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Does anyone have one of the modern machines? How much RAM does the system take up and how much is generally left for user apps?
I’m not an intensive user and I’m wondering if I could get by with the 8GB standard
No one can get by unless they need a paperweight. That's why the base 8gb MBA is Apple's best selling Mac.
 
Does anyone have one of the modern machines? How much RAM does the system take up and how much is generally left for user apps?
I’m not an intensive user and I’m wondering if I could get by with the 8GB standard

I've got a 16GB M1 Mini. Currently running - Mail, Finder, iMessage, Safari (3 tabs), Plex Server (idle), Pages (doc is 2 pages of business cards), and Activity Monitor.

Memory Used: 10.11 GB
Cached Files: 4.51 GB
Swap Used: 0 bytes

App Memory: 5.97 GB
Wired: 1.95 GB
Compressed: 1.45 GB.
 
The point is to define the terms of the discussion. To say "16" is more than "8" without taking system architecture into account is to wholly miss the discussion. Can 8 gb of Ram perform as well as 16 gb of RAM in a system that is better engineered? That's the discussion. But simply saying 16 is more than 8 is the epitome of trolling a discussion, and in dumbing-down communication.

That's where the analogy of HP works. It all depends on the parameters. Can a 250 HP car move faster than a 500 hp car? Yes. Can a 250 HP car have better torque than a 500 hp car? Yes. Can one categorically say 500 hp is better than 250 hp? No.
Nothing Apple implements gives them 2:1 memory over running on Windows. Windows has compression and paging techniques just the same.

Arm's RISC (Apple Silicon) architecture also generally needs more program RAM to accomplish the same tasks as CISC (x86) since the x86 can do more per cycle, meaning fewer overall instructions. Oddly enough, Windows (and Linux) seem to run a lot better RAM-starved than macOS.

In any case, Apple knows full well 8 GB is a minimum that you can get by with if your workflow is basic stuff you could do on a 10-year old computer (which would also have 8 GB of RAM).
 
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Does anyone have one of the modern machines? How much RAM does the system take up and how much is generally left for user apps?
I’m not an intensive user and I’m wondering if I could get by with the 8GB standard
Finder and system takes around 5gb in my 32gb ram mac studio. Same in my 2013 macpro 64gb ram
What apple spokesman wantes to say is “ssd is so fast you wont notice swap ram, which hapends a lot in a 8gb ram system”
 
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Sadly, you are only defending Apple's problem like a fan boy.
I don't think it's a problem.

Apple has, through its control over hardware, software and services, created a unique experience that users are willing to pay a premium for. That's why Apple is able to charge the prices that they do, because people are willing to fork out good money for a superior user experience that they can't get anywhere else.

Apple isn't the problem. The problem is the rest of the industry selling rather bland and uninspiring hardware housing an OS I really couldn't care less about. Till this day, I would say that Apple is the only company with a notable ecosystem worth talking about, because they were the only company willing to invest in having one in the first place.

You reap what you sow.
 
I have my wife's M1 Air 8GB and my M2 Mac mini 16GB ... both run fine, I wouldn't be able to tell for any major tasks.

I think it's worth having 8GB low cost options for Air and Mini but on Pro models, it should be 16GB minimum included.
 
Apple isn't the problem. The problem is the rest of the industry selling rather bland and uninspiring hardware housing an OS I really couldn't care less about. Till this day, I would say that Apple is the only company with a notable ecosystem worth talking about, because they were the only company willing to invest in having one in the first place.

You reap what you sow.

Exactly — they invested in this for decades, so when they do features like Handoff, I say: good on them. They deserve it.

My issue with that video is that the narrator conflates different things:

  • Apple charging more for a premium user experience
  • Apple taking advantage through platform lock-in
  • Apple charging a lot for BTO options
  • Apple having arguably stingy default configurations
I have different opinions on each of those, and only the third and fourth are relevant to this thread. Should a $1,599 MacBook Pro start out at 8 GiB RAM? I personally think not.
 
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I have different opinions on each of those, and only the third and fourth are relevant to this thread. Should a $1,599 MacBook Pro start out at 8 GiB RAM? I personally think not.
What I did when Apple released a 16gb iPhone base model was to look at the price of the 64gb version and take that as the default starting price, completely ignoring the existence of the cheaper base model.

That's what I would do here too. Hyper-focusing on the base spec and the $200 delta is kind of pointless if you aren't going to buy the base spec anyway. Just think of the entry price as $1800 instead. Yes, Apple is going to charge you more than component BOM price for the RAM for the upgrade. That's literally how they make money. What matters to you isn't that though. It's the final price versus how much you think the final product is worth.
 
I don't think it's a problem.

Apple has, through its control over hardware, software and services, created a unique experience that users are willing to pay a premium for. That's why Apple is able to charge the prices that they do, because people are willing to fork out good money for a superior user experience that they can't get anywhere else.

Apple isn't the problem. The problem is the rest of the industry selling rather bland and uninspiring hardware housing an OS I really couldn't care less about. Till this day, I would say that Apple is the only company with a notable ecosystem worth talking about, because they were the only company willing to invest in having one in the first place.

You reap what you sow.
Then how come so many people complained about this? Yes, it is their problem and it is well known for a long time. Face the fact.
 
Then how come so many people complained about this? Yes, it is their problem and it is well known for a long time. Face the fact.
They are trying to gatekeep who should or shouldn't buy Apple products to try to checkmate people who might have a different opinion about a particular product. They aren't the thought police, it's not worth paying attention to IMO.
 
I don't think it's a problem.

Apple has, through its control over hardware, software and services, created a unique experience that users are willing to pay a premium for. That's why Apple is able to charge the prices that they do, because people are willing to fork out good money for a superior user experience that they can't get anywhere else.

Apple isn't the problem. The problem is the rest of the industry selling rather bland and uninspiring hardware housing an OS I really couldn't care less about. Till this day, I would say that Apple is the only company with a notable ecosystem worth talking about, because they were the only company willing to invest in having one in the first place.

You reap what you sow.
Nice deflection from the real issue here and completely off topic.
 
Exactly — they invested in this for decades, so when they do features like Handoff, I say: good on them. They deserve it.

My issue with that video is that the narrator conflates different things:

  • Apple charging more for a premium user experience
  • Apple taking advantage through platform lock-in
  • Apple charging a lot for BTO options
  • Apple having arguably stingy default configurations
I have different opinions on each of those, and only the third and fourth are relevant to this thread. Should a $1,599 MacBook Pro start out at 8 GiB RAM? I personally think not.
Also, nice deflection from the real issue here and completely off topic.
 
reminder, they do the same crap with HD space on phones.

We the consumer have the power to create a future headline...

"M3 MacBook Pros sales took a deep nose dive for over priced RAM upgrades"

M4 MacBook Pros will come with 16 GB base.
 
Did they seriously compare 16 GB of dedicated RAM to 8 GB of shared RAM and claim that to be "basically the same"? Lol, they really do think people are stupid.

This is the claim: Comparing our memory to other system's memory actually isn't equivalent, because of the fact that we have such an efficient use of memory, and we use memory compression, and we have a unified memory architecture. Actually, 8GB on an M3 MacBook Pro is probably analogous to 16GB on other systems. We just happen to be able to use it much more efficiently.

I know a lot of users who would be fine with 8Gb of RAM. The reason I know this is because they have Macs with 8Gb of RAM now and don't think the performance is bad.
 
I had an 8GB M1 Mac Mini and then an 8GB MacBook Air and both were perfectly usable. I even played games and used Parallels (windows virtual machine) to play older games. No noticeable issues. 8GB is still enough for someone who uses Safari/Office/Pixelmator, AKA almost all Mac users in reality, in my opinion.

Obviously if you run a photo studio or do some intense AI work or anything else where your computer is your livelihood 8GB would be stupid (just to stop the replies I see coming).
no problem here :) air m1 8gb pro work portraits in PS.. 20-26megapixels...enough for me
 
With the legion of Apple apologists out there, I'm very happy to see that so many of you guys are informed consumers and are not drinking the Kool-Aid AKA BS that Apple is trying to spew here. Make no mistake this is pure and other BS, they're trying to make a fool of their customers, and as the only hardware vendor for Macs this is almost offensive.

I wish more media folks would pick up these stories cuz in the PC world you would get laughed out of the room, nobody's going for this garbage. They would be eviscerated by all of these hardware websites that would call their bluff.

It's such basic computing 101, why Apple is trying to get over in this manner is just amazing. It's not like 8 GB is so expensive that it's going to cost them an arm and a leg It's just insane what they're doing with customers. Wow.

Cheers all.
 
This is the claim: Comparing our memory to other system's memory actually isn't equivalent, because of the fact that we have such an efficient use of memory, and we use memory compression, and we have a unified memory architecture. Actually, 8GB on an M3 MacBook Pro is probably analogous to 16GB on other systems. We just happen to be able to use it much more efficiently.

I know a lot of users who would be fine with 8Gb of RAM. The reason I know this is because they have Macs with 8Gb of RAM now and don't think the performance is bad.

The fact that a lot of users would be fine with 8GB of RAM does not mean that Apple's claim is right. Those are two completely separate things.
 
Windows 7: when an application reserves memory, the memory is not assigned until de the application writes on it. Then, an application can reserve 1 TB of RAM, but if only uses the first KB, only 4KB (depending on the memory granularity) are really assigned and used.

This is how all modern operating systems works.
 
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