predator drone. They had an array of SGI machines that did the terraforming work. Studios like Pixar and the like relied on these machines for early computer animated movies.
These and Sun Sparcs (somewhat lower end) provided compute power at the time that was a good couple generations ahead of what could be gleaned for consumer desktop machines. Around the turn of the century the window narrowed considerably and their business case wasn't as strong.
I will say it again. I think that buying the base version (8cpu/14gpu) with 32gb ram for 2399$ is a better decision than buying the base version (8cpu/14gpu) with 16gb ram for 1999$ or the (10/16gpu) for 2299$. I based my recommendation based on the following prediction based on history.
-MacbookPro starting ram as increased from 2GB(2009) to 16GB(2021)
-Increased external monitor resolution (4k use more vram/shared memory than 1080p)
-MBP 14/16" M1 PRO already using 10-11gb of caching OOTB (the OS try to use the most ram possible based on it's NEED, it doesn't cache useless stuff only because there's ram available. So if the OS already use 10-11GB in 2021 to be as FAST AS POSSIBLE, i'm pretty confident that 5 years from now 16GB won't be enough to be AS FAST AS POSSIBLE (which doesn't mean dead slow terrible))
Based on this, i'm confident that a 8/14/32GB will be noticeably faster than a 10/16/16GB 5 years from now. I'm bringing the 8 vs 10 core debate because this debate is all about performance, pricing and future.
For only 100$ more, the based system with 32GB of ram will perform an extra 2 years compared to a system with only 16GB.
I do favor the 8-core/32GB vs 10-core/16GB since they have the same single thread performance which is the most important metric in system responsiveness. In 5 years, the 16GB system will rely on the SSD for caching which provide terrible latency compared to on-chip RAM which is crucial to system responsiveness.
-MacbookPro starting ram as increased from 2GB(2009) to 16GB(2021)
-Increased external monitor resolution (4k use more vram/shared memory than 1080p)
-MBP 14/16" M1 PRO already using 10-11gb of caching OOTB (the OS try to use the most ram possible based on it's NEED, it doesn't cache useless stuff only because there's ram available. So if the OS already use 10-11GB in 2021 to be as FAST AS POSSIBLE, i'm pretty confident that 5 years from now 16GB won't be enough to be AS FAST AS POSSIBLE (which doesn't mean dead slow terrible))
Based on this, i'm confident that a 8/14/32GB will be noticeably faster than a 10/16/16GB 5 years from now. I'm bringing the 8 vs 10 core debate because this debate is all about performance, pricing and future.
For only 100$ more, the based system with 32GB of ram will perform an extra 2 years compared to a system with only 16GB.
I do favor the 8-core/32GB vs 10-core/16GB since they have the same single thread performance which is the most important metric in system responsiveness. In 5 years, the 16GB system will rely on the SSD for caching which provide terrible latency compared to on-chip RAM which is crucial to system responsiveness.
I haven’t been on these forums for many years thought I would pop in and have a look at the discussions on the new macs. I am in awe that the same discussions and misunderstandings about RAM in Mac OS are still going on. This is hilarious.
I bought my 13 inch MBP in jan 2014 with 8gb of ddr3 memory I read many discussions at the time as to how 16gb was the minimum you need to future proof and read many discussions about people with all their ram filled. Well here we are nearly 8 years later and my Mac still runs perfectly (new battery 2 years ago) still allows multiple desktops with multiple browsers running 7 to 8 tabs each with multiple documents in word excel and pdfs open while running music or video, mail clients etc open and runs without a hiccup.
In short unless you know you need lots of ram for ram hungry apps or huge datasets in science or creative apps then you will be fine with 16gb of ram in a pro machine with ddr 5 and a 200gb bandwidth. In fact the vast majority of people will be fine with an air or 13 inch pro with 8gb and an M1 processor (but oh that screen and MagSafe are sure tempting). Oh and Mac OS uses all the ram it can to keep things cached and the system response fast, unused ram is wasted ram.
Still peeing myself laughing that this is still a discussion 8 years later!!
I bought my 13 inch MBP in jan 2014 with 8gb of ddr3 memory I read many discussions at the time as to how 16gb was the minimum you need to future proof and read many discussions about people with all their ram filled. Well here we are nearly 8 years later and my Mac still runs perfectly (new battery 2 years ago) still allows multiple desktops with multiple browsers running 7 to 8 tabs each with multiple documents in word excel and pdfs open while running music or video, mail clients etc open and runs without a hiccup.
In short unless you know you need lots of ram for ram hungry apps or huge datasets in science or creative apps then you will be fine with 16gb of ram in a pro machine with ddr 5 and a 200gb bandwidth. In fact the vast majority of people will be fine with an air or 13 inch pro with 8gb and an M1 processor (but oh that screen and MagSafe are sure tempting). Oh and Mac OS uses all the ram it can to keep things cached and the system response fast, unused ram is wasted ram.
Still peeing myself laughing that this is still a discussion 8 years later!!
I think it depends on what your usage is. If it is email/facebook/youtube/word/excel etc. then I think 16GB is plenty.
yes! And then you will buy new macbook for 3500 USD while we (with 32 GB) paid only 400 USD and will be secured for next cycle
yes! And then you will buy new macbook for 3500 USD while we (with 32 GB) paid only 400 USD and will be secured for next cycle
Lol in 5 years you can keep your dinosaur for another few years if you want. By then there will be a better design and it will blow the doors off the current machines. Keep it for another 5 after that; that 32GB will come in handy while it limps along and you talk about how you future proofed
Bullsh*t ! MacBook from 2014 with 8gb ram has to be really ****** today. It is intel not M1. Yesterday I sold MacBook Pro 2018 with 8GB ram and stronger CPU than yours and it was actually lagging in some basic tasks. So stop trolling with your fairy tales..
As you see people are discussing the topic about RAM usage again after years, you can clearly see that from these years discussion went from 8GB to 16 - 32 Gb discussions. After next 8 years, there will be the same discussion but about 32 GB - 64 GB for basic configurations laptops.
Hun
Future proofing is generally nonsense unless you know your usage is likely to change drastically in the next few years then you are just wasting money on specs and features you won’t use and in 3-4 years time if your needs change you’ll want the latest and greatest anyway.
No this is not cow poo I am running a dual core i5 cpu with iris graphics it’s fine for my usage. It runs all my apps fine it runs all online stuff and streaming just fine. Hell I even play a little knights of the old republic but it gets a bit hot and loud. It really is a question of what you use your computer for. About the most intensive thing I used it for was protein mapping software for drug design in windows it worked fine for a couple of years studying that. Basic office studying and internet usage has changed very little in 8 years and honestly big sur seems to have actually sped this little beauty up a little. Many people do my sort of usage just fine on a chrome book or a an i3 intel MacBook Air from a couple of years ago. Buy what you need upgrade when you need to.
Future proofing is generally nonsense unless you know your usage is likely to change drastically in the next few years then you are just wasting money on specs and features you won’t use and in 3-4 years time if your needs change you’ll want the latest and greatest anyway.
Mr Brault, you’re missing the point that huge amounts of people on here are more than happy to have an excuse to upgrade to the latest and greatest. In five years time there’ll be some other ground breaking leap forward that folk either need or desire and regardless of their RAM people will upgrade. I’m more and more coming round to the ‘buy what you need more regularly’ point of view! For tech at least; a good pair of hand made shoes, now that’s an investment that really will last for years ?
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LOL. Do you know that SW: Knights of the Old Republic is game from 2003? ? It is 18 years old, man !!!
It is REALLYYYYY AMAZING that laptop one decade ahead can ran this game, especially when today you can play it on almost every mobile phone ???
Never said it was amazing or that it was an intensive thing in modern terms. Just that it suited my needs and still does 8 years later 8gb of ram and all. My iPhone 13 mini spanks it all over the place in benchmarks and power with 4gb of ram though.
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I find it laughable that people are still believing that upgrading the RAM from 16GB to 32GB will make a significant difference to future proof you laptop for the majority of users, and to be honest is not based on fact and is misleading to other forum readers, at best it is your opinion. To be clear, yes some users would benefit from the RAM increase to 32GB but that would be based on their needs today. If you are frequently using professional grade apps that push the memory requirements, and every second counts in terms of your ability to generate income, then 32GB makes perfect sense.
My arguments is supported by data - There are numerous reviews that have done objective tests, some of which have already been linked on the forum that on the whole objectively conclude for the vast majority of users 32GB is wasting your money, and if you have additional money to spend it is better to spend it in other areas, for example increasing the amount of SSD storage, or moving from 14” to 16” for larger screen, better speakers and better thermal performance in terms of fan noise.
in addition I have been buying Mac Laptops since 2002 and generally replace every 3 to 5 years, I have never upgraded the RAM back in the day when you could to preserve the life of the machine, and the reasons for upgrading were always for improved performance or functionality, but never because I did not have enough RAM.
As a final example if people had acted on the advice to buy a machine with 32GB of ram a year ago, before the M1 was released to future proof their machine, they probably wasted their money as I suspect in 5 years time they will not be able to upgrade their hardware to the latest version of Mac OS, as in my opinion it is unlikely to support Intel Hardware.
In general the best advice is to spend money on what you need today, and don’t worry too much about the future, because when the future comes it may invalidate the choice you made.
My arguments is supported by data - There are numerous reviews that have done objective tests, some of which have already been linked on the forum that on the whole objectively conclude for the vast majority of users 32GB is wasting your money, and if you have additional money to spend it is better to spend it in other areas, for example increasing the amount of SSD storage, or moving from 14” to 16” for larger screen, better speakers and better thermal performance in terms of fan noise.
in addition I have been buying Mac Laptops since 2002 and generally replace every 3 to 5 years, I have never upgraded the RAM back in the day when you could to preserve the life of the machine, and the reasons for upgrading were always for improved performance or functionality, but never because I did not have enough RAM.
As a final example if people had acted on the advice to buy a machine with 32GB of ram a year ago, before the M1 was released to future proof their machine, they probably wasted their money as I suspect in 5 years time they will not be able to upgrade their hardware to the latest version of Mac OS, as in my opinion it is unlikely to support Intel Hardware.
In general the best advice is to spend money on what you need today, and don’t worry too much about the future, because when the future comes it may invalidate the choice you made.
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Couldn’t have said it better myself but some MR people will simply ignore your comment and continue to say what they want to say.
“I got 32Geeeeees I have more future than you peasants”