I feel that all Macs should have 16GB as bare minimum. When was the last time Apple increased the base RAM on the lowest end Mac?
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I refuse to buy an Apple Silicon Mac with only 8 GB RAM!
- Thread starter AlixSPQR
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I feel that all Macs should have 16GB as bare minimum. When was the last time Apple increased the base RAM on the lowest end Mac?
I came home for lunch so I could sit in peace and enjoy my food while reading the replies to this post, because I figured the entertainment value would be high. Thanks for a great lunch, all! 
Having said that, I bought a base M1 Mini in November 2020 and it has been great...for me, and my light workload. I plan on keeping it 3-5 years, and can't see it not performing well for at least another year or two. Mission accomplished.
Buying one today for the next 3-5? I would probably do a bit more agonizing over how much RAM to buy.
Having said that, I bought a base M1 Mini in November 2020 and it has been great...for me, and my light workload. I plan on keeping it 3-5 years, and can't see it not performing well for at least another year or two. Mission accomplished.
Buying one today for the next 3-5? I would probably do a bit more agonizing over how much RAM to buy.
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I'd love if the Mac mini could be configured with 32GB of RAM. I'm considering one as a stop-gap until I get a Mac Studio sometime next year, but not sure I can live with just 16GB... even if it is just for now.
I expect we'll see this in the next few weeks, October at the latest. 24GB at the very least should be an option with the move to base M2.
Incidentally, I wouldn't mind if the MBPros used 24GB as a stopgap on the next base-spec jump, if they don't want to move to 32GB.
I think 16/512 should be the minimum on the next gen M3 Apple Silicon macs. But Apple probably isn’t gonna change that.
I think it sounds like you are spending 1999 USD MSRP for a Macintosh computer that satisfies your requirements.
I think it is likely that the SSD minimum will go up to 512 GB in the next MBA revision but I'm not confident about the RAM rising to 16 GB.
Whatever works for you (happily typing this on my 13” MBP 8/512). Different strokes for different folks and all that.
I have a 16 GB MBA, a 16 GB MBP14, and a 64 GB MBP14 because I'm super smart and I realize that 8 GB isn't enough.
Except my 8 GB Mac mini works just fine coming up on 18 months, so maybe I'm just an idiot.
Except my 8 GB Mac mini works just fine coming up on 18 months, so maybe I'm just an idiot.
Vote with your wallets folks. I'm not buying a M2 Air when the base spec comes with too low amount of RAM, SDD as well as display limitations.
At least in my country the price difference of upgraded M2 Air vs the base model M1 Pro 14" is not that big and the form factor and weight is close enough to not really matter.
At least in my country the price difference of upgraded M2 Air vs the base model M1 Pro 14" is not that big and the form factor and weight is close enough to not really matter.
I think the 16GB matches better with the capabilities of the M1. Many people probably don't need more than 8GB, so it's not the worst thing to stick with 8GB.
$200 is a lot of money if you just want to get a M1 MBA on discount for under $1000. It's a sensible decision for many I think.
But to me it's also disapointing having these powerful M1 Macs out there limited by 8GB of ram.
$200 is a lot of money if you just want to get a M1 MBA on discount for under $1000. It's a sensible decision for many I think.
But to me it's also disapointing having these powerful M1 Macs out there limited by 8GB of ram.
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Well, a couple of things: 1) macOS memory management is quite effective as it compresses and decompresses memory chunks as it goes along. So a comparison with a Windows laptop for instance is not applicable. 2) I have two M1 Airs - one with 16BG RAM and the other with 8GB RAM (that my wife uses). Both are excellent machines. She does photoshop and video stuff, I do programming etc, including AI. I have never been able to max out my 16GB Air, although I could of course, but in practice this never happened. 3) A lot of laptops have 8GB so I wouldn't wine about that. If you think you need 16GB, just buy it - it is an excellent little machine (and quite affordable)
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Why did I read this thread? To recap, so the OP could state that they want 16GB but don't want to pay for it. Okay, then don't?
I waited 2 years for the same reason and eventually gave up and purchased a refurb 16GB M1 Mini.
Memory pressure is OK and my only regret is not getting one back in 2020.
If you are not sure you can live with 16GB, you probably can.
8GB RAM is more than enough for 75% of users who will just be typing stuff or browsing the web. 16GB just for that extra room if you know you need that extra bit for more heavy duty stuff which is what I went for. There are people on here though who would purchase a maxed out Mac Pro just to fire up Facebook and YouTube
For my needs, a binned (24-core GPU) Max would make more sense. If I were buying one today, I'd get that with 64 GB RAM and a 2 TB SSD.
Currently I only need 32 GB RAM, which is what's in my iMac. But I've done calculations in the past that required more, and there's a reasonable possibility I would need to do those again. With the iMac, if I need more RAM again, I can simply add it. But since the RAM in the Studio is not upgradeable, I'd need to overbuy for my current needs to prepare for my future needs. Which I'm sure Apple is not unhappy about
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