Apple Silicon does have hardware memory compression, which is considerably faster (and does not block the CPU). This does give you more effective RAM for normal multi-tasking use, but not if you need large working size (e.g. many professional workloads with random data access).
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8GB RAM on M3 MacBook Pro 'Analogous to 16GB' on PCs, Claims Apple
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Apple Silicon does have hardware memory compression, which is considerably faster (and does not block the CPU). This does give you more effective RAM for normal multi-tasking use, but not if you need large working size (e.g. many professional workloads with random data access).
I think they meant the browser developers.
I’d like to see some tests from the you tubers that prove this theory. Although regardless of the outcome - my macs have lasted 10 years so i‘d expect that out of my next mac and i just don’t see 8GB being able to last another decade. I think 16GB will be a push
If you plan on staying with the machine for more than 4 years get 16GB.
future macOS updates certainly will demand more RAM so will apps.
unless you’re the type to never upgrade apps or OS you probably will be good.
the laptop it’s still expensive to come with 8GB RAM anyways.
Or Microsoft Office for Mac
The unfortunate thing is that Apple loose both sales and goodwill/credibility with their tiny base configs and exorbitant upgrade prices. Since both RAM and NAND is so cheap, Apple could have doubled the amounts you got for a given price and it would cost them very little. But the perceived value would increase a lot, increasing both their number of customers and customer satisfaction.
I don’t even think that it would cost them much in the way of upgrade profit. By and large, people don’t buy extra RAM or storage because they know how much they’ll need in four years time - they buy it to have a buffer. If they didn’t feel robbed, they would simply buy a bigger buffer. My personal PC has 64GB of RAM and my personal Mac has 32GB. If Apple had offered 64 GB at a reasonable cost I would have bought it without blinking instead of asking myself ”how little can I get away with?”.
I don’t even think that it would cost them much in the way of upgrade profit. By and large, people don’t buy extra RAM or storage because they know how much they’ll need in four years time - they buy it to have a buffer. If they didn’t feel robbed, they would simply buy a bigger buffer. My personal PC has 64GB of RAM and my personal Mac has 32GB. If Apple had offered 64 GB at a reasonable cost I would have bought it without blinking instead of asking myself ”how little can I get away with?”.
autrefois
macrumors 65816
Is this the 2023 equivalent of the “Megahertz myth” strategy?
I’ve nearly spit out my coffee, laughing. 😂
Which moron at Apple came up with that marketing gag?
Apple is becoming a company driven by clowns!
Edit: Ohh now I understand why Apple RAM upgrades cost much more than their real market value.
Which moron at Apple came up with that marketing gag?
Apple is becoming a company driven by clowns!
Edit: Ohh now I understand why Apple RAM upgrades cost much more than their real market value.
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Actually the price of 8GB of Apple RAM seems more like 128 GB of Windows RAM.
8gb is fine on my air. But my air isn't marketed as a pro machine, and doesn't have such an extremely high price as the pro. 8gb on the pro is ridiculous. Also he forgot to mention the memory is shared so the graphics memory is sharing that small amount of ram as well
Apple gets away with this, because SSD speeds are so fast now, that using swap has become less of a performance hit.
But swap memory is still not RAM. They are different types of storage. Not only is RAM faster, it also doesn’t wear out with constant writes and rewrites.
But swap memory is still not RAM. They are different types of storage. Not only is RAM faster, it also doesn’t wear out with constant writes and rewrites.
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.
'640Kbytes ought to be enough for anybody'
And people are, just wait till 8Gb advocates get to this thread.
You should get 32GB unified RAM if you plan on keeping the machine for 5+ years.
Even if they believe this, they should have, even as a gimmick made 16gb the minimum.
Why not just go back to 16 GB base storage on iPhone then. It’s perfectly enough for web apps. Your fault if you take photos!
/s
/s
I have the entry level M1 MacBook Air, with 8GB of RAM. And I have honestly never seen it choke due to lack of RAM. And I routinely have dozen or so browser tabs open in Safari, mail open, one or two Electron apps (Notion and/or Obsidian), Drafts, Messages, Photos and maybe Notes open. Maybe that’s not much when compared to some heavy workloads, but we are still talking about their entry-level laptop.
Well it’s likely gonna be their best selling laptop by next year so I assume people are stupid yes.
So if 8GB is plenty..... why do the M3 Pro models have 18GB if it's not really needed? Hey, why offer larger memory options at all? 😅🙄
I love apple but ****ing, please... 8GB is 8GB.
Trying to convince the general public its somehow extra special because its made by them is ridiculous.
Trying to convince the general public its somehow extra special because its made by them is ridiculous.
The answer from Lin YilYi is bullisit. Windows has memory compression as well. And has a more advanced memory saving technology since, at least, 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.
The problem is Apple doesn’t sell stock configurations of M3 iMac, MBP or MBA in 16GB. Only BTO.
So in retailers, all Good, Better, Best configurations of those Macs only come with 8GB.
People just want Apple to offer a stock configuration with 16GB for each of those M3/M2 Macs, so it can be bought at retailers.
So in retailers, all Good, Better, Best configurations of those Macs only come with 8GB.
People just want Apple to offer a stock configuration with 16GB for each of those M3/M2 Macs, so it can be bought at retailers.
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If this was the case, why upgrade the M3 Pro/Max units from 16 to 18 GB? Why not bump the M3 ones to 10 GB?
I am sure that 8 GB will look fine based on performance for a lot of people (as the Apple VP says), but what happens in a few years when you exhaust your SSD cycles with all the swapping?
I am sure that 8 GB will look fine based on performance for a lot of people (as the Apple VP says), but what happens in a few years when you exhaust your SSD cycles with all the swapping?