Can you just buy what you think you'll need and then run it as hard as you can to see if it'll work out? Return it if it doesn't perform and buy the next one up.
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8gb vs 16gb
- Thread starter ahostmadsen
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Can you just buy what you think you'll need and then run it as hard as you can to see if it'll work out? Return it if it doesn't perform and buy the next one up.
IMO they don't, The SSD will last until the system is well and truly obsolete. Some were stating that the original M1 Mac's SSD's would be lucky to last 2 years, which has proved not to be the case nor likely to be so moving forward.
I don't agree with all Apple's does and been on record for it, however the current base models remain perfectly adequate for the vast majority. They wont implode due to not having 16GB RAM and will get the job done with ease on their 256 SSD's.
As said I use my 13" professionally and feel no need to deal with a BTO and feed Apple needless $$$. Far too many "worry wardens" here stirring up needless fear, worse pushing upsell for those that simply don't need...
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Yep, the more things change the more they stay the same
One difference however is the fact the Ram is not upgradable. What you get is what you have to live with. 25 years ago you could just buy some ram and upgrade
Ugh that IR sensor cable is so easy to break. I broke that in my 2011 Mini last year when swapping in a bigger SSD too (somehow I managed to avoid the same mistake with my first SSD swap in that machine).
Not that I ever need to use the remote, but it also killed the front LED light! Oh well, the rest of the computer still works fine.
That is another thing people worry too much about. The SSD's in that are in these Macs will probably last longer than most plan to keep the system in service. In 4 years of service my 2018 i5 Mini with 256GB SSD has lost according to DriveDx 4% of it's life span and I used it everyday. Granted I am now a casual user but I am on it everyday for about 6 hours.
As far as memory goes, I have found that the 8GB in my M2 Mini is working out to be more like 12-16GB as memory gets compressed and decompressed as Apps need less of it. I have had 4 web browsers open with a couple of tabs, Mail several other apps running and memory pressure has stayed around 40% and all it has done is, compress memory. The Swap file as of yet has not been appeared during operation.
For my needs the M2 8/256GB is overkill and the M2 is much faster than my 2018 Mini at pretty much everything.
That's also part of the point Apple has deliberely engineered it's products to be basically unrepairable and certainly non user upgradable. Yes now we can see performance & efficiency benefits with Apple's own SOC's, equally it no longer pay's to over spec unless the user can monetise.Yep, the more things change the more they stay the same
One difference however is the fact the Ram is not upgradable. What you get is what you have to live with. 25 years ago you could just buy some ram and upgrade
The 8 versus 16 debate has been going on for near a decade and the machines have only served to get faster...
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My maxed out 2014 Mac mini approves of this message. It is not fast.
Is what it is "fear mongering" I've still got a 2014 13" kicking about and over 4 years ago it had written over 67TB to the drive, then used as a media server so who knows how much data it's written now in 2023.
I simply don't bother with all these system monitor apps barring Macs Fan Control as at times I may want to push the fan curve and even that is set not to auto start. macOS same as Windows I let the system manage itself and resultantly have no problems, just turning off/uninstall what I don't care for.
TBH is getting to be a joke, even seen people recommending an M2 Max for study, light video editing and occasional gaming
Barring the gaming aspect a base model M1 air would likely suffice...The base models are and remain to be solid options for the majority. This 17" PC has 32GB RAM & 2TB of storage as it's required to run specific engineering applications, equally I wouldn't recomend for the average user as they are just burning $$$ needlessly.
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bu... but how am i supposed to have 100+ tabs open on each of my four instances of Safari, Firefox and Chrome?
racoop observes:
"what are the chances of a new Mac mini ever being tossed in the trash after a few years because the SSD got burned up from memory swapping?"
... and smirking replies:
"I ran an 8GB M1 like a 32GB i7 and it did amazingly well, but the swap volume was unnerving"
I have a 2018 Mini (16gb) and a 2021 MacBook Pro 14".
Neither of them do any disk swapping --- AT ALL.
That's because I've TURNED OFF VM disk swapping using terminal with this command:
sudo launchctl unload -wF /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist
Both Macs run great and DO NOT crash from memory-related problems.
I DO close un-needed applications, and I NEVER use tabbed browsing.
Here's a reading I just took from terminal (on the Mini), querying VM and disk space:
Command entered:
sysctl vm.swapusage
OS replies:
vm.swapusage: total = 0.00M used = 0.00M free = 0.00M (encrypted)
"what are the chances of a new Mac mini ever being tossed in the trash after a few years because the SSD got burned up from memory swapping?"
... and smirking replies:
"I ran an 8GB M1 like a 32GB i7 and it did amazingly well, but the swap volume was unnerving"
I have a 2018 Mini (16gb) and a 2021 MacBook Pro 14".
Neither of them do any disk swapping --- AT ALL.
That's because I've TURNED OFF VM disk swapping using terminal with this command:
sudo launchctl unload -wF /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist
Both Macs run great and DO NOT crash from memory-related problems.
I DO close un-needed applications, and I NEVER use tabbed browsing.
Here's a reading I just took from terminal (on the Mini), querying VM and disk space:
Command entered:
sysctl vm.swapusage
OS replies:
vm.swapusage: total = 0.00M used = 0.00M free = 0.00M (encrypted)
And after doing this, and you then try to open enough programs that the OS would ordinarily swap, exactly what happens?
It's not a universal fix as once an application or the OS needs to swap data to the drive it will likely crash or force apps to close. It's more fix for those with a certain usage. I've systems with 32GB of RAM and they use Swap. I could tun off virtual memory, equally I'd rather not roll the dice on the system freezing or going haywire in the middle of something important...
Kind of pointless as by the time the SSD is done the computer will either be obsolete or in the shredder.
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Agreed. It strikes me more as a solution in search of a problem...
Bad advice for general populous. It works for the member, but for others all bets are off...
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foo asks:
"And after doing this, and you then try to open enough programs that the OS would ordinarily swap, exactly what happens?"
Don't know.
It's never happened.
I suppose you'd get either an "out of memory" warning or a crash.
But why would I want to do that in the first place?
"And after doing this, and you then try to open enough programs that the OS would ordinarily swap, exactly what happens?"
Don't know.
It's never happened.
I suppose you'd get either an "out of memory" warning or a crash.
But why would I want to do that in the first place?
Likely, just be mindful everyone's use case is different. This notebook has anything from 150 - 200 tabs and a good number of open apps, nor do I shutdown apps unless I have no further need.
I treat my base M1 13" MBP the same, if it needs more volatile RAM to run an application the system just swaps unused data to the drive. To me that's how it should work, nor do I remotely worry or care about it.
Windows has made leaps & bounds, equally one of the major attractions to me of OSX/macOS is that you don't need to worry about such trivia. I don't want to manage the system anymore than I need to, as ultimately that's an aspect of what I'm paying the OEM to do.
As ever we are all different, no harm, no fowl...
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Why would I want to manage closing applications if I don't need to? It's something I let the OS manage, via swap. That's a part of what it's designed for.
Why don't you try it? Open all your applications, and see what happens.
Member has I assume a limited use case scenario. What concerns, if someone follows the "worry wardens" with the premise the M1 SSD's will auto destruct in a couple of years
then runs the said Terminal command with a higher workload they may suffer data loss...Back to the OP if just running just a single instance of a browser, forking out for 16GB is simply throwing money at Apple for no good reason.
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I'm very happy with my $499 m2 mini. Even took the time to trade in an old Samsung Note 9 for another $75 back. Can't beat that...
A game I enjoy is Starcraft II, and I can happily report that while it didn't run well in the M1 [standard level] generation (7 core GPU only in my testing...), it does work better with M2 (10 GPU cores...), such that we're at the "I can live with it" level. It's impressive. At 2540x1080 on medium, with low shaders (and the two items under shaders, which automatically become low when you flip that option), it works very well in 4x4 use. Obviously, on the 6900 and the 5700 in MacOS everything played great maxed out, but ... that's ok.
I treat the YouTube videos in the early days showing 200fps in mostly single player "Hey, watch me while I start a game of SC2 and play for 5 minutes, with nothing on the screen but me..." as comedy.
As long as it hits the numbers you need that's all that counts
Only game I play on my M1 is Doom 3 with native source port engines. Rest is better delt with by the PC.Q-6
This is why I have a couple of gaming rigs. I don't even consider Apple hardware when I want to play games and 90% of my games are not on a Mac.As long as it hits the numbers you need that's all that counts
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macos simply isn't a gaming platform, macsourceports does what it does to allow us to play older games natively on Apple Silicon & 64bit Intel from the past on modern hardware.
That said Doom 3 has never looked better or played so well...
RBDoom 1.4 game engine
All credit to the dev game remains to be stunning in 2023...Q-6
That does look great but i'm onto Doom Eternal 🤠macos simply isn't a gaming platform, macsourceports does what it does to allow us to play older games natively on Apple Silicon & 64bit Intel from the past on modern hardware.
That said Doom 3 has never looked better or played so well...
RBDoom 1.4 game engine
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Devs mission statement "The goal of this port is to bring DOOM-3-BFG up to latest technology in 2021" nor is he fooling about
I prefer the horror aspect so keep the lighting low, such a tremendous atmosphere. It just really works....
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Doom 3 does have good atmosphere. It's kind of like Dead Space. I prefer the more action oriented Doom and Doom Eternal. I got really into gaming back when the original Doom was shareware in the early 90's.Devs mission statement "The goal of this port is to bring DOOM-3-BFG up to latest technology in 2021" nor is he fooling about
I prefer the horror aspect so keep the lighting low, such a tremendous atmosphere. It just really works....
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