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.
Benchmarks: Macbook Pro M1 8 GB vs Macbook Pro M1 16 GB
- Thread starter hasanahmad
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Been telling people what happens when you run out of RAM and start using the swap. Common knowledge in the 90s and still applies.
Hi guys!
After watching some Memory comparisons on YouTube, I should point out some issues that not a lot of people have mentioned before.
Here is a video that I try to understand:
credit to Shawn Walters
At 11:50, you can see he brought up the activity monitors on both machines (16GB on the left and 8GB on the right). They were doing the same test as described by the video but I could see that he didn't max out the Memory Usage on both (taking note that they both running the same applications).
Below are the stats:
16GB: Physical Memory - 16GB | Memory Used - 12.xxGB | Cached Files - 3.3xGB | Swap Used - 2.44GB
*8GB: Physical Memory - *8GB | Memory Used - *6.90GB | Cached Files - 1.05GB | Swap Used - 3.x3GB
So from what I have seen so far, the 16GB's benefits are:
1. You get space of the remaining memory to be able to do more stuff
2. You can store more cached files (?)
3. You use less swap memory (?)
And keep in mind that he didn't max out the memory usage on both machines. So what if he maxed them out?
+The 8GB will use more swap memory (?), reduce the usage of cached files (?)
Link: credit to Rod Herzstrom (at 2:45)
+The 16GB will use the remaining memory until it's full then do the same method as the 8GB would do (?)
After all of those, I can conclude that if you are not pushing the 8GB too hard like 8K editing that Max Tech conducted or any heavy memory usage tasks, and not until you max out the memory usage, 16GB won't benefit you that much.
Another thing I should also bring out is that for people that concern about swap memory usage may damage the SSD, as long as you won't go over the limit, both the 8GB and 16GB will still use the swap memory (maybe less on the 16GB as you can see above - like ~1GB (?), but up until now there is no clear comparison to point that out). So what I want to see is both 8GB and 16GB on idle and their swap memory usage. And if there are no differences, the claim saying the 16GB is more beneficial in terms of saving your SSDs is not really reasonable.
Side note: According to the comparison from Max Tech above, I also see that for some reasons when they exported the 8K raw files, the 8GB didn't max out its graphic usage, and as seen from the test (at 14:37), it didn't use the swap memory to max out the graphic (?). So are there any limitations or algorithms from Apple that prevent that to happen? I'm so excited to explore new stuff if anyone would explain it to me and all of us.
After watching some Memory comparisons on YouTube, I should point out some issues that not a lot of people have mentioned before.
Here is a video that I try to understand:
credit to Shawn Walters
At 11:50, you can see he brought up the activity monitors on both machines (16GB on the left and 8GB on the right). They were doing the same test as described by the video but I could see that he didn't max out the Memory Usage on both (taking note that they both running the same applications).
Below are the stats:
16GB: Physical Memory - 16GB | Memory Used - 12.xxGB | Cached Files - 3.3xGB | Swap Used - 2.44GB
*8GB: Physical Memory - *8GB | Memory Used - *6.90GB | Cached Files - 1.05GB | Swap Used - 3.x3GB
So from what I have seen so far, the 16GB's benefits are:
1. You get space of the remaining memory to be able to do more stuff
2. You can store more cached files (?)
3. You use less swap memory (?)
And keep in mind that he didn't max out the memory usage on both machines. So what if he maxed them out?
+The 8GB will use more swap memory (?), reduce the usage of cached files (?)
Link: credit to Rod Herzstrom (at 2:45)
+The 16GB will use the remaining memory until it's full then do the same method as the 8GB would do (?)
After all of those, I can conclude that if you are not pushing the 8GB too hard like 8K editing that Max Tech conducted or any heavy memory usage tasks, and not until you max out the memory usage, 16GB won't benefit you that much.
Another thing I should also bring out is that for people that concern about swap memory usage may damage the SSD, as long as you won't go over the limit, both the 8GB and 16GB will still use the swap memory (maybe less on the 16GB as you can see above - like ~1GB (?), but up until now there is no clear comparison to point that out). So what I want to see is both 8GB and 16GB on idle and their swap memory usage. And if there are no differences, the claim saying the 16GB is more beneficial in terms of saving your SSDs is not really reasonable.
Side note: According to the comparison from Max Tech above, I also see that for some reasons when they exported the 8K raw files, the 8GB didn't max out its graphic usage, and as seen from the test (at 14:37), it didn't use the swap memory to max out the graphic (?). So are there any limitations or algorithms from Apple that prevent that to happen? I'm so excited to explore new stuff if anyone would explain it to me and all of us.
Last edited:
I know there are always noobs who need to know the obvious but it’s nearly 2021 and I hope we don’t need multiyear long discussions, fat paragraphs and videos just to explain how people should get as much memory as their use requires.
This is what I have been explaining for a week. Avoid swap files as much as possible if you want performance and longevity.
Last edited:
That's true. But I'm also waiting for swap memory usage comparison on both 16GB and 8GB to see if they both use them or not at both idle stage and heavy using stage.
you only tap swap with frequency and consequence if you are a power user who used to max out his previous macbook pro with 32 gb ram using 8 GB macbook air M1
When we say “reduce the longevity of the SSD”, how long are we talking? Like if you frequently tap into swap, does it go from like 6 years to 3 or what is the estimate?
If you watch the latest video from Max Tech, you will see that both 8GB and 16GB were using swap memory. They also stated that it wouldn't affect much on the longevity of the SSD.