8 gigs of Ram is an absolute joke of an amount in current year 2024. Charging 200 dollars to upgrade to 16 gigabytes is highway robbery. the only difference apple has with standard off the shelf ddr5 is slower frequencies and a better controller.
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Apple's Regular Mac Base RAM Boosts Ended When Tim Cook Took Over
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"Ultra-premium" is an interesting way to pronounce off the shelf in the same way "priced sensibly" is an interesting way to pronounce highway robbery.
dumastudetto
macrumors 603
Apple uses high-quality certified RAM that you won't find in any PC. Apple RAM is fast, reliable, safe and secure. It is deeply integrated within Apple Silicon to deliver unrivalled performance and incredible energy effiiency.
so, standard off the shelf samsung or SK hynix nand modules that run at DDR5 JEDEC standards of 6400 MT/s. I can literally go on amazon and buy a kit of Patriot viper extreme that runs at 8400 MT/s and has 32 gigs of capacity for 228 dollars. Apple's ram prices are an indefensible scam.
mike2q
macrumors 6502
This has been the strategy for both Mac and iPhone for a long time now. They've somehow convinced people that thorough "magic" they are able to defy the realities of computer science knowing full well that those people will have to upgrade sooner because it won't be enough in just a few short years. If you think Apple doesn't need as much ram because (insert control over hardware and software faulty logic argument here) then you just got scammed by the richest and most greedy company on the planet. Congratulations.
Yet all of that is for naught when Apple decides to kill off your Mac at a certain point regardless, whether it has 8/24/32/64GB of RAM. That's why I buy the base model and I purchased an M2 base Mini for $465 from Apple when it launched. When Apple decides to kill that off i'll buy another base Mini.
AlumaMac
macrumors 6502
Sad thing is it doesn’t take Apple to kill it off, just a RAM module or SSD failure will send it to the scrap heap.
Why is macOS is so much better than Windows?
The most offensive part of all this is soldered-in RAM and SSDs. SSDs will fail, and RAM does fail.
This turns $3000-4000 computers into disposable items that might as well be hanging from pegs in blister packs at Walgreen's. It's embarrassing.
This turns $3000-4000 computers into disposable items that might as well be hanging from pegs in blister packs at Walgreen's. It's embarrassing.
I think the other offensive part is the prices apple charges to repair stuff when a product dies because the end user has no option other than to go to apple.
Just because you see red memory pressure doesn't mean you need more RAM. I cannot get more RAM on my computer and 1080p video editing only takes 2 GB of RAM anyway (both Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro only use this much).
Seeing Red memory pressure during normal tasks is by definition an indication that you need more RAM. That's literally the point of it. Apple even calls this out in their own support documentation...
- Green memory pressure: Your computer is using all of its RAM efficiently.
- Yellow memory pressure: Your computer might eventually need more RAM.
- Red memory pressure: Your computer needs more RAM.
Source:
Check if your Mac needs more RAM in Activity Monitor
Use Activity Monitor on your Mac to see if memory is being used efficiently and if you need more memory (RAM).
IlluminatedSage
macrumors 68000
8 gigs of VRAM. as in the memory built onto the graphics card. not the same thing as 8 gigs of system memory. Most games requiring 8 gigs of VRAM wouldn't run with 8 gigs of system memory.
yes I'm well aware of the differences between VRAM and system memory. plenty of PC games target 8 gigs of VRAM and 8 gigs of system memory.
lol
anyways:
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did this satisfy your arbitrary requirement?
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ric22
Suspended
Yep. As I've complained about before, my last MacBook Air suffered a RAM failure- game over, dead computer. Back in the day I had a RAM failure in a desktop PC, bought some replacement RAM on my way to get lunch, and had things up and running again 5 minutes after getting home. Decreasing repairability is horrible for consumers and for the environment.
...and yes, before anyone feels the need to say it, I know RAM isn't as prone to failure as it was, but that makes it no less galling when your own (rather expensive) device dies on you.
How about saying it doesn't make sense that a single tasking device should have as much or more memory than a multi-tasking computer?
In looking at a few of your other posts, I'm wondering - In your opinion, is there any Apple behavior worthy of criticism?
That's easy to do as some games released last year aren't as demanding as others, but the person you are replying to is unwilling to accept that newer games are starting to require more, even if some that are released still work with 8GB. It's not worth arguing with them, they won't listen. I gave a list of a number of newer games in the last couple years that require more than 8GB RAM a few pages back and they just decided that those don't count for whatever reason.
the problem with your logic is the device does have more RAM if you want more RAM.
So the criticism is really about price. And since when does Apple come out on top in price? They are always expensive.
No.
I'm not talking about what a consumer can or might buy, I'm talking about what Apple is selling.
If the customer can buy it then Apple sells it. And Apple sells all Macs (every Mac) with 16gb if you want 16gb of RAM.
No it’s not a simple binary decision. As I have proven on something that should only take 2GB of RAM was eating up all 192GB and causing insane swap (literally hundreds of GBs for the test).Seeing Red memory pressure during normal tasks is by definition an indication that you need more RAM. That's literally the point of it. Apple even calls this out in their own support documentation...
- Green memory pressure: Your computer is using all of its RAM efficiently.
- Yellow memory pressure: Your computer might eventually need more RAM.
- Red memory pressure: Your computer needs more RAM.
Source:Check if your Mac needs more RAM in Activity Monitor
Use Activity Monitor on your Mac to see if memory is being used efficiently and if you need more memory (RAM).support.apple.com
I have faced many other issues with other apps too. Yes even browser tabs. I created a website that had memory leaks too.
That is why I talk to my clients for a good amount of time. Maybe they have seen something similar and the don’t need to waste money on more RAM if they can try an alternative app to see if it’s a bug or not. I don’t simply say “you see red memory pressure? Sorry get a new computer/more RAM.” I don’t agree with Apple’s docs here. It’s much more conversational approach. If I followed Apple’s documentation I wouldn’t be able to get a computer with more RAM. And the task doesn’t make sense. No 1080p video editing work needs more than 192GB.
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Quit straw-manning.
This thread is helping to point out that Apple is selling many multi-tasking computers with the same amount of memory as a single-tasking phone. That's pretty much the point of the post starting this chain.