Now that the set up will cost at least 1699, we’re only talking a few hundred more for mini and ASD monitor. Will just return this today and rethink the whole thing. I do love the display, but now thinking refurb M2 mini and some kind of monitor.
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8 GB Ram -Will I regret It?
- Thread starter dotzero123
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I bought an 8GB Mac mini (M1) back in 2020. I didn't consider myself a power user, but the general performance of Apple Silicon encouraged me to do more with the device than I'd initially imagined. That's when I realised that my choice of 8GB RAM was a bit short-sighted as I hadn't considered I might want to do more with it than originally intended. That's not even taking into account the fact that memory requirements will naturally change with OS & app updates overtime.
This year, I purchased another Mac mini (M2) and went for 24 GB RAM. Could I have got by with 16 GB RAM? Most certainly - but I felt like I'd made a significant miscalculation with my previous mini, and in a way wanted to overcompensate for that kind of thing happening again.
In short; don't be like me. Base models are great for today, and if your requirements never change, you'll most likely be fine for at least a few years from now. But you never know what you might want or need in the future, so I recommend having a little bit of headroom.
This year, I purchased another Mac mini (M2) and went for 24 GB RAM. Could I have got by with 16 GB RAM? Most certainly - but I felt like I'd made a significant miscalculation with my previous mini, and in a way wanted to overcompensate for that kind of thing happening again.
In short; don't be like me. Base models are great for today, and if your requirements never change, you'll most likely be fine for at least a few years from now. But you never know what you might want or need in the future, so I recommend having a little bit of headroom.
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I was struggling with it and really appreciate everyone's advice. I'll be taking this one back and maybe wait to find a good Black Friday deal with higher ram.
I own and use daily an M1 Air with 8GB RAM & an M1 iMac with 16GB.
I'm not a power user, but I do keep a lot of things open at once on both (60+ tabs across multiple browsers, mail, calendar, photos, news, stocks, spreadsheets, and sometimes Apple TV or Music. Usually open across 10 or so desktops.) and I seldom bother to close things down... Yep I'm that person with a long line of dots in the dock! 😆
I honestly can't tell any difference in performance between the two machines - to the extent I do wonder if I should have saved my money on the extra RAM in my iMac... 🤷♀️
I guess it might be a different story if I used a large app like Photoshop or Lightroom. But I don't, and even with just 8GB my Air somehow manages to juggle everything without ever stuttering or beachballing.
Incidentally my old intel 2015 iMac with its original 8GB RAM was a stuttering mess with the same use, before I upped it to 24GB.
I don't know how they do it - but for my usage at least Apple silicon Macs really do make a little memory go a very long way...
(But I won't argue that more is better!!!! If it's free then I'll take a TB please! 🥰)
I think you will regret it in years 3-5.
For casual users, RAM tends to be the main bottleneck when the computers gets to those last few supported versions of macOS. Everything just seems kind of sluggish, from web-browsing to opening PDF files.
For $200 over 5 years, I would get 16GB of RAM.
That was just an off the cuff comment that someone in Apples PR department made during an interview. That is not something that one of the main Apple executives said and is certainly not something any lf the Apple engineers said.
I think the reason Apple sells with 8GB is because they can advertise a lower base price, knowing that people who want to keep their computer 5 years will pay extra to upgrade. And those who don’t end up getting a whole new computer a few years earlier than if they did upgrade. It is a financial win-win for Apple.
For casual users, RAM tends to be the main bottleneck when the computers gets to those last few supported versions of macOS. Everything just seems kind of sluggish, from web-browsing to opening PDF files.
For $200 over 5 years, I would get 16GB of RAM.
That was just an off the cuff comment that someone in Apples PR department made during an interview. That is not something that one of the main Apple executives said and is certainly not something any lf the Apple engineers said.
I think the reason Apple sells with 8GB is because they can advertise a lower base price, knowing that people who want to keep their computer 5 years will pay extra to upgrade. And those who don’t end up getting a whole new computer a few years earlier than if they did upgrade. It is a financial win-win for Apple.
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By which time... I'll no doubt be lusting after a new M6 or M7 Mac 😍 which will no doubt also come with 8GB base memory! 🤣
..and my pair of M1s will probably be getting close to losing their macOS support and be due an upgrade anyway.
That is what Apple does. Everything is just a few hundred more, so you keep thinking, well I am already upgrading this, might as well upgrade a little more and get that.
If you like the iMac form factor, just get it with 16GB and be done. Of course if your prefer a larger display, absolutely nothing wrong with the mini and any number of displays! It never hurts to have an extra display on hand.
Don’t forget the mini does not cone with a keyboard/mouse, which ads a few hundred more if you need those and want to stick with Apple.
I bet the iPhone, which does not even allow true multitasking, will soon have more RAM than the base Macs. It really is getting to be a bit ridiculous.
But ya, if you upgrade every 2-3 years, it is a different calculus. The OP mentioned keeping it for 5 years, which is reasonable.
Yeah... that's pretty much how my 8GB Air looks most of the time (except I'm not called James!!! 😆), whilst my 16GB iMac sits smugly in the green.
But the thing is - I can't actually detect any difference in their performance 🤷♀️ and no matter how hard I try I've never pushed my 8GB machine into the red. Or caused it to stutter or beachball.
That's exactly what I did recently. I had bought the M2 mini with 8GB of RAM but then realized it might not be future proof and returned it. Now I'm lurking for Black Friday deals to get one with 16GB, just to be on the safe side.
Not an iMac, but I have 8 GB of ram in my M1 MacBook Air. It’s perfect for what I use it for — admin, email, web browsing, listening to music.
Sounds like you’re the exact use case for 8 GB of ram. Don’t let people on these forums make you think you need more than you do. Save your money, buy what you need.
Enjoy your machine
Sounds like you’re the exact use case for 8 GB of ram. Don’t let people on these forums make you think you need more than you do. Save your money, buy what you need.
Enjoy your machine
ha damn! I’ve ruined the illusion of who entropy is!
Yeah I also never notice it slowing down but it does concern me a little with it using that much on basic office apps.
Having used both configurations (disclaimer, my systems are still separated by one SOC generation, M1 vs M2), I can honestly say that this is what I've noticed for "everyday use" types of scenarios. We're talking a browser with 20+ tabs and several other apps open at once.
When the system has nothing running, both systems feel about the same. Things open nearly instantly, and task switching is fast.
Once a ton of stuff is open, the 8GB system starts to feel a tad slower when multitasking, but it's only really noticeable when task switching or when opening new apps. We're talking visiting browser tabs you haven't visited in hours (Google Docs is where I notice this the most), or opening a large new app like Zoom or VSCode. The system might take a second or two longer to open the app than it would have taken if nothing else were open, but that's about it. The system doesn't really feel any slower outside of this (once stuff is running, both systems feel equally responsive).
The 16GB system really doesn't experience the same "slowdowns" once this much stuff is open. It feels pretty much just as snappy no matter how much is running, but again, neither system really slows down during actual use, it's really only when opening new apps (or when task switching to Google Docs) that I notice the difference.
Is it enough to be noticeable? If you multitask a lot, yes. But is the 8GB system insufficient or slow? Not at all. (Even with heavy multitasking and yellow memory pressure, the 8GB Mac runs circles around every Intel Mac I've ever used).
When the system has nothing running, both systems feel about the same. Things open nearly instantly, and task switching is fast.
Once a ton of stuff is open, the 8GB system starts to feel a tad slower when multitasking, but it's only really noticeable when task switching or when opening new apps. We're talking visiting browser tabs you haven't visited in hours (Google Docs is where I notice this the most), or opening a large new app like Zoom or VSCode. The system might take a second or two longer to open the app than it would have taken if nothing else were open, but that's about it. The system doesn't really feel any slower outside of this (once stuff is running, both systems feel equally responsive).
The 16GB system really doesn't experience the same "slowdowns" once this much stuff is open. It feels pretty much just as snappy no matter how much is running, but again, neither system really slows down during actual use, it's really only when opening new apps (or when task switching to Google Docs) that I notice the difference.
Is it enough to be noticeable? If you multitask a lot, yes. But is the 8GB system insufficient or slow? Not at all. (Even with heavy multitasking and yellow memory pressure, the 8GB Mac runs circles around every Intel Mac I've ever used).
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People have been saying this for at least five years, though.
Absolutely depends on what you are using it for. Up until last week I've been on 12 GB on my late 2009 iMac. I can still use InDesign and Affinity apps just fine.
Have only now upgraded to the full 16 GB.
Have only now upgraded to the full 16 GB.
If you are worried upgrade it. Perception is truth these days, I am afraid. Factually, for everyday use it will be fine (I use iStat Menus to monitor memory usage and it seems to use 50% of whatever is there (App, Wired, Compressed, Cache and rarely uses Swap)). With 8GB (I do not have a machine with 8GB but I used a friend's machine to see memory usage data) it seem to use around 75%, but never 'beach balled' for her when using her b browser, email, document editing app etc.
So, unless you do a lot of Lightroom Classic work or movie editing I think it will be fine, but you will always worry. Apple charge a lot for memory and it cannot be upgraded later which is, in my estimation reprehensible, but that is cheaper than having to prematurely upgrade your machine because your use case had changed and now you were running into a lot of memory related issues (beach ball, swap memory, slow response etc.).
So, unless you do a lot of Lightroom Classic work or movie editing I think it will be fine, but you will always worry. Apple charge a lot for memory and it cannot be upgraded later which is, in my estimation reprehensible, but that is cheaper than having to prematurely upgrade your machine because your use case had changed and now you were running into a lot of memory related issues (beach ball, swap memory, slow response etc.).
My m2 mini with 16Gb ram currently shows 8Gb used and 5-6 Gb cached memory. I only have one numbers spreadsheet and one Safari web site open at any one time. I could probably reboot and get memory usage down to 4-6Gb, but it would creep back up in no time. Micro center had 16 Gb minis on sale and in stock so that is what I bought. I also looked at iMacs there and the salesman tried to convince me I only needed 8Gb, but I think they only had 8Gb models in stock. Definitely glad I got 16Gb mini. I don’t appreciate Apple marketing BS that insists most people only need 8Gb.
Thank you all for the sage advice- returned and waiting for Black Friday to see if any good deals pop up. From the bit of looking into it i did, the base model is lacking in ports and cooling functions, and the mid range (1499) has questionable ram - frustrating and having me think a spec’ed out M1 or M2 would be a better investment.
My recommendation was to buy more than 8 GB RAM. But the Mac OS will make 8 GB work even though the lame RAM available will be limiting.
Since you went with 8 GB I recommend that you try to only have one app at a time open and minimize the number of tabs you keep open in browsers. Also be sure to keep your boot SSD no more than 80% full.
Your past purchase of a 8 GB may be working fine for your demands (and you may not care that disk paging is going on) but that does not mean that what worked for a 2021-2023 time frame is exemplary for a 2023-2028+ life cycle of a new box.Not an iMac, but I have 8 GB of ram in my M1 MacBook Air. It’s perfect for what I use it for — admin, email, web browsing, listening to music.
Sounds like you’re the exact use case for 8 GB of ram. Don’t let people on these forums make you think you need more than you do. Save your money, buy what you need.
Enjoy your machine
Buying 8 GB RAM in 2023 is a mistake for all but the lowest end and financially strapped users. Everyone else should buy more than 8 GB.
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I agree, a spec’ed out M1 or M2 would be a better investment if you can find one. I saved ~$1k buying a spec’ed out 2016 MBP in 2017. The challenge is that most "deals" usually have lame amounts of RAM.
Black Friday will probably have some good deals. If not, you can usually get 15% off on the refurbished store as well (I bought my M2 machine refurbished, and it arrived in literally like-new condition, even had a new battery.)