That's what I've been doing, paying for a computer that the price for upgrading doesn't feels like a robbery.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
8GB RAM in M3 MacBook Pro Proves the Bottleneck in Real-World Tests
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Exactly: I bought a pristine refurbished M1Pro 16/1TB for 200 euro less at a highly reputable non-Apple shop with 3y warranty than a base M3 8/512 would cost me. In contrast to some people here, I actually multitask and 16 is really the minimum (and during use I found out I prefer two external monitors…). Checking my activity monitor I am pretty sure I will hit the 16Gb limit before I hit the M1pro CPU limits tbh…
Last edited:
But “most people” don’t need 32, and likely won’t in five years either. 8 is on the too little side, but bringing up 32 in this context is silly.
I recently realised that 2024 Apple has achieved the previously unattainable goal of not making a single MacBook I could gladly buy and not feel buyer's remorse. The Air is incapable of displaying black, the 14" Pro is too small, the 16" Pro is too heavy, the non-Pro Pro has too little RAM, the Pro Pro comes in the wrong color, and every single one of them has a comedy notch cut into the display.
This conundrum of mine could be adequately settled in one board meeting by a) gracing the non-Pro Pro with an adequate amount of RAM, or b) selling the Pro Pro in Space Gray. But neither of these things are likely to happen any time soon because Apple, so their price-gouging shenanigans and underhanded chicanery have cost them at least one long term MacBook customer for an indeterminate period of time
Apparently it isn’t obsolete in 2024 since so many people are buying 8GB RAM coputers. Just because you don’t like it, or you don’t think it’s enough doesn’t mean it’s obsolete. Besides, your computer isn’t a Mac, and isn’t an M-Series Mac, so you don’t really know how they perform…
It’s $200 cheaper than the 18GB M3 Pro model. And I’m pretty sure they all offer all of the same color options.
A. Nobody said you had to either put up or shut up. That is untrue.
B. The price point does reflect the hardware. You have unrivaled battery runtime, high performance, high display quality, high sound system quality, high build quality. All of those are part of the pricing as well, not just one spec.
C. You don’t know if that would be the result of the changes you’re arguing for or not. How do you know it wouldn’t be “a self-destructive path of making their machines unprofitable”? You have no hard data on the costs involved in the production of these Macs, what profit margin Apple makes on them, what level of profit margin Apple needs to make on them, or anything else for that matter. You’re arguing for things that you have no idea how they could potentially impact Apple’s profitability or not. You keep making assertions as if they were facts when they’re really nothing other than your opinion.
I can find plenty of posts in this thread with a "if you don't like it, don't buy a Mac" vibe.
Vibe? So in other words, nobody said what he claimed people said, but you’re going to read in “vibes” instead? Many people, including myself, have pointed out that if you don’t like the pricing or specs, nobody is forcing anyone to buy it. That’s a fact. If I went into a Windows forum to spend pages complaining about forced automatic updates on Windows, I’m sure some people would suggest that maybe I should consider some other alternatives like macOS or Linux that would suit me better. There’s nothing wrong with people suggesting that you can look at alternative options such as sticking to/buying an older Mac, getting a prior gen Mac such as an M2 Mac as a cheaper alternative, or buying a Windows PC. And that isn’t the same as telling someone to “put up or shut up”. Most of the ad-hominems dished out in this debate have been on the “8GB isn’t enough side” and that’s the side telling base spec customers what they need or don’t. I don’t presume to know what anyone other than me needs out of their computer, so I am for more options, including the 8GB RAM option that I prefer.
Exactly, I'm not "most people", my minimum RAM for my main PC is now 64GB.
With 16GB it’s the same price as the M3 Pro. I need 16GB. I don’t want Space Black, so I’m snookered. If 8GB is plenty for you then that’s great. For you. I speak only for myself 👍
My main computer has 64GB (using about 36GB - 40GB), so no way 8 GB will be more than enough for me. Apple keeps selling 8/256 but what a coincidence that ebay is flooded with those macs, and is hard to find macs with 16/512.
I think you guys need to clarify where your prices are coming from e.g., Apple versus Authorized Reseller, U.S. versus a different country, etc.
In the U.S., the Apple retail price for an M3 MBP with 16GB RAM is $1,799. The M3 Pro MBP with 18GB RAM is $1,999 or $200 more. Some Apple Authorized resellers have different pricing but I am not aware of any in the U.S. selling these two devices for the same price.
The M3 MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM is $200 cheaper than the M3 Pro MacBook Pro with 18GB of RAM. I literally just looked at it on Apple’s website.
I already stated that in my territory the M3 Pro is handsomely discounted whereas the BTO M3 is not. We can have a discussion about the merits or pitfalls of that, but it won’t alter the fact that there isn’t a purchase pathway for me that doesn’t involve friction. Honestly if the M3 Pro was available in Space Gray I’d probably already have bought one 👍
Please reread the comments you are responding to.
But look at all those "choices" you have!
/s
Tim loves this!
None of the choices are really that great, but he's flooded the market with endless compromised "choices"
...and they wonder why Mac sales have tanked
Is the pricing for those models on Apple’s website the same in your region, or only some third party retailer? If a third party retailer is selling them both for the same price, then that’s on them, not Apple. But if they are both the same price, you might as well get the M3 Pro chip, and pick a different color. At least that’s what I would do. Space Black isn’t that wildly different from Space Gray.
Last edited:
And nobody said you had to buy a Mac, a Mac with 8GB RAM, or a Mac base-spec model. You’ve already made it pretty clear you’re not really interested in buying a Mac and that you’re a fan of Windows PCs, so why should we assume that your idea of what the best spec for base-spec Mac users should be is accurate? It would be like me going to Windows PC fan forums to tell base-spec Dell users that they need higher resolution displays on their laptops, because base-spec MacBooks ship with higher than 1080P. But 1080P is more than enough and great for plenty of use cases, just like 8GB of RAM is for many base-spec Mac users.
And eBay isn’t “flooded” with 8GB models. I’ve seen plenty of 16GB models as well. It’s just the lower price listings tend to be prioritized. Besides, even if we assumed your premise, we could infer with equal validity that that was due to them being more popular and selling more in the first place…
Never mind. I can’t make it any clearer than I already have. If you’re just going to defend your position at all costs then there’s little point in continuing the exchange of comment 👍
I’m trying to understand whether you’re looking at a third party vendor’s pricing (I think that’s what you’re talking about), or Apple’s direct pricing. Like, in your country, does Apple themselves charge the same for both, or is it third party vendors charging the same for both, or is it both charging the same for both? I live in the US, and I’ve never seen any vendor charging the same for both of those models. That doesn’t mean that that’s not the case in your country, but I’m trying to ask questions to better understand your position and situation. I literally didn’t say anything about your position being wrong, I asked a couple of questions…
Yes, but it seemed clear with the back and forth that you guys weren't on the same page.