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I m planning to buy Macbook pro 13" 2015 model for day to day development purpose. I m confused b/w 8GB and 16GB version.!! Does 16GB version gives much performance advantage over 8GB version?? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance. Here are the complete specs:

Specifications: 2.7GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz 16GB or 8GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM 128GB PCIe-based Flash Storage Intel Iris Graphics 6100 Force Touch trackpad Accessory Kit Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide

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  • What kind of development?
    – bjbk
    Aug 23, 2015 at 2:20
  • Majorly Android development using virtual devices. Also I may run virtual machines.
    – Raju
    Aug 23, 2015 at 2:21
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    The only difference between these models is RAM. Virtualization needs RAM, so the more the better but, still it depends largely on what kind of VM you are running. Linux? Windows? Both? Please update your question with more information. How do you do your Android dev now?
    – bjbk
    Aug 23, 2015 at 2:31
  • Using android studio on windows machine
    – Raju
    Aug 23, 2015 at 2:32
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    I'm going to close this as hardware shopping / off topic. Aside from being primarily opinion based, you'll want to either ask how to benchmark your current computer to determine the RAM needs of your next purchase or explain exactly the workload you need to perform. Many people use the 2015 MacBook for day to day development, so it's hard to justify the added expense of your two Macs without some hard and fast requirements. (1.1GHz dual-core Intel Core M processor with 8 GB of RAM)
    – bmike ♦
    Aug 23, 2015 at 23:05

2 Answers 2

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See this tread on Apple Support Forum

Poster OGELTHORPE writes:

With an SSD, RAM is not as critical. If the bank account permits, then purchase the 16 GB, if not I think you will find the 8 GB will not be that much of a handicap Look at this diagram of the affect of RAM and SSD. Note that the increase to 16 GB from 8 GB is very marginal.

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  • -1 Photoshop needing RAM isn't necessarily a good proxy for "development" IMO. I'm not actually -1 you since the problem is with the question being imprecise and you are just trying to guess what the OP actually needs.
    – bmike ♦
    Aug 23, 2015 at 23:08
  • Thanks, I was trying to guess his needs. The OP was very vague.
    – bjbk
    Aug 23, 2015 at 23:15
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For development especially if you use VM's then 16GB is better since you can "simulate" in this way a more powerful machine. Its only a matter of money of course but if you can, do it! (especially since you can't upgrade at a later time)

I use a 16GB Macbook pro myself and I am able to run Linux/Win VMs for development and it is really great that my machine doesn't feel sluggish at all. (On the contrary! My best Windows experience is running as a VM on my Macbook pro with 8GB available and then having 8 GB for all native mac work. The same goes with Linux based VMs)

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    +1 for VM as a real reason to get more than 8 GB of RAM. I also run VM on the MacBook (1.1 GHz core duo) and get real work done. My VM are all unix, though. I'd be wanting 16 GB if I ran Windows unless I could be sure things would be copacetic in 8.
    – bmike ♦
    Aug 23, 2015 at 23:07

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