04-28-2018, 12:12 AM
8GB is tight these days. The OS hits the drive so hard that adding the overhead of virtual memory page-outs is definitely gonna be detectable.
The SSD makes up for a lot, but APFS kills a bit of the speed advantage, especially when FileVault is enabled. And you're going to have to upgrade to High Sierra (or its successor) some day. Should be ready for it...
Still, if the user isn't running all of those apps at the same time or doesn't have a lot of tabs open in Chrome/Firefox all at once and reboots every few days, it's not gonna be that big a performance hit.
'Thing is, if you're the kind of person who can get along on 8GB RAM in your workflow, maybe you don't need to shell out for a MacBook Pro. Maybe an Air is all that you need.
"Pro" users hit their Macs hard. That's why they get "pro" Macs.
The SSD makes up for a lot, but APFS kills a bit of the speed advantage, especially when FileVault is enabled. And you're going to have to upgrade to High Sierra (or its successor) some day. Should be ready for it...
Still, if the user isn't running all of those apps at the same time or doesn't have a lot of tabs open in Chrome/Firefox all at once and reboots every few days, it's not gonna be that big a performance hit.
'Thing is, if you're the kind of person who can get along on 8GB RAM in your workflow, maybe you don't need to shell out for a MacBook Pro. Maybe an Air is all that you need.
"Pro" users hit their Macs hard. That's why they get "pro" Macs.