Unified Memory 16GB is shared You need 32GB

[crazy dave]

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.

Just in case you weren’t aware (because this is not how it has always worked for iGPUs, especially on PC): It really is X GB of RAM that all the parts of the SOC have access to. The GPU and CPU memory don’t partition/duplicate - ie if the CPU wants to share memory with the GPU or NPU or other X hardware block it doesn’t copy it over to X’s partition in the RAM. So there are no partitions effectively lowering the space any one unit has access to and if properly programmed, none of your programs should be wasting time/space duplicating memory. Now any one block isn’t allowed to take up all the space if they all are working on different data sets, so there’s a limit. It’s just much, much better than what you might be thinking it is judging by your post.

I mean there are also lots of other good reasons to go for more RAM than the base. People have been outlining their use cases in this thread. This particular reason of shared RAM is just less impactful than you might think.

 

[Rck1984]

Shared memory or not, I'd advise to monitor your memory pressure (activity monitor) in a realistic workload situation.

Green = You're good.
Yellow = If it's occasional, then you're still good. If it's all the time, you might want to consider more RAM.
Red = You need more memory.

On a side note though: Certain applications can be memory hogs due to bad design/coding and need fixing. Microsoft Teams is one of those applications for example.

Also, don't simply look at numbers. RAM and its allocation is more complicated than just numbers. MacOS makes smart use of the available RAM and allocates accordingly. If your machine has 16GB and 13GB is used, doesn't mean you are almost out of RAM, it means MacOS has decided to allocate it that way. RAM not used is literally wasted RAM, simple as that. That's why its such a waste of money to go full out on RAM while your use case doesn't need it.

Again, 16GB is enough for 90% of the "average" consumer. 32GB/64GB is for the people that know they need it.

 

[aevan]

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.

I am going with 16Gb and it’s more than enough for illustration and 3D workflows I use, as have been demonstrated by 13” M1 MacBook Pros that also have shared memory.

Depending on your workflow, you might need 32Gb RAM or even 64, if you do things like running virtual machines, rendering complex scenes without optimizing assets, doing music production with lot of instruments, etc.

Please don’t spread this “16Gb RAM is not enough” hysteria - it is, for the vast majority of users (including professional ones).

If you need more RAM, you know you need it and you know why you need it. Otherwise, most people are fine with 16.

As @crazy dave explained nicely: sharing memory does not mean parts of RAM are reserved for gpu, they are used when needed and it’s actually much more efficient. With macOS intelligent resource management and choosing what to swap, what to compress, what to dump - you should not have “less” RAM because it is shared. In fact, you will have more efficient RAM.

In my country, going from 16 to 32Gb is 620 USD, converted. I am not going to spend that money for something I don’t need and I think this forum will get a lot of people to overspend with little reason ?

 

[i9inkers]

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.

So if the 16gb MacBook Pro is good enough then the non pro is too?

So take away the x2 GPU performance, 16 inch screen, new speaker system, 120hz Promotion, Mini LED. People should just get the m1. loooooool.

Listen dude, just because you paid an extra 1.2k for better video conversion or to play kiddy games that definitely isn't every persons workflow. Instead of knocking people for their purchases and giving out baseless advice to get the m1 instead of the pro, try bringing forward a rational argument for your purchase.

I do no video conversion at all, nor do I play battlefield all day so do I need a 32c GPU?

 

[i9inkers]

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.

Yeah because that makes the world of difference to people that undertake non-gpu work.....

16gb is far enough for 99/100 people... Take the 1500 saves and take you, your family and your Mac for a nice holiday

 

[spaceranger]

Shared memory or not, I'd advise to monitor your memory pressure (activity monitor) in a realistic workload situation.

Green = You're good.
Yellow = If it's occasional, then you're still good. If it's all the time, you might want to consider more RAM.
Red = You need more memory.

I agree. The one disadvantage of the Mac's activity monitor is that it only provides you with a snapshot of memory pressure. I suggest using a more advanced activity monitor (e.g. iStat) to record your memory pressure over time. This gives you the freedom to focus on your work, without the need to repeatedly check-in on your current memory pressure.

I've been wondering whether I need to buy the 14" base model or have it upgraded with 32GB of RAM. I've been running iStat for a day now on my MBP early 2015 with 16GB of RAM and so far memory pressure is between 20-40%. I will keep on monitoring memory pressure to eventually make a well informed decision on my next purchase.

 

[Bug-Creator]

"Needing" more RAM is rarely a case of actually needing more RAM but more often a case of running sloppy SW.
Just look at how much RAM iPhones have compared to Android phones they should compare to and then check which feels "snappier".

I'd go as far as claiming that even for many tasks utilising a M1Pro's or even Max's processing power most users would not notice a difference if there had been an 8GB version of that SoC.

"Futureproofing" sounds nice, but depending on how far out that future is you might end up in a situation where just selling the M1xxx and getting an new M3xxx (with more RAM in the default config) is the cheaper option.

 

[davidako]

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

Everyone needs to make the decision best for their own needs (and wants), but for me "future proofing" is a false economy when the cost of the upgrades is upwards of 25% of the cost of the entire device.

Unless you are sure you need the extra specifications right now, just put the upgrade money towards a new device in a few years. Plus you get the benefits of all the other components being upgraded.

On the other hand, an overspec'd machine protects you against unwanted design changes by Apple. I went many years between MBPs due to the issues with the keyboard, Touch Bar, no ports etc. Hopefully Apple's years of gimmicks are behind them.

The M1 move has been a massive leap forward. We will need to see when M2 comes out whether we can expect a similarly large jump with each generation or whether things will slow down.

 

[sumarlidason]

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.

I just want to point out that you are using a little swap and you have ~4GB of memory compressed. You are Being impacted by your RAM choice: increased SSD reads/writes degrading the disk, and increased CPU to decompress that memory for reading -

 

[Bug-Creator]

We will need to see when M2 comes out whether we can expect a similarly large jump with each generation or whether things will slow down.

If the M2 is based on the A15 (just like the M1 on A14) you can calculate that right now.
If Apple only updates the cores every 2nd year you can guess at what the A16 will do next year and calculate from that.

Going Intel to AS was such a huge jump for 2 reasons:
- 5nm in AS is 2 generations advanced over the 14nm (which is kinda 10 if it was made by TSMC) used in the last Intel Macs which allows for far more transistors in the same space/power constraint
- ARM is far more simpler, better and modern architecture even more with the removal of obsolete 32bit support that it allows to do more stuff faster with the same number of transistors

So you should expect the usual 10-20% yearly uplift going forward. There will be years that will see almost no improvement and there will be years where they get something bigger working but in the end it will be steady going for a while.

 

[Larabee119]

A typical work day for me includes Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, acrobat dc, 15 tabs in chrome, 2 web apps opened in safari, onedrive, music app, outlook, apple mail.
Photoshop eats up 7GB
Illustrator 7GB
Indesign 6GB
acrobat 2GB
chrome 3GB
Safari 2GB
onedrive 1GB
all other apps 2GB
Casual work day easily exceeds 16GB.
then my boss says, let’s edit some video, oh well, another 16GB is needed on top of those app to run after effects and premie.

 

[i9inkers]

A typical work day for me includes Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, acrobat dc, 15 tabs in chrome, 2 web apps opened in safari, onedrive, music app, outlook, apple mail.
Photoshop eats up 7GB
Illustrator 7GB
Indesign 6GB
acrobat 2GB
chrome 3GB
Safari 2GB
onedrive 1GB
all other apps 2GB
Casual work day easily exceeds 16GB.
then my boss says, let’s edit some video, oh well, another 16GB is needed on top of those app to run after effects and premie.

Ouch, 64GB for sure

 

[lambertjohn]

I have an M1 Air with 8GB of RAM. It breezes through everything I can throw at it. So if it shares any of its memory with the GPU, I would never have noticed. I can only imagine how well the new MBP's run with 16GB of RAM.

 

[Bug-Creator]

Photoshop eats up 7GB
Illustrator 7GB
Indesign 6GB
acrobat 2GB
chrome 3GB
Safari 2GB
onedrive 1GB
all other apps 2GB

Unless you somehow manage to have all them doing something at the same time you'd still be good at 16GB.

 

[HQNYC]

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.

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.

When that $5k iMac Pro makes you $200k/year and is still doing so in 2021, do you still think you overspent? ?

Of course, we will have tech advances every year, but getting the best, usually means that you can use it for longer. Time is money. Also, the iMac screen is one of the best screens money can buy.

 

[Larabee119]

Unless you somehow manage to have all them doing something at the same time you'd still be good at 16GB.

Yup, that’s me doing work of 2-3 people. I used to run the logistics department but they lack talents in marketing and design, so they pulled me out. Running everything all at once. in real life, you don’t just run video editing software alone, that’s why all reviews online is just bogus.
I have ALL variants of the new M1 pro/ max to test and only the M1 max 64GB can withstand the pressure. I sometimes need to travel, so bringing all those processing power with me is god sent. Before that, it’s a nightmare with Intel chip running super hot.

 

[urtules]

I just checked my work laptop with 16 GB, it uses 7.61 GB of swap. And that's just with Xcode, single simulator, Slack and Safari. Not even using Chrome. I don't know about you but I went with 32 GB without thinking. Do you need extra CPU and GPU cores is the other question, I would save on them instead?

 

[HughRR]

When that $5k iMac Pro makes you $200k/year and is still doing so in 2021, do you still think you overspent? ?

Of course, we will have tech advances every year, but getting the best, usually means that you can use it for longer. Time is money. Also, the iMac screen is one of the best screens money can buy.

This. You should buy with ROI in mind always.

As a counterpoint it irritates me when people buy an iPhone pro and can’t take a decent photo and/or just take photos of them pouting like morons with the front camera. I suspect a lot of MacBook Pro’s end up in such people‘s hands.

 

[Larabee119]

This. You should buy with ROI in mind always.

As a counterpoint it irritates me when people buy an iPhone pro and can’t take a decent photo and/or just take photos of them pouting like morons with the front camera. I suspect a lot of MacBook Pro’s end up in such people‘s hands.

ROI means everything. I rarely hear my management complain about our new 12 million machine, or our new 570 million tooling just for an order because we make way more in return. Comparing those numbers to the 5,000 macbooks feels meaningless. We buy tools to make money, not to look at them in awe and judge them as toys.

 

[yitwail]

I just checked my work laptop with 16 GB, it uses 7.61 GB of swap. And that's just with Xcode, single simulator, Slack and Safari. Not even using Chrome. I don't know about you but I went with 32 GB without thinking. Do you need extra CPU and GPU cores is the other question, I would save on them instead?

That’s what I did, trading cpu & gpu cores for 32 GB and 1 TB. ?

 

[cawsllyffant]

So just a bit of experience here: I have a M1 Air w/ 8GB. I didn't really put it through its paces until I changed jobs a little over a month ago. There was a delay in getting me hardware, so for the first few weeks[^0] I was using my air as my primary dev device.

Basic daily run was firefox for research/news (1-10 tabs), edge for outlook, teams, jira/bitbucket/confluence (3-6 tabs), intellij w/ python projects loaded[^1] , a small ubuntu vm[^2] in parallels, safari for distraction browsing (1-3 tabs), vs code for markdown docs with plantuml mixed in and various tools. Oh, and an ipad pro setup as sidecar display and my main display being a samsung cr49 (49" superultrawide 5k x 1440)

Everything ran 'fine'... about as fast as my 2016 Macbook Pro. A few times a day, I would and restart but that was about it. At one point, I had UTM running in addition to all of that, just to see if I could... definitely at that point, it was obvious that I was having RAM issues.

This was all plugged in and in clamshell mode, except for one afternoon when my home office was being cleaned.

At the end of the day, if I want to play minecraft (the only game I play on my mac), I have to shut down most apps to get a good framerate.

So for that kind of workload...which I'd say is medium/light 8GB is acceptable. Althought since apple is promising a decent trade in, I'm debating a 32GB max pro.

---
[^0] I have my hardware now, but am remoting into that hardware from my M1 and still basically running the same way.
[^1] I'm lead architect/manager of a team of about 20 devs, so importantly I was not compiling code, just viewing. While I think you could compile/debug code if you really, really wanted too, I think you would hit a performance wall at that point.
[^2] The ubuntu vm was running a few linux tools that are installable on mac but I'd rather not bother, docker and postgresql. Nothing dramatic just architect-y little tests of "oh, will this work?"

 

[PeterJP]

I just want to point out that you are using a little swap and you have ~4GB of memory compressed. You are Being impacted by your RAM choice: increased SSD reads/writes degrading the disk, and increased CPU to decompress that memory for reading -

I have a 64GB machine and it frequently also has a little bit of swap, even when I'm not doing too much. 160MB swap is nothing. That won't have any impact on the SSD. Really, the screenshot shows an active usage of not even 8,5GB of RAM (app memory + wired). With this usage, a 32GB machine would most likely show exactly the same thing, except for more cached files.

 

[MrGunnyPT]

I just want to point out that you are using a little swap and you have ~4GB of memory compressed. You are Being impacted by your RAM choice: increased SSD reads/writes degrading the disk, and increased CPU to decompress that memory for reading -

No worries, i'm gonna switch every 3 years.

 

[haruhiko]

When that $5k iMac Pro makes you $200k/year and is still doing so in 2021, do you still think you overspent? ?

Of course, we will have tech advances every year, but getting the best, usually means that you can use it for longer. Time is money. Also, the iMac screen is one of the best screens money can buy.

My point still stands ?

 

[pi=e=3]

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.

For once their memory prices actually make sense though.

You realize it’s DDR5 right? Have you seen how expensive even DDR5 DIMMs are? 32GB (2x16) of 5200Mhz is around $500 Canadian, and that’s still slower memory than Apple is using.