Everyone says 16GB of RAM is more than enough for Final Cut Pro and music production. How is that possible with the RAM I'm seeing used on my 2019?

[new16helppls]

Sorry, I know 16 vs 32 RAM questions come up a lot, but I am trying to make sense of something I don't really see discussed.

My MacBook Pro with 32 GB of RAM is using 20 GB for basic stuff like a few Safari tabs with YouTube going, Music, Messages, Discord, Skype. But everyone says 16 GB is more than enough for an actual workflow in Final Cut, Logic, etc. How is this possible?

Does my Mac simply not release memory because there is no need to with 32GB?

I'd like to get out from under my 2019 MBP before the price plummets any further, but I'd rather a second or third generation machine be the one I do the 3-5 year long haul with so I don't want to do the whole "future proof for the next decade" with my M1 Pro. So I'm looking at saving the $700-$800 on a RAM/CPU/GPU and grabbing a base model for now.

Also, the fact that I can walk into a store and grab a base model vs waiting until Christmas is something I am taking into consideration.

I know 32 GB of RAM is only $380, but once you've tacked that on it doesn't make sense to not get the $180 M1 Max CPU/GPU upgrade. And then once you're another $600 in the hole you might as well get the 32 Core GPU for $180. It just spirals out of control pretty quickly thanks to Apple's clever upgrade pricing model, and something I'd like to avoid if possible since I don't need this computer for more than 2 years.

So does my machine not really need to be using 20 GB and is rather not releasing RAM since it has no need to? Will I really be OK with 16GB of RAM for a workflow in Final Cut, Da Vinci, Logic, etc. while listening to Music, sending messages, and doing web browsing?

Thank you

 

[PeterJP]

First, there are several reports of video editing going quite fluently on M1s even with 8-16GB of RAM. But what's video editing? Do you make a home video with a couple of shots and transitions? Or are you making an AfterEffects edit with dozens of layers in 4K? If you're serious about video editing or you do it professionally, 32-64GB is a much better idea. I will be upgrading several users of mine to a 32GB machine with M1Pro from Intel machines with 16GB for exactly that reason.

Second, you shouldn't look at "memory used" in activity monitor. I've been doing nothing but Firefox and Office today and it sits at almost 19GB here. When I sort the apps by memory used, the biggest is Firefox at 614 megabytes. So it's not a good indication. Instead, look at the "Memory Pressure" in the bottom left. If that goes to yellow or red, you need more memory. Which is the case for my users that I'm upgrading.

 

[new16helppls]

Yeah, I'm nothing more than an amateur video editor learning the ropes and uploading some stuff to YouTube that I recorded in 4K ProRes with my 13 Pro Max, so very far from the use case you are upgrading for.

Just watched this stress test of an M1 Pro base model and feeling a lot more comfortable with the idea of going with 16GB ?

 

[Ray2]

If you have so much as looked at any Apple web pages for any of the M computers you would have noticed “unified memory”. That goes a long way in answering your question. A quick search will provide a more detailed explanation.

 

[aevan]

Sorry, I know 16 vs 32 RAM questions come up a lot, but I am trying to make sense of something I don't really see discussed.

My MacBook Pro with 32 GB of RAM is using 20 GB for basic stuff like a few Safari tabs with YouTube going, Music, Messages, Discord, Skype. But everyone says 16 GB is more than enough for an actual workflow in Final Cut, Logic, etc. How is this possible?

Because empty RAM is useless RAM, macOS will fill out your RAM no matter how much you have - by caching files, unused apps, various things. If you had 64GB RAM, after a while, you'd see 45Gb used for "basic stuff", because macOS would fill that with space. Even with swap, macOS will often decide to write something on the disk. You would see this usage and think: I obviously couldn't work with 32 since I'm already using 45 - and you'd be wrong.

As Apple says in their support documentation

When you have free or unused memory, your computer performance does not necessarily improve.

So, macOS will try to utilize all RAM you have available. This may give you the wrong idea that, since it's using most of your RAM, if you had less, your computer would slow down, which probably isn't true. This is why you shouldn't look at available RAM or swap file, instead you should look at the Memory Pressure graph. If it's green, you're good ? If it's yellow - close some programs or get more RAM. If it's red - get more RAM.

Now, whether 16Gb is enough for video editing, depends on what kind of video editing you do. But as you can see on YouTube, many people used 16Gb M1 MBPs and M1 MBAs (and even 8Gb models) with Final Cut and Premiere with no problems. But, of course, it also depends on formats, resolutions, project sizes, etc. I know Johnatan Morrison used a 16Gb MBP for a whole year for all his videos, for example. But, again, now given the option, I'm sure he'll go for 64Gb on his new MBP.

So, in your case - it really depends on what you do, but - as you can see - watching your current usage without looking at the pressure graph means little.

 

[dingobiatch]

If you’re professionally doing editing or music production, get 32gb. (Unless you know you need more)