16gb is enough for now ,but i plan to keep my mac for 7 years .should i get 32gb ?

[Mystic-Micro]

Your disappointment is not reflective of the vast majority of people using the web and office apps. Otherwise, you'd see not just Macs, but even Chromebooks require 32gb of ram. Granted you said you use affinity Photo, but unless you are using a medium format or greater camera, are unlikely to tax even 8gb of ram in many cases.

My logic is simple and hasn't failed me yet, buy the Computer with the ram you think you will use. I don't understand your use case as being paticularly ram intensive, but more likely memory leaks in the programs themselves, which in that case, change programs because that's just poor programming. But hey, if you want to spend $$$ on growing the web and word, power to you.

 

[MarkC426]

My logic is simple and hasn't failed me yet, buy the pc with the ram you think you will use.

AS Macs are not PC's so cannot be upgraded later.

Not everyone buys a computer to then replace it in a couple of years.
Since Apple changed their builds, future proofing is more valid these days.

 

[Mystic-Micro]

Most laptops these days in the price range/design style of MacBooks don't really have upgradable parts. Also most people don't buy computers to replace every couple of years.

All I am saying is future proofing might work, but Apple can simply discontinue OS support and if you spent all that money future proofing but never used the silicon to do actual work, what a waste of money no? I don't think computers these days are limited by hardware anymore, but rather software, and there is not much you or I can do to "future proof" against that.

Again, worth repeating, if you have a use case for the performance/ram, go for it, but future proofing is a fools errand.

 

[MarkC426]

End of OS support is also not end of Mac life......
A Mac can continue to be used for years on older version of MacOS.

If the OP wants a Mac for 7+ years, then adding extra ram will give it that extended life (unless they are literally only checking email).

 

[Mystic-Micro]

End of OS support means no more security or feature updates. The former is more and more important today, and I would not recommend using hardware that is no longer being patched. In the past, you got security updates at least for a couple years after your last official OS, but with Ventura, Apple says only the latest OS is updated pro-actively. I wish Apple would state their update policy explicitly, but that's another story for another day.

Sure, you can use an officially deprecated system, many universities, work places don't allow unsupported systems, but that risk is on the user. I noticed this site and nearly every YouTuber keep parroting to always buy the ram you can afford, so if you can afford 64gb of ram, should you get it? For me, I think not, because there is no utility for it in my case, so I went with 16gb.

If I find that that 4-7 years now, that 16gb is not enough (highly unlikely), trade the Mac in, and get a new laptop which will likely have an order of magnitude performance, a new battery, and another 5+ years of OS updates for peace of mind. Futureproofing has never worked in the past, and given how early we are in the Apple Silicon age and the intense completion in the CPU space, means we should get pretty big gen on gen improvements, so any benefits to that extra RAM will be more than offset by much better CPUs, likely even faster ram/ssds etc.

Its your money, and my measly 2C, so do as you please, it doesn't matter to me.

 

[MarkC426]

I suppose it's different for everyone.....
Personally I never get rid of any Mac/iPhone etc....that's me being a nerd, and like to buy things for the long haul.

Plus I have been in the cMP brigade for so long....not having upgrades is a concept I cannot get used to......😫

 

[Daibhidh]

The problem is Apple understates the need for RAM, yet overcharges for it, and doesn't allow you to upgrade it—all at the same time. I find that 16GB is the bare minimum for most needs. 8GB is only good for very little usage, maybe 1-2 websites at a time, and one 1-2 apps open, while closing and quitting stuff as you go. 16GB is bare minimum for using a few apps, maybe 5-ish with some websites open, maybe 5-10 tabs at once. 32GB is where you want to be if you intend to do a bunch of things at once without having to constantly quit and re-open apps, and reboot semi-often. The big issue with RAM is 2 things: poorly designed apps that hold onto RAM, and websites that cache a lot of stuff (especially social media sites).

Right now, I'm on an 16" M1 Pro, 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD. I have about 30 tabs open in Safari, MS Teams, Messages, Zoom, TeamViewer, and Text Edit open. I have about 2 weeks since my last reboot. I'm waiting for a phone call back, so I'm not doing anything other than typing here. I have about 23.14GB of my RAM used.

Overall, the key point is that you're planning to have this for about 7 years. 16GB will be ok now, but as technology grows, most computers will have 24-32GB in 7 years, and app/web developers will program for that. Your computer will also be slower than the average computer in 5-7 years, meaning it may have to work harder to keep up, and having more RAM will help with that.

In the end, you're stuck with whatever you buy, since it's not upgradable (at least not practically), so you should always go more than what you think you need now.

I'd also hate to say it, but 512GB isn't a lot of room anymore either. If you plan on saving photos and documents, that can het used up over 7 years as well. The way SSDs are build these days, you want to try to stay about 50% free for maximum performance over time, with 25% free the bare minimum.

You’ve got me reconsidering my order of a 16GB Mini already. I made it today and am returning the 8GB for the reasons quoted above.

If you don’t mind giving me advice (I can find little on YouTube to advise anyone other than video editors or ‘casual users’), but basically I’m the latter. I’ll use Pages almost every day and edit the odd photo or video for personal use.

The catch is I do want to play some high-end games (I believe Homeworld 3 which I’m desperate for fall into this category but I’m not sure) even if infrequently. I may have to run them through Parallels or the like too. Wouldn’t 16GB be enough? I intend keeping the Mac for at least five years.

 

[Daibhidh]

i've read a lot about ram on macrumors and i still cannot make up my mind ,i'd appreciate if anyone could tell me about his experiences,be it past (ram related mostly) or current .

location - home ; docked to monitor /in bed / university

•usage - nothing super heavy,but many programs opened with a lot of files.8gb has become a nightmare . pdf ,photo editing (just for the fun)

i would like to keep it for 7 years, and since i need 16gb right now,perhaps would it be wise to get 32gb so that it will feel good even in several years from now ? on the other hand,getting 32gb on the 14 pro ,i could just get the base 16 for the same price,which has a way bigger screen,way better battery .

16" 32gb is kinda expensive

the only thing i know is that i don't want more than 512gb of storage ,and that i'll probably get apple care +

Can you tell me what you decided to go for? I have the same dilemma but ordered the 16GB Mini. I think it will be updated in the spring and maybe I’ve bumped the gun. I perhaps should have got the Studio but that seems very expensive and very much designed for professional videos and music editors, which I am not. I wouldn’t mind how we playing the odd high-end video game and perhaps the added RAM would help.

Any thoughts on your purchase greatly appreciated.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

Can you tell me what you decided to go for? I have the same dilemma but ordered the 16GB Mini. I think it will be updated in the spring and maybe I’ve bumped the gun. I perhaps should have got the Studio but that seems very expensive and very much designed for professional videos and music editors, which I am not. I wouldn’t mind how we playing the odd high-end video game and perhaps the added RAM would help.

Any thoughts on your purchase greatly appreciated.

erm well , i wouldnt advise to do the same as i did

as for the ram , the swap is really good , and with the mbp you get super fast SSD . i opened a heck lot of programs (some heavy , opened 40 chrome tabs, and 30 other apps such as pixelmator pro with a bunch of pictures/projects) and it still wasnt lagging .

for video editing i dunno tho . but 16gb was very comfortable for me .

that said i went back to my mba m1 8/256....my wrists were in true pain with the mbp 16" sadly

 

[Amazon Rainforest]

Let's keep it simple. It doesn't matter how much RAM you think you need today or a year from now. The rule for any user is--or should be--buy as much RAM as you can afford. And as for swapping.... There is ALWAYS a performance hit when swapping occurs. Swapping is to be avoided at all cost. It doesn't matter how fast your swap device is. Memory access is measured in nanoseconds. Swapping takes milliseconds. That's the width of an ocean.

 

[Daibhidh]

Let's keep it simple. It doesn't matter how much RAM you think you need today or a year from now. The rule for any user is--or should be--buy as much RAM as you can afford. And as for swapping.... There is ALWAYS a performance hit when swapping occurs. Swapping is to be avoided at all cost. It doesn't matter how fast your swap device is. Memory access is measured in nanoseconds. Swapping takes milliseconds. That's the width of an ocean.

Thanks. I’m clueless in all honesty but am aware I could waste money on RAM and processors I don’t need. I do see your point in ‘but what you can afford’ but with a recession looming and not being a video editor, it may be a case that I buy what I don’t need.

When you say swapping, would this be the translation from OS to Windows via Parrallels etc? And therefore you mean buy RAM to handle this as well as run a game? 16GB wouldn’t be enough?

 

[Daibhidh]

erm well , i wouldnt advise to do the same as i did

as for the ram , the swap is really good , and with the mbp you get super fast SSD . i opened a heck lot of programs (some heavy , opened 40 chrome tabs, and 30 other apps such as pixelmator pro with a bunch of pictures/projects) and it still wasnt lagging .

for video editing i dunno tho . but 16gb was very comfortable for me .

that said i went back to my mba m1 8/256....my wrists were in true pain with the mbp 16" sadly

Ah so you sold the one you bought? That’s a shame but at least now you know what you like.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

Ah so you sold the one you bought? That’s a shame but at least now you know what you like.

i returned it . i wish i had kept my mba m1 16gb tho

 

[Amazon Rainforest]

Thanks. I’m clueless in all honesty but am aware I could waste money on RAM and processors I don’t need. I do see your point in ‘but what you can afford’ but with a recession looming and not being a video editor, it may be a case that I buy what I don’t need.

When you say swapping, would this be the translation from OS to Windows via Parrallels etc? And therefore you mean buy RAM to handle this as well as run a game? 16GB wouldn’t be enough?

Upgrading RAM from 16GB to 32GB is never a waste. For any user that doesn't run anything taxing, i.e., runs only a few apps such as browser, email, etc., 16GB is the bare minimum RAM requirement. Anything more than these basic apps and the user will miss that extra RAM. I speak from experience. I know what it is like to run out of RAM so this is the first upgrade I choose when I am configuring my new computer.

Swapping occurs when the system runs out of RAM. It is a process where least-recently-used memory is temporarily written to disk and then freed up so that other applications can make use of it. When swapped-out memory is needed, it has to be put back, i.e., read from disk and placed somewhere in RAM. Swapping overhead consists of Read/Write operations on the disk.

The average user shouldn't have to worry about what kind of CPU the computer has or how much RAM there is. He/she just uses their computer and it works. That is why you buy the computer you want and then forget about all that stuff.

I understand your caution, with the economy the way that it is, and that's good. It is why I said 'get as much RAM as you can afford.'

 

[ian87w]

For me, it's simple. For the price Apple is charging, 16GB should be the standard. Simple as that. The way Apple is sloppy enough with macOS RAM management that led to heavy swapping already showed that Apple actually didn't care and intentionally put 8GB RAM as base models for cost/profit reasons, to push users to pay for upgrades, or to hasten the upgrade quicker as user will realize how limited 8GB is.

I had a 10 year old laptop with 8GB on it. If you feel 8GB is already limited today, and you want to keep the machine for 7 years, upgrading to 32GB might not be a bad investment.

 

[HDFan]

I always get the maximum amount of RAM I can afford, excluding terabytes of it on the Mac Pro. When programs use exorbitant amounts of memory it doesn't crash my system. Did reboot the other day when one program was using 40 GB of RAM. Still had free memory but clearly if I kept it running there would eventually be a problem.

Right now I have 3 backup programs running that use ~15 GB of memory. They tend to be the worst offenders on my system.

 

[Daibhidh]

Upgrading RAM from 16GB to 32GB is never a waste. For any user that doesn't run anything taxing, i.e., runs only a few apps such as browser, email, etc., 16GB is the bare minimum RAM requirement. Anything more than these basic apps and the user will miss that extra RAM. I speak from experience. I know what it is like to run out of RAM so this is the first upgrade I choose when I am configuring my new computer.

Swapping occurs when the system runs out of RAM. It is a process where least-recently-used memory is temporarily written to disk and then freed up so that other applications can make use of it. When swapped-out memory is needed, it has to be put back, i.e., read from disk and placed somewhere in RAM. Swapping overhead consists of Read/Write operations on the disk.

The average user shouldn't have to worry about what kind of CPU the computer has or how much RAM there is. He/she just uses their computer and it works. That is why you buy the computer you want and then forget about all that stuff.

I understand your caution, with the economy the way that it is, and that's good. It is why I said 'get as much RAM as you can afford.'

Thanks a lot. I may upgrade for the Studio. I suppose there’s a touch of the feeling a little foolish buying such an expensive Mac when there are so few games available and gaming is generally mocked. And Homeworld may not even be released!

But heaven forbid I ever have to switch on a PC again. There is no program as bad as Word.

 

[Daibhidh]

For me, it's simple. For the price Apple is charging, 16GB should be the standard. Simple as that. The way Apple is sloppy enough with macOS RAM management that led to heavy swapping already showed that Apple actually didn't care and intentionally put 8GB RAM as base models for cost/profit reasons, to push users to pay for upgrades, or to hasten the upgrade quicker as user will realize how limited 8GB is.

I had a 10 year old laptop with 8GB on it. If you feel 8GB is already limited today, and you want to keep the machine for 7 years, upgrading to 32GB might not be a bad investment.

That’s pretty cynical of them if true but does seem something to be wary of. I had a baseline MBA around a decade ago and it practically exploded one night uploading a photo to the cloud. No refund, of course. The shop assistant mentioned how it should never have been produced.

Thanks for your help. The only issue now is if the 32GB and the GPU in a Studio are enough to future-proof for any gaming in 2026. As you’ll likely understand better than me, there’s more to it than that. This is why I suppose sticking with my 16GB Mini may not be a bad thing.

 

[Edgecrusherr]

I think anything less than 1TB of internal storage is a mistake.
If you are already at the threshold where 16GBs is common usage, then 32GBs is likely the more prudent purchase... if you indeed expect to keep this for 7 years... I suspect 5 years is more likely given the lack of upgradeability.

I agree with the need for more storage. On top of needing it to store files, it's also the computer's cache for virtual memory and software features.

 

[Edgecrusherr]

I’m fine with 256gb

Unless you're saving next no nothing on your computer, 256GB will run out fast. I see it happen all the time with the machines I manage for work. Also, if you're looking at the M2 MacBook Air, the 256GB model has significantly slower read/write speed. It's just really tough now, with the inability to update anything in modern Macs.

 

[Edgecrusherr]

You’ve got me reconsidering my order of a 16GB Mini already. I made it today and am returning the 8GB for the reasons quoted above.

If you don’t mind giving me advice (I can find little on YouTube to advise anyone other than video editors or ‘casual users’), but basically I’m the latter. I’ll use Pages almost every day and edit the odd photo or video for personal use.

The catch is I do want to play some high-end games (I believe Homeworld 3 which I’m desperate for fall into this category but I’m not sure) even if infrequently. I may have to run them through Parallels or the like too. Wouldn’t 16GB be enough? I intend keeping the Mac for at least five years.

The Mac mini is tough, because it maxes out at 16GB. I actually have one, with 16GB and a 1TB SSD. I bought an external PCIe based USB-C SSD (lots of acronyms lol) so I could keep as much of the internal SSD free as possible (it was cheaper than going for the full 2GB internal dive). Its main function is a living room / family entertainment center. At that function, it's great. I mostly use it to load up moves and TV shows over the network, from my archive RAID attached to my Mac Pro, in the other room. I also stream TV/Movies a lot on it. I do have Parallels, UTM, Dolphin emulation, and some other native games. Overall, the 16GB is a constraint, so I make sure to stick to only one major task at a time, 2 at the most. I try not to leave the browser open if I'm going a lot of other stuff as well. It's a great computer overall, and I think you'll be fine, but I can't imagine this computer will very useful after 5 years, and wish it has 32GB. I'll likely keep it for another 3 years, then either get whatever the current mini is, or get a used Mac Studio, whichever has a better performance value for the money at that time.

I will say that Parallels is very well written. Leave the VMs set to allow Parallels to automatically manage the memory. I tested Windows 11 with the auto setting, and variations of manual memory mapping, and the auto came out of top in performance. The strongest game I ran in Parallels was Injustice: Gods Among Us. It ran as if it was native. I can't get something like a Wii U emulator running, since there's issues with virtualization, but I think you'll be ok with Homeworld 3. On the Mac side, I can run Stage 9 (Star Trek Next Gen simulator in Unreal Engine 4), and that's the most GPU intensive "game" I've found yet on the Mac.

For video exporting, it's really amazing. If I remember right, it's about twice as fast as my 2010 Mac Pro with an RX 580 and PCIe SSD. That mostly comes down to the fact that software running on the old Mac Pro doesn't fully take advantage of thE GPU, whereas it's highly optimized for the M1. Both HandBrake and iMovie on the mini blow away my aging Mac Pro.

I hope this helps.

 

[Daibhidh]

The Mac mini is tough, because it maxes out at 16GB. I actually have one, with 16GB and a 1TB SSD. I bought an external PCIe based USB-C SSD (lots of acronyms lol) so I could keep as much of the internal SSD free as possible (it was cheaper than going for the full 2GB internal dive). Its main function is a living room / family entertainment center. At that function, it's great. I mostly use it to load up moves and TV shows over the network, from my archive RAID attached to my Mac Pro, in the other room. I also stream TV/Movies a lot on it. I do have Parallels, UTM, Dolphin emulation, and some other native games. Overall, the 16GB is a constraint, so I make sure to stick to only one major task at a time, 2 at the most. I try not to leave the browser open if I'm going a lot of other stuff as well. It's a great computer overall, and I think you'll be fine, but I can't imagine this computer will very useful after 5 years, and wish it has 32GB. I'll likely keep it for another 3 years, then either get whatever the current mini is, or get a used Mac Studio, whichever has a better performance value for the money at that time.

I will say that Parallels is very well written. Leave the VMs set to allow Parallels to automatically manage the memory. I tested Windows 11 with the auto setting, and variations of manual memory mapping, and the auto came out of top in performance. The strongest game I ran in Parallels was Injustice: Gods Among Us. It ran as if it was native. I can't get something like a Wii U emulator running, since there's issues with virtualization, but I think you'll be ok with Homeworld 3. On the Mac side, I can run Stage 9 (Star Trek Next Gen simulator in Unreal Engine 4), and that's the most GPU intensive "game" I've found yet on the Mac.

For video exporting, it's really amazing. If I remember right, it's about twice as fast as my 2010 Mac Pro with an RX 580 and PCIe SSD. That mostly comes down to the fact that software running on the old Mac Pro doesn't fully take advantage of thE GPU, whereas it's highly optimized for the M1. Both HandBrake and iMovie on the mini blow away my aging Mac Pro.

I hope this helps.

That’s great of you, thanks. I think I’ll stick to the Mini 16GB for now or either return it if it can’t run games and wait for an announcement re the new Minis in spring. I can use my old MBP in the interim.

Thanks again.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

Unless you're saving next no nothing on your computer, 256GB will run out fast. I see it happen all the time with the machines I manage for work. Also, if you're looking at the M2 MacBook Air, the 256GB model has significantly slower read/write speed. It's just really tough now, with the inability to update anything in modern Macs.

yeah it does go fast . i save a lot of pdf and some pics as well . as i said im fine , but i totally understand that many people wont be . and im also being very careful with what i leave on my storage lol

 

[bwillwall]

The SSDs on these machines are so fast for swap that being a bit short on RAM is not the usability killer it used to be. (Excepting possibly the 256GB SSD on the M2 Air).

People are still saying this? Real world testing has proven this NOT true. Anyone who's owned an 8GB M1 knows the RAM is its biggest bottleneck. Apple did NOT fix this with software or swap.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

People are still saying this? Real world testing has proven this NOT true. Anyone who's owned an 8GB M1 knows the RAM is its biggest bottleneck. Apple did NOT fix this with software or swap.

honestly , the 8gb is genuinely VERY impressive . but people are overexaggerating it that's for sure . 8gb is really not comfortable