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MisterAndrew

macrumors 68030
Sep 15, 2015
2,878
2,361
Portland, Ore.
If you use Adobe apps 16GB is a bare minimum. I have only this one browser tab open in Safari and Activity Monitor running and the system is using over 12GB of memory. Adobe services are running in the background. (It is also using up another 29GB for cached files; this Mac currently has 80GB of memory installed.) I suggest to go for 24GB on the base mini and 32GB on the Pro mini. That will leave you a bit of a cushion. You can't upgrade it later.
 

QCassidy352

macrumors G5
Mar 20, 2003
12,028
6,036
Bay Area
I recently got a M2 Air with 8/512. I considered the future proofing argument, but Amazon had a $220 discount, meaning the choice was $1279 for 8/512 or $1699 for 16/512. For a difference of over $400, I'll take the chance that I might have to upgrade a little sooner.

So far, the 8 GB has been outstanding with no slow downs on any tasks. Given that 8 GB remains the stock configuration for a large percentage of the current lineup (M1 Air, M2 Air, M2 MBP, M2 Mini, M1 iMac), I'm confident that it'll be well supported for a long time.
 

EugW

macrumors G5
Jun 18, 2017
13,679
11,254
8 GB is completely fine for lighter usage. We have several 8 GB Macs in the house, along with two 16 GB Macs and a 24 GB Mac.
 

George Dawes

Suspended
Jul 17, 2014
2,980
4,331
=VH=
I find Safari a huge ram hog , even with just two windows open on Ventura it's using 5gigs ... actually make that 6.7 !!! Crazy !!

I'd definitely go 16
 
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maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,419
43,307
I hate the term future proofing, because its just a way for companies to sell you more then you need, BUT in the case of ram, 8GB is really a bare minimum, and if you have the opportunity to get 16GB you'll be better off in the short and long term.
 

SalisburySam

macrumors 6502a
May 19, 2019
780
664
Salisbury, North Carolina
Suggestion: get the 8GB version, put the extra $400+ into a multi-year CD. Buy new machine 3-4 years from now.

Different view than most: skip the “future-proofing” hype, just get the machine you need now and take the savings to be applied to a brand new machine in a few years. Other than bragging rights, having an old machine to do actual work is a tough path, and one you’ve likely over-paid for by all the “future-proofing” excess bought but not needed. On the other hand, no need to upgrade annually either.
 
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theluggage

macrumors 604
Jul 29, 2011
7,476
7,315
My wife just runs Chrome, Excel and Outlook. She has an 8gb Air, and never had any issues.
Then she shouldn't have any issues with the 8GB M2 Mini.

That said, people shouldn't be having this dilemma because it is 2023 and 16GB shouldn't be an expensive luxury that added 30% to the cost of the machine - RAM simply isn't that expensive... but then Apple charging the earth for RAM upgrades is hardly new.

As for the future-proofing issue - the calculation is whether you think paying 30% more will make it last more than 30% longer (or increase its resale price should you decide to trade up).

If wear of the non-replaceable SSD is going to prove a problem in the long run then I think it will knobble the resale value of all Macs in the future. I have a feeling that, sadly, current Macs are simply not going to have such a long, useful life as the ones made in the 2010's.
 
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Heat_Fan89

macrumors 68030
Feb 23, 2016
2,537
3,233
Then again, I haven't heard of a failure yet due to heavy writes
Neither have I and if it were a problem, then Apple probably wouldn't sell refurbished Mac's with soldered SSD's. That's why I chose the base model. In a few years it will get traded in for something else.
 

adam9c1

macrumors 68000
May 2, 2012
1,868
309
Chicagoland
the 8GB is like the 2014 Mac Mini with 4GB and 500 GB spinner drive.

Technically, it will run the OS.
The user experience will be bad (in comparison to the same with 16GB) device spec.
 

Heat_Fan89

macrumors 68030
Feb 23, 2016
2,537
3,233
how do you find SSD wear factor, pls?
Go to System Info, tab down to Storage, Check SMART STATUS, if it says Verified, you have nothing to worry about. If it says failing, the drive has an error and could turn fatal. At that point a backup is highly recommended.

There is also a premium utility called DriveDx. It does have a free trial which IIRC is 30 days after that you'll need to buy it. That will give you SSD drive wear down to the percentage.
 
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Heat_Fan89

macrumors 68030
Feb 23, 2016
2,537
3,233
8GB is stupid and shouldn't exist in the first place. The computer is heavily crippled in almost anything. Tons of articles and videos to show real life cases how bad it is.
Agreed but that is what Apple excels at which is ....upsell. The Mac is not crippled for almost anything. We have people on this forum who have stated that 8GB is just fine for their needs. I know 8GB will be fine for my needs.
 
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Freida

Suspended
Oct 22, 2010
4,077
5,868
I'm still on Mojave and unfortunately its not there. Ill try the utility, thank you :)

Edit: found it in disk utility - under Smart status I have : Not supported
Go to System Info, tab down to Storage, Check SMART STATUS, if it says Verified, you have nothing to worry about. If it says failing, the drive has an error and could turn fatal. At that point a backup is highly recommended.

There is also a premium utility called DriveDx. It does have a free trial which IIRC is 30 days after that you'll need to buy it. That will give you SSD drive wear down to the percentage.
 

now i see it

macrumors G4
Jan 2, 2002
10,585
22,084
Geez - 25 years of Mac Pondering and it always comes down to insufficient RAM. Always.
Isn’t that kind of weird?
These same conversations were happening in 1995.
 
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Jwinnin

macrumors member
Dec 31, 2022
42
45
Geez - 25 years of Mac Pondering and it always comes down to insufficient RAM. Always.
Isn’t that kind of weird?
These same conversations were happening in 1995.
Apple knows this. Thats why they’ve structured the upsell this way. We all get RAM anxiety and are willing to pay a ludicrous price for the upgrade.
 
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Heat_Fan89

macrumors 68030
Feb 23, 2016
2,537
3,233
Geez - 25 years of Mac Pondering and it always comes down to insufficient RAM. Always.
Isn’t that kind of weird?
These same conversations were happening in 1995.
I bought an eMac back in 2003 and I had to add more RAM. IIRC it was 512MB of memory.
 

m1maverick

macrumors 65816
Nov 22, 2020
1,285
1,198
Threads like this show how ridiculous having non-replaceable memory is. I recall this same discussion in this very forum when the 2018 Mini was released. Pages upon pages of people offering their opinion and in the end the question remained unanswered.
 
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m1maverick

macrumors 65816
Nov 22, 2020
1,285
1,198
Geez - 25 years of Mac Pondering and it always comes down to insufficient RAM. Always.
Isn’t that kind of weird?
These same conversations were happening in 1995.
The difference being one could add more memory if need be. Not so with today's offerings.
 
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nanosour

macrumors member
Dec 14, 2009
47
5
My 2011 MB Air is running just fine with 4GB and an 120GB SSD. I'm on this thing all day with FF, Mail, Cal, Excel, Numbers and OpenOffice open at all times. Never skips a beat and I just checked Activity Monitor and memory pressure solidly in the mid range. I'm stuck on OS 10.13.6 so maybe OS Ventura would bring this machine to its knees. IDK.

I'm looking at the M2 Mini to replace my 2010 27" iMac with 8GB. The screen is starting to show artifacts so I think it's time to look for a replacement and the Mini looks like a great buy right now.
 

reallynotnick

macrumors 65816
Oct 21, 2005
1,249
1,193
Threads like this show how ridiculous having non-replaceable memory is. I recall this same discussion in this very forum when the 2018 Mini was released. Pages upon pages of people offering their opinion and in the end the question remained unanswered.

Do you mean 2014 or 2020? Because 2018 had user upgradable RAM.
 

smirking

macrumors 68040
Aug 31, 2003
3,741
3,713
Silicon Valley
I just ordered the new mini for my wife, with 8gb RAM. But I saw people saying 16gb should be minimum. My wife just runs Chrome, Excel and Outlook. She has an 8gb Air, and never had any issues. I have an 8gb Air with more challenging use, and still I never have run into memory issues. And upgrading to 16gb increases the price by 30%, so it's not trivial.

Any advice?

You'll be fine. I test drove an 8GB M1 13" MBP a couple of years ago and tried to pound it into submission. It ran in the red for two weeks straight and had no serious problems handling anything I threw at it and I'm a dev who ran multiple virtual environments (Windows 10 over Parallels + Web server), Capture One Pro, PHPStorm, XCode, and a dozen of miscellaneous programs all at the same time.

I'm sure it stuttered and slowed down here and there, but whatever hiccups I had were not severe enough that I'd notice without a stopwatch. My memory graph was absolutely filthy bad. It just didn't translate into trash performance... which completely surprised me.

Don't get RAM anxiety. 8GB machines are way waaaaaay more capable than most people believe.
 

StoneJack

macrumors 68020
Dec 19, 2009
2,384
1,467
8GB is stupid and shouldn't exist in the first place. The computer is heavily crippled in almost anything. Tons of articles and videos to show real life cases how bad it is.

I wouldn't recommend 8GB to anyone, its a punishment.

Unless of course you only use it for light browsing and emails in which case its totally fine.
you obviously new to computing...
 
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magbarn

macrumors 68030
Oct 25, 2008
2,956
2,253
My 2011 MB Air is running just fine with 4GB and an 120GB SSD. I'm on this thing all day with FF, Mail, Cal, Excel, Numbers and OpenOffice open at all times. Never skips a beat and I just checked Activity Monitor and memory pressure solidly in the mid range. I'm stuck on OS 10.13.6 so maybe OS Ventura would bring this machine to its knees. IDK.

I'm looking at the M2 Mini to replace my 2010 27" iMac with 8GB. The screen is starting to show artifacts so I think it's time to look for a replacement and the Mini looks like a great buy right now.
Now try loading up the ridiculous modern web pages and adds that social media has now. I have macs from that vintage and they slow to a crawl. It's what's crippling my wife's machine. The main issue is that she doesn't like to close web pages :rolleyes:
 

InuNacho

macrumors 68000
Apr 24, 2008
1,998
1,248
In that one place
Geez - 25 years of Mac Pondering and it always comes down to insufficient RAM. Always.
Isn’t that kind of weird?
These same conversations were happening in 1995.
Yea but in 95 I could open my Mac and drop in more RAM, a CPU upgrade, video adapter, or new drive.
Now we're stuck predicting what our case use will be.

For example I'm looking at a M2 Mini 265GB as a secondary computer strictly for 1080p analog -> digital video work in FCPX/DaVinci.
My budget is $1k USD. Here is how I see my case example:

8GB - Not enough
16GB - Good enough?
24GB - Best

There is $200 between 16 and 24GB. I don't know if 16GB is good enough since I'm doing not 4k work but the videos are long. If I spring for 16GB I can get some more external storage shared between my Dell workstation and the Mini although 16GB may not be enough.
 
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