That's the fear! If they combine the extra RAM with a new design, it sadly seems almost a certainty... 😬
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16GB of RAM Could Be the New Minimum in Apple's Upcoming M4 Macs
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This is Apple. So there is often a gap between “should do” vs what actually gets done
Exactly. They're not giving the extra RAM to us finally for any reason other than so that their "Apple Intelligence" tools don't lag and bring them heaps of bad publicity.
8 GB M1 Air has been fine for my wife and probably 50% or more of the "masses".
It is time to bump it up to 16. I went with 18 GB of RAM on my Pro m3 14" and not sweating it (memory pressure in Activity Monitor hovers ~15-20% max zZzZzZzZz...).
It is time to bump it up to 16. I went with 18 GB of RAM on my Pro m3 14" and not sweating it (memory pressure in Activity Monitor hovers ~15-20% max zZzZzZzZz...).
Wait, are we back to two memory channels or should he have said 18?
storadera.com
Apple M3 Pro's Weird Memory Configuration Explained - Storadera
A simple explanation why M3 Pro has weird memory options like 18GB and 36GB. There are actually 2 simple reasons for that.
storadera.com
So why don't you and other creatives by these computers?
Why are you buying expensive Macs while there are better and cheaper computers out there?
Do you want to punish yourself?
What you seem to forget, is that a lot of people are only throwing ping pongs at their Macs.
Unix rooted here as well (SunOS/Solaris). Technically macOS is actually the only Unix left out of your list [1].
The cruel irony is that my company mandates Windows on most hardware yet all we do is run Linux on it in WSL2... urgh!
[1] https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/brand3700.htm
Are you saying Apple customers are so dysfunctional, they can't switch to another personal computer?
They would rather stay angry and be filled with hate because it's still better than being a Windows user?
Electronics retailers like Best Buy and Amazon routinely offer sales on the "stock" models, which for consumer units like the MacBook Air, Mini, and iMac are only available in 8GB. If those models get bumped up to 16GB, even with a price hike, that means they'll be more widely available and could be obtained at a discount. In other words even if the 2024 plain M4 MacBook Pro is bumped up to $1799 (which I doubt) you can probably still get one on Amazon in a few months for $100-200 off.
Who says I will buy a new MacBook Air? If my MacBook Air breaks, I will get a nice ultra portable PC with 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, OLED and 120hz display for the same price based on the AMD HX 370 chip.
If we're lucky, the base MacBook Pro will start with the M4 Pro chip. The base M chips simply don't need such a large chassis to cool them. It's not like they clock them higher than in an iPad.
It's the bottleneck. The efficiency of the chip is being lost in the swap you inevitably have to do in RAM. The universal memory standard is almost there, but code will have to be seriously rewritten to treat a partition of the SSD as RAM treat SSD as RAM in a swap within the OS.
8 GB is barely enough to run MacOS and will soon be barely enough for iOS.
8 GB is barely enough to run MacOS and will soon be barely enough for iOS.
It's 2024. No computer should come with less than 16gig ram and 512gig HD.
My Windows computer is a 2014 Intel Haswell Pentium @ 3.1 GHz.
It came with 4 GB and I upgraded to 8. 4+4.
Even with 8 Gigs of RAM and Windows 10, running the system with nothing open uses 40% of the RAM.
Two Chrome browser tabs open jumps to 50%. One is 48%.
I can't imagine a current version of Mac OS uses fewer resources.
My old iMac from 2007 came with Tiger and an upgrade to Leopard.
One GB RAM but Leopard only needed .5 GB.
It now has 2 GB (1+1) and the newest OS it can run, maybe High Sierra, is pinwheel city.
My point is an entry level product needs enough RAM for the future.
You keep whatever you purchase forever after all.
Someone who purchases 8 GB RAM today could be sorry for the life of the product.
Does Apple care about that? Of course not. Just replace it.
We're a Trillion Dollar company you know.
It came with 4 GB and I upgraded to 8. 4+4.
Even with 8 Gigs of RAM and Windows 10, running the system with nothing open uses 40% of the RAM.
Two Chrome browser tabs open jumps to 50%. One is 48%.
I can't imagine a current version of Mac OS uses fewer resources.
My old iMac from 2007 came with Tiger and an upgrade to Leopard.
One GB RAM but Leopard only needed .5 GB.
It now has 2 GB (1+1) and the newest OS it can run, maybe High Sierra, is pinwheel city.
My point is an entry level product needs enough RAM for the future.
You keep whatever you purchase forever after all.
Someone who purchases 8 GB RAM today could be sorry for the life of the product.
Does Apple care about that? Of course not. Just replace it.
We're a Trillion Dollar company you know.
Don't let Dell hear you say that. Basic Inspiron products are 8/256. BUT you can change that.
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An 8GB minimum wouldn't be an issue except for older machines could have RAM swapped out or added to (with anybody's RAM, too). These things are stuck with whatever you started with. Apple loves the lock-in effect but nobody else does.
That's why macOS swaps aggressively even long before you might need more memory for something.
In modern Macs, you don't need all applications to stay in RAM.
I've changed my mindset on this after using more programs at once. It's not acceptable for even an entry level model (M1 Air) to slow down this much with just "basic" tasks running. 16GB should be the bare minimum for future Macs. I hope they have the sense to keep prices the same. We all know RAM is dirt cheap these days, and it would turn off many customers if they were forced to pay for a hardware update that is necessary for functionality at this point.
That base Inspiron with 8/256 costs LESS THAN A THIRD of the cheapest M3 Air, though. £349 vs £1,099. The specs are fair for £349, if the storage can be upgraded.
Because it was sufficient. I bought my girlfriend's mother, who is 82, a M2 Mac mini with 8Gb of RAM, last week.
Her usage: Safari for email and Internet banking, Photos, writing text documents and sometimes printing them.
The machine will probably last until she dies.
56Gb of unified memory > 32 + 24Gb of dedicated memory.
You should compare the same amount of memory.
but at least the average consumer that wants 16GB can take advantage of the blowout sales in other retailers since the base model is what Apple sends to them
This is sad news for MacRumors, since it will drive down site traffic on this issue.