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Curious ...

what is the storage of your 8GB M1 Mac Mini?
Also report back in 4yrs let us know how good it is functioning, even with the same OS installed currently. IF the base 256GB storage, the overall system performance doing RAM swap may be holding it back from its real potential?

256GB. As I mentioned, I also owned a MBA with even less RAM (4GB) for nearly a decade (and only 128GB storage) and never felt the performance degraded at all during that entire time, and that was with consistent OS upgrades. Once again, not everyone's expectations/needs/etc. are going to match yours or the other poster's.
 
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256GB. As I mentioned, I also owned a MBA with even less RAM (4GB) for nearly a decade (and only 128GB storage) and never felt the performance degraded at all during that entire time, and that was with consistent OS upgrades. Once again, not everyone's expectations/needs/etc. are going to match yours or the other poster's.
This is so dependent on what a person is doing, that each person needs to make such a decision. It is also hard to estimate how Apple Silicon RAM amounts relate to our experience with Intel Macs. I’ve heard both positions, in the sense that more can be done with less RAM, but also when doing some things, more RAM gets utilized (ex: the GPU needs RAM that might have been separate on Intel Macs).

I would say, in my experience, Apple’s base configurations of RAM have been quite tight, and sometimes have limited the lifespan. I also have a 4GB MBA that I used for several years, and still use as a home server. But, I certainly couldn’t do several of the things in my workflow on it. I had it for portability alongside my iMac which had a lot more RAM.

Fast SSD storage does mean when you run out of RAM, you notice it less, and can often get by. But, for example, on my 2018 Mac mini with 16GB or RAM, I’m typically running 50-60% utilized, and that isn’t including when I need to run VMs or 3D/CAD. Just having several Chrome/Brave tabs going can eat up quite a bit of RAM, and then add in a half-dozen or more other apps I typically have running.

While I think many could get by with 8GB, and maybe even for the expected life of the machine (but what is that these days? 4 or 5 years? I used to think of Macs more like 6-10 year machines)? People should carefully consider whether they can afford bumping up at least one ‘notch’ above base-config on RAM.
 
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This is so dependent on what a person is doing, that each person needs to make such a decision. It is also hard to estimate how Apple Silicon RAM amounts relate to our experience with Intel Macs. I’ve heard both positions, in the sense that more can be done with less RAM, but also when doing some things, more RAM gets utilized (ex: the GPU needs RAM that might have been separate on Intel Macs).

I would say, in my experience, Apple’s base configurations of RAM have been quite tight, and sometimes have limited the lifespan. I also have a 4GB MBA that I used for several years, and still use as a home server. But, I certainly couldn’t do several of the things in my workflow on it. I had it for portability alongside my iMac which had a lot more RAM.

Fast SSD storage does mean when you run out of RAM, you notice it less, and can often get by. But, for example, on my 2018 Mac mini with 16GB or RAM, I’m typically running 50-60% utilized, and that isn’t including when I need to run VMs or 3D/CAD. Just having several Chrome/Brave tabs going can eat up quite a bit of RAM, and then add in a half-dozen or more other apps I typically have running.

While I think many could get by with 8GB, and maybe even for the expected life of the machine (but what is that these days? 4 or 5 years? I used to think of Macs more like 6-10 year machines)? People should carefully consider whether they can afford bumping up at least one ‘notch’ above base-config on RAM.

Yes, I agree with all that, and that was my point: everyone's needs are different.
 
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