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Entire Mac Lineup Now Starts With at Least 16GB RAM, Ending 8GB Era
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macOS without advanced features like Apple Intelligence runs just fine in 4GB of RAM. But now that invisible consumer features, such as Apple Intelligence, are becoming mainstream, a minimum of 8GB is required. 16GB is Apple looking ahead to the next 5-6 years.
My MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM will handle Apple Intelligence and everything that I throw at it without any problems because I'm not running super-heavy apps.
So it's highly subjective what the "minimum" should be. The risk of giving too much RAM to developers is that we end up with bloated apps. I hope Apple keeps with their conservative approach to RAM to force developers to optimize.
I am one of the members who was defending 8gb of ram in a Mac, and I am not entirely sure what this move invalidates.
I do not deny that 8gb ram suffices for me.
If I need more ram, I will pay for the specs I need. Is there something stopping any of you here from doing the same?
In the same vein, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth and say no to getting more of something for free (such as ram). But that is entirely a separate matter from whether 8gb ram suffices for the average consumer or not.
I am happy that Apple has made such a move, and I still stand by every word I said. You may think that you are on some sort of noble crusade to champion for better specced devices on behalf of all Apple devices so that users can get a better deal. I doubt Apple bases their product design decisions on random macrumours forum posts. Feel free to cheer and celebrate. I just don't think your posts have had the impact you believe they may have had.
I am guessing it won't be long before we see posts complaining about how 256gb storage is insufficient on a Mac, and that Apple needs to increase that to 512gb on their base models. It will be the same story all over again. There are people getting by with that much storage (I personally have not used over half that on my MBA), Apple may eventually up that as well for whatever reason, the whiners will see this "capitulation" by Apple as evidence that their complaining works, and well, at the end of the day, life goes on.
I do not deny that 8gb ram suffices for me.
If I need more ram, I will pay for the specs I need. Is there something stopping any of you here from doing the same?
In the same vein, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth and say no to getting more of something for free (such as ram). But that is entirely a separate matter from whether 8gb ram suffices for the average consumer or not.
I am happy that Apple has made such a move, and I still stand by every word I said. You may think that you are on some sort of noble crusade to champion for better specced devices on behalf of all Apple devices so that users can get a better deal. I doubt Apple bases their product design decisions on random macrumours forum posts. Feel free to cheer and celebrate. I just don't think your posts have had the impact you believe they may have had.
I am guessing it won't be long before we see posts complaining about how 256gb storage is insufficient on a Mac, and that Apple needs to increase that to 512gb on their base models. It will be the same story all over again. There are people getting by with that much storage (I personally have not used over half that on my MBA), Apple may eventually up that as well for whatever reason, the whiners will see this "capitulation" by Apple as evidence that their complaining works, and well, at the end of the day, life goes on.
When all your phones' RAM catches up to your laptops' RAM, you know it starts looking ridiculous.
I am one of the members who was defending 8gb of ram in a Mac, and I am not entirely sure what this move invalidates.
I do not deny that 8gb ram suffices for me.
If I need more ram, I will pay for the specs I need. Is there something stopping any of you here from doing the same?
In the same vein, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth and say no to getting more of something for free (such as ram). But that is entirely a separate matter from whether 8gb ram suffices for the average consumer or not.
I am happy that Apple has made such a move, and I still stand by every word I said. You may think that you are on some sort of noble crusade to champion for better specced devices on behalf of all Apple devices so that users can get a better deal. I doubt Apple bases their product design decisions on random macrumours forum posts. Feel free to cheer and celebrate. I just don't think your posts have had the impact you believe they may have had.
I am guessing it won't be long before we see posts complaining about how 256gb storage is insufficient on a Mac, and that Apple needs to increase that to 512gb on their base models. It will be the same story all over again. There are people getting by with that much storage (I personally have not used over half that on my MBA), Apple may eventually up that as well for whatever reason, the whiners will see this "capitulation" by Apple as evidence that their complaining works, and well, at the end of the day, life goes on.
This post reads like someone has died.
Tipping one out for those that died on the '8gb is enough for many users' hill.
You can keep the alcohol (I don't drink), I still stand by everything I have said, and I remain genuinely happy for everyone here getting a new Mac, both now and in the future.This post reads like someone has died.
Tipping one out for those that died on the '8gb is enough for many users' hill.
The fact is they still added ai to the 8gb models, there is plenty of people here with the 8gb model, so what is their take on how useable it still is?
What about it? As a streaming device it is already pretty overpowered with more processing power, RAM and storage than any other dedicated streaming device on the market. As a gaming device, sure, it could stand to be more powerful, but gaming on the Apple TV never really seemed to take off and it doesn't seem like it is something Apple is actively pursuing. Outside of gaming I'm not really sure what an Apple TV would do with more RAM at this point?What about Apple TV?
Today's announcement really hurts. But the good news is that not everyone will know about it right away and some may not find out until the new 16GB base models are in stores.
You should see my local FB marketplace. There's people asking $1200CAD for a 2 year old M2 base model or $1300CAD for a used M3 base model with stickers plastered all over it.
So my asking price if I do decide to sell my M3 Air is quite good in comparison to what others are asking. I find it laughable how anyone thinks they could use a laptop for 2 years and only have it cost them $100 out of their pocket LOL. This isn't 2001 where Apple products retain 80% of its resale value over time.
Right now Im 60/40 on selling it. Im just not 100% sure. I just don't want to be stuck with an expensive paperweight in less than a years time. Just look how much those Intel CPU MacBooks are worth now. Glad I never spent a penny on those.
As soon as those 16GB base model Airs hit stores (expecting right away), the only reason anyone would buy a 2nd hand base model Air is the price. Nothing else. And it would have to be a big savings for them.
If anyone wants to sell their base model MacBooks, now is the time.
You should see my local FB marketplace. There's people asking $1200CAD for a 2 year old M2 base model or $1300CAD for a used M3 base model with stickers plastered all over it.
So my asking price if I do decide to sell my M3 Air is quite good in comparison to what others are asking. I find it laughable how anyone thinks they could use a laptop for 2 years and only have it cost them $100 out of their pocket LOL. This isn't 2001 where Apple products retain 80% of its resale value over time.
Right now Im 60/40 on selling it. Im just not 100% sure. I just don't want to be stuck with an expensive paperweight in less than a years time. Just look how much those Intel CPU MacBooks are worth now. Glad I never spent a penny on those.
As soon as those 16GB base model Airs hit stores (expecting right away), the only reason anyone would buy a 2nd hand base model Air is the price. Nothing else. And it would have to be a big savings for them.
If anyone wants to sell their base model MacBooks, now is the time.
If you have an 8GB model, I'd honestly sell it ASAP
The value is only going to accelerate downward once the implications of Apple raising the base levels across the board become more clear to everyone.
Nobody will want them for anything but a screaming deal
(yes they will keep working, but the implications of being on a machine that's below what Apple now considers "the minimum" will be not be good, especially when it comes to OS and feature updates moving forward)
Look at this poor guy near me in Boise
He's asking more than one could buy a new 16GB RAM model for from EDU
Ouch
Going to take a major bath ... be lucky to get about $1100 I'll bet
The value is only going to accelerate downward once the implications of Apple raising the base levels across the board become more clear to everyone.
Nobody will want them for anything but a screaming deal
(yes they will keep working, but the implications of being on a machine that's below what Apple now considers "the minimum" will be not be good, especially when it comes to OS and feature updates moving forward)
Look at this poor guy near me in Boise
He's asking more than one could buy a new 16GB RAM model for from EDU
Ouch
Going to take a major bath ... be lucky to get about $1100 I'll bet
It's a tough call. I think there is a very short window in the coming days that not everyone will know of the 16GB ram announcement. But once it's in stores in the coming weeks and people know, that window will be gone. But I agree, the only reason anyone would buy a second hand 8GB MacBook is the price and it would be like 35-40% of what a base model 16GB would cost in the stores.
I've only had my M3 Air for 2.5 months. Christ I barely used the thing in the first 6 weeks. Perfect condition. If I can get 3 years out of it (as in being able to run OSX smoothly all the time, I'll be more than happy to keep it. The thing is, there's no guarantee. If anyone sells their base model Airs right now (especially the people who recently bought it), they would take a loss on it. But also we don't want to be stuck with an expensive paperweight in less than 6 months time. Just look how those Intel CPU MacBooks did for resale value once the M1 was announced. Yikes. Im sure glad I wasn't a victim of that.
Digital second hand markets are pretty well developed and pretty safe in this area. Very common, for iPhones/iPads in particular. Would normally purchase higher spec 18-24 months old for keeps. That was easy and fairly predictable during the Intel era (which thankfully is over and done with). I`ll see how the base Mini holds up (bet it will) 👍
And this just proves the futureproofing argument. The thing with Apple is when just enough is not enough enough, we have to replace the entire thing. It's not like we can just slot in a new 2TB nvme drive or another two sticks of RAM to get the new enough. We can't just get "just enough" for now.
For things that I don't plan to do much and I value the portability, then I'll use the Macs. But for real work, I'm still sticking to my windows desktop. I'm not married to either side, I will use whichever that's the right rool to use.
For things that I don't plan to do much and I value the portability, then I'll use the Macs. But for real work, I'm still sticking to my windows desktop. I'm not married to either side, I will use whichever that's the right rool to use.
That's nothing compared to what's near me. This is laughable. Use a laptop for 2 years and want it to only cost you $100 out of your pocket LOL. Oh ya and the stickers definitely drives up it's value.
My first computer had 64KB of RAM, which was four times as much as the earlier models. Hard drives didn't even exist for those computers. Even floppy drives were expensive luxuries, usually costing nearly as much if not more than the computer itself. And when I say floppy drives I mean actual 5.25" floppies, not the smaller 3.5" rigid ones.
No hard drives, no floppy drives. Me and my friends were using "audio tape drives". I'm calling them that just so the younger people can understand how basic that was. Loading took minutes, sometimes dozens of minutes, to load a game. That is, if the audio tape and the player didn't stumble on unwanted noise in which case it failed to load after 20 minutes with only 30 seconds left to load. There was no "retry from that point", you had to start over again, after rewinding the tape to the proper time stamp of course.
Now get off my (virtual) lawn. 😛
...But I thought we didn't need more than 8GB. I'm sure that's what they tried to tell us not that long ago 🤔🙄😂
My first computer was an Atari 400 with a tape drive. My first computer upgrade at the age of 10 was to replace that membrane keyboard with a real keyboard. Good times!
What I said was that 8gb ram does suffice for many users, there's nothing stopping people who need more ram from simply paying for it (except maybe their own stinginess) and while I won't say no to more ram for free, I am not going to lie and deny my own experience just for the sake of it.
Are you sure ? WWDC is better for me… actually it’s only a price decrease not a big deal… And you know what… it’s only a 100$ price decrease because you don’t have 10 cores gpu… actually apple forced you to buy this before so yeah… And yes a 200$ price decrease on the MacBook Air 15 inch… (because it has 10 cores gpu)… You could got theses deals with Amazon some days… The only big deal for me is if you are eligible to edu apple price and want to buy a 15 inch MacBook Air!
You are right, actually almost everyone can use 8gb of ram by using one single app and there will be ok… Rare people will not but they might get MacBook Pro in these case… actually it’s only a price drop
I was referring to comments being made by someone from Apple, probably several months ago now, defending the 8GB option. My point is, Apple no longer seem to think that 8GB is enough—for whatever reason, rightly or wrongly. Otherwise they wouldn’t be giving us more for free. It’s kinda ironic.