When does 24GB make sense over 16GB?

[123123123]

Like the title says – for lighter-use machines, like MBAs and the cheaper Minis, when does it make sense to upgrade to 24GB? What are the use cases (besides heavy photo editing, which I don’t do, and gaming, where I mostly play elderly strategy games)? My M1/16GB MBA (which died earlier this year) never really bogged down from memory limitations, and I even managed to play Baldur’s Gate 3 on it (with graphics on potato quality, obviously). Going from 16 to 24 costs $300 Canadian, so it’s not a tiny cost. I know AI will be a memory hog, but I have no interest in it at all, so that is mostly irrelevant for me, at least until it becomes a mandatory fixture in the OS.

To put it another way, how many years down the road is 16GB likely to last before it starts to become marginal?

 

[Santabean2000]

I went with 24GB, mostly because at work I have a million Chrome tabs open all the time. I think extra RAM is worth it, if you can afford it at the time.
16GB will be the base config for many years to come, I believe, so likely fine to get now if you intend to upgrade with the next 5 years.

 

[avro707]

I went 24GB because it was the spec that was available with the M4 Pro Mac Mini in store.

The old computer it replaced was 32GB so tried to keep similar specs.

 

[maflynn]

to put it another way, how many years down the road is 16GB likely to last before it starts to become marginal?

Truthfully, no one can really answer that - we don't know what the future will hold, but when considering the latest announcements of apple - more visually animated UI, a higher degree of AI built into the OS. It seems clear the OS will be more demanding, and you wanting to play various games, I'm going to that we're more likely to see constraints on 16GB sooner then later. when that actually happens is really based on people usages

There's a term that I tend to apply to myself these past few years.
Buy once, cry once.

Sure you can opt for 16GB today for a new machine, but what happens next year or the following year when it might be an issue - you'll be contemplating spending more money sooner had you opted for the memory upgrade now.

I think with macOS, more is better and why take a chance on cutting corners today?

 

[TechRunner]

I bought a base 16/512 M4 MBP in March, and I use it for basic stuff as well as light photo editing and some writing/blogging. I'm expecting to get 5-7 years from it with that workflow.

Having said that, if I was using Photoshop for editing, I wouldn't consider anything less than 24GB to get that same 5-7 years from it. In fact, I would probably buy 32GB for that machine.

 

[Fishrrman]

Question:
"When does 24GB make sense over 16GB?"

Answer:
"All the time."

I've come to the opinion (and yes, you know what they say about "opinions") that the MINIMUM any thoughtful Mac buyer should get today is 32gb.

How many folks here remember when Apple sold the 2014 Mac Mini with only 4gb of installed RAM that couldn't be upgraded?

Yes, it ran. But it didn't run WELL.

I'm going to speculate that the "needs of the OS" are going to grow rapidly in the years to come. 16gb is ok... for today. Just like 4gb was in the 2014 Mini.

But 3, 4, 5 years down the road?
How big will the OS become by then (considering AI and all of that b.s.)?

 

[M4th]

300 loonies can probably get you close to a year's worth of all dressed chips, so that is definitely something to consider. With your described use case I can't imagine 16GB of any flavor could ever be thought of as marginal at that point but by then you may need a bigger pair of jeans (just kidding).

Beyond that time frame is anyone's guess, but there's no law that says you have to upgrade with every new OS that Apple drops. Or they may start to tier their drops with a 24GB and below original version of whatever the latest OS is, and some kind of optional super AI encrufted extra crispy version above that limit.

Nah, probably not... there would be folks foolishly wanting to install that tasty extra crispy when their devices are really only meant for the bland original, with the ensuing forum posts here asking for silly workarounds.

 

[padams35]

To put it another way, how many years down the road is 16GB likely to last before it starts to become marginal?

8GB RAM w/SSD started to be considered marginal maybe back with Ventura?

Recent past trends suggest that system requirements have been doubling about every 7-8 years, so 16GB might be considered marginal as early as MacOS 30 (late 2029). Past results do not grantee future outcomes.

It will certianly be possible to keep using 16GB RAM past 2029 if you stop updating the OS and limit yourself to old software releases. However I would suggest anyone who expects to run the latest version of MacOS with somewhat demanding new release software in 5+ years go ahead and get 24GB RAM.

 

[uacd]

Agreed, no sense. If I were to choose I would have gone with 32GB.

More RAM=better. Who knows what they do to macOS tomorrow or which new options would need more RAM? Better to be prepared for this than not

 

[ChrisA]

Like the title says – for lighter-use machines, like MBAs and the cheaper Minis, when does it make sense to upgrade to 24GB? What are the use cases (besides heavy photo editing, which I don’t do, and gaming, where I mostly play elderly strategy games)? My M1/16GB MBA (which died earlier this year) never really bogged down from memory limitations, and I even managed to play Baldur’s Gate 3 on it (with graphics on potato quality, obviously). Going from 16 to 24 costs $300 Canadian, so it’s not a tiny cost. I know AI will be a memory hog, but I have no interest in it at all, so that is mostly irrelevant for me, at least until it becomes a mandatory fixture in the OS.

To put it another way, how many years down the road is 16GB likely to last before it starts to become marginal?

Having 24GB allows you to run a virtual machine with 8GB and still have 16GB for running "Mac stuff". This is great if you are developing for Linux. You can run Linux in the VM, and it does not slow the Mac much at all.

The other use for more RAM is if you are doing AI development and want to run a model locally on the Mac. Even a smaller one can use up 8GB.

NEVER buy a computer with capabilities you might use as you likely never will. Simply upgrade the computer if your needs change.