Again, for future proofing, 8GB in 2023 is garbage.
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I think 512GB on a laptop is more needed than 16GB of memory still. Ideally both, but if I had to pick one to be a base spec it would be 512.
Dozens of users in our environment are using 8GB with zero issues. Most are on Teams all day long with multiple tabs/windows/browsers also open. I once did a test with an M1 with 8GB and had 100+ tabs open across three browsers (Brave, Chrome, Safari), 20 YouTube 4k streams playing, Excel and a huge spreadsheet (thousands of rows of data), and MS Teams running with a video call. Memory pressure was in the yellow and some swapping happened, but nothing that affected usability and certainly nothing most office workers would notice.
8GB is hardly a disgrace, the M1/M2 definitely seem to work very well with 8Gb. Years of actual data to back that up, so others can buy with confidence.
We will see how these 2023 8GB machines are working 7 years from now. Pin it.
My 2019 MBP is 8/128. Transferring 5000+ songs from a flash drive to the Music app on the laptop takes forever in one go. In my opinion, 32 GB should be the minimum. My pc has 64. What’s the cost difference to Apple going from 8 to 16 and 16 to 32?
If you practice good web browsing hygiene then 8gb is enough. My wife constantly asks my why her M1 MBA is running slow. Her MBA hits the yellow/red on memory on activity monitor with just browsing alone as she will have multiple websites open to show clients different fabrics, etc. I really regret getting her the base M1 MBA 8/256.
Most of the Mac users I know use their machines for at least 5-7 years. Even let's say 5 years from now, good luck with your 8GB of RAM.
Many people use their machines for more than web browsing. I swear, Mac users will try to justify anything. It is truly sad. And I'm sure if they upped it to 16GB standard, you'd tell Apple "no thanks, I'm happy with my 8GB", right? Sure you would.
I guess I should've phrased it better saying that you have to be pretty frugal with today's websites to make 8gb work. These expensive machines should have 16gb/1TB standard. Both DRAM and NAND are crazy cheap now and it's highway robbery what Apple charges for these upgrades that should be standard.
I’m the total opposite. I’d much rather have the higher ram than the storage. I can overcome storage with iCloud and external drives. Once I hit the memory limit, it’s all over, especially if my storage is fairly full For the swap memory.
Some websites have gotten really big. I can easily trigger the swap memory with a couple of web sites on a browser nowadays. 8GBs can work for you, but 16 gives you plenty of overhead just in case.
I don’t use laptops for that long, but maybe 3-5 years with a really solid machine. A desktop nowadays I can get 5+ years out of, and with the slow pace of software keeping up with hardware I think I’ll get more than ever in the coming years.
I don't either. I usually buy new computers, phones, etc. yearly, or bi-yearly at most. But most of the people I know are not like me when it comes to how long they keep their tech devices.
An interior designer in our office uses the 8GB/256GB M1 iMac all day 5 days a week running Archicad, Sketchup, Safari and Office suite without any problems. Activity monitor has ram in the yellow zone and she doesn’t experience any slowdowns. I’m amazed how well 8GB of ram is managed in OSX on that machine.
I would reckon that if an Apple Silicon Mac with 8GB of RAM can handle 100+ tabs across three browsers, multiple 4K streams and a Teams call all at the same time without much of a performance hit, then I doubt very seriously that whatever happens tech-wise 7 years from now is going to matter.
Most mac users who can last with the same CPU power for 5 years probably aren’t stressing out the ram much either.
You’re hardly a power user if you can handle a 5 year old CPU.
Felt bad for your wife's experience and wanted to share the following:
1) Yes, I have 8/512 M1 Air and also felt yellow/red ram pressure with lags. That was when i updated to newer MacOS.
Right now using another M1 Air and connecting them via usb-c, I downgraded to Big Sur 11.2.3 (20D91) and it never goes to yellow - once had 150 tabs across 2 jobs, so it never lagged.
Big Sur is the thing that this Air was shipped with so I remember it being perfect from day one and I regretted updating the MacOS.
Did I say I use computers for 5 years? No, I did not. If I own any tech device for a year, it is a miracle. I typically buy and try multiple phones, laptops, tablets, etc. throughout the year and I build my own Desktop/Gaming PCs. My point stands. For future proofing, 8GB of RAM in 2023 is a joke.
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My iMac currently has 8 browser tabs open, the Mail app, and one Word document open and I am currently using 9.92GB of my 32GB of physical memory, and it is far from 7 years old. So yeah, 8GB doesn't cut it in 2023 and I am usually running far more applications than what I've just mentioned.
100+ tabs is very very website dependent. As I mentioned earlier a 20 tabs of pinterest, houzz, and sunbrella can easily push a 8gb M1 MBA into yellow/red
I'm tempted to try that, but Apple likes to abandon security updates on older OS. I'll wait and see if Sonoma does better memory management wise.
Sorry. “One” not “you”.
But it if one keeps one’s laptop for more than five years, they aren’t power users.
I future proof by buying a new laptop every 2 years or so and selling my old one.
There’s no way to future proof ones CPU. One is better off saving the money on ram and putting it towards the next laptop upgrade in my experience.