8GB RAM enough for 2015 MacBook Pro?

[RAMd®d]

Regardless of all that — posters above have real world use with 8 GB saying it works fine. Can’t get a better opinion.


A better opinion because that's what somebody wants to hear?

My better opinion is that 8G is not enough for my real world use. I do get that it might be enough for those above who are happy with it in their real world use.

Worst case scenario for BobC should he go with 8G and run low on memory performance— he quits an app or two.

[BobC]

Thanks a lot for so many well-informed and thoughtful opinions. I'm glad to have such a variety of ideas to mull over.

16GB as future-proofing has a lot of appeal. I tend to keep my Macs a long time like this 2009 MBP, and I hope to do that with my next one. When Mavericks came out, it was barely usable until I upgraded to an SSD, and then it flew. (Yes, the Mac has SATA II, and I had to find a drive that would be compatible.) I expect that whatever Mac specs I pick, there will be a point where new OS features (or as Lew said, "bloatware apps" that I need) will leave them behind, but I'm hoping not to hit that sooner than necessary.

Sarcany, that's interesting to hear about your experience with High Sierra slowness. I do use FileVault & would need to keep MS Office current, so I'll check into that further.

jdc, you're right that the 2015 refurbs show up infrequently. Right now, there's just one 15-inch 16/256 model from 2015. I've been hoping that the 13-inch ones come back into play, since I've talked myself into the advantages of extra portability & saving money vs. sticking with the larger screen.

I suppose that my default option of sticking with the 2009 MBP & El Capitan is looking a little more appealing. It does what I need at an acceptable speed, and will probably do so for a while. Plus, I can't beat the price.

[jdc]

Since no one can really tell the future, hard to "future proof".

Maybe "opnion" isnt the right word. How about "real world"? The posters actually using MBPs with 8 GB of ram on a daily basis seem like a pretty good group to get feedback from... right?

Even better if they say things like "I use an 8gb 2015 MacBook Pro for pretty demanding audio recording. Works fine."

I get it, I dont think I could work with anything less than 32 GB of ram, so thats whats in my iMac. 8? LOL. 16? Pfft. 24? Meh. 32. Would be OK with more.

Depending on your storage needs, 2017 MBPs (non touch bar) with 8/128 are $1175 at adorama, and $1400 for 8/256 -- with no tax and free shipping unless you are in NY.

[AllGold]

Have you considered a used 2012 model? They don't cost a lot but give you a pretty big boost in performance going from a Core 2 Duo to an i5 (13") or quad i7 (15"). Plus, they add USB3. If you want a 15" then you want a mid-2012 non-retina model. The late-2012 retina 15"ers had video card problems (as did the 2011s).

The obvious disadvantage of a 2012 (vs a 2015) is no retina display.

[Robert M]

jdc,

What if Bob wants to do more than what he stated in the post? That's when futureproofing comes in and you can predict it to a strong degree. If he's got the bucks and/or the difference in price for the extra RAM isn't tremendous, I'd go for it. At the least, extra RAM never hurts.

Robert