8GB RAM is a disappointment?

[MacBH928]

I hear many people complain 8GB is not enough, in What world is 8GB RAM is not enough?!

There are like full 3D HD games that are not 8GB in size. Am I missing something?

If you do photoshop with 1000 layers or build 3D worlds for MMORPGs in MAYA this entry laptop is not for you but I can't imagine 8GB not enough, the iphone and ipads are running on 4 and 6 and people are very happy with them. I remember a time when 1GB RAM was a machine for "creative" work.


And $1300 laptop is not expensive, this is cheap! Laptops used to cost north of $1500 easy of weak specs! Steve Jobs introduced the ibook in '99 for $2500+(FFI) to make it "within reach of education customers and consumer customers" ! (btw it had 0.032GB RAM and 6hr battery) I feel old...

Edit: Is 8GB enough? This is the answer!

Edit 2: the power of 8GB RAM on M1

Edit 3: Video demonstrating how far 8GB will take you, and it takes you very far. credits for @MrGunnyPT for sharing.

 

[Tech198]

true, but where you have 16Gig ram elsewhere in the PC industry, it is kind of undermining it if there is no 16 Gig option on the table.

only previous Intel Mac's can do this, not newer ones... But that will probably change.. Give it time.

 

[imdog]

I see some people saying “RAM is RAM” but is it possible that these are so well optimized that the RAM isn’t much of a limitation? iPhones & iPads are able to do heavy video editing tasks for such little RAM they have

 

[4sallypat]

I see some people saying “RAM is RAM” but is it possible that these are so well optimized that the RAM isn’t much of a limitation? iPhones & iPads are able to do heavy video editing tasks for such little RAM they have

Correct, RAM comparison between PC, Intel Macs and ARM Macs are not the same.

While a PC running Windows may need 32GB of RAM to run properly, an Intel Mac is a bit more efficient and can run 16GB fine.

But an ARM Mac that has unified modules with a RISC design, will run just fine with 8GB.
RAM has become so much more efficient that no more "memory hogs" are the future.

I just bought an entry M1 Mac Mini w/ 8GB and I think it will run circles around my i7 w/ double RAM.

 

[motomotomoto]

Just depends on the type of work you do. I need 32 GB for my next computer at a min.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I hear many people complain 8GB is not enough, in What world is 8GB RAM is not enough?!

There are like full 3D HD games that are not 8GB in size. Am I missing something?

If you do photoshop with 1000 layers or build 3D worlds for MMORPGs in MAYA this entry laptop is not for you but I can't imagine 8GB not enough, the iphone and ipads are running on 4 and 6 and people are very happy with them. I remember a time when 1GB RAM was a machine for "creative" work.


And $1300 laptop is not expensive, this is cheap! Laptops used to cost north of $1500 easy of weak specs! Steve Jobs introduced the ibook in '99 for $2500+(FFI) to make it "within reach of education customers and consumer customers" ! (btw it had 0.032GB RAM and 6hr battery) I feel old...

It's 2020, 8GB of RAM is not enough if you have a lot of browser tabs (20+) and any other application open. Also, OSes have evolved over the years, requiring more and more RAM. So, no, 8GB is barely enough today and definitely not enough for tomorrow. And it's especially not enough for doing the kinds of tasks you have outlined in your post, at least not comfortably. Apple Silicon will fix how efficient memory is used, but it won't resolve a lack of it.

I see some people saying “RAM is RAM” but is it possible that these are so well optimized that the RAM isn’t much of a limitation? iPhones & iPads are able to do heavy video editing tasks for such little RAM they have

iOS and iPadOS make use of small amounts of RAM by suspending all processes that are not the active process save for minimal background services and functionality (such as push notification services). That's how they're able to be highly functional on much less RAM than is commonly seen on macOS, Windows, and even Android devices.

 

[happyslayer]

So I just looked up the Surface Pro X which is Microsoft’s ARM powered Tablet/Laptop. And other than the integrated LTE modem, they also seem to offer similar specs. They just upgraded the CPU from what they call the SQ1 to the new SQ2 and they also start at 8GB and max out at 16GB. Now I am not comparing Apple’s SOC to Microsoft as I don’t know how similar they actually are other than being based on ARM architecture. I wonder though, is it possible this is some kind of limitation with ARM right now? I’ve not done the research to verify that yet
. Also, is it possible that ARM does run efficient enough to not “need” anymore RAM to perform? We will all see I guess. (I ordered the base AIR last night, so I’ll let you know when I do.)

 

[M1 Processor]

Correct, RAM comparison between PC, Intel Macs and ARM Macs are not the same.

While a PC running Windows may need 32GB of RAM to run properly, an Intel Mac is a bit more efficient and can run 16GB fine.

But an ARM Mac that has unified modules with a RISC design, will run just fine with 8GB.
RAM has become so much more efficient that no more "memory hogs" are the future.

I just bought an entry M1 Mac Mini w/ 8GB and I think it will run circles around my i7 w/ double RAM.

I have to disagree with you here. Unlike iOS/iPadOS, macOS is pretty RAM hungry and I don’t think moving to ARM is going to change RAM usage much if at all. If it did, Apple probably would have mentioned it. If you got the i7-8700b Mac Mini, I also doubt that M1 is going to run circles around it in the CPU department. It will probably be up to 50% faster in ARM optimized programs and anything that requires more than 8GB or RAM, the your old Mac Mini would probably be faster. GPU will be much faster on the new macs, but slower than external GPUs available for the Intel Mini. If these chips are as fast as the leaked benchmarks say, you probably should have gotten the 16GB, nothing is more annoying than a system low on ram. I really think 16GB is the minimum a user should get for a new system in 2020.

 

[M1 Processor]

So I just looked up the Surface Pro X which is Microsoft’s ARM powered Tablet/Laptop. And other than the integrated LTE modem, they also seem to offer similar specs. They just upgraded the CPU from what they call the SQ1 to the new SQ2 and they also start at 8GB and max out at 16GB. Now I am not comparing Apple’s SOC to Microsoft as I don’t know how similar they actually are other than being based on ARM architecture. I wonder though, is it possible this is some kind of limitation with ARM right now? I’ve not done the research to verify that yet
. Also, is it possible that ARM does run efficient enough to not “need” anymore RAM to perform? We will all see I guess. (I ordered the base AIR last night, so I’ll let you know when I do.)

This is what I am thinking as well. There are some trade offs for having lower power. I guessing this is probably one of them. I think AMD and Intel’s mobile chips support less RAM as well: 32GB for mobile intel chips vs 128GB for the desktop.

 

[ArPe]

While a PC running Windows may need 32GB of RAM to run properly, an Intel Mac is a bit more efficient and can run 16GB fine.

Sorry that’s wrong. Windows, macOS and Linux on x86 chipsets handle memory more or less the same way. It’s Intel or AMD’s chipset that is handing memory management and the operating systems have to play along with that. Cross platform apps such as Adobe’s Creative Suite or MS Office utilize memory the same way across Windows and Mac too.

Now when it comes to SOC devices with a different processor architecture and unified memory architectures, memory can be handled very differently. Hence iOS and iPadOS can do great things with little RAM.

 

[Eithanius]

I have to disagree with you here. Unlike iOS/iPadOS, macOS is pretty RAM hungry and I don’t think moving to ARM is going to change RAM usage much if at all. If it did, Apple probably would have mentioned it. If you got the i7-8700b Mac Mini, I also doubt that M1 is going to run circles around it in the CPU department. It will probably be up to 50% faster in ARM optimized programs and anything that requires more than 8GB or RAM, the your old Mac Mini would probably be faster. GPU will be much faster on the new macs, but slower than external GPUs available for the Intel Mini. If these chips are as fast as the leaked benchmarks say, you probably should have gotten the 16GB, nothing is more annoying than a system low on ram. I really think 16GB is the minimum a user should get for a new system in 2020.

Who knows what the future holds once future macOS version ditches Intel codes, it may be RAM efficient again - just like how lightweight OS X Snow Leopard once used to be after Apple ditched PowerPC codes...

 

[makzr]

I always hear people yelling that 8GB is "not enough". Frankly, that's ******** for 99% of the people.
Even for people who claim that their memory is "always full" it's not true most of the time. These people usually refer to the Activity Monitor showing high numbers of "Memory Used".

What most people don't know (or prefer to ignore): macOS is showing "allocated" memory. This amount of memory dislayed in the Activity Monitor is reserved by application, but not necessarily actively used.
Having lot's of memory allocated by applications isn't bad at all. macOS memory management is great and whenever another application actively needs more memory, macOS automatically takes memory allocated (but not used) from one application to the other.

So, just because your Activity Monitor is showing 8GB "Memory Used" doesn't mean that your system is actively "using" 8GB, it's just reserved and can be freed up at any time.

As long as you don't work with virtual machines or do heavy 4K video editing you are perfectly fine with 8GB.

 

[M1 Processor]

Who knows what the future holds once future macOS version ditches Intel codes, it may be RAM efficient again - just like how lightweight OS X Snow Leopard once used to be after Apple ditched PowerPC codes...

It possible, but history shows processor architecture does not seem to do much with RAM usage. Windows seems to use the same memory with ARM or X86, and the same with Linux. My wife has the 2020 MacBook Pro, and I just order the 16GB Macbook Air with the M1. I’m curious to see how they compare.

 

[MacModMachine]

Correct, RAM comparison between PC, Intel Macs and ARM Macs are not the same.

While a PC running Windows may need 32GB of RAM to run properly, an Intel Mac is a bit more efficient and can run 16GB fine.

But an ARM Mac that has unified modules with a RISC design, will run just fine with 8GB.
RAM has become so much more efficient that no more "memory hogs" are the future.

I just bought an entry M1 Mac Mini w/ 8GB and I think it will run circles around my i7 w/ double RAM.

i tried explaining this, too many people on this forum that know more than me....even though i develop enterprise ARM software...

 

[M1 Processor]

I always hear people yelling that 8GB is "not enough". Frankly, that's ******** for 99% of the people.
Even for people who claim that their memory is "always full" it's not true most of the time. These people usually refer to the Activity Monitor showing high numbers of "Memory Used".

What most people don't know (or prefer to ignore): macOS is showing "allocated" memory. This amount of memory dislayed in the Activity Monitor is reserved by application, but not necessarily actively used.
Having lot's of memory allocated by applications isn't bad at all. macOS memory management is great and whenever another application actively needs more memory, macOS automatically takes memory allocated (but not used) from one application to the other.

So, just because your Activity Monitor is showing 8GB "Memory Used" doesn't mean that your system is actively "using" 8GB, it's just reserved and can be freed up at any time.

As long as you don't work with virtual machines or do heavy 4K video editing you are perfectly fine with 8GB.

Now with you saying 99 percent, do you have evidence to back this up or are you talking about something in which you have no knowledge of? The Youtube channel Max Tech which is a very Apple centric channel did a good comparison of 8GB, 16, 32GB, and 64GB. There was a notable performance boost throughout moving to 16GB or higher.

“8 Gigabytes is simply not enough even with basic web browsing on chrome. It suffered greatly in basically every single test. Taking almost twice as long for video and photo editing. If you’re a gamer you will need at least 16GB of RAM for a smooth gaming experience.”

 

[Strangedream]

Depends, most MBA users only care about basic tasks and light casual gaming, so these 8GB should be plenty enough.
However I do think that the Apple premium to double the RAM is a bit rich ($200 for an extra 8GB in 2020 is ridiculous).

 

[MacModMachine]

I have to disagree with you here. Unlike iOS/iPadOS, macOS is pretty RAM hungry and I don’t think moving to ARM is going to change RAM usage much if at all. If it did, Apple probably would have mentioned it. If you got the i7-8700b Mac Mini, I also doubt that M1 is going to run circles around it in the CPU department. It will probably be up to 50% faster in ARM optimized programs and anything that requires more than 8GB or RAM, the your old Mac Mini would probably be faster. GPU will be much faster on the new macs, but slower than external GPUs available for the Intel Mini. If these chips are as fast as the leaked benchmarks say, you probably should have gotten the 16GB, nothing is more annoying than a system low on ram. I really think 16GB is the minimum a user should get for a new system in 2020.

8700b is significantly slower than the m1 , by almost 2000 points in multicore based on preliminary benchmarks. even with a margin of error , they will blow the 8700b out of the water.

when you start taking in account of the UMA , things are much quicker.

 

[tuvok86]

We have to wait for the tests, while it can be assumed that MacOS and the native software will be much more efficient on AS in terms of ram usage, when you have to work on a file that's a few GB you have to load it all in ram, there's no getting around that in some workflows.

Also, memory compression cannot be as aggressive as on iOS because of the higher degree of multitasking

 

[iMi]

I have to disagree with you here. Unlike iOS/iPadOS, macOS is pretty RAM hungry and I don’t think moving to ARM is going to change RAM usage much if at all. If it did, Apple probably would have mentioned it. If you got the i7-8700b Mac Mini, I also doubt that M1 is going to run circles around it in the CPU department. It will probably be up to 50% faster in ARM optimized programs and anything that requires more than 8GB or RAM, the your old Mac Mini would probably be faster. GPU will be much faster on the new macs, but slower than external GPUs available for the Intel Mini. If these chips are as fast as the leaked benchmarks say, you probably should have gotten the 16GB, nothing is more annoying than a system low on ram. I really think 16GB is the minimum a user should get for a new system in 2020.

Big Sur has been optimized for M1 and therefore I doubt it will be "ram hungry" as you mentioned. M1 won't run any previous generation of macOS, so that's not a factor.

 

[iMi]

This is directly from Apple's order page:

"The M1 chip brings superfast unified memory to Mac mini. This single pool of high-bandwidth, low-latency memory allows apps to share data between the CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine efficiently — so everything you do is fast and fluid.

Your Mac mini comes standard with 8GB of memory and can be expanded to 16GB. The more memory your Mac mini has, the more apps you can run simultaneously and the better they will perform.

Note: Mac mini memory is not user accessible. If you think you’ll need additional memory, it’s important to upgrade at the time of purchase."

So, they acknowledge that performance will be improved with more memory. The question is how much. Is the system more than the sum of its parts? That's what I am wondering...

 

[tuvok86]

Your Mac mini comes standard with 8GB of memory and can be expanded to 16GB. The more memory your Mac mini has, the more apps you can run simultaneously and the better they will perform.

Avoiding disk swap means apps will perform better, I wouldn't read too much into that.

 

[4sallypat]

i tried explaining this, too many people on this forum that know more than me....even though i develop enterprise ARM software...

Change is difficult for most people I hear.

I think many people have been brainwashed over decades into thinking more RAM is needed.

The M1 is a subset of the A14Z & A14X from the iPhone / iPad - so by combining 5nm technology coupled with a RISC design and new RAM UMA - you do not get an Intel based computer.

What you have have is essentially an iPad or iPhone that runs the heart of these new Macs.

Remember back when the Motorola PPC chips which were designed by Apple with a RISC processor first came out - how much more efficient, cooler and quicker they were with minimal RAM?

How about when Chromebooks came out that sported no HDD as everything went to the cloud ?

Apple would not have released an 8GB RAM device if it were still based on the Intel chips.

I for for one am now getting more antsy waiting for my base 8GB Mini and doing some real world comparison along with my old i7 Mini which will need the Big Sur OS upgrade so that it will be an apples to apples test....

 

[Stella]

I see some people saying “RAM is RAM” but is it possible that these are so well optimized that the RAM isn’t much of a limitation? iPhones & iPads are able to do heavy video editing tasks for such little RAM they have

People use Macs and iOS devices for similar and different reasons. For example, Data scientists who need to crunch large amounts of data aren't using iPads to do this, they are using laptops or desktops. iPads don't have enough RAM, just for starters.

Furthermore, on a computer, people, for example, developers expect other applications to run in the background and not be suspended, like iOS, where multi-tasking is much limited. Memory usage differs on MacOS vs iOS in order to accommodate the OS.

 

[jinnyman]

When M1 starts to arrive to users, we will know soon.
but whatever magic Apple may do, 8 gig of RAM is not enough for enough number of people period.
Atleast for MBP and Mini users, they are not only planning to use browing, youtube watching and email. They expect to run many instances of browsers, do some heavy stuff in background, and edit photo at the same time.

My iphone seldom refreshes and it's annoying as hell. With the price I pay, this experience could have been much better with twice of memory. I can live with an iphone cuz it's just a phone, but not Mac.

 

[NT1440]

I hear many people complain 8GB is not enough, in What world is 8GB RAM is not enough?!

There are like full 3D HD games that are not 8GB in size. Am I missing something?

If you do photoshop with 1000 layers or build 3D worlds for MMORPGs in MAYA this entry laptop is not for you but I can't imagine 8GB not enough, the iphone and ipads are running on 4 and 6 and people are very happy with them. I remember a time when 1GB RAM was a machine for "creative" work.


And $1300 laptop is not expensive, this is cheap! Laptops used to cost north of $1500 easy of weak specs! Steve Jobs introduced the ibook in '99 for $2500+(FFI) to make it "within reach of education customers and consumer customers" ! (btw it had 0.032GB RAM and 6hr battery) I feel old...

8GB of RAM on the M1 is going to perform like an Intel with 12+GB due to the unified memory architecture.

The spec snobs days of being able to get a 1:1 comparison are over, meaning we’re only a decade away from regular people understanding this.