The IT Nerd

Here’s a question that just hit my inbox:

I love reading your blog! Thanks for taking the time to do it! I have a question. I’m going to get a new MacBook Pro and I was wondering if I should get it with 8GB or 16GB. I know that I can’t upgrade it later, but I’m afraid that going to 16GB is overkill. What do you think?

Thanks for reading my blog. It’s much appreciated.

You’re right, the MacBook Pros with Retina displays cannot be upgraded. Thus you have to make the right decision at the time of purchase. Now you could always go with what I’ve always told people which is put as much RAM as you possibly afford into it. But the reality is that this decision can be made based on how you will use the MacBook:

• If you’re using it to browse the web and check email then it’s absolutely overkill to put 16GB of RAM. In that use case, there’s no benefit.
• If you’re editing video, running virtual machines using VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop, or editing high resolution photos in Photoshop, or anything of the sort, then 16GB is not overkill. You’ll need it.

Another thing to consider: If you’re starting out as the former, but you’ll be doing the latter at some point, get 16GB.

Hopefully that helps and thanks again for your support.

This entry was posted on December 6, 2013 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Tips with tags Macbook pro. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.