Some Lenovo Thinkpads are using the new LPCAMM connector to offer user upgradeable LPDDR5x RAM (previously, LPDDR always had to be soldered) - you can get the modules from Crucial, $330 for 64GB...
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New Base M4 iMac Comes With 16GB of Unified Memory
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Love the apple ecosystem, but honestly it's true, not calling out apple for the small stuff is the reason hardware has seem stagnant lately (besides Moore's law).
Just when it’s barely enough
32GB max, sheesh, what is it 10 years ago?
The problem has never been the base config in terms of RAM and storage. I understand that there's probably people well served by 8GB/256GB and they don't need to pay more (maybe not now with AI, but bear with me). The problem is the insane price of even the minimal upgrades.
Getting to 16GB/512GB from the base config should have always been much more reasonable, and that's the reason we're happy that 16GB is now standard; no need for a ridiculous $200 (230€) upgrade to get there. It's absurd that a Mac Mini is $600 (at least today) but you need to pay TWICE as much to get 16GB/1TB, which is a very standard configuration nowadays.
So, regardless of the 16GB base RAM, Apple has decided to stay at 256GB SSD once again. It's 2024, for crying out loud. Giving users a measly 512GB can't be that hard. Instead, Apple has chosen to leave base storage at the same point as a Pro iPhone, and to keep charging $200 (230€) to get to 512GB, or $400 (460€!!) for just 1TB. In 2024. Insane.
Getting to 16GB/512GB from the base config should have always been much more reasonable, and that's the reason we're happy that 16GB is now standard; no need for a ridiculous $200 (230€) upgrade to get there. It's absurd that a Mac Mini is $600 (at least today) but you need to pay TWICE as much to get 16GB/1TB, which is a very standard configuration nowadays.
So, regardless of the 16GB base RAM, Apple has decided to stay at 256GB SSD once again. It's 2024, for crying out loud. Giving users a measly 512GB can't be that hard. Instead, Apple has chosen to leave base storage at the same point as a Pro iPhone, and to keep charging $200 (230€) to get to 512GB, or $400 (460€!!) for just 1TB. In 2024. Insane.
Considering the Mac Mini will offer an M4 Pro variant, it’s unlikely to be announced before the MBP.
Tomorrow will be MacBook Pros.
In a number of threads people criticizing Apple's appalling low 8-gig RAM base have been labeled 'whiners' and told 'just upgrade it' (at appalling upcharges). But there's a problem that gets missed.
Not only was the price difference between 8 and 16-gig RAM bad to begin with, when a number of vendors offered Macs on sale, they often only offered the base 8-gig RAM versions. I've seen this in sales announced via Mac Rumors, e-mails or deal sites. Trumpeting how great $150 (or whatever) off is to grab my attention, only to find the product on offer is hamstrung by limited RAM. And yes, I know, people who only do basic, low-demand stuff and/or don't mind excess swap usage adding wear on their SSD could get by with that.
So those sales added significantly to the de facto price difference of base 8 vs. 16-gig RAM configurations, which were already high. Higher base RAM is good news.
Not only was the price difference between 8 and 16-gig RAM bad to begin with, when a number of vendors offered Macs on sale, they often only offered the base 8-gig RAM versions. I've seen this in sales announced via Mac Rumors, e-mails or deal sites. Trumpeting how great $150 (or whatever) off is to grab my attention, only to find the product on offer is hamstrung by limited RAM. And yes, I know, people who only do basic, low-demand stuff and/or don't mind excess swap usage adding wear on their SSD could get by with that.
So those sales added significantly to the de facto price difference of base 8 vs. 16-gig RAM configurations, which were already high. Higher base RAM is good news.
Fair point, but I've noticed one of the major selling points for some of the iMac crowd is the start minimalist setup scheme where there aren't cables running everywhere. Once you start adding an external SSD, etc..., that aesthetic suffers. Wireless access storage is an option, but I would imagine slower (I don't know current speeds).
It’s the ultimate in profit, Tim Cook is a genius, but he could do better. Should be 400 dollars per 256GB.
That's still just about Macs being expensive.
Macs are more expensive than buying a Windows PC. It's a complaint as old as the first shipping Mac.
It kind of gets old after the 10th, or 100th time (by now millions of times) , and just sounds like pointless whining.
Macs too expensive? Don't buy a Mac. Same answer for everything in life that's too expensive.
I see little evidence that endless forum complaints help pricing, after decades and millions of complaints.
Yeah for my Mac mini I bought a dock that goes under it and adds more ports and an internal SSD and I have 2TB. Cheaper than buying the upgraded storage.
Only when the 256gb becomes more difficult to find or the 512gb becomes cheaper to buy for Apple than the 256gb. The jump to 16gb memory was forced on Apple due to AI, there is nothing coming that is forcing a storage update on to the average consumer. In fact, Apple want you to buy their Cloud storage so they will draw this out.
256GB won't go very far if you're using pro apps or doing development. 512GB + cloud or NAS might be do-able.
...Logic Pro needs about 80GB for a full installation, with sound library.
...Final Cut needs 6GB of space to install
...I've seen reports of xCode refusing to install on machines with less than 40GB free
This is frequently-accessed stuff that you really want on your super-fast, local SSD. Also, SSD performance falls off a cliff if the drive gets anywhere close to being "full".
Just like the 8GB RAM thing, 256GB is OK for some people who just want "personal productivity" - but there would be no need to cut corners if Apple weren't charging such inflated prices - completely disproportionate to the actual cost of flash storage, even the fast stuff. 512GB or 1TB SSD is a no-brainer upgrade on any PC that was being used for content creation - except it's increasingly standard on anything near the price of a Mac.
True, I assume a lot of the people who get the 256GB config probably only plan on using their computer for personal productivity like you mentioned. I think people who use their Mac for more than just web browsing or MS Office would probably be more inclined to buying a Mac Studio or Mac Mini & the monitor separately.
This is great news for the upcoming M4 releases of Mac Mini, MacBook Pro & MacBook Air.
Apple looks to be fitting their new 'Apple Intelligence' machines with a minimum of 16GB of RAM (finally).
Apple looks to be fitting their new 'Apple Intelligence' machines with a minimum of 16GB of RAM (finally).
Does iMac M4's display engine do anything special for the iMac? On the iPad Pro, it was used to drive tandem OLEDs to compensate for the brightness and color while driving two OLEDs and for ProMotion. iMac has neither of these two display technologies.
Well, yeah, but I'm assuming the new Mac Mini will come in the same CPU/RAM/Storage configurations as the iMac - because economies of scale.
Even the Studio starts with 512GB SSD which is still rather small for a $2000 computer.
Expected later this week. No one here is privy to the exact day. But Apple said last week that there would be announcements throughout the week.
Don’t people use servers and external hard drives with video editing rather than just local SSD only?
And, do you really need to install all those sound libraries from Logic, when in the end, you will be using your 3rd party plugins and samples that can be stored somewhere on an external drive? I haven’t used one single stock sound from Logic at all if I am honest.
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Nope. Yes, we could all say "finally" but it took Apple too long, to enter reality and hopefully we will see MBA with an amount of RAM that is at least ok - otherwise smartphone will bypass the Macs. So it is not delightful, it still feels like a pain. And Apple still does charge you an insane amount of money, if you want more RAM.Now, can all you whiners stop complaining about RAM on here please.
People complaining about 256 GB haven’t met my father in law who was pushed by an Apple Store to get a 1 TB iMac while he had like 30 GB of files on his old iMac.
Oh please. 8gb was a pathetic base offering for Apple, especially in 2024.
Good, they finally did it. This should have happened at least 5 years ago, to be honest, but glad they've finally acknowledged that 8 GB of RAM is unusable. I still find it utterly ludicrous that they still charge you $400 to upgrade to 32 GB, where getting 32 GB in a PC would cost less than half, if not a quarter, of that. Also, the 256 GB base storage and lack of 10 gigabit ethernet is still frustrating to me.