M1 Imac Memory

[Focusy]

I know this has probably been done to death, but I thought it might be useful to have one thread where people can get a flavour, for what spec people are choosing and if they seen a real issue with the 8 gb vs 16gb,

The larger memory extends the lead-time, but in real life is it worth it.

the memory seems to be the area or concern for many more than the storage

my ask is, can you identify your spec/colour and if your happy / swapped out, or even activated the rma to swap out.

thanks focusy

 

[JuicelessMango]

8 Core CPU/GPU 16gigs of ram 512gb ssd and I went with blue for my color. I would of went with a 1TB SSD if the delivery times weren't a month later and I would of ordered more RAM if it was offered.

I currently have Safari running with this tab and a tab with a twitch stream going and activity monitor is showing 5.8gb of memory used. that should tell you more is always better.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I know this has probably been done to death, but I thought it might be useful to have one thread where people can get a flavour, for what spec people are choosing and if they seen a real issue with the 8 gb vs 16gb,

The larger memory extends the lead-time, but in real life is it worth it.

the memory seems to be the area or concern for many more than the storage

my ask is, can you identify your spec/colour and if your happy / swapped out, or even activated the rma to swap out.

thanks focusy

I use a base model M1 MacBook Air for Apple Silicon-specific testing of IT processes and procedures. Were it my primary Mac, I'd have insisted on 16GB of RAM as (a) you can't change that later and (b) Apple has a history (on other Apple Silicon based platforms) of using RAM as a dividing line of which devices can get to run a new version of their respective OSes. 8GB on an Apple Silicon Mac won't feel like 8GB on an Intel Mac, but that also doesn't change the fact that, even with access efficiencies inherent to the unified memory architecture that Apple uses, sometimes you need more RAM.

 

[OldMike]

There is a lengthy thread on M1 memory here:

I am really torn between 8GB vs. 16GB RAM

I am ready to push the button on my M1 Pro but am leaning towards 16GB as I have always chosen to upgrade RAM in the past and have never regretted the decision. My use case where I think I might need is for video and photo editing in Adobe. I am now reading so many reviews that the M1 is a new...

forums.macrumors.com

You will get many opinions supporting both sides.

I purchased and returned an 8GB RAM M1 Mac Mini. The Mini was great, but I had lots of high memory pressure. Instead of just looking at the total size of the swap file being used, I looked at how much swap was being written to the ssd and it was in the terabytes per day. I don't believe there is a published endurance rating on the SSDs used in the Macs, but at the rate swap was being written to disk, I don't think it would take long to at least go over the rated endurance for the ssd.

I believe it is worth getting the 16GB RAM upgrade, especially on an iMac, where your screen (and a nice one at that) is attached to your non upgradeable computer.

I would upgrade the RAM on the iMac, before I ever thought about upgrading the storage. Although more portable than most, the iMac is a desktop that is usually stationary, so adding an external drive is not that big of a deal. External drives, that almost match the performance of the internal drive, are possible to add after the fact. On the flip side, there is no way to add RAM to the iMac after purchase.

 

[chabig]

I have an 8GB Mac mini and an 8GB MacBook Pro. As an ordinary user, I am never constrained by memory. I do basic internet surfing in Safari, office tasks with the iWork and Office suites, graphics with Affinity and Pixelmator products, play with Garageband and Logic Pro, and run a variety of other things.

 

[scottrngr]

I'm rendering a project right now in FCP on my 16 gig Mini. It says that just over 8 gigs are being used. I'd guess if I had only 8 gigs, the rendering process would be slower. I'm doing some color adjusting, optical flow analysis, and the project is in 4k at just over 30 minutes. Spend the extra $200. If you buy refurbished from Apple, which I did, you'll save about $200.

 

[za9ra22]

"I know this has probably been done to death, but I thought it might be useful to have one thread where people can".... beat it to death even more.

There are copious threads where this has been discussed before, and an awful lot of nonsense has been posted on the subject already, none of which is all that conclusive, though makes for great speculation.

Personally, I wouldn't be all that interested in the thoughts and technical commentaries to be found here, because there's no way to judge the competence of anyone posting them. On the other hand, I do tend to trust the designers and engineers at Apple, because they typically know pretty well what they are doing, and their competence is out there to be seen and judged very clearly - not least because Apple stand by their products... for years. As such, I'm happy to have bought 8Gb RAM M1s.

However, the advice provided by OldMike above is near-perfect: "I would upgrade the RAM on the iMac, before I ever thought about upgrading the storage. Although more portable than most, the iMac is a desktop that is usually stationary, so adding an external drive is not that big of a deal. External drives, that almost match the performance of the internal drive, are possible to add after the fact. On the flip side, there is no way to add RAM to the iMac after purchase."

Which means that if anyone is considering purchasing any system, and M1 models specifically where memory is not upgradable, always get the most amount of RAM your budget allows - or stretch your budget a tiny bit if you have to. Conventionally, RAM has been more of a determinant in system performance than almost anything else, and the more apps and windows you plan to have open at a time, the more RAM the system will benefit from having.

 

[mhdena]

I'm getting 8core/8core, 16, 1TB, Green

I have 8gb and 1TB fusion drive on a 2012 21.5 iMac and frequently have to close the browser from the activity monitor because I have many many tabs open in Firefox. Brave isn't as much of a problem.

On my MacBook Pro with 16gb and many many tabs not as much of a problem as my imac.

So 16 it is

 

[SRQrws]

I ordered silver/8 core GPU/16GB RAM/256GB SSD the day it was released. I've had it a few weeks now and am very pleased. I agree with what several have posted above -- storage isn't too much of an issue with a desktop, but get the RAM you think you will need now, and for the future. I have an 8GB MBA and it's fine for my requirements. The iMac, on the other hand, I push a bit more memory-wise, so I opted for 16GB. I sold my iMac 27 and actually prefer the ergonomics of the 24 (sits a bit lower, so less neck strain).

 

[glenthompson]

I got the 8/8 core in red/pink with 16 gb and a 1tb SSD. It replaces a 2015 MBA as my main machine. The 8gb on the Air had been a limiting factor on rare occasions. Since I typically keep computers for a long time I wanted as much capability as I could get.

 

[KrissJones193]

"I know this has probably been done to death, but I thought it might be useful to have one thread where people can".... beat it to death even more.

There are copious threads where this has been discussed before, and an awful lot of nonsense has been posted on the subject already, none of which is all that conclusive, though makes for great speculation.

Personally, I wouldn't be all that interested in the thoughts and technical commentaries to be found here, because there's no way to judge the competence of anyone posting them. On the other hand, I do tend to trust the designers and engineers at Apple, because they typically know pretty well what they are doing, and their competence is out there to be seen and judged very clearly - not least because Apple stand by their products... for years. As such, I'm happy to have bought 8Gb RAM M1s.

However, the advice provided by OldMike above is near-perfect: "I would upgrade the RAM on the iMac, before I ever thought about upgrading the storage. Although more portable than most, the iMac is a desktop that is usually stationary, so adding an external drive is not that big of a deal. External drives, that almost match the performance of the internal drive, are possible to add after the fact. On the flip side, there is no way to add RAM to the iMac after purchase."

Which means that if anyone is considering purchasing any system, and M1 models specifically where memory is not upgradable, always get the most amount of RAM your budget allows - or stretch your budget a tiny bit if you have to. Conventionally, RAM has been more of a determinant in system performance than almost anything else, and the more apps and windows you plan to have open at a time, the more RAM the system will benefit from having.

Yes, interesting information, thanks!

 

[KrissJones193]

I use a base model M1 MacBook Air for Apple Silicon-specific testing of IT processes and procedures. Were it my primary Mac, I'd have insisted on 16GB of RAM as (a) you can't change that later and (b) Apple has a history (on other Apple Silicon based platforms) of using RAM as a dividing line of which devices can get to run a new version of their respective OSes. 8GB on an Apple Silicon Mac won't feel like 8GB on an Intel Mac, but that also doesn't change the fact that, even with access efficiencies inherent to the unified memory architecture that Apple uses, sometimes you need more RAM.

I agree!

 

[4sallypat]

.... As such, I'm happy to have bought 8Gb RAM M1s.

However, the advice provided by OldMike above is near-perfect: "I would upgrade the RAM on the iMac, before I ever thought about upgrading the storage. Although more portable than most, the iMac is a desktop that is usually stationary, so adding an external drive is not that big of a deal. External drives, that almost match the performance of the internal drive, are possible to add after the fact. On the flip side, there is no way to add RAM to the iMac after purchase."

Which means that if anyone is considering purchasing any system, and M1 models specifically where memory is not upgradable, always get the most amount of RAM your budget allows - or stretch your budget a tiny bit if you have to. Conventionally, RAM has been more of a determinant in system performance than almost anything else, and the more apps and windows you plan to have open at a time, the more RAM the system will benefit from having.

Same here - all my M1 Macs are base (8GB) and it works phenomenally well compared to the awful Intel Macs with double, triple and quadruple RAM.

 

[Fishrrman]

I wouldn't buy ANY m-series Mac unless it had 16gb.

I'm going to take -a guess- that on the 8gb models, a substantial portion of that is "roped off" for use by the graphics.

The 8gb Minis used about 1.5gb of installed RAM for graphics, leaving about 6.5gb for the "rest of the OS". So that means you really only have a "6.5gb Mac" when you thought you had an "8gb Mac".

Same for the m1's.

 

[ravinder08]

For the sake of $200 I makes a lot of sense to get the 16GB for sure

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

And whatever it costs will be recovered when it is time to move on.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I wouldn't buy ANY m-series Mac unless it had 16gb.

I'm going to take -a guess- that on the 8gb models, a substantial portion of that is "roped off" for use by the graphics.

The 8gb Minis used about 1.5gb of installed RAM for graphics, leaving about 6.5gb for the "rest of the OS". So that means you really only have a "6.5gb Mac" when you thought you had an "8gb Mac".

Same for the m1's.

The phenomenon of integrated graphics processors "roping off" memory for use by graphics is not in play on Apple Silicon the way it is and has been with Intel and AMD processors that have them (integrated graphics processors). Apple has it so that, rather than giving the iGPU and the CPU their own sets of memory and having them copy data back and forth between them as needed, the CPU and GPU can both access the same memory without the need for sequestering specific RAM for specific processors and co-processors. Hence the "unified memory" buzzwords in Apple's marketing nomenclature.

When people gush and swoon over M1's use of RAM and make nonsense claims that M1 means you don't need as much RAM, this is the phenomenon that they refer to. However, what most people don't realize is that the overhead for the iGPU was never THAT much of the overall RAM. Nor was the copy speed between the (shared) VRAM and system RAM all THAT slow. Both Intel 2020 13" MacBook Pro models (both the 8th Gen 2-port models and the 10th Gen 4-port models) sequestered 1.5GB of RAM to the iGPU. If you bought a base model 2020 Intel 2-port 13" MacBook Pro and didn't pre-configure it with 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB, might you feel only having 6.5GB of RAM not devoted to the iGPU? Sure. But, in the grand scheme of things, if you have more than 8GB of data that your computer is having to juggle, this efficiency won't make anywhere near as drastic of a difference as people gushing over the M1 would believe and have you believe. You will still have to page to disk as you always have. RAM is RAM.

 

[Focusy]

thank you all so far, please keep them coming including specs.

 

[neilw]

16 GB/1 TB/Blue

I don't know or care if I really needed 16 GB right now... I tend to keep my Macs for five years or more (previous one lasted me 7.5 years) and I consider it highly likely that at some point during that time I will find I am much better off with 16 GB. Potentially cutting short the life of the machine to save ~10% of the up-front cost seems dumb to me.

 

[twieser]

With regards to RAM, always buy what you can't afford, you'll be happier longer.

 

[Danoc]

8Gb for me. I know I am not using any software requiring more.

 

[SR 7]

My 2013 Macbook Pro has 8 GB of RAM and it is too low. I didn't even use any programs that eat up the RAM and I wish this thing was 16 GB of RAM. And before anyone says "oh its a 2013 model bla bla bla, I have a 2013 Macbook Pro with 16 GB and it is a night and day difference and it is used for programs that eat up RAM.

You are buying a $2,000 computer in 2021, it should not come with 8GB of RAM; especially when you can't upgrade it. Especially since you will be keeping it for several years too, or most would at least.

 

[NeonIbis]

I bought the mid-tier 24" iMac with standard 8GB RAM. I thought it would be fine as I really only do office stuff and web browsing, plus occasional very light Photoshop, and memory pressure on my Intel mac with 16GB is always low green. Reading about more efficient RAM management with M1 persuaded me. But, on the 8GB iMac, memory pressure was almost always yellow, with several GB in swap.

That was partly due to an apparent memory leak with Word – I was seeing 3GB+ RAM usage, even with no documents open, and that would just keep climbing until I quit the application. There was obviously some problem there (Office 365 version, running on Big Sur 11.4). But, even without Word open, memory pressure would regularly get into the yellow.

I no longer have screenshots of Activity Monitor, as I ended up returning the Mac and forgot to save them, but one contributing factor I noticed was high RAM usage by certain web pages (including 2 x webmail clients and one news site that could be over 1GB each). Another was the fact that I typically have multiple applications and documents open at once and switch frequently between them. These include:

• Safari (anywhere between 5-30 tabs depending on how 'tidy' I'm being)
• Firefox (average 3-5 tabs)
• Word (average 5-10 documents)
• Acrobat (average 5-10 documents, some quite large)
• Keynote
• iMessage
• Often Powerpoint or Excel as well
• Occasionally Photoshop

Performance was still excellent, and I never saw memory pressure hit red or any 'out of memory' warnings, but my perception was that hopping between applications/documents slowed down when I had a lot of things open at once. I also don't want to need to worry about what I have open at once (especially if RAM demands increase in the future). I'm now waiting on a 16GB version, which I think will suit me better.

 

[ZebedeeG]

I bought the mid-tier 24" iMac with standard 8GB RAM. I thought it would be fine as I really only do office stuff and web browsing, plus occasional very light Photoshop, and memory pressure on my Intel mac with 16GB is always low green. Reading about more efficient RAM management with M1 persuaded me. But, on the 8GB iMac, memory pressure was almost always yellow, with several GB in swap.

That was partly due to an apparent memory leak with Word – I was seeing 3GB+ RAM usage, even with no documents open, and that would just keep climbing until I quit the application. There was obviously some problem there (Office 365 version, running on Big Sur 11.4). But, even without Word open, memory pressure would regularly get into the yellow.

I no longer have screenshots of Activity Monitor, as I ended up returning the Mac and forgot to save them, but one contributing factor I noticed was high RAM usage by certain web pages (including 2 x webmail clients and one news site that could be over 1GB each). Another was the fact that I typically have multiple applications and documents open at once and switch frequently between them. These include:

• Safari (anywhere between 5-30 tabs depending on how 'tidy' I'm being)
• Firefox (average 3-5 tabs)
• Word (average 5-10 documents)
• Acrobat (average 5-10 documents, some quite large)
• Keynote
• iMessage
• Often Powerpoint or Excel as well
• Occasionally Photoshop

Performance was still excellent, and I never saw memory pressure hit red or any 'out of memory' warnings, but my perception was that hopping between applications/documents slowed down when I had a lot of things open at once. I also don't want to need to worry about what I have open at once (especially if RAM demands increase in the future). I'm now waiting on a 16GB version, which I think will suit me better.

Thanks for posting this - your usage is very similar to mine, and you've just confirmed for me that I made the correct decision in ordering my 24" iMac with 16GB ram.

 

[DanTSX]

16/512 here. I don’t “need” anything more than the base iMac, but went higher spec to future proof it. Use is just household stuff. Have nowhere near gotten this thing to sweat. Most taxing thing I do is home videos or watch multiple news / livestreams at once.