Apple keeps flogging 8GB of RAM for its Mac computers but it's still a dead horse
Apple keeps flogging 8GB of RAM for its Mac computers but it's still a dead horse
Apple says 8GB is dandy for most mainstream tasks but that's not actually true.
They'll continue selling these, purely because of two reasons:
- On an Air, 8gb is the bare minimum that is realistically viable, for people who don't do anything than browse the web, who they can later upsell, when they get a new machine.
- They can immediately upsell you for every extra memory tier you would need. This makes them a colossal amount of money.
Practically all of us know that the difference between these memory modules is pocket change, when mass produced like this, but for those extra couple cents, they get an extra 100$ from you
738GB of RAM is perfectly usable for basic things, but on a new computer, with that price, non-upgradable... ech...
65The 8gb ram MacBook works great for your average Mac user. The person who uses it for writing resumes and surfing YouTube which I'm sure is a huge chunk of the market. Devs/Gamers/power users can't make do with 8gb, but my sister in law who just does paper work and teams meetings all day is served well by her 2016 laptop, and wouldn't have any issue with an 8gb MacBook.
19I don’t disagree that 8GB is generally less than I would accept for normal usage, but the way this article is written you can tell the author really doesn’t have any reasonable grasp of memory management.
16The reality distortion field is collapsing.
14Predictions: the tradeoff here is (1) better thermals and battery wear, but (2) decreased responsiveness and (3) increased storage use, which in certain cases might result in (4) sudden sluggishness.
Explanations:
- Thermals and battery use/longevity are measurably worse in the high-ram configs of prev models (if you need it, you already know) so, price aside, this could be a better config for some users.
- Swapfile on recent SSDs over gen4 is now more than fast enough to keep memory pressure very low while performing most tasks, however I would expect a greater number of noticeable latency spikes (which honestly might not be that noticeable to most users)
- IIRC swap is still unlimited, so attempting high memory pressure tasks may diminish actual free space.
- If that’s already low, purgeable space must be freed, resulting in sudden high CPU use and general performance degradation.
Disclaimer: I don’t work for Apple, haven’t read any tech bulletins on this, and will never read this article. I’m just guessing.
12At these prices I'd expect at least 32 GB of RAM. 8 GB is for entry level phones and SOHO 2 to 4 bay NAS boxes.
8The ramifications of Apple standardizing on-die RAM are going to be felt all over.
7I spent about a year arguing with C-levels that our fleet running 8GB was slowing down productivity, with evidence to prove it. It was like pulling teeth to procure some SODIMMs.
I’d still say this article is coming at things from the wrong perspective. That $700 Walmart M1 MBA is more than adequate for most kids doing school work, and/or grandparents farting around on FB. If you have a family and had to grab a few identical laptops, and you aren’t able/willing to be tech support, it really makes a lot of sense financially.
4Who cares? Buy em or don't.
4Oh Timmy... Linux typically uses less RAM than macos and I have 64 gigs in my laptop.
3Do not take anyone that buys a mac seriously. In any way.
32GB has been my minimum laptop memory for YEARS now. My current laptop was 64GB from the factory and 2 years later I made it 128GB. Nice socketed ECC RAM. If the RAM or SSD is soldered on a laptop, I'm not buying it.
3Everyone’s experience and usage is different, but I have a base M2 MacBook Air with 8gb of RAM and besides web browsing, streaming/air playing some videos, and typing some documents, I don’t do much else. I never feel the need for more RAM.
2My car radio update would have much more than that! LOL.
1Admitted, I haven't read all the comments. I bought a refurbished M2 Mini to use as a cheap media server last week, and so I can use AirMessage with apple users in my life. The M2 Mini is a step down in every way from my ancient mid 2012 MacBook Pro except heat and efficiency. RAM, gotta pay extra for it. Disk space, gotta pay out the ass for it too, and you can't even get a Mini with the amount of apace I put in my mid 2012 MBP. (4TB)I want to like it, but it's SO LIMITING without paying out the ass and getting nickel and dimed for everything. I love macOS, especially compared to the disaster that is windows 10 and 11, but it's ridiculous and so anti consumer nowadays! Which to be fair, Steve Jobs' ultimate goal with all their products was to make it this way. Want to backup an iPad and iPhone? Good luck. You run out of space almost immediately with the 256GB of storage. Want to use an external disk for those backups? Use symbolic links and terminal, but you'll have to manually move them to the Mac if you ever need to restore. I have a 6tb external disk attached to it now, but I'm afraid I'm still gonna be hamstrung somehow. All my photos, time machine backups, and media are on the external for obvious reasons. I was also going to pick up a MacBook Air 15" m3 (with upgrades) from Apple, but I'm really rethinking it right now, macOS or not.
0How is it not true? Damn near everyone I know that has a macbook uses it to cruise the internet and look fancy doing it.
-8This author needs to go back to a time where you had to manage 512MB of memory.
People back then would've killed for 8GB now.
The problem I see though is software developers having a field day with not caring about optimizing and not making their software bloated as possible so that it doesn't require so much memory.
-8