Yes. Never had that before now and I wasn’t doing anything particularly heavy. I didn’t add up all the different memory usages in that list but at a glance it didn’t seem to be using all that much. It happened even after restarting. Some things have been a bit slower than usual too. It’s not really been a massive issue for me and seems to be better now but just thought I’d mention it in case it was relevant.
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Is the m3 pro worse than m1 pro?
- Thread starter Glorious Partridge
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I used to see that box all the time with Mac OS X 10.0 and Mac OS X 10.1, and it was gone with MacOS X 10.3 (I never used Mac OS X 10.2). When I purchased my MacBook Air M1, I used to get that box all the time with Big Sur, but I haven't seen it in a very long time
What's your memory usage/ pressure in Activity Monitor?
Not very high at the moment but I often find with the modern Macs it uses as much as possible. With my relatively limited knowledge, I think the OS uses compression to store more things with less ram usage when needed but keeps things uncompressed if there’s memory available since it’s more efficient to access. This might be why people are observing quite high memory usage/pressure? Ideally it be crashing though.I used to see that box all the time with Mac OS X 10.0 and Mac OS X 10.1, and it was gone with MacOS X 10.3 (I never used Mac OS X 10.2). When I purchased my MacBook Air M1, I used to get that box all the time with Big Sur, but I haven't seen it in a very long time
What's your memory usage/ pressure in Activity Monitor?
I wouldn’t want to use a machine that struggles for work. get more memory. You need room to grow, what if you need docker next week? You’re flying too close to the sun.
I'd be anxious too if I made the odd decision to 'upgrade' my 2 year old M1 Pro for an M3 Pro that is for all the world identical in 99.9% of ways that matter to the typical user.
A real power user isn't buying an M3 Pro - they're looking at Max's and Ultras. I can see going from an M1 Pro to an M3 Max or something to actually leverage more power, but going from a 2021 M1 Pro to a 2023 M3 Pro is like going from a 2021 Toyota Camry to a 2023 Toyota Camry. You'll never see a difference and your expectations of improved performance will likely cause you to think something is wrong with the new model.
You'll never notice the difference between an M1 Pro and M3 Pro.
A real power user isn't buying an M3 Pro - they're looking at Max's and Ultras. I can see going from an M1 Pro to an M3 Max or something to actually leverage more power, but going from a 2021 M1 Pro to a 2023 M3 Pro is like going from a 2021 Toyota Camry to a 2023 Toyota Camry. You'll never see a difference and your expectations of improved performance will likely cause you to think something is wrong with the new model.
You'll never notice the difference between an M1 Pro and M3 Pro.
it’s common for programs to scale their memory usage proportional to cpu core count. i’m guessing the m3 has more cores but not proportionally more ram. so intellij is probably trying to use more memory on the m3 because it has more cores than m1
this happened to me when i got a base m2 and built webkit from source. a lot more memory pressure than my m1
this happened to me when i got a base m2 and built webkit from source. a lot more memory pressure than my m1
I think the misconception every time when someone says "I don't think it's a RAM issue" is that we're saying RAM is now meaningless. What we're saying is that trying to use RAM to fix a problem that's not really RAM in nature may work, but it's a sure fire recipe for long term frustration and yet there hasn't been a performance issue that MacRumors hasn't tried to solve by advising people to "throw more RAM at it!"
More RAM couldn't hurt, but the mantra that you're always going to need more RAM is outdated. It WAS true in that day and age when people sized up your computer by asking annoying questions like "Hey, how many megabytes ya got in that bad boy?"
As a developer and semi-professional photographer I've gone from a 64GB tower, to a 32GB laptop, and now to a 16GB laptop with a short stint on an 8GB laptop thrown in for good measure. I'm rockin along and doing more than ever on less RAM than I used 12 years ago.
Sure, I might start doing something that would balloon my resource needs. I might also need a team of asset managers to help me manage the billions of dollars I'll somehow acquire in that same time period, but I've been alive long enough to know that my life and needs will probably be mostly the same in 5 years so it's a waste of energy to lose sleep over things that may never happen.
However, if we were to ever return to a time when how much RAM you have is the difference between a usable computer and one that's an expensive doorstop, I'll gladly change my outlook... but if people start asking me stupid questions again like "how many megabytes ya got in that bad boy" I'm punching them in the mouth.
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I have to toggle between several different contexts (multiple projects and tracking) over the course of my day, all of which take more than that day, usually much longer, to finish pretty much. My browser windows staying up makes life a lot easier. Firefox usually sits pretty at about 10GB of RAM on my work machine. I’ll only start closing things before I’m done with those windows if I really need to free up RAM. If you have the RAM use it, you dont get prizes for leaving it empty
Source on that? Can I get a code for that as well? I never heard of such a thing before.
I have an M1 with 16GB. Currently my top 9 resource hogs are all browser windows, in Safari, including MacRumours using 2.47GB.
No performance issues that I'm feeling, but if I was then I know which tabs to close.
No performance issues that I'm feeling, but if I was then I know which tabs to close.
A screenshot of the breakdown of the RAM usage would be nice.
But if the OP wasn't getting memory pressure using a 16GB M1 Pro, there shouldn't be any issues using an 18GB M3 Pro.
Bugs can cause memory pressure issues. I was doing basic 1080p video editing, the most basic you can get by just combining two clips into one, and DaVinci Resolve was causing me to go to red memory pressure with 128GB of RAM on my M1 Ultra Mac Studio. It cause my computer to go into a state where I had to force it to shut down.
You reference "if we were to ever return to a time when how much RAM you have is the difference between a usable computer and one that's an expensive doorstop," but I live that scenario daily with my two MBPs. My (max at 16 GB RAM) 2016 MBP is SBBOD galore if I try to use it for a full workflow while my (max at 96 GB RAM) M2 MBP is instant with lots of concurrent activities and extra RAM left over (for now). I use the older box only for web surfing.
I do not know what future (future meaning ~2027-2029, the life cycle of boxes bought today) OS/app RAM desires will be.
- I do know Mac OS will likely cope no matter what.
- I do know OS/app RAM desires have increased for 40+ years.
- I do know Apple gives us an idea of where RAM desires are going by offering 128 GB RAM in their laptops.
I used the word desires, which is kind of silly to apply to a computer. Better perhaps might be to say wants to take advantage of, but that is TL;DR. The point is that a box with enough RAM to avoid paging to disk runs smoother, faster and cooler. Anything less is sub-optimal, and why would one intentionally make an expensive computer do sub-optimal computing for wont of RAM?
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Us neurodivergent folks can't really explain it but its necessary just trust us bro
IMO Apple with its Unified Memory Architecture clearly telegraphs that it will take good advantage of more RAM. UMA RAM is clearly an excellent way for computing processes to happen. It makes no sense to me to intentionally drive pricey computers into suboptimal paging to disk when fast UMA is available as long as one supplies the RAM...
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Not every problem is due to RAM, but from my experience, almost nothing I do as a dev significantly affects the speed and responsiveness of the system as long as there's enough RAM. I can have a big optimizing build running in the background and continue editing and browsing just fine as long as memory pressure isn't brown or red
That tooUs neurodivergent folks can't really explain it but its necessary just trust us bro
For me, if I have to reopen a bookmark, I'm less likely to check it as often. Having a tab open reminds me to check a page I frequent more often
Same. ADHD brain in action (at least for me) in that
Do you not see a huge problem with your RAM vs performance comparison here?
I don't know what your workflow is, but I'd wager if you could outfit that 2016 MBP with 96GB and your M2 Max got crimped to 16GB, the M2 Max would still run circles around your 2016 even with insane page ins and page outs volumes.
I owned that 2016 MBP too. Everything in that machine is much slower. Slower RAM, slower bus, slower SSD, slower processor, slower interfaces, and much less effective thermals. The RAM is the least of its issues in trying to keep up with a current day workflow.
You are correct of course, but I think the RAM is a primary limitation. The 2016 MBP can still run any single app just fine, but multiple apps immediately slow the machine way down. No real changes in apps or workflow since 2017 when I bought the 2016 MBP either; just OS and app versions evolving.
My full-on workflow clearly likes RAM, because I rapidly bounce among open apps (Photos, FMP, Affinity, Mail, Safari, Calendar, Messages, Pages) and any computer hesitation is immediately noticeable, negatively impacting my creative process. I have good Safari management with never more than a few tabs open, but two FMP databases with multiple windows and always a few 40+ MP image captures. No video, and Safari is sometimes closed when I am working just out of past habit.
My workflow fits well in 64 GB RAM in 2023. However based on past experience I am confident that in a year or two OS/apps will be taking advantage of more than 64 GB if not the full 96 GB available.
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