16GB or 32GB for multitasking? Not for video productions...

[Cham2000]

So web browsing and playing music in the background is "Heavy Multitasking" ok gotcha.

No, I haven't left the thread, contrary to some here believe. I have read everything. You're grossly oversimplifying things here. I already described my "heavy multitasking", and it's not just what you described.

After reading all the comments, I've come to the conclusion that I do need that 32GB. 16GB will not be enough for what I do. So the original question was usefull, especially since it gave 6 pages of comments!

 

[1BadManVan]

No, I haven't left the thread, contrary to some here believe. I have read everything. You're grossly oversimplifying things here. I already described my "heavy multitasking", and it's not just what you described.

After reading all the comments, I've come to the conclusion that I do need that 32GB. 16GB will not be enough for what I do. So the original question was usefull, especially since it gave 6 pages of comments!

I still think it’s overkill but atleast you’ll never wonder if you got enough. Goodluck with the new machine

 

[dandeco]

People should learn to kill apps (and tabs) they don't presently use in a work flow or stop complaining about the price of RAM.

Yep, usually when I notice I have too many tabs open in Chrome I'll close down the pages I already looked at. In fact, I just did it right now! (Of course I also make sure I do it before any heavy audio or video editing.)

 

[ChrisA]

"Multi-tasking" does not mean you have a bunch of closed apps that are doing noting. It means you have many aps that are all active at the same time.

For example, I have a CAD program doing a render in a closed window and the cooling fan is on and loud and now I want to work on the design of another part while the render is ongoing.

Apps that are inactive, like a word processor in a background window don't do anything and you don't have to care if their memory gets swapped out.


Same for video editing, many times yo might be processing input fro an SD card but also doing work on already imported shots.

 

[Bcn]

I am reading about people having many many tabs open. I don’t really get it. I have 5-10 open, but if there are many more, how can you read, what’s on the tab?

 

[bobcomer]

I am reading about people having many many tabs open. I don’t really get it. I have 5-10 open, but if there are many more, how can you read, what’s on the tab?

The icon is enough, add a letter or three and it's very easy to see which tab is what story. I normally have about 15 tabs, but if I'm doing a news run, I may end up with a LOT more than that, but then I just read and close one at a time.

 

[Cham2000]

The icon is enough, add a letter or three and it's very easy to see which tab is what story. I normally have about 15 tabs, but if I'm doing a news run, I may end up with a LOT more than that, but then I just read and close one at a time.

This is also typically what I'm doing with my browsers. But since I frequently consult several web sites at the same time (YouTube videos, for example), I may end with 50 tabs open.

 

[dgdosen]

One thing is for sure - I can guarantee cumulative delays incurred over the lifetime of any computer with 16gb compared to 32gb are far less than the time spent by any of us watching this thread (myself included)...

 

[orionquest]

No, I haven't left the thread, contrary to some here believe. I have read everything. You're grossly oversimplifying things here. I already described my "heavy multitasking", and it's not just what you described.

I'm not the one oversimplifing it.

I rarely see discussions about "heavy multitasking", i.e using many "ordinary apps" at the same time, frequently switching between apps, and doing a lot of web browsing with multi-tabs open while listening to music.

You are, there is nothing heavy or mutltasking in anything you describe here.

I currently have mail, calendar, firefox, notes, stickies, a desktop clock running on my mac as I type this. In your world this would be heavy multitasking. Nothing complicated here, where are the multiple tasks? What is heavy about it, are there some demads on the cpu? Mine's currently sitting at 5% utilization - Super Heavy!!

In my workflow I often queue up a batch of video encodes, then edit photos and browse the web AT THE SAME TIME, multiple tasks running at once! And here's the kicker... wait for it, I'm using a 8 year old haswell. Somehow I get by.

Thanks for playing!

 

[DisraeliGears]

In my workflow I often queue up a batch of video encodes, then edit photos and browse the web AT THE SAME TIME, multiple tasks running at once! And here's the kicker... wait for it, I'm using a 8 year old haswell. Somehow I get by.

I mean, the only reason you're getting by is the 256GB RAM upgrade you paid $2000 for right?

RIGHT?

HELP ME JUSTIFY GIVING APPLE $5000

 

[leman]

Jus to put things in perspective. I currently have two browsers open (Safari and Chrome) with over 100 tabs in total, three VScode windows with separate projects and ~20 open files, five Sublime Text windows with ~30 open files, two running Node.js servers, two running R interpreters (R and RStudio), Apple Numbers with three open excel sheets, Keynote with two lecture notes, a terminal with 10 tabs, as well as a bunch of other crap (Music, Mail, Notes etc.). I think this qualifies as "heavy multitasking".

vm_stat tells me that I have currently 858793 active and 183057 wired memory pages. With 16KB page that's roughly 16GB RAM that is actually being used by the machine and is critical to operating all the software I have open. My work issued laptop has 32GB RAM (and Activity Monitor says 26GB are used), but looking at the low level statistics I am fairly sure I would have been fine with 16GB as well (plus some swapping).

 

[Bodhitree]

I am reading about people having many many tabs open. I don’t really get it. I have 5-10 open, but if there are many more, how can you read, what’s on the tab?

I find it a mystery why people would want to have that many tabs open. I have about 8 open tabs usually, mostly for websites i have to log in to. The other tabs i just recycle. A tab is not a bookmark, and you’re not going to be switching between a hundred different websites.

 

[Falhófnir]

16 is surely plenty for what you've described? I can see why you might struggle with 8 at this point, but I don't think you'd come close to stressing 16. I know Chrome can be a bit of a RAM hog, but the system does manage it pretty well. I'm also pretty sure it does cache tabs you've had open and not used for a good while, even if you still have plenty of unused RAM (at least that's what my MBP seems to do).

 

[Think77]

I find it a mystery why people would want to have that many tabs open. I have about 8 open tabs usually, mostly for websites i have to log in to. The other tabs i just recycle. A tab is not a bookmark, and you’re not going to be switching between a hundred different websites.

During web development, I easily have 8-10 tabs open in the same browser just for one project. Add to that a number of tabs in 2-3 other browsers to cross check functionality/compatibility, again just for that one project.

 

[JouniS]

vm_stat tells me that I have currently 858793 active and 183057 wired memory pages. With 16KB page that's roughly 16GB RAM that is actually being used by the machine and is critical to operating all the software I have open. My work issued laptop has 32GB RAM (and Activity Monitor says 26GB are used), but looking at the low level statistics I am fairly sure I would have been fine with 16GB as well (plus some swapping).

For usage like that, 32 GB is definitely what one should buy today. You don't buy a laptop only for your current needs but also for your future needs. Memory requirements keep increasing over time. The the laptop you buy today should have enough RAM to keep the user experience good until 2028, or whenever you expect to replace it.

 

[orionquest]

Jus to put things in perspective. I currently have two browsers open (Safari and Chrome) with over 100 tabs in total, three VScode windows with separate projects and ~20 open files, five Sublime Text windows with ~30 open files, two running Node.js servers, two running R interpreters (R and RStudio), Apple Numbers with three open excel sheets, Keynote with two lecture notes, a terminal with 10 tabs, as well as a bunch of other crap (Music, Mail, Notes etc.). I think this qualifies as "heavy multitasking".

vm_stat tells me that I have currently 858793 active and 183057 wired memory pages. With 16KB page that's roughly 16GB RAM that is actually being used by the machine and is critical to operating all the software I have open. My work issued laptop has 32GB RAM (and Activity Monitor says 26GB are used), but looking at the low level statistics I am fairly sure I would have been fine with 16GB as well (plus some swapping).

Curious why you would need 100 tabs? I think that would be a little unmanageable. I've dabbled with Panda's and was interested in Rstudio but never have I needed to have 100 tabs open. I can't even see my self with 20 tabs open. There just isn't a use case at my end, even say with multiple browsers.

 

[leman]

For usage like that, 32 GB is definitely what one should buy today. You don't buy a laptop only for your current needs but also for your future needs. Memory requirements keep increasing over time. The the laptop you buy today should have enough RAM to keep the user experience good until 2028, or whenever you expect to replace it.

To be honest, I never much understood this argument. Of course, software (and sometimes professional/personal) needs grow over time. But they grow relatively slowly. I mean, I've been using 16GB professionally since at least 2014, and I was doing just fine. The only reason why I have 32GB on my current laptop is because a) M1 Max doesn't come with less RAM and b) I didn't pay for it.

By this logic I should buy a truck instead of a compact car, because my future needs might see me transporting several sacks of potatoes. I just don't get this.

Curious why you would need 100 tabs? I think that would be a little unmanageable. I've dabbled with Panda's and was interested in Rstudio but never have I needed to have 100 tabs open. I can't even see my self with 20 tabs open. There just isn't a use case at my end, even say with multiple browsers.

I often work with dozens of sources and references at once. It's more convenient for me to keep a tab open should I need this information during my work day than to close or bookmark it and then spend time looking it up again. I mean, just writing an average post on MR often takes 20 or more browser tabs to me because I am looking up facts, papers, references, and discussions on the topic.

 

[satcomer]

Well no videos tells me you want to be a DJ or audio guy, so your assumption is we are all video guys is very young indeed and seem to fighting the old Mac PC war!

 

[Lee_Bo]

I’m using a 2019 Intel MacBook Pro with 16 gigs and I multitask between several photo apps (Adobe suite) with no problems.

 

[MrGunny94]

If you are a VM guy or someone who has a crazy amount of apps open you will benefit from the 32GB.

Here's my current workflow looks like without any local Virtual Machine:

(For those wondering yes I need Safari for personal stuff and Firefox/Edge for work stuff so I can do some testing and have different profiles for each type of account)

If I do put any VM in the mix it will get crazy.

 

[JouniS]

To be honest, I never much understood this argument. Of course, software (and sometimes professional/personal) needs grow over time. But they grow relatively slowly. I mean, I've been using 16GB professionally since at least 2014, and I was doing just fine. The only reason why I have 32GB on my current laptop is because a) M1 Max doesn't come with less RAM and b) I didn't pay for it.

If 16 GB is already starting to get a bit tight, the chances are even slow growth is going to make 16 GB insufficient for similar use by 2028. If you want to buy a good computer, you have to buy based on your expected future needs rather than your current needs.

 

[leman]

If 16 GB is already starting to get a bit tight, the chances are even slow growth is going to make 16 GB insufficient for similar use by 2028. If you want to buy a good computer, you have to buy based on your expected future needs rather than your current needs.

I am not going to use my current machine until 2028. I upgrade every 3 years on average.

 

[Cham2000]

T

I am not going to use my current machine until 2028. I upgrade every 3 years on average.

Wow, you have a lot of money to trash! Buying a new comp each 3 years or so is a lot of wasted money!

 

[Jack Neill]

My first M1 Air was 8GB and it works perfectly for my normal workflow, but I wanted to run W11 in Parallels so I grabbed a 16GB M1 Air and the added 8GB is perfect for what I needed. I am happy with 16 for now.

 

[Electrojake]

Wow! We're over 150 posts already all because the OP was looking for a little motivation to spend the extra money on his new Mac and go with 32Gb Ram rather than the typical 16.

I'd be more worried about the sketchy text/graphics scaling issues with the new Mac silicon than any Ram problems. M1/M2 Ram handling is outstanding, but scaling to an external monitor... not so much.