glad I splurged on the extra memory

[jchap]

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.

I can definitely hear you on the i9 MBP 16-inch model. For all the extra power it offered, the i9 model did "chew through" more battery power than the comparable i7 models. The fan tends to spin up more often than I'd like on the i9 models. I also owned a 2018 MacBook Pro 15-inch i9 model, and my experience was similar. Rather poor battery life, and almost not worth the extra power you're supposedly getting, at least not for my use case.

You'd think that having a more expensive Intel processor on a Mac would make the whole thing more energy-efficient, but my experience has been the opposite. Probably one of the best Intel Macs I've owned in terms of battery life has been the MacBook Air 2018 i5 model. I've also owned an 2020 i7 model MacBook Air, but for all the supposed performance benefits that the i7 offers, the i5 just seemed more power efficient overall, at least for what I was doing.

 

[jchap]

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

38 GB of memory usage... wow. You must have been working on some high-resolution files, or doing a lot of edits, or perhaps using a lot of memory-intensive filters... ?

 

[MajorFubar]

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 watched the same Max Tech video. And what I took away from it is the exponential increase in usability and performance has been achieved without increasing the RAM, leading credence to the point of view that for most people, maxing-out the RAM at exorbitant cost is going to be a waste of time.

 

[altaic]

or to buy something higher spec'd every 5-7 years.

That’s what I do. A bonus is that the upgrade is that much more appreciable and striking (and helps justify the expense).

 

[Ethosik]

It’s quite difficult recommending RAM to people. You pretty much need to dig deeper instead of just saying Photoshop = 16GB. Some of my systems in my workflow only have 8GB and it runs Photoshop just fine for the work those systems do. Example - 4K or 1080p image with zero effects and just a text layer for a YouTube thumbnail.

I got burned before going from 8GB of RAM to 128GB and all I do is 1080p video editing for my lectures, tutorials, gameplay footage sometimes. No real difference is observed between the RAM configs for my work.

More RAM is good if your workflow demands it. It’s good that you thought ahead of time and got more!

 

[MajorFubar]

It’s quite difficult recommending RAM to people. You pretty much need to dig deeper instead of just saying Photoshop = 16GB. Some of my systems in my workflow only have 8GB and it runs Photoshop just fine for the work those systems do. Example - 4K or 1080p image with zero effects and just a text layer for a YouTube thumbnail.

I got burned before going from 8GB of RAM to 128GB and all I do is 1080p video editing for my lectures, tutorials, gameplay footage sometimes. No real difference is observed between the RAM configs for my work.

More RAM is good if your workflow demands it. It’s good that you thought ahead of time and got more!

This is 100% true, and I think would be largely understood and appreciated were not for the kinds of people who claim you need 16GB just to open say a few typical webpages. These probably well-meaning people utterly confuse the issue. They leave me looking at my old 2010 Mac Mini with its 4GB RAM and wondering how the heck it even switches on, yet bizarrely it does, and I can even edit 1080 video on it, and Logic projects with about 32 tracks of audio and simple effects.

 

[xizdun]

Recently was debating whether or not I should have gotten 64gb on my M1 Max.

Have you heard the fans come on on your MBP yet? I have the same config (M1 Max with 64GB) and have yet to hear the fans—love it! 😆

 

[alanvitek]

38 GB of memory usage... wow. You must have been working on some high-resolution files, or doing a lot of edits, or perhaps using a lot of memory-intensive filters... ?

Yea, was working on 4 high res posters for print, each with ~50 high res smart layers inside. that’s actually incredible now that I think about it - it’s be like having 200 3000x2000px files open simultaneously!

 

[alanvitek]

Have you heard the fans come on on your MBP yet? I have the same config (M1 Max with 64GB) and have yet to hear the fans—love it! 😆

Only time was when I was playing Warcraft 3 Reforged at max graphics/resolution. Otherwise the thing is SILENT. It’s awesome

Meanwhile the dell work laptop next to it sounds like it’s going to take off whenever I have a teams call

 

[ADGrant]

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 bought my last Intel Mac in 2020 too. I bought the 2020 i9 27" iMac though. Nice thing about that was I didn't have to worry about battery life and it doesn't get hot and loud compared to the 15" MBP it replaced. Best of all the RAM was user upgradeable so I have 64GB without paying the Apple tax.

I recently bought a base mode 14" MBP which is the best value in Macs right now at a street price of $1700 (the M1 MBA would be second I think). Very nice and very fast but not so fast my iMac feels unusable.

 

[satcomer]

It’s quite difficult recommending RAM to people. You pretty much need to dig deeper instead of just saying Photoshop = 16GB. Some of my systems in my workflow only have 8GB and it runs Photoshop just fine for the work those systems do. Example - 4K or 1080p image with zero effects and just a text layer for a YouTube thumbnail.

I got burned before going from 8GB of RAM to 128GB and all I do is 1080p video editing for my lectures, tutorials, gameplay footage sometimes. No real difference is observed between the RAM configs for my work.

More RAM is good if your workflow demands it. It’s good that you thought ahead of time and got more!

RAM is great when you have program opened all day in making money with their Mac! That to me the extra RAM is must have!