I will be ordering an M1 Mac Mini soon. I am considering upgrading from 8 to 16 GB RAM. I mainly use MS Office, simple photo editing software and specialty apps (financial, disk management, etc.). I might not need 16 GB for those uses, but I will be doing some basic video editing in the near future with a free video editor. I'm mainly thinking of future-proofing because I want to keep the Mac for a long time. Is paying $200 extra worth it to get 16 GB? Might I need 16 GB in the future?
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Should I buy 8 or 16 GB RAM?
- Thread starter coffeeguy1138
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To do light photo editing and Microsoft Office, you should only need 8gb, but 16gb might be good to have, hard call.
16. Because if you ever want to use Parallels, you will be happy you did 
I'm using 8 GB for that type of workload but without the video editing, in a 2014 Intel Mac mini (with SSD) and it works fine, but there are sometimes a few GB of swap usage.
In contrast, on my 24 GB Intel iMac, it typically has either significantly lower swap usage or else zero swap usage (most commonly the latter). The 24 GB iMac is also able to cache a lot more applications, meaning I don't have to reload them into memory after I have previously closed the apps, speeding up re-launches of those applications. Or, I can just leave everything loaded all the time, no problem.
When I replace this 2014 Mac mini with an M1 Pro or M2 Mac mini, I will definitely be getting 16 GB.
BTW, what are you running now? Do you have to upgrade now? Personally, I'm not keen on getting an M1 Mac mini 1.5 years after it was launched. However, like I said, my current Mac mini still works fine so I can afford to wait. I'm expecting a new Mac mini will be released sometime in 2022, but I'm prepared to wait up to a year if necessary.
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I had the M1 Mini base for almost a 16 months and loved it with the 8GB Unified memory.
Remember, Unified memory is much more efficient and is written with RISC language that does not compare to the Intel base Macs with slow access & inefficiency.
Would have kept her for a long time because I NEVER got the dreaded Intel Mini: spinning beach balls, lagging apps, noisy fan spin ups nor thermal throttling.
But I traded her in for the Mac Studio for the multi TB3 ports to run more than one TB display....
Remember, Unified memory is much more efficient and is written with RISC language that does not compare to the Intel base Macs with slow access & inefficiency.
Would have kept her for a long time because I NEVER got the dreaded Intel Mini: spinning beach balls, lagging apps, noisy fan spin ups nor thermal throttling.
But I traded her in for the Mac Studio for the multi TB3 ports to run more than one TB display....
When the phrase “future proof” is used in a thread asking about RAM, the default answer is get the higher amount if vacillating between two choices
16gb, absolutely. Most important money that you will "put at it".
For the m-series Macs,
16gb is "the new 8".
For the m-series Macs,
16gb is "the new 8".
It is faster yes, but it doesn't mess with physics. 8GB RAM is 8GB RAM, and if an app needs RAM allocated to work, it needs the same amount as before. If you run out with unified memory, you'll run out at the same way as with non-unified memory.
These days 16GB is minimum IMHO.
8 GB is enough for the uses you have in mind, but 16 GB is nice to have if things change and someone in the family wants to do some development or more intensive video work on it. In your case I’d feel more comfortable with the upgrade, and I imagine it might make it easier to sell as well.
I only needed 16Gb when I started running virtual machines and software development stuff on it. It's fine with 8GB IMHO for your requirements.
It will depreciate in value a lot less if it's a 16Gb model however!
It will depreciate in value a lot less if it's a 16Gb model however!
Hi there, I just got a M1 Mini, I do far less than you on my Mac, I chose to get 16 Gigs just in case I do more in the future, if you can afford 16 get it, better than getting 8 then wishing you had 16 in the future....
My Dad has a 2014 mini with 8 GB of ram and a HDD. The beach ball issue with this Mac is really, really bad. He can only have a couple of apps open at one time. I'm trying to get him to upgrade to the M1.
You will be presumably using it for years. $200 averaged out won't amount to much, and nobody ever complained they had too much memory.
I'd say 16GB because you can't ever change it, but honestly you could get by with 8GB if you had to or want to save some money. When my 32GB iMac broke I had to use my 8GB M1 MacBook Air for all my work, and the same workload that used to bring my iMac to it's knees and force me to quit programs runs just fine on my Air with no slowdown.
When I bought my 12" MacBook way back in 2017, I future-proofed it by getting 16 GB. I found that in real world usage, 8 GB was enough >95% of the time. The only time it was really getting tight was when I was on the road editing presentations and other documents simultaneously with dual screens (via Sidecar with my iPad Pro as the second screen), although part of that was due to a memory leak in Microsoft PowerPoint. I estimated that 12 GB was the sweet spot for me for those occasions. So, it was good I had 16 GB, which not only gave me the 12 GB I needed, but also gave me a bit of breathing room for increased memory usage as time went on and macOS got more memory hungry. Truthfully, I suspect even 8 GB would have been relatively OK even during those work sessions, albeit with the occasional beachball. I say that because those sessions were rare, as most of the time the bulk of my work was already done at home on my 24 GB iMac.
However, now many years later, my MacBook usage habits have completely changed. Now I usually work from home (where I have that 24 GB iMac), and when I travel, I am not using my MacBook for stuff like that anymore. With my current laptop habits, 8 GB is more than enough, even though I'm now running Monterey which is more memory hungry than the macOS 10.12 Sierra it shipped with. So, strangely enough, I went from occasionally needing 10-12 GB in 2017/2018 to only needing 8 GB in 2022.
However, now many years later, my MacBook usage habits have completely changed. Now I usually work from home (where I have that 24 GB iMac), and when I travel, I am not using my MacBook for stuff like that anymore. With my current laptop habits, 8 GB is more than enough, even though I'm now running Monterey which is more memory hungry than the macOS 10.12 Sierra it shipped with. So, strangely enough, I went from occasionally needing 10-12 GB in 2017/2018 to only needing 8 GB in 2022.
8/256 here
For general purpose use of the Mac, 8GB is more than enough
Of course more RAM is better but...
Even if you need to video/photo edit something once in a while, is more than enough
If $200 for you is "nothing" then why not, otherwise imho you can go with 8GB.
For general purpose use of the Mac, 8GB is more than enough
Of course more RAM is better but...
Even if you need to video/photo edit something once in a while, is more than enough
If $200 for you is "nothing" then why not, otherwise imho you can go with 8GB.
You said it yourself. You want to futureproof this thing. Getting 16 GB at 200 $ is definitely worth it. Now 8 GB will do you good for all the things you want to do, but 16 GB is going to show it's muscle for some of the tasks youi wanna do, providing a snappier and overall more fun experience.
For your usage, 8 is plenty. I’d still get the 16 though if both were available for delivery. If only the 8 was available, I’d get it. You should be happy either way.
Go with 16Gb.
I have 8 Gb Mac Book Air M1, and the Ram is always full. 8Gb will work, but it will be noticeable slower.
I have 8 Gb Mac Book Air M1, and the Ram is always full. 8Gb will work, but it will be noticeable slower.
I don't understand why Apple has such miserable memory management but it seems we are stuck with this free for all grab for RAM. I have 16 gigs with my Mini and there are times it was not really sufficient. Interestingly, my MBP 2015 with the older OS (16 gigs as well) handled much better similar loads. I cannot find one reason to force a lower limit on a Mini such as 8 gigs. Web browsing used to be a light load and now sites like this can suck up 1-2 gigs of RAM fairly quickly. The world has changed and best to be well prepared and allow yourself every opportunity to get the maximum out of your investment.
16 GB for minimum. But if you change macs every couple years, the 8gb to get you buy. The M2 should be out early next year and hope apple maxes ram to 32GB. Remember, these arm processors use ram differently than conventional processors. The studio mini would be needed if your doing some serious video editing. The mid rage processor will work fine but you can get 64 go ram in it.