People said this 3 years ago when the M1 launched and yet they are still going strong… I do think many underestimate the performance of these machines even with low RAM… however I completely agree that the base RAM is really bad for the prices of these machines
Just because I can find a worse deal doesn't mean that $1600 for 8GB isn't still behind the times.
OTOH you don’t need much RAM if all you do is browse the web, use Office or iWork, upload and edit photos, etc. but the MacBook Pro screen is excellent, the speakers are among the best in the industry, and it’s more portable than an iMac.
You are comparing apples to oranges. Both RAM and SSD in Dell laptop can be upgraded by the owner. Given the price of the upgrades (not quite Apple ransom but still high), one may prefer to buy this configuration and upgrade himself.
This times a 1000.
Why are you asking us? Your point has been made. You found a worse deal, and are trying to invalidate anyone who might have an opinion that is different than yours about an Apple product.
It's high time, 🍎 should stop taking advantage of 🪭s and 🪭s should stop eating rotten apples
Following the unveiling of new MacBook Pro models last week, Apple surprised some with the introduction of a base 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 chip, which replaced the discontinued M2 13-inch MacBook Pro in Apple's Mac lineup.
Starting at $1,599, the 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro comes with 8GB of unified memory. That makes it $300 more expensive than the $1,299 starting price of the now-discontinued M2 13-inch MacBook Pro with 8GB. Users can opt for 16GB or 24GB at checkout, but these configuration options cost an extra $200 and $400 at purchase, respectively, and cannot be upgraded at a later date because of Apple's unified memory architecture.
This has left Apple open to criticism from users who argue that 8GB is not a sufficient amount of RAM for most creative professional workflows, and that 16GB should be the bare minimum for a machine that is marketed as "Pro," rather than an additional several hundred dollar outlay.
In a recent interview with Chinese ML engineer and content creator Lin YilYi, Apple's VP of worldwide product marketing Bob Borchers has directly responded to this criticism. After YilYi characterized the base M3 MacBook Pro coming with 8GB of RAM as the "one major concern" of prospective buyers, Borchers replied:
While the 14-inch MacBook Pro with 8GB of unified memory is $300 more expensive than the M2 13-inch MacBook Pro it replaces, there are a number of other benefits worth considering aside from the faster processor, such as the larger, brighter mini-LED Liquid Retina XDR display, support for 120Hz ProMotion refresh rates, and better battery life. Other improvements include additional ports, a better 1080p FaceTime HD camera, a six-speaker sound system, Wi-Fi 6E support, and Bluetooth 5.3.
What do you think about the 8GB of unified memory supplied in the base configuration of M3 MacBook Pro? Does it suit your requirements, or make the "Pro" machine grossly underpowered for your use case? Let us know in the comments.
Article Link: 8GB RAM on M3 MacBook Pro 'Analogous to 16GB' on PCs, Claims Apple
It is not so simple actually.
Latency is the main the reason that compression and swap only really work to a limited extent (RAM memory access is about ~300 cycles on the M1, whereas an access to swap is hundreds of thousands of CPU cycles. So while swap throughput is great, there is still a pretty hefty penalty every time a page needs to be moved from swap to memory, or vice versa. Apple's implementation of memory compression is much more efficient than ZRAM, which helps significantly but still also has a latency cost associated with it).
So you have two choices - buy it or don’t buy it. And I’m talking about an iMac….not a PRO machine.
As I understand, MacOS (and Windows) only compresses idle parts of memory. In this regard it's not that different from swapping. It definitely does not make 8GB RAM to work as 16GB RAM. It also does not make Mac any more efficient than other computers when it comes to RAM size, so Apple statement is a lie.
The ONLY exception in my mind are some PCs with upgradable RAM that skimp on RAM to afforf a dedicated GPU at a low price point. That I can see why they do, but 16GB is dippy in a main system, $1000 (much less $1600) for 8GB that can't be upgraded is nuts.
