Are you saying you can’t multitask with M1? Because my Mac mini would disagree.
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I am really torn between 8GB vs. 16GB RAM
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It can do multi tasking but a little slower process in the background and focus on main apps. That's the real magic i think . For now when i used m1 macbook air i would consider good as some little crash when i a little do that do this but still consider as fast . Your mac mini have fan and extra core compare to me which maybe much much better .
As conclusion a little slow multi tasking is okay as we dont expecting like xeon proc or other high end ryzen proc .
For the price Apple charges for the extra ram in the US, I'd definitely go for the 16Gb version. However, in other markets adding ram is EXTREMELY expensive.
Take for instance Brazil, where I live. The baseline MBA costs the equivalent of USD2000 with an educational discount. If you go for the upgrade and get the 16/256 model, you are going to pay USD2400. That's 400 dollars more. If you consider you can get the baseline model for US1700 in other retailers, you are effectively paying USD700 for 8Gb of ram.
Take for instance Brazil, where I live. The baseline MBA costs the equivalent of USD2000 with an educational discount. If you go for the upgrade and get the 16/256 model, you are going to pay USD2400. That's 400 dollars more. If you consider you can get the baseline model for US1700 in other retailers, you are effectively paying USD700 for 8Gb of ram.
I think it goes without saying more is better. Why put a premium on it?
I went with what I could afford and took the 16GB option with 1TB SSD. I have to say however, I'm not impressed by the day to day operation of the laptop as it crashes and freezes often, and does some really weird stuff at times.
I'm hoping software updates will sort these issues over time, but nevertheless, it's still annoying.
I went with what I could afford and took the 16GB option with 1TB SSD. I have to say however, I'm not impressed by the day to day operation of the laptop as it crashes and freezes often, and does some really weird stuff at times.
I'm hoping software updates will sort these issues over time, but nevertheless, it's still annoying.
I just found out that , when the computer is having too much at the same time , It crash my internet connection, It bug my mouse program and run the Processor to 100% for no apparent reason ( it must be because it is filtering ram and swap usage. )
I have a Mac Mini with 8gb ram but I always use 5GB swap file and stay at 50 - 60 % ram pressure. So Today I order the 16GB version to see if all my problem will go away.
I am sure that theire is a problem with how the system handle the swap file because , at first , when I load all my trading programs with crossover Parallel and Another program from a Chrome browser. It run fine , but If for a 20 min window , i dont touch parallel or my crossover program, Then I start to have problems, It become super lag , the ram pressure goes in the Yellow and If 2 program get in that mode , it can even go in the red.
I just download iStatistica Pro , to monitor more about my computer and Try to see the problem. Here is a picture of my ram usage. And I had 5 GB of swap at that time too.
I guess , if you want to do any amount of power usage with this, you should go for the 16GB of ram.
I have a Mac Mini with 8gb ram but I always use 5GB swap file and stay at 50 - 60 % ram pressure. So Today I order the 16GB version to see if all my problem will go away.
I am sure that theire is a problem with how the system handle the swap file because , at first , when I load all my trading programs with crossover Parallel and Another program from a Chrome browser. It run fine , but If for a 20 min window , i dont touch parallel or my crossover program, Then I start to have problems, It become super lag , the ram pressure goes in the Yellow and If 2 program get in that mode , it can even go in the red.
I just download iStatistica Pro , to monitor more about my computer and Try to see the problem. Here is a picture of my ram usage. And I had 5 GB of swap at that time too.
I guess , if you want to do any amount of power usage with this, you should go for the 16GB of ram.
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Don't listen to the BS. Universally the more RAM the merrier regardless of CPU architecture plus no one should be buying a near $1K+ laptop in 2021 with only 8GB non-user upgradable RAM. I also bought a Lenovo Yoga 6 with 8GB/256GB but it was only $500 on Cyber Monday. On my 16GB MBA with only a few browser tabs open it's already using around 4GB to 5GB. Also, you want to avoid swapping to storage that wears out SSD faster. Find family in education, military/veteran, etc. and use the 10% off to get the 16GB/256GB MBA for $1079 before tax.
The old saying still remains true: You can never have too little RAM or hard disk space.
i take 8 gb because my imac got 16 GB which handle all those high usage. Browser like google and facebook eat a lot of ram because parallel process compare to old day everything is static website.
If your swap drive over then 2GB usage go for additional ram , if no really waste a bit 300 dollar but if can easily go for it.
I would have love to be able to wait for the macbook pro 16inch , As i want to load this one up to the max ram and processor. But i figure for around 300$ now , its worth to upgrade this mac mini and wait for the real deal.
adding a picture of my full load. But no real time data, so its less load than in normal market hours.
adding a picture of my full load. But no real time data, so its less load than in normal market hours.
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To me that sounds like/looks like a memory leak of some kind (memory usage going up when not in use), which given use of crossover etc may just be par for the course.
But same conclusion anyway, for you more memory makes sense.
But you'll be giving Apple another ~$1K to upgrade in about a year or less when OS updates and apps get more bloated where you hit/exceed 8GB RAM. In the meantime, you have to worry and be conscious about what you run, constantly closing apps and having to spend $180/year for generic Rogaine to keep the hair on your head. $200 up front is a smaller price to pay.
And this was me thinking that spending over $1k a year on Apple upgrades was customary.
Maybe on MacRumors. Most probably won't have any issues. Realistically, majority of people's usage is just web, social media, video streaming, etc. I know Facebook's bloated but it should be fine even on 8GB. The SSD is super fast so going to swap probably won't even be noticeable for most.
The 16GB RAM is CTO so it's not even available at major retailers. I doubt all those buying from Amazon, Best Buy, Costco, etc. will have as awful an experience as you're suggesting.
Part of buying a laptop is adding applications down the road and having more capacity allows you to repurpose hardware, long after the purchase date.
I'm using a Late 2009 iMac right now. It's only usable because I upgraded the RAM from 4 GB to 16 GB and I'm still using an HDD.
I understand as I usually max out RAM on my builds as well. With that said, I highly doubt most non-techies would suddenly find the 8GB RAM M1 Macs inadequate after 5 years.
The thing is people buying these entry level M1 Macs are unlikely to suddenly do CAD, rendering, heavy photo and video editing, etc. if they don't already do it now. Those who do, well, they likely already know to buy more RAM.
For some things like 4K HEVC videos though, no amount of RAM is going to improve an older laptop's performance so it's able to play those back (although a GPU upgrade on a desktop could).
You don't know what web pages will look like in ten years.
Who would have thought that web browsers would routinely use 4-6 GB of RAM ten years ago.
I remember checking memory and virtual memory usage on my Windows PC and my usage was already like that back in 2011/2012 (Sandy Bridge). Hasn't really changed much since. ?♀️
Granted, I do majority of my web browsing on an iPad now which has a measly 4GB RAM, no swap and is 50% slower than the M1 in single-core, 70% in multi-core.
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Indeed. If one were intending to keep the M1 for a decade. Some like upgrading often , thus the current base RAM will be sufficient until the next best thing with added “woo” factor comes along. Personally, and without sounding narcissistic I could have easily specced the device with 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM but chose not to, since those extras would yield me little to no return on my trade in or resale value to the masses.
That's what we bought.
I wanted 16 GB and didn't want to wait five weeks so we got the 1 TB SSD which was in stock at a local store. Got it in about four hours.