glad I splurged on the extra memory

[alanvitek]

Photoshop is a hog.

Recently was debating whether or not I should have gotten 64gb on my M1 Max. Doing some print work tonight and I feel somewhat validated now haha

 

[chabig]

If you're happy, we're happy for you.

 

[alanvitek]

If you're happy, we're happy for you.

Oh I am happy! I have a decently hefty workflow for the stuff I do, but I don't always literally max it out.

The situation actually made me consider whether it's more cost effective in the long run to buy a middle of the road laptop every 3-5 years, or to buy something higher spec'd every 5-7 years.

I think a lot of that depends on how much AS improves with each iteration.

I'd be curious if Apple offers a MacBook subscription plan with upgrades every X years.

 

[chabig]

Personally, I go for the low to mid spec machine every 3-5 years. It's just a preference. I think you'll want to upgrade your 64GB machine before 7 years, not because of memory but because of advances in other areas like CPUs and GPUs. But for now you have a kick ass machine. 😀

P.S. The thing with software is that if you give it lots of memory, it'll use more of it. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't run with less. I think Photoshop would run just as well with 32GB and maybe even 16GB. But if you're happy, I'm happy for you.

 

[alanvitek]

@chabig Thanks! Yea I'm probably going to do that the next time around. These machines are just so good. Last computer was a 2014 MBP and the difference night/day

 

[chabig]

Oh yeah. Big difference. The funny part is that you are initially keenly aware of the newfound speed but it so quickly becomes just normal.

 

[jav6454]

Photoshop is a hog.

Recently was debating whether or not I should have gotten 64gb on my M1 Max. Doing some print work tonight and I feel somewhat validated now haha

View attachment 2040691

It's situations as these as to why I always recommend and advise to anyone getting a MacBook (Air/Pro/non-Pro) to always get the highest amount of memory their budget allows.

Not saying people will hit high memory demands always, but it's nice to have breathing room without the entire system slowing down and having enough longevity.

 

[cupcakes2000]

P.S. The thing with software is that if you give it lots of memory, it'll use more of it. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't run with less. I think Photoshop would run just as well with 32GB and maybe even 16GB. But if you're happy, I'm happy for you.

Photoshop does run fairly well with even 16gb - but it’s laggy and slow with complex operations. I have 32gb and it’s not really ‘enough’ - even though it works. 64gb would be better.

 

[MajorFubar]

Seems you did the right thing in buying a machine that fully suits your current needs.
And that's great.

However, on the subject of future-proofing: be aware that it is a myth.

I bought a fully-loaded 27" TOTR iMac in 2011 with literally all the toys, thinking it would last me til I was old and grey.
(Even its 16GB of RAM seemed pretty insane back then, upgrading from a 2GB HP laptop running Win7.)
What really happened is by 2013 it was already obsolete in ways I couldn't have foreseen in 2011, because those ways didn't exist, and I would have been better off spending much less money on a machine that met my requirements for a couple of years then change it again in 2013/2014. But I'd spent far too much money on the 2011 machine to take the financial hit of changing it so soon.

Big lesson learned, the hard way.

Buy what you need now, and do not over-spend or over-spec just to 'future-proof', because in the IT world the term just does not exist.

 

[TechRunner]

Personally, I go for the low to mid spec machine every 3-5 years.

Same. But with a light workload (mostly writing and light photo editing), I can get away with it easier than some.

 

[stevemiller]

working in heavy 3d scenes makes me wish i'd gotten the 64gb. its a great machine, just my workloads could definitely take advantage of any additional resources.

 

[wonderings]

I make my living with Adobe Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. While computers have gotten better and better, the software itself has not drastically changed all that much that an "older" computer can't handle it. My main workhorse is a 2014 5K iMac, top end model, maxed out when I bought it. Still runs like a champ using latest Adobe CC apps. I have a 14" M1 Max as well, runs great, obviously faster in certain situations, but not in every situation. If it is strictly for Adobe apps, I am not sure how much you will actually gain if you upgraded every 3 to 5 years.

 

[mr_bam]

I remember when Photoshop 2.5.1 was the bees knees and my Mac II had 5MB of RAM. I was 8-10 then.

30 years later I have the 16 inch M1 Max with 64GB RAM. It's a total beast when it comes to loading big projects. I still haven't heard the fans on it.

Doubt I'll keep mine 7 years - the march of Apple Silicon will be too much, especially on the GPU side. I usually try for 3 years but it ends up being 2 and something.

RAM requirements have really gotten out of control though. I was out of 32GB every day with the i9 MBP.

I was watching a comparison of the i7 MBA 2012 with 8GB/256GB vs the M2 MBA 8GB/256GB. 10 years difference. It's astonishing the base spec hasn't gone up in all that time.

I also had (still have) the 2012 i7 MBA maxed out here. It was one of my favourite machines, I did a lot of work on that. Just one thing let it down... colour correction on the screen was terrible for an Apple screen.

Reminds me I need to get selling my i9 MBP 2019 32GB and i7 MBP 2017 16GB. Opened them both up to clear some stuff out and both were full fan noisy beasts within minutes of doing simple tasks. Apple Silicon is really something else compared.

Sorry that was a bit random.

 

[phillytim]

The key item to watch is "Memory Pressure" in your Mac's Activity Monitor.

Green is optimal, yellow-red is the danger zone.

 

[SpotOnT]

Personally, I go for the low to mid spec machine every 3-5 years. It's just a preference. I think you'll want to upgrade your 64GB machine before 7 years, not because of memory but because of advances in other areas like CPUs and GPUs. But for now you have a kick ass machine. 😀

That can always go the other way with Apple too. I was so glad I had a high spec MacBook Pro that helped me weather the storm of turds that was the Butterfly Keyboard/Touch Bar era of MacBooks 😄

I am sure people who hated the 2013 Mac Pro were glad if they had a good 2012 Mac Pro to tide them over until 2019 too.

Anyway, right now I am just happy that Apple is making Macs that work for my needs!

 

[dtm84]

My old MBP lasted a decade because it had a great SSD and lots of memory. Did the same with the new M1 max MBP with 64gb. No regrets.

 

[alanvitek]

working in heavy 3d scenes makes me wish i'd gotten the 64gb. its a great machine, just my workloads could definitely take advantage of any additional resources.

I do some 3D work too - some rendering stuff, but mostly modeling/rigging for my indie game dev hobby. I did a comparison render on a scene between my old MBP and the new one: old one took 4mins, new one took 23 seconds haha.

Excited to see how Apple's involvement with the Blender foundation will go - hoping for some awesome updates the next few years

 

[alanvitek]

Seems you did the right thing in buying a machine that fully suits your current needs.
And that's great.

However, on the subject of future-proofing: be aware that it is a myth.

I bought a fully-loaded 27" TOTR iMac in 2011 with literally all the toys, thinking it would last me til I was old and grey.
(Even its 16GB of RAM seemed pretty insane back then, upgrading from a 2GB HP laptop running Win7.)
What really happened is by 2013 it was already obsolete in ways I couldn't have foreseen in 2011, because those ways didn't exist, and I would have been better off spending much less money on a machine that met my requirements for a couple of years then change it again in 2013/2014. But I'd spent far too much money on the 2011 machine to take the financial hit of changing it so soon.

Big lesson learned, the hard way.

Buy what you need now, and do not over-spend or over-spec just to 'future-proof', because in the IT world the term just does not exist.

Looking at some of the other responses too, I think this is a more practical mindset moving forward. It's definitely fun to be one of those day 1 maxed out purchases though haha!

 

[generationfourth]

I went he opposite direction and I’m happy.

The last time I went all out and bought a future proof machine was Feb 2020 when I bought a i9 16” MBP, 32gb ram, 5500m 8gb. Man that one really bit me in the ass hard. All that extra power made it hot/loud and chewed through the battery. Though I did like 32gb of ram for adobe stuff and would use it all. I have used 16gb ram in the past and hit the limitations.

When my employer gave me a 14” M1 pro base model I was pretty disappointed in the 16gb ram spec but a free machine is a free machine. Examining activity monitor on an average day I am in the yellow a lot. BUT I do not notice any slowdown or any hiccups. That is the difference with silicon for me. Closing out activity monitor or using iStat (where they don’t use the color yellow) I wouldn’t know that I was in the danger zone and there is no perceivable difference under a heavy workload. The difference of how snappy and smooth Adobe feels on the M1 is night and day.

I’m not a bench marker and don’t ascribe to the “16 is the new 32gb” but there’s a maxtech YT video where they overload both 8gb and 16gb air/mbp (can’t remember each one) which mirrors my experience.

My very amateur take away is buy the extra ram/cores if you are depending on rendering time otherwise you can get away with a lot less now. For me personally I’m back to buying base models every few years with a HD size bump.

Reminds me I need to get selling my i9 MBP 2019 32GB and i7 MBP 2017 16GB. Opened them both up to clear some stuff out and both were full fan noisy beasts within minutes of doing simple tasks. Apple Silicon is really something else compared.

I thought I’d keep my same exact i9 but after I had a taste of M1 pro I experienced the same thing: opened it up and after a few minutes of basic tasks and noticing the heat fan & fan noise I decided to just sell it. Boxed it up and sent it out yesterday to Gadget Gone.

 

[Mr. Dee]

I wasn't planning on doing things like virtualization, which is why I stuck with the 8GBs of RAM. But I would like to potentially be able to virtualize operating systems like macOS and even Windows in the future. So, maybe by the time I am ready to upgrade the solutions I really need to do that will be more mature and I will splurge a little bit more on RAM.

 

[leagueoflegos]

P.S. The thing with software is that if you give it lots of memory, it'll use more of it. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't run with less. I think Photoshop would run just as well with 32GB and maybe even 16GB. But if you're happy, I'm happy for you.

For sure. I'm using 32GB on M1 Max running several adobe apps at once. Usually AfterEffects, Illustrator, and Photoshop, along with Safari/Mail/Music. I rarely hit 50% usage. But when I had 16GB on my 2019 16" MBP, it was so stressful.

 

[Dnzilla]

Somewhat related- I am finding doing office work using MS products, Safari, Canva and streaming music I am already punching 12mb Ram w compressed memory (no swap tho)

So you can see how easily things need the space..

And if anything it will only get more rather quickly as our projects keep growing in graphical intensity, switching work across screens etc

If only the RAM upgrades weren’t so expensive. I guess it’s justified as they keep improving the RAM so then won’t drop the price right? DDR2/3/4 etc 😑

 

[SpotOnT]

Somewhat related- I am finding doing office work using MS products, Safari, Canva and streaming music I am already punching 12mb Ram w compressed memory (no swap tho)

So you can see how easily things need the space..

And if anything it will only get more rather quickly as our projects keep growing in graphical intensity, switching work across screens etc

If only the RAM upgrades weren’t so expensive. I guess it’s justified as they keep improving the RAM so then won’t drop the price right? DDR2/3/4 etc 😑

The RAM and SSD upgrades are almost pure profit for Apple. I read somewhere (WSJ or maybe Bloomberg) that the $400 RAM upgrades we get stuck with only cost Apple something like $4.

 

[Lioness~]

Never regretted that I put in more memory than saving on it, especially not on desktops.
In portable I can do with some less, but I rather save on storage if something.

I just trust my intuition what I need for the coming years when I buy Apple stuff. That is good spending.
No one else know my needs as well as me.
I have been on this Apple wagon long enough to make good decisions….never had regrets over my purchases either.
I know I bought and sold more products privately earlier. Tested off some stuff that I might had some use for at times. That’s the education in the Apple school 😉

The set of products I have today is a good balance and serves what I need quite well.
I might add another display and an Apple Watch some unknown day when I feel for it….otherwise it’s upgrades of the devices I have that’s are on the horizon.

 

[jav6454]

I wasn't planning on doing things like virtualization, which is why I stuck with the 8GBs of RAM. But I would like to potentially be able to virtualize operating systems like macOS and even Windows in the future. So, maybe by the time I am ready to upgrade the solutions I really need to do that will be more mature and I will splurge a little bit more on RAM.

It's always recommended you get higher memory. Situations like yours are all too common.