Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

How much RAM did you get for your M3 Pro?

  • 18 GB

    Votes: 24 51.1%
  • 36 GB

    Votes: 23 48.9%

  • Total voters
    47

KhunJay

macrumors 6502a
Sep 16, 2013
500
217
16GB is the sweet spot for my usage.

What is your usage? I was thinking of going 36GB with the upgraded M3 Pro 12CPU/18GPU.
I always go custom and max out specs to future proof as much as possible but the extra 20GB
RAM is quite expensive...is it worth it–that's the question Im tussling with.
 
Last edited:

dborja

macrumors 6502a
Sep 13, 2007
999
102
Northern California
What is your usage? I was thinking of going 36GB with the upgraded M3 Pro 12CPU/18GPU.
I always go custom and max out specs to future proof as much as possible but the extra 20GB
RAM is quite expensive...is it worth it–that's the question Im tussling with.
I'm coming from an M1 MBA with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage and which actually served me fine. I've used it mainly for Web browsing, MS Office, Citrix, Zoom, WebEx, Teams, Quicken and some light SW development. I don't do heavy graphics nor video editing. I run multiple applications simultaneously without noticing any slowdowns and I transfer-in my data files temporarily when I travel without running out of storage.

I made the jump while my MBA still has decent trade-in value and because the battery health was beginning to dip into the low 80%. Aside from the improvements from an M1 to an M3 Pro and then from an MBA to an MBP, I also gain at least two years of future proofing. I will also be doing more SW development using Xcode and I figure 18GB should still be good.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: KhunJay

ProQuiz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 15, 2009
286
121
I'm coming from an M1 MBA with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage and which actually served me fine. I've used it mainly for Web browsing, MS Office, Citrix, Zoom, WebEx, Teams, Quicken and some light SW development. I don't do heavy graphics nor video editing. I run multiple applications simultaneously without noticing any slowdowns and I transfer-in my data files temporarily when I travel without running out of storage.

I made the jump while my MBA still has decent trade-in value and because the battery health was beginning to dip into the low 80%. Aside from the improvements from an M1 to an M3 Pro and then from an MBA to an MBP, I also gain at least two years of future proofing. I will also be doing more SW development using Xcode and I figure 18GB should still be good.
I have a similar use case as you. Just light daily usage such as Internet browsing, movie/music streaming and watching MKV files, communication apps like WhatsApp and Discord, work apps like Zoom and TeamViewer, and some productivity apps like Microsoft Office. No gaming or anything intensive. With this use case, do you think 18 GB RAM will be sufficient for the next 5 years?
 

dborja

macrumors 6502a
Sep 13, 2007
999
102
Northern California
I have a similar use case as you. Just light daily usage such as Internet browsing, movie/music streaming and watching MKV files, communication apps like WhatsApp and Discord, work apps like Zoom and TeamViewer, and some productivity apps like Microsoft Office. No gaming or anything intensive. With this use case, do you think 18 GB RAM will be sufficient for the next 5 years?
It's hard to know if our use cases won't somehow change and become more memory intensive in the next 5 years. However, barring that occurrence, I think 18GB is sufficient. I don't expect any of the applications that I currently run on the MBP will suddenly become memory hogs. Of course, YMMV
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.