Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

8GB RAM on M3 MacBook Pro 'Analogous to 16GB' on PCs, Claims Apple

Motorola68000 said:
After a bit of research it seems quite possible that 8Gb of unified memory will impose future problems for the SSD, especially on base configurations. Its comparatively early days for Apple silicon and time will tell if the SSD's fail earlier than expected. Less RAM especially if Apple has its target set on Games and where many software producers already spec more than 8Gb. may result in SSD failures earlier so a good reason to have a 16Gb base soon.

Quite some ago an article in Macworld expressed concern at the SSD on M1: "Recent reports have shown that some users of M1 Macs are experiencing what they feel is unreasonable, excessive usage of the SSD. One in particular showed 15TB written in two months. That’s quite a bit, and almost certainly due to swapping main memory to the SSD."
Click to expand...
lol according to the doomsayers my 8gb M1 Mini was supposed to blow up ~2 years ago.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mathew31de and Abazigal
ric22 said:
Sure, lots of computers come with 8GB RAM, but then those computers don't cost $1,600 (USA) or up to $2,200 in some parts of the world. For that price you expect better than "sufficient", don't you?
Click to expand...
Maybe you can get a loan for $200 since you can only afford $1600?
 
  • Haha
  • Angry
Reactions: Gudi and iLuddite
The question, if I may so humbly remind everyone, is not why 8GB for the base model, but rather why does additional 8GB cost $200 ?

If $200 really is the cost of adding 8Gb of memory RAM, so be it, but we want to hear this from the horse’s mouth.
 
  • Like
  • Disagree
Reactions: Gudi and eltoslightfoot
TheMacPotato said:
I have a work colleague that has the 13" M1 pro with 8GB (not his choice, he got it from a friend) and the 8GB is his biggest gripe apparently Chome with with a few tabs open kills it. I have a 16GB 14" M1 Pro and and it runs flawlessly. This video basically outlines the difference well:
Click to expand...

I have the M1 base model MBA and have no issues running chrome with multiple tabs open (~10+ tabs), amongst other stuff.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mathew31de and WalsallSaddler
Abazigal said:
I have the M1 base model MBA and have no issues running chrome with multiple tabs open (~10+ tabs), amongst other stuff.
Click to expand...
Somebody ran a test a while back with 600 Safari tabs (or something like that) on the base model, and apparently it performed quite well even with such a luducriously large number of tabs.

Web browsing is one of those things that doesn't really suffer very much on the 8GB systems. It's very easy for MacOS to just compress out/swap out data from tabs that aren't being actively used, and they can be paged back in quickly enough that it's barely noticeable when you revisit them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mathew31de
ArkSingularity said:
Just because I can find a worse deal doesn't mean that $1600 for 8GB isn't still behind the times.

(Apple does make 8GB perform better than one would think, but 8GB has been with us as a base config since 2013 on the MacBook Pro. I would argue that it's about time for it to be updated.)
Click to expand...
That is why I have always said this is an industry problem....NOT an Apple only problem. But only Apple gets the hate because its the "cool" thing to do.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ArkSingularity
ArkSingularity said:
Somebody ran a test a while back with 600 Safari tabs (or something like that) on the base model, and apparently it performed quite well even with such a luducriously large number of tabs.

Web browsing is one of those things that doesn't really suffer very much on the 8GB systems. It's very easy for MacOS to just compress out/swap out data from tabs that aren't being actively used, and they can be paged back in quickly enough that it's barely noticeable when you revisit them.
Click to expand...
curios what they opened? just empty tabs? 4 safi tabs open, mail open is using 11.5gb. I couldn't even have YouTube open with mail open on my 8gb matchbook pro, I got tired of it having to constantly swap or having to only duo one app at time. I couldn't watch YouTube and use chrome for example. I'd have to close safari and open mail, close mail and open safari. dont want to degrade my ssd unnecessarily. upgraded to 16gb and don't regret it. if I want to game I still have to close everything else but least now I can have chrome(5 tabs), safari( 4 tabs and YouTube) as well as mail and discord open. with everything closed its using 6gb. so on 8gb Mac I was using 80% or so of ram doing nothing. also can anyone explain why MacBooks use more ram doing nothing then Mac mini? Mac mini sits around 3-4gb doing nothing. I've been swap free since getting 16gb I'd never recommend anyone get 8gb. iPhones and iPads have 8gb ram and close background apps to deal with it. but yes using your ssd(slower then what's availably on market) it can do a good job of hiding its failure, but if you fill your ssd up like my sister then you're in for a bad time and it's going shorten your life span. ssd especially small ones like 256gb have limited life spans no way around that, they will die its only matter of time.
 
slyfox279 said:
curios what they opened? just empty tabs? 4 safi tabs open, mail open is using 11.5gb. I couldn't even have YouTube open with mail open on my 8gb matchbook pro, I got tired of it having to constantly swap or having to only duo one app at time. I couldn't watch YouTube and use chrome for example. I'd have to close safari and open mail, close mail and open safari. dont want to degrade my ssd unnecessarily. upgraded to 16gb and don't regret it. if I want to game I still have to close everything else but least now I can have chrome(5 tabs), safari( 4 tabs and YouTube) as well as mail and discord open. with everything closed its using 6gb. so on 8gb Mac I was using 80% or so of ram doing nothing. also can anyone explain why MacBooks use more ram doing nothing then Mac mini? Mac mini sits around 3-4gb doing nothing. I've been swap free since getting 16gb I'd never recommend anyone get 8gb. iPhones and iPads have 8gb ram and close background apps to deal with it. but yes using your ssd(slower then what's availably on market) it can do a good job of hiding its failure, but if you fill your ssd up like my sister then you're in for a bad time and it's going shorten your life span. ssd especially small ones like 256gb have limited life spans no way around that, they will die its only matter of time.
Click to expand...

My personal usage on my M1 MBA has both safari and chrome open (with multiple tabs in each), plus an assortment of other apps like mail, office, calendar and either music or YouTube playing in PIP mode.

Everything is still running smoothly 3 years later. I have a hard time believing that simply having a few browser tabs open is somehow enough to bring your MBP to its knees when my experience is the exact opposite.
 
  • Like
Reactions: WalsallSaddler
Abazigal said:
My personal usage on my M1 MBA has both safari and chrome open (with multiple tabs in each), plus an assortment of other apps like mail, office, calendar and either music or YouTube playing in PIP mode.
Click to expand...
If a brand new MacBook Air could not deal with this kind of usage, it would be really sad. That is the absolute minimum workload I would expect it to manage with flying colors.

The question is if an expensive computer branded as Pro, geared toward users who want to do more than just some productivity apps/music/video watching, should come with 8GB.
 
Last edited:
MilaM said:
The question is if a expensive computer branded as Pro, geared toward users who want to do more than just some productivity apps/music/video watching, should come with 8GB.
Click to expand...
It's not as though Apple sells only the base 14" MBP model and nothing else. Personally for me, I would rather spend the money on a 15" MBA instead, but if I were to go around condemning Apple products that I don't have a use for, then the Mac Pro would never have existed in my world.

The M3 Pro model starts at 18gb ram and can be upgraded to 36gb. The M3 Max model can go all the way to 128gb ram. The onus is on the consumer to know his needs and get the spec that best suits them.

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.

Maybe all this drama would simply go away had Apple simply not have the M3 MBP available for sale (and people would therefore have nothing to compare it against), but I really don't see why it's a bad thing that Apple has a cheaper Macbook in their lineup, maybe for people who really don't need that much ram, but appreciates the wider port selection. There's no shame in admitting that it's there solely to hit a price point. Apple now caters to a far wider clientele with a wider breadth of needs, and price point is not necessarily a bad or wrong way of segmenting your various product categories.

Apple does a lot of things differently, and if all you are doing is simply comparing Apple to everyone else and then go “Hey, Apple isn’t following what everyone else is doing, so I don’t think whatever Apple is doing is going to work”, I think they go down the wrong path.
 
Abazigal said:
Apple does a lot of things differently, and if all you are doing is simply comparing Apple to everyone else and then go “Hey, Apple isn’t following what everyone else is doing, so I don’t think whatever Apple is doing is going to work”, I think they go down the wrong path.
Click to expand...
The question is, if maybe Apple is going down the wrong path. Clearly they are actively pushing the average sales prices of all their products with various marketing tricks to keep profits rising, despite stagnating unit sales. The "cheapish" base models are part of this equation. Indeed, they are quite successful at it if you follow the financial performance of the company. But at the same time these tricks are also (in my opinion) aggravating their most loyal customers. How this is going to play out in the long run is anyone's guess. What I can say is that they have lost a lot of my goodwill in the along the way.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: tutubibi
Motorola68000 said:
After a bit of research it seems quite possible that 8Gb of unified memory will impose future problems for the SSD, especially on base configurations. Its comparatively early days for Apple silicon and time will tell if the SSD's fail earlier than expected. Less RAM especially if Apple has its target set on Games and where many software producers already spec more than 8Gb. may result in SSD failures earlier so a good reason to have a 16Gb base soon.

Quite some ago an article in Macworld expressed concern at the SSD on M1: "Recent reports have shown that some users of M1 Macs are experiencing what they feel is unreasonable, excessive usage of the SSD. One in particular showed 15TB written in two months. That’s quite a bit, and almost certainly due to swapping main memory to the SSD."
Click to expand...
There are some mod shop can replace the SSD Chip on the board with some reasonable prices. I know some one bought a second hand 512MBP and upgrade the SSD to 4TB with just 300 bucks. For this point, we at least have a backup plan.
 
slyfox279 said:
curios what they opened? just empty tabs? 4 safi tabs open, mail open is using 11.5gb. I couldn't even have YouTube open with mail open on my 8gb matchbook pro, I got tired of it having to constantly swap or having to only duo one app at time. I couldn't watch YouTube and use chrome for example. I'd have to close safari and open mail, close mail and open safari. dont want to degrade my ssd unnecessarily. upgraded to 16gb and don't regret it. if I want to game I still have to close everything else but least now I can have chrome(5 tabs), safari( 4 tabs and YouTube) as well as mail and discord open. with everything closed its using 6gb. so on 8gb Mac I was using 80% or so of ram doing nothing. also can anyone explain why MacBooks use more ram doing nothing then Mac mini? Mac mini sits around 3-4gb doing nothing. I've been swap free since getting 16gb I'd never recommend anyone get 8gb. iPhones and iPads have 8gb ram and close background apps to deal with it. but yes using your ssd(slower then what's availably on market) it can do a good job of hiding its failure, but if you fill your ssd up like my sister then you're in for a bad time and it's going shorten your life span. ssd especially small ones like 256gb have limited life spans no way around that, they will die its only matter of time.
Click to expand...
To be completely honest, I think your SSD will be a lot harder to kill than just that. I abused the living daylights out of mine. Like, you have no idea how bad. We're talking 5-10GB of swap usage frequently (on a daily basis) doing dev stuff last year. Most would have told me "hey, upgrade" - and I eventually did. I got a 16GB M2 Pro. But the 8GB mac, while I did experience some occasional slowdowns, did get the job done even with ludicrous swap usage.

I checked the TBW stats on the SSD, and it was at about 45TBW after about a year and a half of this kind of abuse, and about another six months of lighter use as a secondary machine. That's less than a third of what it was actually rated for, and most SSDs generally outlast their ratings anyway.
 
Motorola68000 said:
I wonder if the 8Gb if subject to swapping introduces potential problems for the SSD in terms of performance/longevity? I am not suggesting it does, I just haven't tested it, and unified memory via the M1 is comparatively recent.
Click to expand...
That's one of the reasons I returned my Mac Mini M1 8GB.

The SSD suffered far more degradation in 3 months than my Macbook Pro has in 8 years. Literally. (Fortunately I had an extended return window due to Covid, so the problem became very apparent).

There were threads about this problem at the time, I don't know if its still the case or the swapping problem was addressed. A lot of people are probably not aware as they won't pick up on it until the SSD reaches a tipping point. But of course Apple just stonewalled on the issue.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ric22
Abazigal said:
My personal usage on my M1 MBA has both safari and chrome open (with multiple tabs in each), plus an assortment of other apps like mail, office, calendar and either music or YouTube playing in PIP mode.

Everything is still running smoothly 3 years later. I have a hard time believing that simply having a few browser tabs open is somehow enough to bring your MBP to its knees when my experience is the exact opposite.
Click to expand...
not to knees but its more then enough to cause it to start shaping with ssd. which I want to avoid. Macs should have enough ram to not swap doing basic stuff. it's ridiculous. but hey if peoples ssd die sooner and can't be replaced , then people will buy new Macs sooner and help apples profit line.
 
ArkSingularity said:
To be completely honest, I think your SSD will be a lot harder to kill than just that. I abused the living daylights out of mine. Like, you have no idea how bad. We're talking 5-10GB of swap usage frequently (on a daily basis) doing dev stuff last year. Most would have told me "hey, upgrade" - and I eventually did. I got a 16GB M2 Pro. But the 8GB mac, while I did experience some occasional slowdowns, did get the job done even with ludicrous swap usage.

I checked the TBW stats on the SSD, and it was at about 45TBW after about a year and a half of this kind of abuse, and about another six months of lighter use as a secondary machine. That's less than a third of what it was actually rated for, and most SSDs generally outlast their ratings anyway.
Click to expand...
a 256gb ssd is good for 150tbw. if you do 45tbw in year then you going et 3 years. I want to get 7-10 years. I was seeing 10gb a second or min whatever montior measures in. some were seeing the drives Tbw in months. and beyond that it would go in to red sometimes. personally id rather not deal with anxiety of it and having to constantly remember to close down applications. i dont know about most outlasting their ratings. I wouldn't count on it not when when it does you have to get another MacBook. idc if ssd on my pc dies I can get another for $100 and swap it out in few seconds. id rather not have a $1300 paperweight.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back