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.The problem is it does handle a 5K display. Not well, but it does.
Which is why Apple can get away with it.
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.The problem is it does handle a 5K display. Not well, but it does.
Which is why Apple can get away with it.
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.
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.That’s nothing to do with RAM and all to do with the GPU, though. So as a general rule 8GB RAM is fine with a 5K display. My wife uses a 5K display day in and day out with her 13” 2017 MacBook Pro i5 with 8GB RAM.
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.
I’m curious to know where you came across this information about swapping and compressing video ram. Do you have any references to that effect?
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201464
- Wired Memory: Memory that can’t be compressed or paged out to your startup drive, so it must stay in RAM. The wired memory used by a process can’t be borrowed by other processes. The amount of wired memory used by an app is determined by the app's programmer.
he said 13", it has an iris pro 640 which performs roughly the same as the UHD 630.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.
Sure, if you don't use the UI and just have it to vend media as a server.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.
Sure, if you don't use the UI and just have it to vend media as a server.
Today, 16 GB is the bare minimum to just breathe comfortably.
That is simply not true. Just for anyone else reading this.
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.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?
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.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.
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.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.
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.
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.
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'.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.
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'.
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.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?
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).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.
Apple doesn't optimize for benchmarks. Apple optimizes for performance, and benchmarks measure such performance.
Given a set of benchmarks, you will see a natural variation in the results, independent of RAM or any physical attributes.
That said, more RAM will massively improve performance, for a number of reasons. One is that a lot of RAM is used for cached files, which Apple tends to keep no matter what. Once the system starts to swap, your performance goes down considerably.
Another is that RAM is also used for VRAM, and it is not dedicated. Swapping and compressing will therefore also affect graphics performance.
I maxed out RAM for this very reason, knowing from many years of underwhelming experience of too little RAM and sub-par memory handling on Apple's side.
Today, 16 GB is the bare minimum to just breathe comfortably.
I have a 40" 4k monitor and had 8gb ram until yesterday. It did fine but simply couldn't play hd at any size in youtube as it would stutter the frames constantly. It played low res videos fine. Now with 32gb ram, no problem - even HD at full screen.
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.Do you think 32GB RAM would improve those benchmarks? I suspect they would. What about 64GB RAM?
So, just because more RAM improves the benchmarks.. that means more RAM is necessary for everyday work?
Single-core Score | Multi-core Score | |
8gb Mac mini i7 | 1170 | 5680 |
32gb Mac mini i7 | 1173 | 6664 |
Agreed. My Mac mini (late 2014 base model) only has 4GB RAM and it works fine.