13" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar: 8GB or 16GB?

• 

  Elwes on 28/12/2016 - 16:52

  +1

  If you're likely to keep it for 5 years, max out the RAM.

  • 

    Elwes on 28/12/2016 - 16:53

    +1

    I'd consider getting more storage too, unless you plan to not take it away from your external drives too often.

• 

  iridiumstem on 28/12/2016 - 17:01

  +1

  If I remember correctly, that statement was from Phil Schiller when someone asked why there is no a 32GB RAM option for the new Macbook Pro. Basically he said above 16GB is not an option because of the battery life.

  To put more than 16GB of fast RAM into a notebook design at this time would require a memory system that consumes much more power and wouldn’t be efficient enough for a notebook.

  In more detail, he mentioned that there is no LPDDR4 option available for Skylake and design would've needed to be changed and that would've reduced battery size.

  So don't worry about 16GB being an issue since that whole power stuff was more about why Apple didn't make 32GB RAM as an option?

  http://www.macrumors.com/2016/11/21/phil-schiller-32gb-ram-m…

• 

  Diji1 on 28/12/2016 - 18:03

  +2

  and the RAM regularly runs low

  Is it impacting performance though? Do you notice applications appearing to be slower when RAM is low?

  So don't worry about 16GB being an issue since that whole power stuff was more about why Apple didn't make 32GB RAM as an option?

  It will use more power, that is an issue with mobile computing.

  I would stick to 8GB with your usage.

  • 

    johnny1983 on 28/12/2016 - 20:31

    I've noticed performance becoming slow only recently in particular when browsing web pages. Web pages start freezing until I flush out the memory using the Memory Clean App

• 

  p1 ama on 28/12/2016 - 20:21

  +3

  Some say excessive RAM uses more power.

  It's negligible. Out of the components in your notebook, the RAM is likely to be one of the least wattage components. Of course, the main violator here is the screen. If you want to conserve power, move to a darker environment and turn down the brightness if that's important to you.

  Others say it's best to future-proof it now as you cannot upgrade the RAM

  This is the main point, in my opinion. 8GB has been the standard amount of RAM to get for a few years now. It seems like the amount of RAM required doubles approximately every 4 years or so. In 2010, the standard amount of RAM would have been 4GB, around 2014, it would have been 8GB, now is the transitory stage where mid-range machines have 8GB, but mid-high range machines have 16GB.

  I'm attempting to avoid a similar scenario should I hold onto the laptop for five years.

  I expect that in around two years, you'll see that the mainstream amount of RAM to have is 16GB, with mid-high range machines having 32GB. Take this into account when making your purchase. Essentially, if you intend to keep your machine for longer than 2-3 years, then I recommend that you get it with 16GB RAM.

  How much Apple charges for RAM is absolutely a rip-off, in my opinion, but if you want to buy into the Apple ecosystem, then the (literal) price you pay is expensive upgrades, a walled garden approach and just all-round less value for your money. If you want to make your dollar go further, get something like a Dell XPS 13 - literally 2/3rds the price of a Macbook Pro 13" with better specs.

  In response to why Apple doesn't offer a 32GB option. I think it's blindly obvious. Their argument about power efficiency is nothing but an excuse, really. I suspect that the true reason why Apple isn't offering a 32GB option is because performance is rarely the reason why people upgrade their machines anymore. Over the past five years or so, microarchitecture has barely changed. You have incremental upgrades of around 5% or so per generation - in fact, a Sandy Bridge chip from early 2011 (six years ago!) is still a very competent performer today***. The big leaps have been in flash storage, RAM and power efficiency. Apple knows this, they need reasons for people to upgrade in a few years time. RAM constraints is a perfect way of doing that.

  ***I still use an i7 2600K as my second system and for all intents and purposes, it's the same as my i7 6700K, the only difference is it may take a little longer (say 15%) to export a video or something like that, but for 95% of my day-to-day tasks (mundane stuff - Word, Excel, Chrome, Lightroom/Photoshop…etc.) I wouldn't be able to tell between the two.

• 

  johnny1983 on 28/12/2016 - 20:35

  Thanks everyone for taking the time to provide insights. I'm using JBHIFI work vouchers to pay for most of it, so I've decided to up the RAM and storage forking out the few hundred difference in cash.

  • 

    cheapisgood on 28/12/2016 - 22:20

    good idea.

    8GB may seem fine for now, but if you want it to last and be future proof for a few years, bumping up to 16GB is the wise choice.

    For storage, not too much of an issue considering you can do external drive but I would up it to 512GB at least if you got the $$. If not 256GB would be fine.

• 

  nubzy on 29/12/2016 - 10:34

  Just wondering what makes you go Mac?? I have always admired the design and thought I would like to own one someday, but this latest iteration has removed a lot of ports and seems extremely over priced. The Dell XPS 13 looks like much better value to me, and higher spec.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 29/12/2016 - 10:51

    Don't trigger them.

    Paying over $2000 for a MAC laptop to do basic tasks is worth it.

  • 

    johnny1983 on 29/12/2016 - 15:57

    For me its having bought loads of Apple specific apps, build quality and build quality. The issues with ports and no SD card don't worry me too much as I hardly connect anything to it.

    I did see the Dell XPS at the store and it looks like a solid machine. I currently have a Windows PC for work (Maxxed out Lenovo T460s) and I must admit having a touch screen is nice.

    • 

      p1 ama on 29/12/2016 - 23:47

      For me its having bought loads of Apple specific apps, build quality and build quality.

      The build quality is nice, but I don't think it's all that great - it's made out of aluminium, an extremely soft and malleable metal which means that it scratches and dents very easily. There's a difference between build quality and something feeling good in the hand. I agree that it's solid and the unibody aluminium feels/looks good, but it's not a practical material.

      If you knock a Macbook against a door, it will dent. If you keep it in a bag along with other metallic things (e.g. zips) it will scratch. If it was excellent build quality, people wouldn't buy cases to cover it up with.

      I used to have a Lenovo Thinkpad T420 from a few years back. That thing was thrown into a bag, dropped, it's been kicked, abused and knocked about and it's fine. Composite materials are far superior to malleable metals for most things now, it's just that people prefer the cool touch of metal. Plastics don't scratch as easily and don't dent and modern composites don't crack and break the way that old polymers did.

      • 

        johnny1983 on 30/12/2016 - 00:11

        Totally agree. A manager at work was sent to the Lenovo testing lab in China where they built them and shown a machine used to test durability.

        The results of the harshest of tests whereby the laptop is dropped, twisted, etc. resulted in the Lenovo screen becoming slightly damaged whereby the Mac was twisted and unusable.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 29/12/2016 - 11:00

  -1

  Let me explain something to you.

  There is absolutely no reason to get 32 GB of RAM on a laptop with a 13" screen, no dGPU and low voltage processor. You will never reach that type of usage. Even 16GB of RAM is a lot for what you'll be doing with it. If you have the cash, then go for it.
  As for that bullshit argument that More RAM reduces battery life, it's somewhat true, but mostly misleading. Apple decided to make their laptops anorexic and try to reduce heat output, so they made their batteries smaller, which took a hit to the battery life. I don't think they want to sacrifice anymore battery life even if RAM only consumes a few watts of power. We're talking <5 watts for laptop RAM.

  Dell, Lenovo and HP laptops can have 32 GB of RAM, but that's only in their business laptops, which cost FAR more than your average MacBook. I believe the XPS15 can have 32 GB of RAM, but it will cost you around $3700.

  I mainly surf the web, watch movies and some light video, photo editing with Adobe. Also looking to get back into some casual Flight Simulator gaming.
  Thoughts? Comments are mixed online. Some say excessive RAM uses more power.

  Why not just get a cheap 'As New' or 'Refurbished' Dell Latitude from the dell outlet? It will only cost you $800-$1299. The laptop will last you 5+ years. Free returns for 14 days.
  Adobe software runs better on Nvidia GPUs too.

  I moved all my bosses from Macbooks to Dell business laptops (latitudes and precisions) and they're super happy, because I took the time to address all their questions.

  Please don't bite my head off. I'm just saying you can save over $1500 if you just switch to a Windows laptop. You can even run a MAC OS VM on your computer if you wish. It's very easy to setup. Lots of guides on youtube.