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

[Shazaam!]

This what 32GB of memory usage looks like on a M1Max. Note that if you only had 16GB there would be no headroom.

 

[Cham2000]

This what 32GB of memory usage looks like on a M1Max. Note that if you only had 16GB there would be no headroom.

Why is your memory in the red zone? What were you doing with your computer?

 

[Shazaam!]

Why is your memory in the red zone? What were you doing with your computer?

 

[Cham2000]

Could you explain a bit your pictures? What were you doing?

 

[dmccloud]

8gb was the standard NINE YEARS AGO on MacBook Pros back in 2014. The fact that 16gb isn't the bare minimum today is a joke. 32gb is optimal even though you don't NEED it today; you may in the future and it sure as hell will help trying to sell it once you need to upgrade.

If you get yourself a relatively premium laptop today it should last you close to 10 years; I say that because the MacBook Pros from 2013 are still more than capable for almost everything.

8GB is still the standard on Windows-based laptops today (go into any Best Buy, Staples, Office Depot, etc. and compare the number of machines with 8GB to those with 16GB or more), and Chromebooks often will run with just 4GB of RAM. The vast majority of users won't max out 16GB, let alone even need to look at 32GB as an option.

 

[dmccloud]

Why is your memory in the red zone? What were you doing with your computer?

The memory is not in the red zone, the red in that case is the active memory (which is less than half of the total system memory). The first thing I noticed when looking at the full screenshot was that there was 17GB of free RAM, so that is an example of roughly 50% utilization. Also, the bulk of the system resources seem to be used by Safari, so it's hard to say what the overall workload was at the time the screenshot was taken.