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6 Month investment until Pro, 8GB should be fine right?
- Thread starter shenfrey
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8GB will be just fine as a temporary device. Some people even live off of 8GB for a main device (technically I do, but different device), so you'll live until then.
8 gig will work just fine for your needs. The apps you list don't take that much memory and will easily fit within 8 gig along with MacOS. Go with the lowest you can get, therefore, the cheapest, until the 6 month expires. No use wasting money for something that will not be used. Apple charges a premium for extra memory, well, extra anything.
According to the front page, you can get an M1 with 8GB for $799. Should be more than enough for 6 mos.
I was able to pick up an M2 for $900, though I wish I had seen that offer first would have saved me some money.
Yeah, you'll be fine. I compressed my rather heavy 32GB developer/photographer workflow down to a 13" 8GB M1 MBP as an experiment for a couple of weeks. I thought it'd be a disaster, but it worked so well I seriously considered staying with it.
I thought this too. But once I asked on the Apple discord that I was considering picking up the 8GB for my basic needs they completely bashed me and said that it will run out of memory in just a few safari tabs and I should spend to get the 16. Seems rather excessive.
For instance:
I thought this too. But once I asked on the Apple discord that I was considering picking up the 8GB for my basic needs they completely bashed me and said that it will run out of memory in just a few safari tabs and I should spend to get the 16. Seems rather excessive.
For instance:![2116ee9e713959c04dd9b96bf508d5af.jpg]()
You'll get the same answer on MacRumors too. For the most part, they're wrong. Walk into any Apple Store and load up 20 tabs and browse away. See for yourself. I ran an 8GB M1 in the red zone for weeks and barely noticed a blip. I was even running Windows 11 over Parallels while also using my Mac normally on that 8GB machine.
Windows 11 did drag only getting 2GB to work with, but the Mac side remained minimally affected despite being put under an extremely unreasonable load.
People think of RAM in 2005 mindsets when RAM was slower, processors slower, storage was HDD and much slower, networking protocols were slower, the bus was slower... everything was slower. Machines of that era were much easier to bottleneck.
It's not that RAM doesn't matter anymore. Resources are resources, but current day computers are waaaaaay more resilient to resource challenges.
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Some people just read too deep into things and convince themselves they need more. 8gb on a mac still runs just fine for those basic tasks, youll be surprised just how well it actually does i think.
A new computer for temporary use... we are in different tax brackets, my friend 😂 enjoy your purchase! I'm sure I'd do it if I could!
That's almost an hour long. Could you summarize. I skipped around and found a part where he seemed to recommend getting the 16GB if you use memory heavy apps and the extra cost isn't going to hurt your pocket much... but also that lots of people including people like him won't miss the additional 8GB.
Basically for you use case, the 8gb model is more than enough for your needs.
I have an M2 Air with 8gb and an M1 Pro with 16gb. The 8 gb Air runs just as well as the Pro if not better. 8 Gb is fine for everyday use.
I push an 8GB M1 Air pretty far with big Illustrator docs. It does fine, really. Macs have excellent memory management, and even if you start using swap space (ie, using SSD space as a place to temporarily "park" RAM contents if there's not enough room in the RAM proper), the SSDs are so quick now it doesn't really incur the penalty it used to.
If you were keeping this Mac for several years, yeah, get the extra RAM for future-proofing. But today? Totally fine.
This is what you get when you ask computer hobbyists who spend their days haunting Activity Monitor to see what they're memory pressure is -- as opposed to people who just use their Macs and get on with their lives.
Absolutely false.I thought this too. But once I asked on the Apple discord that I was considering picking up the 8GB for my basic needs they completely bashed me and said that it will run out of memory in just a few safari tabs and I should spend to get the 16. Seems rather excessive.
For instance:![2116ee9e713959c04dd9b96bf508d5af.jpg]()
I got a really good deal on an open box 14" m1 pro for $1350. But this makes me think I should return it for an m2 air and save the $400+ (after factoring in applecare+ price difference). Heaviest thing I do is some light photo and video editing, live streaming, and dealing with some extensive docs/sheets that any new computer can handle. Coming from a 2014 MBP, anything is an upgrade for me. I do use mine for work. Honestly wish I had a 15" screen but the 16" is a bit too big.
My current computer is an Intel Pro from 2017 with 8gb of RAM. It works just fine for browsing and media consumption. I can make videos in iMovie and edit images in GIMP with no problem.
Should Apple make 16gb the standard? Yes. Is their pricing for RAM upgrades clearly just a way of nickel and diming the buyer? Yes. Can most people live just fine with 8gb? Also yes. Tech YouTubers and the like have somehow managed to convince people into thinking that any computer with less than 16gb is literally useless in the modern world. That’s far from the case. I’m definitely going to go with 16 or more in my next computer, but I’m not exactly suffering with just 8.
Should Apple make 16gb the standard? Yes. Is their pricing for RAM upgrades clearly just a way of nickel and diming the buyer? Yes. Can most people live just fine with 8gb? Also yes. Tech YouTubers and the like have somehow managed to convince people into thinking that any computer with less than 16gb is literally useless in the modern world. That’s far from the case. I’m definitely going to go with 16 or more in my next computer, but I’m not exactly suffering with just 8.
Agreed. In many ways, if not REALLY needing the pro and its capabilities, the Air will suffice. I'm in that boat honestly. Ended up getting a really good deal on the m1 pro but could save some money on the m2 air. I guess the main difference for me is simply the differences in all the other things that I get where the price difference is trivial.