Unified Memory 16GB is shared You need 32GB

[TheRealAlex]

So I’m about to pull the trigger on a Base 14” after doing my due diligence I’m hit with the reality that many people aren’t considering. The base 16GB of RAM is shared with the GPU. That’s not cool. I had no choice but to go 32GB

just wanted to share in case anyone is going with Base configs.

 

[waquzy]

Not really an issue for 98% of the users, for them 16GB is plenty. It would be hard to even fill that up…

 

[EnderTW]

So I’m about to pull the trigger on a Base 14” after doing my due diligence I’m hit with the reality that many people aren’t considering. The base 16GB of RAM is shared with the GPU. That’s not cool. I had no choice but to go 32GB

just wanted to share in case anyone is going with Base configs.

agreed, I am not sure why anyone would pay more than $2K for a computer today with only 16gb of memory. 16->32 to me is more important than m1 pro -> m1 max

 

[waquzy]

I doubt you are going to do more intensive tasks than this guy:

 

[interbear]

Disagree OP. It really depends on your use case. I went from a 2019 i9 16-inch with 32GB RAM and a 5500 Radeon GPU with its own additional RAM to a new M1 Pro 14-inch 10/16 with 16GB Unified RAM. The new laptop runs quicker, quieter, cooler and is a massive improvement for me. Multiple MS Office docs open, MS Outlook, MS Teams, OneDrive, Safari and Chrome with multiple tabs open, Mail, Apple Music, Apple Photos all running at the same time. When I set it up it downloaded everything from iCloud and OneDrive without skipping a beat. No memory pressure issues. No heat. No fans and totally silent.

I’d say a not untypical usage scenario for many typical knowledge workers using their MacBook Pro for business and personal use. Those doing video editing, coding, gaming or more intensive multitasking may require 32GB RAM but most others would not. I’m very glad I saved the £400 upgrade cost, these new M1 Pros run very smoothly on base configurations (mine is the stock 14-inch model with 10/16 and 1TB SSD).

 

[MrGunnyPT]

I disagree, I have the 1TB model with 10 CPU + 10 GPU and I have 3GB left when i'm doing full work on my machine. I do a lot of cloud engineering tasks however I keep VMs in the cloud so I don't have any need for more than 16GB.

EDIT : Here's a print screen... Using Virtual Studio, Citrix VDI, 3 terminal windows with SSH, VPN, Outlook, Teams, messaging apps and 3 browsers open each with 5 tabs.

 

[twinlight]

I have never owned a Mac and I have some understanding of the shared memory/unified memory that Apple are using for the M1 chips but I can not understand how people would go for less than 32 GB today.

I got 8 GB for my PC 13 years ago and at the time it was okay. Not uselessly to much and not to little. Going for less than 32 GB today must be some choice because of Apples rather expensive memory upgrade. Maybe it is possible if you only watch youtube and do some web surfing. Doing stuff like video editing and running anything from Adobe on the Macbook Pro I would probably go for 64 GB since it is an available option. Also a bit future proofing.

 

[waquzy]

I have never owned a Mac…

I stopped reading there.

No offence

 

[marmiteturkey]

In fact, plenty of people have considered exactly this and decided that 16gb will likely be fine for them. After 48 hours with a 16gb machine, deliberately putting it under pressure, I’m comfortable that I made the right, informed decision and saved myself £400.

Unified memory allows for faster, more efficient memory usage, so it’s a more complex calculation than ‘I had 16gb ram and 4gb graphics so now I need at least 20gb to keep what I had’.

Forums are full of people erroneously projecting their own views and use cases onto everyone else and then deciding they’re smarter just because not everyone made the same decision they did.

 

[TopToffee]

I have never owned a Mac and I have some understanding of the shared memory/unified memory that Apple are using for the M1 chips but I can not understand how people would go for less than 32 GB today.

I got 8 GB for my PC 13 years ago and at the time it was okay. Not uselessly to much and not to little. Going for less than 32 GB today must be some choice because of Apples rather expensive memory upgrade. Maybe it is possible if you only watch youtube and do some web surfing. Doing stuff like video editing and running anything from Adobe on the Macbook Pro I would probably go for 64 GB since it is an available option. Also a bit future proofing.

The guy in the video above seemed to be doing rather more than YouTube and web surfing.

 

[haruhiko]

Lol Apple loves you guys and that’s why they charge so much for upgrading components. For me I’d suggest to save the spec up money into your next MacBook Pro purchase, you will end up paying similar money over these few years but you will get an up to date computer that is very likely to be faster than even the maxed out version today.

(You can even get back half the cost of your previous one by trading in.)

For example, people spent obscene money into the iMac Pro in 2017, and now? The base 14 inch MacBook Pro with double binned 8/14 cores is MUCH faster. There is no ‘future proof’ by spending 200% more on today’s computer, it is still a today’s computer and will not be suddenly much faster than the computer you will get a few years later.

 

[singularity0993]

Well, if you need M1 Pro/Max then you probably need 32GB memory. If 16GB is sufficient for you then probably M1 (non-pro) is, too.

 

[macpot]

I run 2-3 Virtual Machines (1-2GB of memory allocated to each) and dozens of apps running at the same time on my 16GB Macbook Pro 13" (Intel, shared memory for graphics and system) and have no issues at all!

My previous Macbook Air with 8GB of memory on the other hand was struggling, I had to restart it multiple times a day because swapping was slowing it down by a lot!

Saying that, I also went for 32GB but mostly because of the additional memory bandwidth on M1 Max, and admittedly I plan to Game on it on my spare time (first time I'll experience 120Hz gaming).

I think most people will be more than fine with 16GB of Memory...

 

[Macintosh101]

I had the 2019 16" MPB with 16gb RAM and I recently go the 14" 10 Core CPU with 16gb of Ram. In my experience so far the new MBP's are much better better at managing RAM - I'm getting much less RAM usage for the fact same tasks in the music production software I use for example, so I don't think 32gb RAM is a necessity at all.

 

[waquzy]

Well, if you need M1 Pro/Max then you probably need 32GB memory. If 16GB is sufficient for you then probably M1 (non-pro) is, too.

Again not really, if you want better cooling, more ports, better screen, promotion, you have to get the M1 Pro/Max over the M1. 16GB will be plenty for most pro users, hence the reason why both base PRO machines come with 16GB. People really should stop obsessing about having extra RAM

 

[yitwail]

I had the 2019 16" MPB with 16gb RAM and I recently go the 14" 10 Core CPU with 16gb of Ram. In my experience so far the new MBP's are much better better at managing RAM - I'm getting much less RAM usage for the fact same tasks in the music production software I use for example, so I don't think 32gb RAM is a necessity at all.

Far be it from me to pass judgment on anyone else’s opinion but I chose 32gb over 10 cpu cores and 16 gpu cores, because those cores aren’t necessary for me, but with my current 2015 MBP, the amount of swap space used increases by one GB a day, until I log out, which gets rid of the swap files, but I’d rather the new MBP never swaps.

 

[ikir]

So I’m about to pull the trigger on a Base 14” after doing my due diligence I’m hit with the reality that many people aren’t considering. The base 16GB of RAM is shared with the GPU. That’s not cool. I had no choice but to go 32GB

just wanted to share in case anyone is going with Base configs.

Not true. Many things are duplicated in tradition computer (same dats in Ram and vRAM). This doesn't happen with unified memory. This doesn't mean you can considered it double but indeed unified memory is much much more better. You can do incredible things with 8GB, let alone 16GB.

 

[PeterJP]

I chose 32GB because I could and for future proofing. When I got my 8GB late 2013 machine, I sometimes wished I had upgraded to 16GB. I don't want to be in that situation again.

But when I really look at what I'm doing, even in Logic Pro with the most complex work I do, I'm using just a few gigabytes. Same when running VMs - the ones I'm running are all fairly simple. I have no workload I can point to that requires more than 16GB.

Saying your GPU has 4GB, therefore you need 20GB, is nonsense if you don't add any information. Have you monitored how much of those 4GB are actually in use? Are you certain, as the others point out, that the info in that GPU RAM isn't also somewhere in CPU RAM? Monitor your usage, then come to conclusions. Or just upgrade because you feel like it, like me, but be honest about it

 

[ikir]

I have never owned a Mac and I have some understanding of the shared memory/unified memory that Apple are using for the M1 chips but I can not understand how people would go for less than 32 GB today.

I got 8 GB for my PC 13 years ago and at the time it was okay. Not uselessly to much and not to little. Going for less than 32 GB today must be some choice because of Apples rather expensive memory upgrade. Maybe it is possible if you only watch youtube and do some web surfing. Doing stuff like video editing and running anything from Adobe on the Macbook Pro I would probably go for 64 GB since it is an available option. Also a bit future proofing.

Sorry you reasoning with PC in mind which works like **** and before people go upset I'm a a tech expert and work for big company with a lot of PCs. macOS shiny in memory usage and like I said in the previous post unified memory really gives you many advantages not only in speed but in quantity.

 

[UnexpectedHuman]

People seem to forget that every Intel MacBook also has an integrated GPU that uses shared ram.

Turning automatic graphics switching turned on/off with my 2018 MBP, this suggests that about 1GB of additional wired memory being used by the Window manager with the integrated graphics chipset enabled. If you are already happily using am 16GB Intel laptop either without a discrete GPU or without disabling automatic switching, chances are you will not notice a difference in RAM vs the new laptops.

 

[Rck1984]

Hard disagree.

Get what you need according to your use case. 32GB of RAM is total overkill for 90% of the people buying this device and if you need 32GB of RAM, you will almost certainly know it.

Telling people to get 32GB just because M1 memory is shared, is literally the worse advice ever.

 

[HughRR]

You need 32G if you have to run Teams, Slack, VScode, Chrome and Lens at the same time plus some other fat pig electron apps.

What’s even more depressing is they’re rewriting office as electron based apps at the moment.

Glad I don’t have to pollute my personal mac with all that. I’m fine with 8G and vim thanks.

 

[yitwail]

You need 32G if you have to run Teams, Slack, VScode, Chrome and Lens at the same time plus some other fat pig electron apps.

What’s even more depressing is they’re rewriting office as electron based apps at the moment.

Glad I don’t have to pollute my personal mac with all that. I’m fine with 8G and vim thanks.

I have chrome, slack, and Skype running continuously. I also use VS Code, which is Electron-ic I believe. I do use vi when I ssh into web servers. ?

 

[twinlight]

I stopped reading there.

No offence

No offence taken.

 

[scott523]

If these new Macs were Intel based then I'll be more inclined to get 32GB RAM but the Apple silicon chips are pretty good at managing memory. I tried the M1 MBP and the memory was maxed out with many apps open and a game running (WoW). Getting 16GB RAM should be enough for most basic to light-pro users.

I'm getting my M1 Pro 16" 1TB/16GB RAM from Costco this weekend. If I max out 16GB RAM in 3 months, I'll just return it for the 32GB RAM M1 Max.