Macbook Pro for Audio Production - 16 vs 32 GB RAM?

[worldfever]

I currently own one of the whack 2018 Macbook Pros and wanna upgrade to the new 2019 16 inch one with i9.
I use Ableton and Logic with sometimes really big file sizes, but my project sizes never really go beyond 4-6 gigabytes, but I use alot of processing and vst instruments and effects.
The configuration with 32 Gb RAM costs a whopping 500€ extra.
My question now is, is it worth going for the extra RAM for music production? I cant really tell if it would make an improvement, seems like 16 Gb is plenty, but im no expert.

[Sim.Sky]

First off-if you can afford to wait a while, I’d wait for the first hardware revision. I don’t know for sure, but if I recall correctly, Apple regularly released a revision 1-1,5 years after the original release. Usually they tweak the components and also upgrade the processors. Since the current 16“ MacBook Pro still uses 9th gen intels and comparably „slow“ lpddr3 RAM (whereas the new MacBook Air for instance comes with 10th gen processors and faster memory) I’m pretty sure that the first revision of the 16“ model will be released during this year and feature quite a few upgrades at no additional cost. I find it just so frustrating when you shell out a couple of thousands dollars for a new computer only to see that you could have gotten better hardware for the same price some three or so months later.

Anyways, as for your question: of course, you can never have enough RAM when seriously producing and mixing music. I’ve got the 2017 MacBook Pro with 16 gigs and I most definitely will go for more when I eventually get a new one (waiting for the new 13“ model though). It doesn’t happen all the time, but as projects get bigger with more and more plugins, there’s a good chance that I would get that „out of memory“ warning.

However, I also have a couple of programs running besides logic most of the time. No serious memory hogs, but I guess if you’re really only making music on your computer, chances are you won’t run into problems as soon as I do from time to time.

One last thought would be that the answer to your question also depends on how long you plan to keep that new laptop before upgrading again. You said your current one is from 2018, which isn’t that old-is it possible that you would replace the new one after two years as well? Or do you want to stick with it as long as possible? In the former case, I guess 500 extra bucks wouldn’t really be worth it, given that after two years you would buy a new machine for 2,000 dollars anyways. But if you want to be as future proof as possible, investing 500 extra dollars now seems like a good idea-especially since you just can’t upgrade the RAM in MacBooks at all and are stuck with your initial choice.

I hope this all makes somewhat sense and helps you with your decision

[chk071]

If your current machine never exceeds your memory, then the new one won't either.

[Sim.Sky]

If your current machine never exceeds your memory, then the new one won't either.

That is, probably only as long as you keep using the same software and only the same software in the future when there’s a new synth coming out that has considerably higher system requirements and you start to use extensively - then you might run into problems which you haven’t had before because the requirements have always been lower

[chk071]

True. Let me formulate it a bit different then: If you never exceeded 60-70 % of your current machine's memory, you probably won't run into problems with the same amount on the new one either.

500 € is pure extortion. But then, it's Apple. Insane maddafukkers.

[BBFG#]

How many cores?
Although I'm running PC Win, on one machine I'm running 20GB w/4 cores and find the RAM is not really taxed as much as the cores are (Xeon v3).
In comparison, on an older machine, 2-Xeon v1 w/8 cores each (physical) and 32GB RAM each don't exceed 11GB and 7% CPU. (As long as there's no iLok software running. With iLok, 11% with up to 20% spikes.)

[Sim.Sky]

True. Let me formulate it a bit different then: If you never exceeded 60-70 % of your current machine's memory, you probably won't run into problems with the same amount on the new one either.

500 € is pure extortion. But then, it's Apple. Insane maddafukkers.

That I won’t question Apple’s pricing often is hilarious, especially when it comes to custom upgrade options in Macs.

In my case it’s just this: If I buy a computer that costs 2000-3000 dollars and I then run into performance issues which could have been (mostly/partly) prevented by investing another 500 bucks, I’d be frustrated. Because the only way to resolve this problem would be to buy a whole new machine since upgrading is no option. Else I could stick with that (still) crazy expensive laptop, always thinking that I paid so much for something that still doesn’t fit all my needs.

But that’s just my personal view as I said. Generally, I agree with you: if there was a 30-40 percent memory headroom on the old machine then that amount of ram would probably be fine in the future as well!

[worldfever]

First off-if you can afford to wait a while.....
I hope this all makes somewhat sense and helps you with your decision

Thanks for your extensive reply, that helped me already!
I dont really plan on upgrading my computer all that often, this is a special case- my previous machines I bought in 2013, then the one in 2018 - Im only thinking about upgrading because the 2018 one sucks, its touchbar is really buggy and it throttles the CPU alot because of the thermal design. I heard that all this is pretty much fixed in the new MBP, additionally there are some sweet additions like the octacore i9 processor over my i7 6-core.

I think I will need to do a memory test of sorts, where I see what my most demanding projects use up ram-wise. I just checked, just having chrome, spotify, mail and discord open eats away 9gb of ram

[Sim.Sky]

First off-if you can afford to wait a while.....
I hope this all makes somewhat sense and helps you with your decision

Thanks for your extensive reply, that helped me already!
I dont really plan on upgrading my computer all that often, this is a special case- my previous machines I bought in 2013, then the one in 2018 - Im only thinking about upgrading because the 2018 one sucks, its touchbar is really buggy and it throttles the CPU alot because of the thermal design. I heard that all this is pretty much fixed in the new MBP, additionally there are some sweet additions like the octacore i9 processor over my i7 6-core.

You’re welcome, glad I could help Yeah, I think Apple actually did do many things right with the new MacBook Pro-making it slightly bigger for better thermals, finally getting rid of that disaster of a butterfly-keyboard, and other details like bringing back a real escape key ... I think most Windows users are like WTF when they see Apple users freaking out about those seemingly mundane stuff, but I’m just glad Apple did actually listen to their users at last

I think I will need to do a memory test of sorts, where I see what my most demanding projects use up ram-wise. I just checked, just having chrome, spotify, mail and discord open eats away 9gb of ram

haha, those are my usual suspects as well quite interesting when you consider those are more like „utility programs“ and not really software you would think of as resource hungry in the first place. But it all piles up in the end I guess

[worldfever]

I just ran through my most demanding projects in Ableton, one being a score with like 40+ Kontakt instruments playing, the other a huge 120 track project with lots of audio files and soft synths with like a cpu load of 50%, and the 40 Kontakt instrument project used about 10 gb of ram, the other one with more varied stuff about 6 gb. Just for fun I quickly doubled all the Kontakt instruments to get to 80 which just caused my CPU to overload anyways. So I feel like I should be fine with 16 GB actually, since the loads-of-kontakt project is rather rare for me. But I also thought about it and was like, 500€ is not that big an investment, since my computer is pretty much my only real studio instrument. I don't really own a lot of hardware except for speakers, interface, midi controller.

and yeah these small programs tend to add up...especially chrome seems to be a huge memory hog.

[worldfever]

I've also been thinking about getting one of these trashcan 2013-2019 mac pros and keep my old laptop for live play, but they seem to benchmark worse than the 16 inch mbp even though they have 12-core processors? Anyone made experience with these kind of computers and/or can recommend a mac desktop computer?

[Michael L]

Mac mini benchmarks better than trash can on some tests; you can get a 4K screen so plugin GUIs are bigger; get the 10gb Ethernet so when you upgrade in future years it becomes a slave for your sample libraries.

[stillshaded]

I've also been thinking about getting one of these trashcan 2013-2019 mac pros and keep my old laptop for live play, but they seem to benchmark worse than the 16 inch mbp even though they have 12-core processors? Anyone made experience with these kind of computers and/or can recommend a mac desktop computer?

What's crazy is that the 2010 Mac Pro with dual x5690's benchmarks better that the 2013 with the best available cpu, same number of cores. The ease and low cost of upgrading these things make them still worth it in my opinion. I have 32 gb ram, dual x5690, a 2 tb nvme SSd, and a 512 Ahci ssd. This thing is still kind of a screamer. It's pretty crazy.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I just ran through my most demanding projects in Ableton, one being a score with like 40+ Kontakt instruments playing, the other a huge 120 track project with lots of audio files and soft synths with like a cpu load of 50%, and the 40 Kontakt instrument project used about 10 gb of ram, the other one with more varied stuff about 6 gb. Just for fun I quickly doubled all the Kontakt instruments to get to 80 which just caused my CPU to overload anyways. So I feel like I should be fine with 16 GB actually, since the loads-of-kontakt project is rather rare for me. But I also thought about it and was like, 500€ is not that big an investment, since my computer is pretty much my only real studio instrument. I don't really own a lot of hardware except for speakers, interface, midi controller.

and yeah these small programs tend to add up...especially chrome seems to be a huge memory hog.

My first MBP lasted seven years, until accidental water-damage killed it. My current MBP is coming up for eight years-of-age, and still going strong. Now, when I think of these extra costs I think of the amount spread over that kind of time length, and it all tens to work in favour of the extra investment.

Have you considered getting Apple-refurbished as a way of offsetting the extra investment?

[worldfever]

I've also been thinking about getting one of these trashcan 2013-2019 mac pros and keep my old laptop for live play, but they seem to benchmark worse than the 16 inch mbp even though they have 12-core processors? Anyone made experience with these kind of computers and/or can recommend a mac desktop computer?

What's crazy is that the 2010 Mac Pro with dual x5690's benchmarks better that the 2013 with the best available cpu, same number of cores. The ease and low cost of upgrading these things make them still worth it in my opinion. I have 32 gb ram, dual x5690, a 2 tb nvme SSd, and a 512 Ahci ssd. This thing is still kind of a screamer. It's pretty crazy.

that is indeed kind of crazy...Idk whats going on there, im kind of missing an option from apple that lies in between the mac mini and the mac pro

My first MBP lasted seven years, until accidental water-damage killed it. My current MBP is coming up for eight years-of-age, and still going strong. Now, when I think of these extra costs I think of the amount spread over that kind of time length, and it all tens to work in favour of the extra investment.

Have you considered getting Apple-refurbished as a way of offsetting the extra investment?

yeah, i'll get it used in any case! I think im in favor of the 32 Gb to be extra future-proof