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As some of you know, I gig live with my laptop running MainStage. My project has grown to more than 120+ songs, with no particular setlist (we watch the audience and call them out as needed). I do one patch per song, but many songs are made up of "Alias" patches (think V-Rack in DP), so they don't take up any additional RAM. That said, with as many patches and songs as I run, I'm running out of RAM fast, even with 16GB. Already, it looks like I'm digging about 1GB into Virtual Memory, and I had to pair down my project about 6 weeks ago because I was starting to get some problems.

Basically, I need a 32GB MacBook Pro... unfortunately, now it seems Apple solders their RAM chips onto the motherboard (What the heck?!), and the most they offer now is 16GB, and that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon. I have an early 2011 model, but was there ever a year before they switched to soldered RAM that the computer could hold some kind of 16GB chip (with two making 32GB)? I would go back and find an older model if I could do this!

EDIT: Another thought I just had is, would getting an SSD improve memory performance because Virtual Memory should be about 100x faster? Obviously an SSD isn't as fast as a RAM chip, but would it be better for VIs than an HDD?

An SSD made a big difference to my MBP. Everything is faster. Mine will not do 32G RAM and it looks newer than yours. Have a look at the upgrade kits at OWC for your MBP. If it can be done, they have probably got the kit.

But first, have a look at what Activity Monitor tells you about RAM use. I sometimes see VM activity on my Macs, (though not from DP) before RAM is fully used. There have also been reports from time to time of background processes gobbling up RAM without releasing unused portions. You can see that in Activity Monitor too if it's happening. So adding more RAM may not actually help.

bayswater wrote:An SSD made a big difference to my MBP. Everything is faster. Mine will not do 32G RAM and it looks newer than yours. Have a look at the upgrade kits at OWC for your MBP. If it can be done, they have probably got the kit.

But first, have a look at what Activity Monitor tells you about RAM use. I sometimes see VM activity on my Macs, (though not from DP) before RAM is fully used. There have also been reports from time to time of background processes gobbling up RAM without releasing unused portions. You can see that in Activity Monitor too if it's happening. So adding more RAM may not actually help.

As Bays indicates, there are no MBPs capable of more than 16G RAM. The ones that come with mechanical HHDs and do not have Retina displays have upgradable RAM but the max is still 16G.

I recently upgraded my daughter's 2010 MBP with an SSD. She refuses to use one without an optical drive or her Apple engineer hubby would have replaced it by now.

It's very easy as a DIY project (10 minutes one-handed). I placed her HHD in a USB dock so that I could port everything over using Migration Assistant—that took a few hours then I upgraded her to El Capitán which took more time.

Anyway, it's as if she has a new machine. Like you, she uses MainStage for live performance although her DAW is Logic Pro X. Considering that a 1T SSD is now under $300 and a 2T is under $600, what's not to like?

When the batteries go bad on these, they expand and can break motherboards, keyboards and display screens. My other daughter's battery tripled its thickness in less than an hour. I've now had to throw out a few of MacBooks and MBPs due to this issue. According to my son-in-law, 5 years is the maximum safety zone on this. I've pointed out that my daughter's 2010 is now older than this and he needs to get this done.

Yeah, I've been checking Activity Monitor pretty religiously, background processes might eat up a bit here and there, but nothing compared to MainStage with a full project... we're talking 10GB+ right there. OWC doesn't have a solution, I've contacted them. Seems DDR3 chips don't come any larger than 8GB. The newer macs use DDR5, which do come in 16GB and maybe even 32GB sizes, but as I mentioned, they're soldered in.

I have noticed that Virtual Memory is always being used to some degree, even when I haven't reached anywhere near my max. I guess there may be some tasks that the computer understands don't need to be instantly accessed or something, and delegates it to swap space.

mikehalloran wrote:When the batteries go bad on these, they expand and can break motherboards, keyboards and display screens. My other daughter's battery tripled its thickness in less than an hour. I've now had to throw out a few of MacBooks and MBPs due to this issue. According to my son-in-law, 5 years is the maximum safety zone on this. I've pointed out that my daughter's 2010 is now older than this and he needs to get this done.

Lol! Just replaced the battery two days ago! It was sort of a pain to get because I'm in Hawaii, and there are new tough restrictions on shipping Lithium-Ion batteries. Thankfully, I found a local outfit that sold them for $60, so I was able to avoid the genius bar (whew!). Everything's working well, though my trackpad doesn't click quite like it used to, which is pretty common. I hold it down for a while and it starts clicking away for a bit, but then after about 20 minutes, the battery rises up again and makes it harder to click :\ I just have to get used to the new response though.