My 2013 15" MBP will reach the end of its life at some point and I'm looking to replace it with a 16" ARM MBP when they're released.
I do full stack web dev with PHP, and JS/Vue/static site generators on the front end. I also do some visual design, and occasional lightweight video editing (iMovie only).
I'll use the new machine for at least 3 years, and maybe even 5 or 6 years. I'd like to get 32GB of RAM, but it is an expensive upgrade, it's not something I'll add just for the sake of it.
How useful do you think the extra 16GB of RAM will be for this sort of work?
Oldest comments (69)
Can't you upgrade urself the ram in the new mbp? If that's the case, buy the cheaper ram, but with better storage
No, they're usually non-upgradable. You have to decide when you buy how much RAM to get.
Ram, disk and battery are all soldered to the motherboard on all current, and probably future mac books. The only way to 'upgrade' them is to buy a new system.
Oh f.....what about getting one which you can upgrade then? Cause its a nonsense the cost for more RAM.
I use a mini 2012 with 8gb ram, I don't do graphic design, but I use emulators for mobile, I barely run 3 iOs + Android on the same time, so....I would say 16 must be fine?
It depends on your workflow. My work machine (not a mac) has 32GB RAM, but I use virtual machines to set up the environment to be close to production like.
If you're running all services locally, then 16GB should be just fine
I've never seen a person that regretted getting more RAM. You should go with min 32GB or 64GB if that's into your budget. I'd definitely go with 64GB if the plan is to use the machine for 5-6 years.
Thanks,
64GB is definitely not in my budget. $600AUD for the 32GB upgrade is plenty... : )
Just checked your profile, and you're a contract developer. Can you go for one of the upgrades and use it as a tax write off? I have no idea of Australian tax laws.
It might be a depreciating asset over time, so possibly can be a bit of a tax write off each year.
You're correct, it's tax deductible, but I still have to pay for it minus my marginal tax rate 🙂
If you can afford it, get the 32gb. The macbook will last you at least 5 years and better be ready for new requirements, technology, workflow..
Last macbook I bought (mid 2014) I decided to max it out (ram, ssd and gpu) and believe me I dont regret it even if it was quite hard on my wallet..
why not 64?
If I'm doubtful that spending the money for 32GB is worth it then doubling that cost again for 64GB is definitely not.
Physical machine? Try virtual machine. RDP it.
I dont think so it may help. I have used VM from Citrix, and that too, at work. Believe me, you'd feel a lot better and personal hand touch with physical device, running apps than on VMs. The allocation of RAM is always or mostly dynamic even though we can set a max value. It's to my experience and knowledge, based on availability. I'd say, 16 or 32 is ideal based on what I have experienced but definitely i7 or later. I am currently on 16 gb with i5, and I feel it really sucks. I am getting my work device replaced with 16gb, i7. Hoping to see benefits. Btw, I am a windows developer/user.
Kernel level machines have issues compared to machines crafted out from OS level.
Also, you looking for windows which is resource hungry. Windows does not have lighter DEs like xfce. Anyways, look at this thread may it help you in talking decision
quora.com/Does-the-number-of-cores...
Hmm . Sure thing. Thanks.
32 for VMs on a Mac I think, at work, we have both 16 and 32GB models and the 16s really struggle (we are however running 5 docker containers with things like MySQL and Redis for local development).
Here I go with my minimalistic setup for web-development it works fine for me but not awesome but 16GB ram is sufficient but take care of browsers open and tabs to friends then everything will go smooth like butter 😂💯 and use firefox you can check it out my recent article on dev why firefox is the best browser for web-development .
wow, not so minimalist :)
I found your stickers are sticking in my eye as well as my Brain.....
AHHH, soooooo Coooooooooolllll
At the best of my knowledge, ARM64 code is little bit less dense than x86_64. From the other hand, most of RAM space is consumed by data, not the code, so most likely there will be no significant difference. Nevertheless, apps tend to consume more RAM so for hardware which is intended to be used during long term it worth to buy as much RAM as you can afford.
You can also reduce memory usage by pick the right software.
Building process with node can consume a lot of memory, so more is better for you.
But i have 16GB (Linux), and don't have moments i have to few memory.
But if you can afford and you don't want to think about memory usage for the next years, you can get the 32GB.
16GB? 32GB? I have only 4gigs....smh
That's rough 🙁
I can't even run vscode with extensions bruh... 😂
4GB can only run some Electron instances. Pick between Slack or VS Code
Nah, sublime and firefox. Take it or leave it.
Sublime? Rather Emacs. I actually did that my first weekend on the job. We had some miscommunication so I showed up without a laptop. Ended up using a thin client with 4GB of RAM, set up Archlinux with Plasma 5, Emacs, PostgreSQL, PHP and Firefox.
Never tried emacs, will give it a go
Same, same, the 4 gig life is rough
I have 32gb. .. To run arch, i3, few terminals, ssh and vim, rarely use more than 2gb.(RoR dev) so it largely depends, on your workflow, I guess
16GB would be enough for your use case. If you're planning on using VMs or heavy video editing then upgrade to the 32GB.
I have a 2011 Macbook Pro. Since the stuff is not glued I was able to upgrade it to 16Gigs of RAM and 512GB SSD.
For web development it still runs damn fine even though the CPU is like 10 years old.
So if you go with 16GB RAM, the newest ARM CPU and a SSD you should be well prepared for web development for the next years tbh.
Have a good look at non-Apple kit. You can run Linux on anything that runs Windows so you don't have to so that, and you don't pay the Apple Tax. You'll not find a better touch-pad than MBP's tho.
If you're doing apple app Dev then you need a MBP, else, you're just buying into the ecosystem.
Beware the non-Apple laptops following their lead on soldered components, though.
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