Count Blah
macrumors 68040
Kinda like how they sold the 2014 with dual core, 4 Gigs of RAM and a spinny drive, and claimed it worked with MacOS just fine.
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2018 mini: 16GB RAM makes a difference over 8GB.
- Thread starter WilliamG
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I know people with those setups, and they do work "just fine" for a lot of people.
We are just not a lot of people.
Hessel89
macrumors 6502a
That's probably because your wife's 2017 MacBook Pro i5 has a discrete GPU or at the very least an Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640. 8GB is not fine when the system alone utilizes +/- 4,5 GB with 500 MB in cache. turn on iCloud and it uses even more. So no, 8GB is definitely not enough for a Mac mini neither any other modern Mac with no dGPU.
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We can agree to disagree. Most people will be fine with 8GB. I’m not including myself in the “most people” category.
shouldn't VRAM be "wired"?
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201464
However, a big monitor can invite the user to spawn lots of windows. And that can induce WindowServer to request more memory. How does 10.13 GB sound?
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he said 13", it has an iris pro 640 which performs roughly the same as the UHD 630.
edit: oh wait, it might have iris pro 650. (that would perform better than UHD 630)
Count Blah
macrumors 68040
Sure, if you don't use the UI and just have it to vend media as a server.
No, I mean it works as a normal computer. Some people really, really don't care about having a solid 60fps UI. I'm so spoiled my a 165hz desktop on my PC that even a 60hz UI is pretty grim for me to get used to. 😀
I'm thinking about the Mac Mini i7, 512GB with 16GB (I'm too scared to upgrade it myself from 8GB and think the Apple 32GB is way overpriced).
I've read about display lag, YouTube videos playing at a low frame rate, and Safari slowing down if you have multiple tabs open. Surely the computer will be able to run without any issues with 16GB?
As I understand it this memory is used for graphics memory, so if an egpu is added this leaves the main RAM free?
If I got the same model but with 8GB RAM (with the hope to get an expert to upgrade it) would it function properly?
Apple stores do RAM upgrades, does anyone know how much they charge (in the UK) and if they would upgrade 3rd party RAM bought elsewhere?
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revmacian
macrumors 68000
I have a Mac mini late 2014 base model (4GB RAM) running without issue - though it does use swap now and then. I also have a refurbished 2017 MacBook Pro with 8GB RAM running without issue and no swap used in the 3 days I've had it. I think 16GB RAM is overkill.
gusping
macrumors 68020
I have an i7 2018 Mac mini with 16GB RAM and it uses 10-12GB with my very light use. Three safari windows with a total of 7-10 tabs, one of which is a YouTube video (500-700mb alone), then Spotify, and Skype. That's it. That uses 10-12GB. It's crazy. I also have 4K monitor which probably ups that a bit.
revmacian
macrumors 68000
I ran Linux and BSD for years and I learned some things about random access memory. macOS is based on BSD, and BSD based systems utilize all available RAM, whether it needs it or not. The saying in the BSD world is; "unused RAM is wasted RAM". Just because it uses 10-12 GB of RAM doesn't mean that amount of RAM is actually necessary, which is why my 4GB RAM Mac mini runs fine with Mojave. 16GB RAM is not necessary.. yet.
gusping
macrumors 68020
Makes sense, and I agree. You want as much of your ram used as possible. Thanks for sharing this! Makes me feel slightly better.
Yep. Well said. I ran my 2018 i5 mini with 8GB for a few days without issue, and definitely some RAM free. Now I’m running the exact same apps with 16GB and all of a sudden I consistently have only 6GB RAM free.
revmacian
macrumors 68000
Yep, the 16GB system is using every bit of RAM it can get hold of. However, as you saw with your 8GB mini, 16GB RAM isn't actually necessary.. not even for 'wiggle room'.
cocky jeremy
Suspended
Save money and just do it yourself. I did the 32 GB iFixit upgrade. Super easy, super quick.
harriska2
macrumors 68020
Ah, thank you. I have windowserver taking a ton of memory. I thought it was because I’m connected to my windows 7 machine (mac newbie here). I do have a lot of windows open. And I have only 8 gb ram. And I do have a large 40” 4k monitor. I’m thinking of upgrading to 32 gb sooner rather than later. It’s down to $244 on amazon now.
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Hmm, I have 8gb but generally none free with lots of hard drive swapping. I’m using Affinity Photos to cut up uncompressed TIFF images and save them separately. I suspect in my case 32gb would be helpful (or at least 16).
tagumcity
macrumors regular
These other posts are satisfied at 4 or 8 GB being adequate for their usage pattern.
Your on point 16GB is a minimum to be adequate over the lifespan of this device.
I’m running 32 GB for moment and definitely will go to 64 GB when it prices at $300.
Reality4711
macrumors 6502a
i5+8Gb Mac mini 4kLG - no problem/2K BenQ - no problem - Eizo 1080 - no problem - Samsung 4K - no problem.
All 32" except Eizo 24".
Usage - all Apple software plus odd bits in Affinity Photo - lots of screen time.
From these observations the base Mac mini seems to drive 4K well enough to satisfy general usage. Obviously no - gaming/rendering/video (other than iPhone quickies)/coding and stuff like that but I doubt someone with these things in mind is likely to buy this machine anyway.
Oh settled on the BenQ 2K finally. It is VA but has lovely tonal balance that suits my wife's usage and really seems to cut down on the tired eye thing of an evening. The 4Ks were all run scaled (with no problems). Oh by the way eyes tested twice yearly (health reasons) and the 2K is undetectable to the wife although I find it a bit soft. Hoses for courses.
All 32" except Eizo 24".
Usage - all Apple software plus odd bits in Affinity Photo - lots of screen time.
From these observations the base Mac mini seems to drive 4K well enough to satisfy general usage. Obviously no - gaming/rendering/video (other than iPhone quickies)/coding and stuff like that but I doubt someone with these things in mind is likely to buy this machine anyway.
Oh settled on the BenQ 2K finally. It is VA but has lovely tonal balance that suits my wife's usage and really seems to cut down on the tired eye thing of an evening. The 4Ks were all run scaled (with no problems). Oh by the way eyes tested twice yearly (health reasons) and the 2K is undetectable to the wife although I find it a bit soft. Hoses for courses.
mpfuchs
macrumors 6502a
Yes, of coarse it makes a difference. Just depending on the use case it might be more or less noticeable.
- rob -
macrumors 65816
Last night I did Geekbench 5 benchmarks on a brand new i7 running 10.14.6 with 8gb preinstalled, followed by 32gb of Crucial. System was clean for both tests.
Geekbench 5 marks went from:
| Single-core Score | Multi-core Score | |
| 8gb Mac mini i7 | 1170 | 5680 |
| 32gb Mac mini i7 | 1173 | 6664 |
It seems like you don’t get a major benchmark change from going between 16 to 32 gigs.
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No offence, but I can’t anything you say seriously if you are content with the performance of that machine.
I bought it 3 years ago and it was the worst, most sluggish, awful computer I’ve ever used.
It went back to the Apple store the following week, where an employee told me “everyone who buys that model returns it”.