Can someone explain RAM in relation to M1?

[Jedimindtrick]

Long time Apple user of all products (currently upgraded to MacBook Pro 16, iMac 5k, iPad Pro w Magic Trackpad). That being said, I don't understand a lot of the super technical stuff mentioned in today's keynote.

In the keynote, my impressions is that they were packing what used to be several separate components into one little chip. Any by doing so, everything will run run more smoothly.

My question is, how does RAM work in these new M1 machines? I personally can't go without 16gb of RAM. But is it engineered differently in these M1 devices, where 8gb will work more efficiently? Similar to how an iPad Pro can fly with only 4 to 6 gb?

Anyone with a better understand of this would be appreciated. I'm interested in the new MacBook Air, but 8gb of RAM is scaring me off a little bit.

Side story: I first learned the importance of RAM about 12 years ago. I had an eMac (remember those?) that was a high school graduation gift from my parents as I went off to college. It had 256 MEGABYTES of RAM. Which at that time, still got the job done. Long story short, after college I was broke, couldn’t afford a new computer. Did some research and learned I could add RAM. I put in 2gb and it was mind blowing to me! It was like a whole new computer! Ever since then, I have a newfound appreciation for having as much ram as I can get for future proofing purposes.

 

[ascender]

Thats one of the questions I and many other have which I expect will get answered over the next few days as the podcasts and reviewers fet their hands on machines, run benchmarks and their usual workflows etc.

 

[Zazoh]

On the Apple site they are calling it “unified memory” default is still 8Gb.

 

[MooffooM]

My GUESS is that RAM will more critical than ever - and RAM is not user upgradeable. For casual usage, 8GB should be perfectly adequate but Rosetta will probably put more pressure on memory until apps are converted. Personally I maxed out the RAM because I process large photo files and do software development. The real answer is: it depends on what work you perform on your system.

 

[ChromeCloud]

My guess is that RAM usage will be the same when comparing Apple Silicon vs Intel.

In my opinion, 8 GB is fine only for really light/casual use. Get the 16GB upgrade if you are going to use the MacBook for more than just browsing the internet / writing documents / watching netflix kind of workflows or if you plan to keep the machine for more than 2-3 years.