There's a lot of discussion about the Mini being capped at 16GB. How important is a lot of RAM in the M Macs? I had a 5k iMac with 32GB RAM that I was always maxing out and being forced to quit apps constantly to keep it running. It recently failed and I have had to use my M1 MacBook Air with 8GB as my primary computer hooked up to a monitor until I get a new desktop. I had only been using the MacBook as a travel machine before, which is why I got it with the lowest specs. But now as my main computer it runs circles around my iMac and I never max out the RAM. Even when I have a ton of programs open and have a bunch of tasks going I don't see any slow down and the OS never asks me to quit applications. Is there any reason for me to go for a Studio with 32GB over a Mini with 8GB or 16GB?
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Importance of extra RAM in M1 Macs?
- Thread starter coolerkid
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Since apple solders ram, not upgradable, best to get max ram with a mini. Can always attach hard drives but ram is set what you order. Resale will be better.
Technically... the RAM in an M series is not "soldered"... that infers that the memory is on discrete chips which "could" have be replaced. The M series has no discrete RAM chips... its all part of a single SOC package.
But the rest of the comment is correct
But the rest of the comment is correct
I think the first questions are - what on earth were you doing to cause that, what was the spec of the iMac and are you sure the problem was lack of RAM? Note that it's no good looking at "memory usage" in activity monitor - macOS will often mop up unused memory to cache files etc. - it's the "memory pressure" that tells you if you're actually running out.
Even with Intel Macs, I wouldn't say that you needed more than 16GB without some specific reason (yes, there are people who need far more than 16GB RAM but they should be able to point to the bit of their workflow that necessitates it).
The M1 can be somewhat more efficient in the way it uses RAM, and the super-fast SSD means that if it does run out and start swapping to disc that doesn't slow it down as much as an intel system (let alone one with a mechanical hard drive). That doesn't make 8GB equivalent to 32GB though, so it sounds like something else has changed.
To further split an already-split hair - the M1 does have two "discrete" memory chips soldered to the SoC "package" and it is technically possible to replace them in order to prove a point - although the equipment needed & risk of wrecking your Mac make it completely impractical.
NB - all computers (inc. most ultra-portable laptops) with LPDDR (low-power) RAM have the chips surface-mount soldered to the board making them non-upgradeable for practical purposes.
See:
M1 Mac RAM and SSD Upgrades Found to Be Possible After Purchase
Technicians in China have reportedly succeeded in upgrading the memory and storage of the M1 chip, suggesting that Apple's integrated custom...
www.macrumors.com
It's been my experience that the minimum amount of RAM required increases with each major release of macOS. So while 8 GB might be fine for macOS 11 and 12, it might not be enough for macOS 13, 14, 15, etc.
All this talk about what -might- be done to physically replace RAM in the m-series Macs is just that... essentially pedantic blather.
In the real world, the m-series Macs are not upgradeable, and this applies to both RAM and the internal SSD. There's nothing the ordinary user can do. Perhaps a technician in a lab...? Maybe...
Apple -might- be able to add/replace the SSD in the Studio (and as-yet-unreleased upcoming m-series Mac Pro), but this will probably be all-but impossible otherwise.
Buy what you think you'll need, and get on with life.
In the real world, the m-series Macs are not upgradeable, and this applies to both RAM and the internal SSD. There's nothing the ordinary user can do. Perhaps a technician in a lab...? Maybe...
Apple -might- be able to add/replace the SSD in the Studio (and as-yet-unreleased upcoming m-series Mac Pro), but this will probably be all-but impossible otherwise.
Buy what you think you'll need, and get on with life.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Assuming you are running the same memory-hogging programs and volume of them as you were on the iMac, physics implies that you might be comparing the speed of using some HDD (in the iMac?) vs. faster SSD in the Air as "spare RAM." It's not really spare RAM of course but perhaps the read/writes of the memory overload in and out of primary storage is simply fast enough that it is fooling you into believing the premise.
The catch: if you are going to tax the SSD that way, you should have some concern that you'll wear out the SSD sooner than "normal." If whatever you are doing needs lots of RAM, get lots of RAM. Since you already know that 32GB is not enough for whatever you are doing, aim higher to much higher. Based on your description, I'd probably be thinking ULTRA to go even higher than 64GB. You might even be a legit candidate for the Mac Pro, rumored to perhaps bring some solution for > 128GB RAM MAX in ULTRA.
I will say that if you're going to be running Windows games or doing virtualization, you will definitely want that 16GB of RAM. That's probably also true if you're doing video editing. For most other uses (web browsing, content consumption, general office software, etc.) 8GB should be fine.
I learned the hard way that gaming with emulation or translation is RAM intensive, and had to upgrade my 8GB M1 MBA. Since going to a 16GB MBA haven't had a bit of trouble.
I learned the hard way that gaming with emulation or translation is RAM intensive, and had to upgrade my 8GB M1 MBA. Since going to a 16GB MBA haven't had a bit of trouble.