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

[Walkir]

Never had any issues with a MacBook Air M1 with 8GB RAM. Performance wise it's very similar to my MacBook Pro 14 M1 Pro with 16GB RAM.

However, I noticed that Photoshop can hog 50GB of the SSD as scratch on the 8GB model, but 16GB RAM in my Pro isn't going to do any noticable difference.

I also have an old Dell XPS 13 (i7-8565U) with 8GB RAM and it also works great for me in Photoshop. Just painfully slow sometimes compared to Apple Silicon. It can easily throttle itself to death unless I use ThrottleStop to undervolt it.

 

[Any name]

It’s true limited RAM can go farther than it did years ago but that’s mostly due to SSD speeds increasing to the point where the performance hit from using swap/virtual memory isn’t as severe as during the mechanical hard drive era. That being said RAM is RAM, and loading a large 50 megapixel imagine into Photoshop to edit is going to eat into that no matter what compression or swap file trickery you’re using.

There’s no excuse for only 256GB of storage on a pro machine though. Heavy swap usage from the limited RAM will just wear the SSD out even faster and further constrain available space.

The sooner the soldered SSD chips wear out, the sooner the client will come back to buy more

 

[eropko]

IOW, it’s not dedicated.

Framebuffer is always dedicated. You can't swap it, compress it, unload it.
Apple said in M3 presentation about dynamic memory allocation for GPU cache. That's dedicated too.

 

[Hattig]

M GPU also has dedicated VRAM, for framebuffers at least. The thing of "unified" is that mac doesn't copy data from RAM to VRAM, and just "gives" a pointer to it to GPU.

This occurs on PCs too, just FYI. Integrated graphics or discrete. PCIe BAR / Aperture / etc.

Regardless, it's still 8GB shared.

 

[elvislives]

should name it macBookDumb. 8GB is a joke.

 

[tobybrut]

I'll buy that Mac's use RAM more efficiently than Windows machines. Haven't seen a lot of data on this, but sure, I'd say it's plausible.

But to say 8GB is equivalent to 16GB's of RAM, I'd definitely have to see independent data on this one.

Go back to every review on the M1 MacBook Air, 13" MBP, and mini when they first came out. Everybody was amazed how well 8GB worked and ran those tests I was talking about, such as running 50 apps at once. People were saying back then that 8GB was just like 16GB. Apple was just borrowing those comments from three years ago. I'm sure a lot of people here remember that.

 

[eropko]

This occurs on PCs too, just FYI. Integrated graphics or discrete. PCIe BAR / Aperture / etc.
Regardless, it's still 8GB shared.

Never said it doesn't occur anywhere else. Whole concept of unified memory isn't new too.

I'm just saying people don't really understand what 'unified' really means and that it's not some kind of magic RAM economizer. It's more of a thing that speeds up frame rendering because you don't have to pump all the changed frame data through the bus back and forth, GPU and CPU both "see" the same RAM at full speed.

 

[icymountain]

I think the real advantage of proposing 8 Gb base configurations is this:

As far as I can see, most offers by third party sellers are on stock configurations. They may end up doing discounts, which diminishes the monetary value of the product for Apple (if Amazon gives you a 10% discount, Apple is less likely to sell you the same thing with full margin). If you feel that the base version will not cut it for you (which is more often the case for advanced customers), then you have only two choices: pay full price (no discount) on the Apple website AND pay the expensive memory upgrade (higher income for Apple) or getting a higher spec model that comes with 16Gb standard (possibly with a discount elsewhere than Apple, but still more income for Apple on higher spec configuration apply too).

 

[Mr_Ed]

There are all types of pros, and not all of them do video editing or photo editing that requires gobs of memory. Most professionals don't have nearly those kind of needs. Business laptops also start at 8/256 for other vendors because that's what a lot of business people need. We had professionals tell you what their needs were on these forums and many of them were quite ok with 8/256. Stop lumping all professionals into your needs. If you're not type, just do the upgrades. Windows upgrades aren't cheap either. Microsoft charges exactly the same as Apple does while Dell charges nearly as much, yet it seems you're giving them a pass.

You are actually making my point. Those “business” users don’t need a “Pro”. They can do just fine with a cheaper “Air” ($1099-$1299) or a $799 (from MS website) Surface Laptop 5 or $639 Dell Latitude. The Pro Models cater to heavier workloads and should be configured accordingly. If “just do the upgrades” is the answer, then why even market anything as ”Pro” alongside “non-Pro” machines?

 

[bulletspongesquarepants]

Whether this is true or not, i hate the fact that i cannot upgrade the memory (or the ssd) myself. Even if 8 GB is enough for today, it probably wont be in a couple of years. And what about the pricing? Even 32GB of RAM on pc is way(!) cheaper.

 

[t0rqx]

They also claimed that a handful people only had issues with the butterfly keyboards, or with green hues, purple lines on screen of iPhones, violently shaking cameras on the iPhone 14PM, your holding it wrong, BmW iPhone 15 NFC being fried, Ventura installed on a handful of Macs. Must I go on?

Lets assume it is 16GB now, but with only one update its gonna feel like 2GB and here comes the upgrade cycle!

 

[MagicBoy]

What a load of nonsense. Either make 16GB standard, or scrap the price gouging on upgrades.

Edit : It's daft that the standard configs for the M3 are all 8GB. You've got no option other than to go to Apple for a BTO unit if you want more RAM as they can't be bought off the shelf. Naturally they'd prefer you to take a M3 Pro/Max upgrade for $LOL as well. It's anti-consumer.

 

[TallManNY]

I’d never let a friend or family member buy the 8gb version. It will be RAM constrained even in casual use at some point in the future and it is too expensive a machine to cut its useful life but for dropping another $200 to bring it to 16gb.

 

[Trusteft]

I agree. That's what I say to women too. Centimeters or inches, it's the same thing as long as it's the same number.
They don't believe me, but that's because they are not as open minded and smart as people who believe 8GB = 16GB of RAM.

 

[mazz0]

I have 16GB, I don't have a lot open right now, and my memory pressure is fluctuating a little over 50% (I've got 13GB "used", but "used" is a somewhat nebulous term when it comes to RAM).

So..... yeah, no.

 

[tobybrut]

I'm telling about this.
View attachment 2309232

But are you going to show me what is the price increase for 8-16-32 MBP in retail? You said you can easily find discounts, be my guest.

 

[zapmymac]

Key word: “probably”

😂

 

[eropko]

View attachment 2309237

M MBP 8-16-32 please, not MS. Let's compare what we can really get in retail.

 

[BeatCrazy]

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 have several. Macs will take up/use as much RAM as available to them. Even with just the same few browser tabs open, my 8GB M1 might be using 6GB, while my 32GB M1 Max will be using 18GB.

 

[Any name]

Well, that's just embarrassing... should have rather stayed quiet on this.

He did a pretty good job, IMHO. he welcomed the inexcusable criticism and proceeded to tell the customers “if you feel that the specs are stingy, then you are experiencing the device wrong”.

I suspect that Tim Cook must have personally trained them to reply this line to whomever questions their pricing strategy, if we are who to ask the almighty corporation.

Maybe Tim Cook sees computer manufacturing as a liability and wants to reduce the number of laptops sold another 33 % in 2024.

I’m looking forward to the CEO upgrade

 

[MagicBoy]

I checked some Windows machines. I found a rather interesting thing. Microsoft's own Surface Laptop has a base model of 8/256, costing $200 to upgrade to 16GB. Dell is a little cheaper, but not by much (closer to $150). It looks like most of their base machines are 16/256. HP's base machines that I found were all 8/256. It seems a lot of computer makers have very similar base specs as Apple does. Maybe these companies know something we don't as consumers, such as what the average user needs?

Who do you think gave them the idea that they can get away with unserviceable/disposable laptops and price gouging for upgrades. Apple. That's who.

 

[Dan G]

Got to compare apples for apples. Having your RAM on the north forty of your motherboard is not as efficient as unified. Running Pro apps will require more resources than the base. I have ran memory tests in my M1 base model with the OS memory pressure utility with a dozen Safari tabs and 4 apps (not photoshop) with no paging. 8gb can work in the right use case. If you are running pro apps that can use 8gb, get 16gb.

 

[KikoPT]

Yeah ... no.

8GB is NOT enough for a machine that costs 2000+ euros (looking at the 14" base M3 price in Portugal), at least if you want a good return on your investment, meaning a machine lasting you at least several years.

I have a 13" MBP M1 with 16GB and I would say for a "normal", "pro"-ish user, is the bare minimum nowadays.

Heck, if I need to buy a machine today, I would never buy it with 16GB, only more (24, 32, etc.).

 

[azentropy]

Fallacy. You're not using Microsoft's website. Apple products get discounted all the time on Amazon, so using a discount price versus standard price is highly disingenuous.

Straight from MS website:

12th gen Intel Core i7 8GB/256GB $1299. Same machine with 512GB, $1499 (+$200). expanded to 16/512 normal price $1799 (currently has a $300 discount). I was wrong. MS charges $300 for 8->16GB.

Ah but you stumbled upon a huge difference. Apple doesn't provide 16GB versions of certain products to retailers like Amazon, Costco and Best Buy. Microsoft does. Your only choice is to go BTO through Apple (or a few certified retailers who can order BTO). So saying you have to use Microsoft's website to compare because you can only do that with Apple's is being disingenuous.

 

[tobybrut]

M MBP 8-16-32 please, not MS. Let's compare what we can really get in retail.

What are you talking about? You were comparing a standard price to a sale price and trying to give the impression that MS didn’t charge much for upgrades. My comment is that Apple stuff goes on sale all the time and I could use the same misdirection by saying Apple only charges nothing for an upgrade because I’m comparing their regular store price to Amazon’s sale price.

The point here is that MS charges more than Apple does for RAM upgrades and the same for storage upgrades without taking sales into account, Sale prices distort things and should be left out as much as possible. Apple, itself never discounts anything, but Amazon does all the time. Apple always charges $200 for both of those upgrades and never puts them on sale.