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

[One2Grift]

I had a 8GB M1 MBP overloaded for a 2 week test drive. I was running all of the following at the same time:

• PHPStorm
• MAMP w/2-3GB RAM server
• Parallels w/Windows ARM
• OSX Mail
• Photoshop
• Terminal
• Firefox
• Safari
• Quickbooks
• Capture One Pro
• Other random small programs

My 32GB 2018 MBP was getting its battery replaced and I decided I'd get an under spec'd M1 as a trial. I was going to run it hard and see how it did. If it survived, I'd just keep it and sell my 2018.

I was really really impressed that it continued to perform even with all I was throwing at it. I'm sure I could have found ways to destroy it, but under realistic scenarios, there were no significant performance hitches. The reason why I ended up returning it was because I racked up 5TB of writes in 9 days without putting in my normal long hours on it.

Even if I had ended up needing 10TB of writes a week under my normal conditions, the SSD should have been able to hold up for as long as I would have owned it, but I took it as a sign that even if an 8GB unit would work, it wouldn't be the best decision for me.

I'm pretty sure the massive writes had something to do with my Web development work. When I wasn't working, the writes were elevated, but pretty reasonable.

My test drive may not have ended up as I wanted, but if I ever had to get by on an 8GB machine, I now know I can do it pretty comfortably.

Nice write up.
In just the past few days I had to throw quite a lot more at my 8/256. The only beachball I've had was an internet outage(I hadn't noticed) + trying to skip several songs on Apple Music (seriously!,how about a "you're not connected to the Internet" prompt versus a 2 minute beachball). But other than that? The 8/256 in such a SFF is an impressive workhorse.
Discalimer: if one is doing lots of large hi res video editing etc etc, get the 16/512. The 8/256 is an impressive workhorse but it is not without limits.

 

[turbineseaplane]

If you're going to do video editing and/or keep the machine for more than a couple years or so, get 16GB of RAM

 

[pshufd]

I've used my mini 16/512 for a week and it typically uses 11-12 GB for programs and data and the remainder for cached files with typically 30-60 MB for SWAP. Performance is quite smooth and I haven't seen any beachballs. I would ideally prefer 0 SWAP but I can't imagine that this tiny amount of SWAP is any kind of SSD wear issue. I have two large programs to test just to see how much RAM they take as it will help me to size my next mini.

 

[alien3dx]

I've used my mini 16/512 for a week and it typically uses 11-12 GB for programs and data and the remainder for cached files with typically 30-60 MB for SWAP. Performance is quite smooth and I haven't seen any beachballs. I would ideally prefer 0 SWAP but I can't imagine that this tiny amount of SWAP is any kind of SSD wear issue. I have two large programs to test just to see how much RAM they take as it will help me to size my next mini.

normal computer /mac will be crash /hang upon ram limit. So far ,i never see issue and i don't have to check yellow, red even i keep re launch xcode. Yes sometime i got beach ball because xcode cannot understand what i write swift ui but if just normal pattern should be okay.

 

[pshufd]

normal computer /mac will be crash /hang upon ram limit. So far ,i never see issue and i don't have to check yellow, red even i keep re launch xcode. Yes sometime i got beach ball because xcode cannot understand what i write swift ui but if just normal pattern should be okay.

My two pro programs run poorly on M1. One is a Java program and it appears to be running on an Intel version of Java so through Rosetta 2. The other is a Windows executable running through WINE which is running through Rosetta 2. I will have to run those programs on my Windows system until they make a universal binary.

 

[Andrea Filippini]

Memory pressure via activity monitor on MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 and dedicated GPU (no integrated GPU shared memory).
Daily activities like some Chrome tabs opened, some instant messaging apps, Discord, Spotify, VPN app and TextEdit.
Memory pressure is 70% without coding, office apps or video editing.
Sincerely I have no idea how users can be satisfied nowadays with their tasks with only 8 GB of memory.

 

[ian87w]

View attachment 1960083

Memory pressure via activity monitor on MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 and dedicated GPU (no integrated GPU shared memory).
Daily activities like some Chrome tabs opened, some instant messaging apps, Discord, Spotify, VPN app and TextEdit.
Memory pressure is 70% without coding, office apps or video editing.
Sincerely I have no idea how users can be satisfied nowadays with their tasks with only 8 GB of memory.

Tell that to Apple that keeps selling pre-configured Macbook Air with just 8GB of RAM.

 

[OSB]

View attachment 1960083

Memory pressure via activity monitor on MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 and dedicated GPU (no integrated GPU shared memory).
Daily activities like some Chrome tabs opened, some instant messaging apps, Discord, Spotify, VPN app and TextEdit.
Memory pressure is 70% without coding, office apps or video editing.
Sincerely I have no idea how users can be satisfied nowadays with their tasks with only 8 GB of memory.

Your machine is showing zero swap, zero compression, and your memory pressure is green so... I'm not sure what point you're making here?

 

[5425642]

Your machine is showing zero swap, zero compression, and your memory pressure is green so... I'm not sure what point you're making here?

I agree with you, and also swap is not a bad thing if it's not big. I do have swap from time to time with around 32mb or similar that's not because I'm running out of RAM or anything like that as my pressure are under 50% all the time and I have RAM free.

8GB is more then enough for regular work etc. 16GB is on the edge for me as a software developer but if I'm not using docker or running VMs on my machine 16GB is just fine for me also.

 

[Basic75]

8GB is more then enough for regular work etc. 16GB is on the edge for me as a software developer but if I'm not using docker or running VMs on my machine 16GB is just fine for me also.

It might be enough or barely enough today. But the M1 was a big leap in processing power. Such big leaps do not come very often. So the M1 will be sufficient for light loads for a very long time. Seeing that 8GB does not leave much of a margin today, and that RAM consumption will only increase over time as web pages and applications become fatter, it is not a big stretch to recommend 16GB to prevent RAM becoming a bottleneck much too soon.

Personally I've been recommending 16GB for years now. My current office machine regularly uses more than 8GB of RAM for light to medium light loads (excluding cached files of course). And the only reason I could use my 2009 iMac until last year was that it could be upgraded to 16GB. That iMac had a first generation Core i7, another processor that was quite the quantum leap at the time. New machines can't be upgraded, I shudder to see how many M1 Macs will be obsoleted in only 3 or 5 years due to only having 8GB.

 

[MrGunnyPT]

It might be enough or barely enough today. But the M1 was a big leap in processing power. Such big leaps do not come very often. So the M1 will be sufficient for light loads for a very long time. Seeing that 8GB does not leave much of a margin today, and that RAM consumption will only increase over time as web pages and applications become fatter, it is not a big stretch to recommend 16GB to prevent RAM becoming a bottleneck much too soon.

Personally I've been recommending 16GB for years now. My current office machine regularly uses more than 8GB of RAM for light to medium light loads (excluding cached files of course). And the only reason I could use my 2009 iMac until last year was that it could be upgraded to 16GB. That iMac had a first generation Core i7, another processor that was quite the quantum leap at the time. New machines can't be upgraded, I shudder to see how many M1 Macs will be obsoleted in only 3 or 5 years due to only having 8GB.

Plus on the workload intensity depends on the days. There's some days I just have Teams/Excel/Terminal open and some other I got lime 15 terminal windows open, 5 excel, 2 VDI, 24 Chrome tabs and 5 personal tabs on Safari and etc..

16GB is the sweet spot for someone who works in IT and is experience with multi tasking...

 

[5425642]

Plus on the workload intensity depends on the days. There's some days I just have Teams/Excel/Terminal open and some other I got lime 15 terminal windows open, 5 excel, 2 VDI, 24 Chrome tabs and 5 personal tabs on Safari and etc..

16GB is the sweet spot for someone who works in IT and is experience with multi tasking...

Depening on what your working with, my 16GB are on the edge when I'm having multi projects and that's why I'll replace my M1 Pro 16GB when an update are released of it. My plan from the beginning was to try it out as it was new stuff and I was afraid that it would have hardware bugs etc. but now well let's face it. It's perfect

 

[MrGunnyPT]

Depening on what your working with, my 16GB are on the edge when I'm having multi projects and that's why I'll replace my M1 Pro 16GB when an update are released of it. My plan from the beginning was to try it out as it was new stuff and I was afraid that it would have hardware bugs etc. but now well let's face it. It's perfect

Same here...

Can't use VMs when I have like 2,73GB completely free and 6GB being compressed...

 

[Andrea Filippini]

Your machine is showing zero swap, zero compression, and your memory pressure is green so... I'm not sure what point you're making here?

I have already great memory usage just with daily tasks without using coding, office apps and video editing. And I have 16 GB of memory with dedicated GPU.
With these premises, M1 Macs with 8 GB of memory soldered onboard are literally useless and even M1 Macs with 16 GB of memory will become obsoleted in a couple of years because they aren't upgradable after the purchase.
It doesn't even matter how hard you try, RAM is a real bottleneck. That's the point.

 

[OSB]

I have already great memory usage just with daily tasks without using coding, office apps and video editing. And I have 16 GB of memory with dedicated GPU.
With these premises, M1 Macs with 8 GB of memory soldered onboard are literally useless and even M1 Macs with 16 GB of memory will become obsoleted in a couple of years because they aren't upgradable after the purchase.
It doesn't even matter how hard you try, RAM is a real bottleneck. That's the point.

You don't have high memory usage, though. Not according to the screen you posted.

OSX dynamically allocates memory. Programs will request and be allocated a certain amount of memory, which may well be in excess of what they actually need or are using at any moment. As additional allocation requests are made, memory will be reallocated between applications. Often, these reallocations can be made *without* paging data out to the disk, because the app doesn't actually need as much memory as it has requested, at least not at that moment. Unless and until these reallocation result in data in memory being compressed or swapped out to disk, there is no impact on performance. All other things being equal, you *want* the OS to use as much of your memory as possible, because otherwise it's just sitting there doing nothing.

It may legitimately be the case that 16GB is insufficient for your use, but your screen capture does not support that conclusion.

 

[alien3dx]

You don't, though. Not according to the screen you posted.

OSX dynamically allocates memory. Programs will request and be allocated a certain amount of memory, which may well be in excess of what they actually need or are using at any moment. As additional allocation requests are made, memory will be reallocated between applications. Often, these reallocations can be made *without* paging data out to the disk, because the app doesn't actually need as much memory as it has requested, at least not at that moment. Unless and until these reallocation result in data in memory being compressed or swapped out to disk, there is no impact on performance. All other things being equal, you *want* the OS to use as much of your memory as possible, because otherwise it's just sitting there doing nothing.

It may legitimately be the case that 16GB is insufficient for your use, but your screen capture does not support that conclusion.

actually like this

More ram doesn't mean it good , but okay. Performance depend on requirement . If you got 40 gb ram while not using as temp drive bad. If memory leak, 40 gb also will loose. It's up to developer to minimize ram usage as possible not to use as much ram possible.

 

[EugW]

View attachment 1960083

Memory pressure via activity monitor on MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 and dedicated GPU (no integrated GPU shared memory).
Daily activities like some Chrome tabs opened, some instant messaging apps, Discord, Spotify, VPN app and TextEdit.
Memory pressure is 70% without coding, office apps or video editing.
Sincerely I have no idea how users can be satisfied nowadays with their tasks with only 8 GB of memory.

Your screen grab is a direct contradiction of your own post.

 

[pshufd]

There's a discussion thread in the Monterey forum about memory leaks and the problems we're seeing which makes a case for more RAM to deal with the problem until Apple fixes it. I'm staying at Big Sur on all of my systems if possible until they are resolved.

 

[ctjack]

I'm staying at Big Sur on all of my systems if possible until they are resolved.

Wish a did so with the BigSur that my M1 came with. Now can't install IOS applications from file, Monterey is glitchy - the same workload is yellow/red pressure on RAM, while on BigSur was on green.

Need to take time with usb drive to go back to BigSur. Or do it right way with another Mac and Apple config 2.

 

[pshufd]

Wish a did so with the BigSur that my M1 came with. Now can't install IOS applications from file, Monterey is glitchy - the same workload is yellow/red pressure on RAM, while on BigSur was on green.

I have a 2021 MacBook Pro 16 with 32 GB of RAM and have to reboot it every couple of days. I had to reboot it more frequently when using it as a desktop with dual external 4k monitors so I stopped using it as a desktop. I would install Big Sur on it if it were possible. It is great as a laptop right now with the battery life even though I have to reboot it as rebooting is really fast. But it will feel real when Monterey is more stable. It will eventually get there though.

 

[ctjack]

I had to reboot it more frequently

That is also a nice catch. On Sierra/High Sierra I have restarted Mac once in 4-6 months just for fun. Right now, I restart evert 3-4 days with Monterey because it is needed. Found out from here, that log out/log in from your account will also work to clean RAM/cache - so it is even faster now.

 

[Andrea Filippini]

You don't have high memory usage, though. Not according to the screen you posted.

OSX dynamically allocates memory. Programs will request and be allocated a certain amount of memory, which may well be in excess of what they actually need or are using at any moment. As additional allocation requests are made, memory will be reallocated between applications. Often, these reallocations can be made *without* paging data out to the disk, because the app doesn't actually need as much memory as it has requested, at least not at that moment. Unless and until these reallocation result in data in memory being compressed or swapped out to disk, there is no impact on performance. All other things being equal, you *want* the OS to use as much of your memory as possible, because otherwise it's just sitting there doing nothing.

It may legitimately be the case that 16GB is insufficient for your use, but your screen capture does not support that conclusion.

Dynamic allocation or not, it's an insane and unjustified amount of memory usage for the simple tasks I have reported above.

Your screen grab is a direct contradiction of your own post.

Contradiction? 11 GB of memory for basic tasks like Chrome tabs, WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Spotify, VPN app and TextEdit is your concept of contradiction?

 

[EugW]

Contradiction? 11 GB of memory for basic tasks like Chrome tabs, WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Spotify, VPN app and TextEdit is your concept of contradiction?

It's clear you don't understand how memory management in macOS works.

As others have said, the OS tries to use as much memory as possible. This includes caching previously used applications for example to try to fill up that RAM. If there is less memory available, macOS will adjust as needed.

Your usage description in that screen grab would have been handled perfectly fine with 8 GB RAM, with normal green memory pressure. There are many situations which need more than 8 GB, but your screen grab does not at all demonstrate that. In fact, it argues against what you are trying to claim... as several other posters here have already indicated.

 

[pshufd]

A correct argument for more than 8 GB:

 

[ctjack]

A correct argument for more than 8 GB:

I like that screenshot. Brings a peace to my mind looking how pressure is green and usage is 18GB leaving some headroom.