16GB is just barely ok for serious software development

[southerndoc]

Stop using Chrome, keep it only for final testing and use a more performance focused chromium variant like Opera GX or MS Edge for the heavy work, you'll save a lot of ram the can be better used. Im doing quite a lot more that you on my base m1 Air and it works fine.

Chrome is using less than 500 MB of memory.

Google: Our Chrome browser is now faster than Safari on macOS

Google says Chrome is now 43% faster on Apple's M1 Macs than it was 17 months ago.

www.zdnet.com

 

[evertjr]

Chrome is using less than 500 MB of memory.

Google: Our Chrome browser is now faster than Safari on macOS

Google says Chrome is now 43% faster on Apple's M1 Macs than it was 17 months ago.

www.zdnet.com

just looking at the screenshot you can see just one chrome gpu process is using more than 1gb and it tends to create several of those. There's also a Helper process using more 500mb and there's probably a lot more. Chrome rarely uses less than 3gb even if just 1 tab is opened.

Also this article is outdated, as of now Safari on macOS 12.4 is the fastest browser on Mac.

 

[southerndoc]

just looking at the screenshot you can see just one chrome gpu process is using more than 1gb and it tends to create several of those. There's also a Helper process using more 500mb and there's probably a lot more. Chrome rarely uses less than 3gb even if just 1 tab is opened.

Also this article is outdated, as of now Safari on macOS 12.4 is the fastest browser on Mac.

More recent article for you:

Google Chrome continues to be the fastest browser on the Mac

Chrome is 20% faster on Apple’s Speedometer compared to just three months ago

www.androidpolice.com

Chrome used to be a memory hog, but not any longer.

 

[jav6454]

More recent article for you:

Google Chrome continues to be the fastest browser on the Mac

Chrome is 20% faster on Apple’s Speedometer compared to just three months ago

www.androidpolice.com

Chrome used to be a memory hog, but not any longer.

Used to?

 

[southerndoc]

Used to?

Correct. I'm as much an Apple fanboy as everyone else here, but Safari doesn't use much less memory than Chrome. Yes, I realize Chrome uses more. At 64GB I'm not even concerned about it. I hate Safari. It doesn't allow profiles (I have a work/personal profile).

 

[evertjr]

More recent article for you:

Google Chrome continues to be the fastest browser on the Mac

Chrome is 20% faster on Apple’s Speedometer compared to just three months ago

www.androidpolice.com

Chrome used to be a memory hog, but not any longer.

what speed have to do with memory usage? Chrome still uses more ram than any other browser while surprisingly having less features. If you like Chrome that's fine, but I prefer not to give all my system resources to a web browser.

Edit: Just did a speedometer test on my M1 Air and Safari scored 323 while the latest chrome scored 317, so I'm not sure about Google claims... maybe it needs 32gb of ram and nothing more running to actually be faster?