Macbook pro Retina Display-Is 8gb ram enough!?!

In my experience, nobody has ever said, "I bought too much RAM."

The general consenes is 4-8GB is enough for now, but later when you sell you likely to want it to have 16GB to attract more buyers as the machine is not upgradable.

I think you've answered your question yourself.

If you're using Photoshop and FCP, it's best to have 16GB just in case you might need it.

Bear in mind, the RAM on the Retina MB Pro is not user upgradeable. If you bought it with 8GB, you're stuck with it.

Since you're planning on keeping it for at least 4 years, go for the 16GB since apps do get upgraded and get more memory hungry.

As CT states " No one says I bought too much RAM "

Performance increases from RAM will occur ONLY when the application(s) being used need it. Otherwise it just sits there doning no harm nor good. Open Activity Monitor and if you see green in the RAM pie, it means the your MBP at that point has RAM to spare.

Ciao.

I took your advice and tested my existing 2011 for usage before deciding. I am now running a max out at 5gb of ram with photoshop, iPhoto, outlook, PowerPoint, excel, rdp and coda running together.

8Gb is plenty and the retina display does not use any more than a normal display

> Since you're planning on keeping it for at least 4 years, go for the 16GB since apps do get upgraded and get more memory hungry.

And if you can only get an 8GB machine, perhaps it would be worthwhile to buy a small external hard drive, and make a backup of what is on the machine now. Then in a few years, you could restore it back to todays software so that it appears to run good when you are selling it with only 8GB of ram....

8 gb of ram is more than enough, I opted for 8 gb on this computer and Ill tell you why. First of all I have a quad core Imac 27 inch 2011. I loaded it with 16 gb of ram. I do some pretty heavy video editng but I am not a professional editor, rather and indie filmmaker so I decided instead of waiting 3-4 weeks I would pick up the base model at the APPLE store and test it out because I figured I have my 14 day window to go with the 16 gb if need be. Results were as follows the same project and clips I decided to test on the imac with an i7 quadcore and 16 gb of ram mid 2011, with the RTMBP were exactly the same, the retina actually rendered a few seconds quicker probably due the SSD. I used motion at the same time and had no page outs with ram to spare, without getting into major details I can comfortably say trust me 8gb is a sweet spot with flash storage and everything else is overkill and will not be used. Many will say the opposite but by the time you need or perceive a need for more you will probably want another computer, 8gb of ram on this laptop will not be a bottleneck. I threw some heavy stuff at it and worked like a champ. Activity monitor showed the IMAC using more ram than the pro but the there werer no page outs at all so there is more than meets the eye, like the video card and processor etc. So I will not be returning this machine! Not necessary whatsoever.

I was in the same position you are in one week ago. I had thought I needed to get the most ram and biggest hard drive. I went to the store, they showed me the three options. The top option with the most ram and biggest hard drive would have even with my educator discount, close to $4,000. I didn't want to pay that much. I decided to get the middle option, which they had in stock. I have been amazed with it. People have told me that I made a bad choice, but the fact is, it was my choice and not theirs to make. Enjoy what you got. My last mbp had 4g RAM and I never did upgrade it, or the hard drive. So I think I will be fine. Go with what you can afford.

8GB is enough period. You should Google how memory is used and managed. There's a HUGE difference between USE and NEED.

Statistically speaking the odds of needing more RAM before one of the following happens are very low

- You break your computer beyond repair

- You lose your computer or have it stolen

- You need a better graphics card

- A laptop with better battery life came out and you want it

That's why the soldered it on. I know it's a mind screw, but trust me unless you're doing some crazy 3D rendering or something you aren't going to need the 16GB. There is no such thing as future proofing your computer. Don't buy into that garbage. There's sooooo many more components in your machine than the RAM to consider.

So i have 8gb of Ram and it made a huge diffrence when editing FCPx. But i still find myself slowing down when i'm editing. Also, i can't have anything else open or it just creaps. This doesn't help with the flow of editing video. So, i was thinking about getting 16gb, i found it for $104 on tigerdirect. not a bad expense vs buying a new mac.

I did the SAME exact thing. Not only did I get to walk out of the store with it in hand (just a thing of mine, I'm a web developer and understand the value of online shopping, but I can't STAND it), but I agree - it is overkill. Other components will become dated long before you need more RAM. There is no such thing as "future-proofing" your computer. Not a laptop. Never has been to be frank. Only desktops can be kept around for a while because you can upgrade them more easily. RAM upgrades in laptops are a thing of the past to be frank...Apple knows this, that's why they had no problem soldering it in. I thought about returning it to the store for the 16GB model in the store (like an additional $1200 or $1600 or something stupid) but I'm not going to. Going to keep the 8GB model. Even the sales guy at the Apple store looked at me like I was nuts when I almost impulse purchased the maxed out model and he talked me out of it. I literally was like screw it and he was like you're nuts. I was VERY impressed by this employee and I'm not sure if that was company protocol or not...but it was refreshing to see an honest sales rep.

Plus for all the reasons I mentioned above...It's really not necessary.

@Hixsonmark Just a note, people here are talking about the new Macbook Pros with Retina. Your Mac can be upgraded, yes, but the new MBP's can not...And yes, video redering falls into the special category where it would help to get the 16GB model.

Just chiming in: I'm in the same position as many others, trying to decide whether going with 16GB RAM and/or a 512GB SSD will make things easier significantly enough to offset the rather steep price increase.

Currently, I'm leaning towards getting the smallest rMBP config:

a) I've only ever had trouble with 8GB RAM on my 27" iMac when a runaway 3-D rendering used up all of it, and then all of the available scratch space on the hard disk. Running Adobe CS5 and Parallel Virtual PCs together with 2 or more browsers, Mail, Coda, BBEdit and what-not has never ever been a problem.

b) as the last reply correctly states: other components in the laptop will become obsolte far faster than we'd like - I'm thinking of the somewhat underpowered GPU first, but from what I read the entire architecure will look rather dated when Intel's Haswell arrives sometimes next year.

So trying to not plan too far in the future with this or any portable is probably a wise advice.

Yea, I really struggled for a while...But let's face it...We all go through computer hardware much faster than we used to. I actually miss the good old days where RAM was $300 for a 4MB module... But despite that insane cost, it just seemed to last a lot longer. Computers are being designed like cell phones. They are being designed to be thrown away. Kinda stinks for the environment too if you think about it.

Also, 32 bit verson of Mac will not support the full 4GB RAM. I'm impressed how fast my MBP 2010 is compared to a PC with the same specs.