Curious - on your M1 do you have during these graphic intensive use times any info about use of the 'disk' for swapping? I am glad you get great mileage out of 8 gigs. My results are quite different. The only thing I can say is that 8 gigs should be plenty if there was better OS memory management or user options by app for memory allocation.
I’ve looked at Activity Monitor while doing these things, and I’ve never been in the red. As to swapping, I don’t really care if it uses some swapping or not. I don’t think awapping is something to be afraid of. It’s been utilized for over a decade. But usually, at least when I’ve been testing it, I haven’t seen lots of swapping going on. I don’t ever recall seeing the beach ball either. Generally I’ve had plenty of headroom. I’m not obsessive about checking Activity Monitor, I’ve mostly done it for testing purposes. I generally don’t leave a ton of heavier apps open all the time cluttering things up when I don’t need them, so maybe it’s a workflow difference. Like I’ve said often before, I’m not arguing 8GB is enough for everyone, but it is enough for many, and I see no problem with it being the base spec when it’s selling as well as it is. 👍🏻
Thanks for your quick response. Again, glad it works well for you. As some pointed out, many do leave apps open and even a simple browser on a site like his can eat up considerable memory. I would venture to say other than a complete novice, most may have 2-3 apps open that includes browser, messages and email at minimum. I guess what I am trying to say is your keep your system minimized in order to maximize best use of RAM for your key applications while the average person isn't that savvy or mindful. We do know that the next Mini will likely come with 16 gigs of RAM as the base model and perhaps this is a preview of things to come.
You’re welcome. 👍🏻. To clarify, I do often have multiple apps open at once. I just don’t generally run several very intensive processes simultaneously. For example, when I use 3D modeling software, I don’t also have a heavy video editing project running at the same time. I typically use multiple Affinity apps simultaneously, or leave Affinity apps up in the background while using 3D modeling apps and I don’t run into issues. And of course I tend to leave several lighter apps like Mail, Notes, Photos, Safari, etc. open in the background. I use Stage Manager on my Mac, so perhaps that affects things to a degree. But I nearly always have more than 3 apps open. I just don’t generally do multiple “really taxing” processes like windows game emulation and large 3D modeling projects at the same time. 👍🏻
Making blanket assumptions about configuration requirements for buyers who have clearly varying needs is not a smart strategy for either users or manufacturers. The approach taken by Apple allows you to buy the configuration you need / want and allows others to do the same. Its simple and it works. No need to change anything.
It's not about what the customer needs or wants, it's about the OS and programs having enough RAM to even work properly with a little headroom and not thrash the SSD to an early death because the RAM ran out. 16GB in almost 2025 has to be the minimum now, it should have been that even a few years ago let alone now.
No, because 8GB is still more than enough for lots of people. It’s not silly to offer options that bring the base price down lower, sell very well, are more than good enough for lots of people…
You are seriously underestimating SSD technology. I use my 2018 Mac mini with a 256GB SSD everyday and my SSD health is 93% and that's according to DriveDX. On an HP Windows laptop from 2017 SSD my drive health is around 92%. Today's SSD technology can take a beating before they fail. You are more likely to get rid of your device before the SSD fails.
Except that the cost of 8GB v 16GB in the BOM is negligible, and in past years people could upgrade RAM if they needed it. These reasons alone are justifications for providing as much headroom in the base model as possible. Those who claim 8GB is enough probably can't hold their breath for two minutes.
If people need more they can buy more, it’s very simple… 8GB provides plenty of headroom. I run Blender on my 8GB Mac with no issues, as well as many other pro apps and emulated Windows games. And the length of time you can hold your breath has absolutely nothing to do with RAM… Weird “flex”… 🤔
And I have had mechanical hard drives die within a month. And a 2TB Samsung SSD die out within a year. Don’t assume your drive will live long. That leads to data loss. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS back up. If your SSD dies get it serviced.
They can, someone did an SSD endurance test about 9 years ago where a Samsung 840 Pro managed 2.4 Petabytes, modern SSDs should be capable of writing a few Petabytes before dying if they are a decent brand. But even if disk swapping doesn't kill it, it's still a hell of a lot slower than RAM.
Then get the RAM spec that works best for you. It doesn’t hurt you that people like me have a cheaper option that works more than well enough for my professional work…
Photoshop and 4K video editing can be done with 8GB and it does not cause significant memory pressure issues. I have a few clients with this setup and it’s working just fine. The Intel -> M1 jump was what clients saw the most benefit. They even went from 16 to 8 GB RAM and still saw better performance.
Exactly! Several people who do professional work on their computers that I know said the 8GB M1 outperformed their prior gen 16GB Intel Macs. That’s my personal experience as well. I run emulated Windows games on my 8GB M1 Mac. I run Blender. Graphic Design software. And I’ve never had a single snag, and it’s never lagged. I’m sure that some need more RAM, but that’s why higher RAM configurations exist. For many of us, 8GB is more than enough. And the fact the 8GB models sell very well indicates it works well for very many users.
Yep. And this discussion is very tiring. For my use? I can’t use anything less than 128GB of RAM. Does that mean I should go around and saying 8GB cannot be used? No. My uses are different. Many people can use 8GB just fine. So I do not understand the constant complaints. We all want stuff cheaper, that should be a given. I would love if Mac’s had 128GB as the base, it would save a lot of money!
Agreed! The YouTube clickbaiters need an artificial scandal to rile people up every Mac release cycle, so they keep coming back to this and making an artificial “scandal” out of it. It’s very dumb. Of course the base spec isn’t good enough for everyone, and even if they upped the spec to 16GB or 12, you’d just have the 24-32GB crowd complaining that wasn’t good enough, and on and on and on… 🤦🏼♂️
Ah and that is why only the iPhone 15 Pro (with 8GB) can run AI, and the iPhone 15 6GB cannot. So last year’s iPhone cannot run AI, the major feature of iOS18, because of lack of ram (on a phone OS!). Lets see what happens when AI hits Mac OS sequoia with those 8GB Macs…And do not compare intel to m1: of course this great piece of technology runs circles around and older Intel. But it could have been much better. I will just laugh my ass off when the 8GB Macs will grind to a halt when the next Mac OS hits.
I don’t care one bit about AI. If you do you can get more RAM. Just like what I do I can’t use even 64GB of RAM.
Ah, so you knew about all the AI hype in 2021? Should have bought some stocks then. So now you are stuck with a non upgradeable laptop, not able to run AI (or very slow). This harkens back to the future proofing, especially if you cannot upgrade the ram later on.
There is a catch - you likely don't get a choice on what is included with the OS. As such, it will take up more RAM than perhaps the tasks you normally use. This is true for the phone and computer.
