I am really torn between 8GB vs. 16GB RAM

[Mike Boreham]

Just got my M1 Mac Mini this week. Use it for FCPX And Logic Pro. 16 GB RAM 1TB storage.

Using FCPX uses 12 GB RAM average.. It is a no brainer about RAM.

And if you had 32GB of RAM it would be using 24GB and you would be saying 32GB of RAM is a no brainer. macOS uses what it finds.

Memory Pressure is what matters.

I am not saying 16GB is not beneficial for your requirements and criteria, just that the amount of RAM used is not the way to tell.

An uninformed user would misinterpret your post as meaning FCPX can't be used with 8GB of RAM, which is not true. It might take a bit longer which might be important for you, but not matter at all for an average user.

 

[loby]

And if you had 32GB of RAM it would be using 24GB and you would be saying 32GB of RAM is a no brainer. macOS uses what it finds.

Memory Pressure is what matters.

I am not saying 16GB is not beneficial for your requirements and criteria, just that the amount of RAM used is not the way to tell.

An uninformed user would misinterpret your post as meaning FCPX can't be used with 8GB of RAM, which is not true. It might take a bit longer which might be important for you, but not matter at all for an average user.

True..correction. I am working on larger projects more than 5 minute YouTube videos or smaller projects. I mentioned in my comment “lite” usage of FCPX, but needed to clarify what “lite” usage means. Probably to the regular users (maybe now the youtubers and social media content creators are the “normal” users) 8GB is good. For larger projects that people don’t mind waiting for rendering or exporting etc. 8 GB is good.

16 GB of RAM is safeguard for all around projects. My opinion of course, but have been using my M1 Mac mini with little lag or issues on my large projects and I can probably guess that the extra RAM contributes greatly to this. So no second thought about adding the extra RAM, especially sense there is no option to add later if you need it.

 

[pshufd]

True..correction. I am working on larger projects more than 5 minute YouTube videos or smaller projects. I mentioned in my comment “lite” usage of FCPX, but needed to clarify what “lite” usage means. Probably to the regular users (maybe now the youtubers and social media content creators are the “normal” users) 8GB is good. For larger projects that people don’t mind waiting for rendering or exporting etc. 8 GB is good.

16 GB of RAM is safeguard for all around projects. My opinion of course, but have been using my M1 Mac mini with little lag or issues on my large projects and I can probably guess that the extra RAM contributes greatly to this. So no second thought about adding the extra RAM, especially sense there is no option to add later if you need it.

I could see Apple adding options for 24 or 32 GB of RAM to the M1 chips this year.

 

[theluggage]

I could see Apple adding options for 24 or 32 GB of RAM to the M1 chips this year.

Possibly 32 - but the M1 design only has space for 2 chips mounted directly on the package, so that depends on the price and availability of 16GB LPDDR4 chips.

...but also, the intel MBA and entry-level MBP13 maxed out at 16GB anyway - and the M1 Mini is a new, lower priced entry-level model - so it is not clear why their M1 replacements need more. We’re in an odd period where people who would normally be looking at 16” MBPs and iMacs are considering Apple’s lowest-end Macs - but Apple can’t allow that to continue once higher end Apple Silicon Macs roll out.

More likely, 32 GB+ options will be a feature of the higher-end M1X/M2/whatever machines. Maybe they’ll make the package bigger, stack the RAM vertically, or... well, it will be fun finding out. Certainly it would make sense for a 16” MBP replacement to have the same 16/32/64 GB options as the Intel version.

 

[JeepGuy]

Its still not good advice. If someone ONLY browses Facebook, they don't NEED 16GB of RAM and it won't really benefit them. So still advising "max it out" or "get as much as you can afford" is still not good advice here. You need to take in consideration what people will be using.

There are some old computers that have Windows 10 and 4GB of RAM and it runs just fine with basic Microsoft Word document creation.

I'm not suggesting everyone upgrade, only explaining why people give that advice, whether it's wrong or not. I agree if your needs are lite to moderate duty then go with the base.

Windows 10 is very forgiving on old hardware, as long as you meet the minimum requirements, which are pretty low.

 

[darngooddesign]

Yup, if I must choose between more RAM or more storage, I would get more RAM. Storage can be added anytime with externals or the cloud. Not the case with RAM, unless we are in the 90s.

I used RAM Doubler on my old Powerbooks; seeing 8MB turn into 24MB was magical.

 

[GlenK]

I've never been torn between RAM amounts. Always get the max I can afford!! Never once have I thought, man I wish I'd gotten less RAM..

 

[alien3dx]

I've never been torn between RAM amounts. Always get the max I can afford!! Never once have I thought, man I wish I'd gotten less RAM..

if available at shop 16gb i will take. I'm not online buyer and if something wrong i can goto shop easier.

** no geniuses here.

 

[Chairman.Jobbie]

Why does the 8gb get clogged up sometimes when its PLUGGED IN and has a lot of web tabs and apps and streaming going on? Ive noticed - twice is stuttered when its plugged in charging. Im going to test this on the 16gb when I get it and see what happens.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Why does the 8gb get clogged up sometimes when its PLUGGED IN and has a lot of web tabs and apps and streaming going on? Ive noticed - twice is stuttered when its plugged in charging. Im going to test this on the 16gb when I get it and see what happens.

What does Memory Pressure show when this happens?

 

[Northiscold]

Are you claiming that they 'manage ram differently'? What do you mean? How do they manage it differently?

Yes they do. In Apple Silicon Macs, memory is a part of the SoC. As Apple says, all SoC components can “access the same data without copying it between multiple pools of memory”. New Macs work similarly with an iPhone or iPad now. But I am not aware of this new system too, and trying to explore.

 

[pugxiwawa]

Why does the 8gb get clogged up sometimes when its PLUGGED IN and has a lot of web tabs and apps and streaming going on? Ive noticed - twice is stuttered when its plugged in charging. Im going to test this on the 16gb when I get it and see what happens.

I've seen that with 8G MBA. It didn't always happen, but the stuttering happened enough times that I didn't want to deal with it. Switched to 16GB and had been fine since.

 

[Chairman.Jobbie]

I've seen that with 8G MBA. It didn't always happen, but the stuttering happened enough times that I didn't want to deal with it. Switched to 16GB and had been fine since.

Its happening right now as I type this and its not plugged in. 100% I need 16gb for *my* usage. Shame as I wanted to save the money. I have 16gb Air on order. We will see if it makes a difference. Wish handn't returned the 16gb I had without testing it. 8gb is totally fine most of the time and I love the Air. I dabble in stocks and trading and if I have a few tabs/windows open and maybe a YouTube or twitch stream running and and have few other apps open the memory pressure gets to over 65% it starts to stutter.

 

[Grohowiak]

And if you had 32GB of RAM it would be using 24GB and you would be saying 32GB of RAM is a no brainer. macOS uses what it finds.

Memory Pressure is what matters.

I am not saying 16GB is not beneficial for your requirements and criteria, just that the amount of RAM used is not the way to tell.

An uninformed user would misinterpret your post as meaning FCPX can't be used with 8GB of RAM, which is not true. It might take a bit longer which might be important for you, but not matter at all for an average user.

M1 swap memory a lot and quite often when it's not even full.
8GB for anything else than regular browsing / movie / text editor is just more strain on drive.
Grind that SSD too much and how you fix it? LONG term more RAM is literally no brainer.

***disclamer.
I don't know much about long term when it comes to apple silicon. We will know that in few years. Obviously.
It's just a reasonable assumption.

 

[alien3dx]

Its happening right now as I type this and its not plugged in. 100% I need 16gb for *my* usage. Shame as I wanted to save the money. I have 16gb Air on order. We will see if it makes a difference. Wish handn't returned the 16gb I had without testing it. 8gb is totally fine most of the time and I love the Air. I dabble in stocks and trading and if I have a few tabs/windows open and maybe a YouTube or twitch stream running and and have few other apps open the memory pressure gets to over 65% it starts to stutter.

if you do multi tasking intel much better. Or much better wait what new hardware they can offer.

 

[Chairman.Jobbie]

if you do multi tasking intel much better. Or much better wait what new hardware they can offer.

No way id touch intel - M1 handles everything better except it only has 8gb and im probably edge case where I dont do photo/video work but require 16gb. I sold my 2018 mbp intel to get a base model M1 Air whilst I wait for the 14". Air is great, just need 16gb - on order - want to test if makes a difference. Happy with M1 Air either way.

 

[Mike Boreham]

if you do multi tasking intel much better. Or much better wait what new hardware they can offer.

I don't believe this is is true at all.

 

[alien3dx]

I don't believe this is is true at all.

doesnt matter since my work on intel then m1 because of multi tasking . If just pure normal multi windows and not use other same time better m1 . Use the right tool for right job

 

[alien3dx]

No way id touch intel - M1 handles everything better except it only has 8gb and im probably edge case where I dont do photo/video work but require 16gb. I sold my 2018 mbp intel to get a base model M1 Air whilst I wait for the 14". Air is great, just need 16gb - on order - want to test if makes a difference. Happy with M1 Air either way.

i dont do video / photo but i do in software development in mobile apps and custom web system. ram is real enemy is unmanage and dont assume if no use ram not usefull. A memory leak can cause system to hang and slow and most of real issue is that.

m1 is great and quick and im not sure if upgrading ram can solve your problem. The only solved is either take m1 macbook pro which open 8 core instead 7 in macbook air. Previously thinking mac mini m1 8 core 16 gb instead of macbook air m1 . Since shop sell it i get that first. If my imac broken it will be replace with m1 mac mini 16gb

 

[Mike Boreham]

doesnt matter since my work on intel then m1 because of multi tasking . If just pure normal multi windows and not use other same time better m1 . Use the right tool for right job

False statements like 'Intel is better than M1 for Multitasking' matter, so I try and correct where I find.

 

[alien3dx]

False statements like 'Intel is better than M1 for Multitasking' matter, so I try and correct where I find.

it depend for me , m1 not for multi task for normal usage ya . some youtuber also have tested it and and i dont have time like youtuber doing those testing.

 

[Mike Boreham]

The only solved is either take m1 macbook pro which open 8 core instead 7 in macbook air.

Just for general info, only the 256GB M1 MacBook Air has 7 GPU cores. The rest have 8 cores same as Pro and Mini.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Are you claiming that they 'manage ram differently'? What do you mean? How do they manage it differently?

"The M1 processor’s memory is a single pool that’s accessible by any portion of the processor. If the system needs more memory for graphics, it can allocate that. If it needs more memory for the Neural Engine, likewise. Even better, because all the aspects of the processor can access all of the system memory, there’s no performance hit when the graphics cores need to access something that was previously being accessed by a processor core. On other systems, the data has to be copied from one portion of memory to another—but on the M1, it’s just instantly accessible."

With M1 Macs, memory just isn't what it used to be

Apple has changed the way RAM is used in a computer. And it's time to change our thinking.

www.macworld.com

 

[ctjack]

M1 swap memory a lot and quite often when it's not even full.
8GB for anything else than regular browsing / movie / text editor is just more strain on drive.
Grind that SSD too much and how you fix it? LONG term more RAM is literally no brainer.

I had ocz vertex 4 128gb in my dell xps 2011, it had only 4gb of RAM so the system wrote millions of bytes on that ssd while swapping. Health shows good and it is still working. That ssd had far less rewrites allowed than newer ssds. Still it survived.
My 2012 MBP 13 128gb is living for the past 4 years with only 8gb of free ssd. Which means that macOS is swapping to make a hole into that 8gb free space. Still works.
I would rather recommend spending that $200-$400 towards new Air/MBP in 1-2 years. This will be much more useful in terms of future proofing.

 

[rui no onna]

I had ocz vertex 4 128gb in my dell xps 2011, it had only 4gb of RAM so the system wrote millions of bytes on that ssd while swapping. Health shows good and it is still working. That ssd had far less rewrites allowed than newer ssds. Still it survived.
My 2012 MBP 13 128gb is living for the past 4 years with only 8gb of free ssd. Which means that macOS is swapping to make a hole into that 8gb free space. Still works.
I would rather recommend spending that $200-$400 towards new Air/MBP in 1-2 years. This will be much more useful in terms of future proofing.

Less writes only due to capacity. That Vertex 4 uses 25nm MLC so ~3,000 P/E cycles same as current 3D TLC NAND. In terms of RAW NAND writes, it should do around 384 TBW.

Mind, it seems to me Windows is more sparing when it comes to host writes compared to macOS. I average maybe 20GB writes per day on Windows while my new MacBook is already at 900GB writes after less than 100 hours power on time.

Still, I don't think it's cause for concern.