How much longer will 8GB be ok for?

[Allen_Wentz]

Apple does not want to make the same mistake they made with cMPs. They are in the business of planned obsolescence now and want consumers to trade-in hardware for new every 24 to 36 months. That's why all the new systems have integrated CPU, GPU and RAM. No removable parts equals no upgrades except through Apple.

Read up on Apple's Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) and understand that the reason "why all the new systems have integrated CPU, GPU and RAM" is not because "they are in the business of planned obsolescence." UMA is one primary reason why Apple's M chips are so effective.

RAM is a very useful way for chip designers to compute, which is what we buy computers to do: compute. Buyers who looked at the 40-year trend of Macs constantly taking advantage of more and more RAM to compute with and therefore chose to max out RAM when buying new Macs typically are not finding their Macs becoming obsolete in under five years. Only those who choose not to plan logically experience early obsolescence.

 

[padams35]

Genuine question: in light of Apple’s move to make 16gb RAM the minimum, how long do you reckon those of us with a 8gb M-series machine will be ok without significant slowdowns?

I appreciate no one has a crystal ball but I’m not very versed with RAM usage etc so grateful for any insights on how much AI will use and so on.

Using past results for future predictions...

Optimists can see that 8GB didn't become standard for MacbookAirs until mid 2016, with 4GB still borderline usable in Big Sur (Late 2020). That gives +4 years of MacOS updates, with almost 7 years of security updates.

Pessimists may note that 4GB didn't become standard in MBAs until mid 2011 (3 out of 4 configs). With an SSD Mavericks (2013) was slow but usable. However Yosemite-HighSierra were unacceptably slow on 2GB, even if that was officially supported according to Apple. That is just +2 years of MacOS updates, 5 years of security updates.


On one hand, during the 2->4GB transition most 2GB Macs had user upgradable memory. On the other hand the 8->16GB transition feels overdue, so I'm still feeling pessimistic. I'll predict 2-3 more MacOS versions where 8GB is still enough for basic core tasks, with 5-6 years total usable security updates remaining.

 

[Dolphins1972]

Read up on Apple's Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) and understand that the reason "why all the new systems have integrated CPU, GPU and RAM" is not because "they are in the business of planned obsolescence." UMA is one primary reason why Apple's M chips are so effective.

RAM is a very useful way for chip designers to compute, which is what we buy computers to do: compute. Buyers who looked at the 40-year trend of Macs constantly taking advantage of more and more RAM to compute with and therefore chose to max out RAM when buying new Macs typically are not finding their Macs becoming obsolete in under five years. Only those who choose not to plan logically experience early obsolescence.

Tell that to the owners of the 2019/2023 Mac Pro's

They're already obsolete because of upgradeable hardware limitations and selling for a tiny fraction of what they initially cost.

Newer Macs including the M4's are consistently outperformed by upgradeable PCs in benchmarks because of hardware limitations. That makes them obsolete in the real world.

Cinebench 2024 Scores [CPU & GPU] (Updated Results)

The new Version of Cinebench, 2024, benchmarks CPUs and GPUs in the popular Redshift render engine. We benchmarked all modern CPUs and GPUs and list them in our score overview.

www.cgdirector.com

PugetBench List

Build your own computer, workstation, mini pc, or server at Puget Custom Computers.

benchmarks.pugetsystems.com

Mac vs PC for Content Creation (2024)

Following our recent M3 Max MacBook testing, we used our benchmark database to get performance data for Mac vs. PC for content creation.

www.pugetsystems.com

 

[Thisismattwade]

Genuine question: in light of Apple’s move to make 16gb RAM the minimum, how long do you reckon those of us with a 8gb M-series machine will be ok without significant slowdowns?

I appreciate no one has a crystal ball but I’m not very versed with RAM usage etc so grateful for any insights on how much AI will use and so on.

I currently to have a base M1 MBA which has been flawless to date for my needs, but I’m wondering whether to sell it while it still has a decent resale value and jump on the 16gb train…?

Thanks all!

I have the same machine as you. I haven't updated to Apple Intelligence, yet, though I'm on Sequoia (15.0.1). Things seem snappy and just as useful as the prior OS. (I forget their names so quickly.) However, I plan on this laptop lasting me until Apple has some affordable machines with beautiful OLED screens. I bet that's ~3 years away. I'm optimistic about this base M1 MBA being useful for me to that point. (I wonder whether I'll update my iPhone 13 Pro first, but for now it's also just so good and useful for me.)

(The screen has become the most important factor for me in picking a laptop; it's my main interface with the thing after all!)

 

[Cervisia]

Honestly I believe that, although it's not their approach currently for understandable reasons (it's opt-in because it's not perfectly reliable and the image of the technology is bad)

It's just another bunch of machine learning models. They're all over the OSes. There's no single switch that turns off the camera processing, photos categorizing faces, Siri Suggestions, predictive text on the keyboard, which widget should show at a particular moment if they're set to smart rotate in a stack, AirPods' EQ based on your ears and so much more you can't even begin to list them because it'd turn your iPhone into a Nokia 3310. Who knows what else is used in the background for optimizations in regards to battery, display, etc. I think with time people will embrace these functionalities as part of the system when they start seeing the utility and when Apple finds more creative and embedded ways to integrate than an image gen app.

You've just enumerated the features I hated most and turned off every single one.

 

[Cervisia]

Not a Silicon Mac, but on my iPad Pro A17 chip model, I’m surprised that in this past year I have had experienced what seems to be the limit of 8Gb RAM when running multiple applications that I switch back and forth with. I mainly write and use Obsidian with Safari and a few other applications like MarginNote and Books. There are times when one of the applications refresh which I suppose is due to hitting the limit of the 8GB RAM?

No, it's due to ipados being crap and killing apps in the background.

 

[chmania]

Sell your M1 8GB MBA while there are still buyers out there. In a few months, sales are likely to plummet. The M4 Macs will take a bit of time to arrive—perhaps 2 to 5 weeks—so there’s still a window to offload the M1. It’s not just about Apple’s advancements in AI; it’s also due to the standard 16GB RAM. AI can be accessed through various other means, such as...

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Tell that to the owners of the 2019/2023 Mac Pro's

They're already obsolete because of upgradeable hardware limitations and selling for a tiny fraction of what they initially cost.

Newer Macs including the M4's are consistently outperformed by upgradeable PCs in benchmarks because of hardware limitations. That makes them obsolete in the real world.

Cinebench 2024 Scores [CPU & GPU] (Updated Results)

The new Version of Cinebench, 2024, benchmarks CPUs and GPUs in the popular Redshift render engine. We benchmarked all modern CPUs and GPUs and list them in our score overview.

www.cgdirector.com

PugetBench List

Build your own computer, workstation, mini pc, or server at Puget Custom Computers.

benchmarks.pugetsystems.com

Mac vs PC for Content Creation (2024)

Following our recent M3 Max MacBook testing, we used our benchmark database to get performance data for Mac vs. PC for content creation.

www.pugetsystems.com

We all know the high-heat-output end of desktop things is not where Apple outperforms. Most personal computers sold are laptops, and MBPs rock that top end.

 

[WishyWashyUK]

Really appreciate your feedback thanks everyone. I’ve learned a lot! For info I ran Activity Monitor last night to test it while streaming a football match in Safari, with Mail open and ran an Apple Intelligence rephrasing tool on a Pages document (a short letter) - it pushed the RAM usage to over 7GB and went into the yellow, so I’m guessing that’s bad?! Without using the AI it runs perfectly fine and RAM usage was in the green.

If the M4 MBA was out I’d sell my M1 and upgrade right now, but I’m kinda stuck waiting while the M1 depreciates. Doesn’t seem worth buying a brand new 16GB M2 or M3 machine at this late stage though.

I totally hear those saying to keep using it if it’s suits my current needs, but my concern is I could do that for a year or 2 but then it’s a much more expensive upgrade when I do… 🤔

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Really appreciate your feedback thanks everyone. I’ve learned a lot! For info I ran Activity Monitor last night to test it while streaming a football match in Safari, with Mail open and ran an Apple Intelligence rephrasing tool on a Pages document (a short letter) - it pushed the RAM usage to over 7GB and went into the yellow, so I’m guessing that’s bad?! Without using the AI it runs perfectly fine and RAM usage was in the green.

If the M4 MBA was out I’d sell my M1 and upgrade right now, but I’m kinda stuck waiting while the M1 depreciates. Doesn’t seem worth buying a brand new 16GB M2 or M3 machine at this late stage though.

I totally hear those saying to keep using it if it’s suits my current needs, but my concern is I could do that for a year or 2 but then it’s a much more expensive upgrade when I do… 🤔

Try to think of your Mac as a tool. Except that Mac tools keep getting better, a very good thing; more computing capability (we do buy them to compute with) as time goes on.

The longer your old Mac fills your needs for, the better value-choice you made when you built it. Then when you reach the point (maybe tomorrow, maybe in a year) when you need more power you get to buy into a much more powerful generation of tool.

Do not try to put the used value of your Mac into the analysis of what Mac you need. Computers depreciate insanely fast, a side effect of the fact that our Mac tools keep getting better. Just save up for the time when the old Mac forces you to upgrade to a Mac with far more power for similar or less money than you paid for the M1.