That’s a misrepresentation of our side’s argument though. The MacBook Pro delivers a lot, nobody’s expecting “very little” from the MacBook Pro. It’s not “expecting very little” to see that there are lots of professionals who are happy with 8GB of RAM, and that we don’t need to take that option away from them just because some people think 8GB RAM computers can’t really be “pro”. And for those who want 16GB of RAM, they are saving money as well, compared to the last two years 14” MacBook Pro base-specs. Apple has provided us with more RAM options, including one that is lower than what some deem enough for a “pro” computer, but the problem is with those people’s definition of a “pro” computer. Many professionals will enjoy the savings that they can get by buying the new 8GB MacBook Pro, which will easily handle their workflows, because they’re already using 8GB RAM MacBooks for their workflows just fine. It provides people a cheaper point of entry for the MacBook Pro’s nicer hardware.
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Is 8GB of RAM Enough for MacBook Pro?
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None are. Except Apple.
Look at base model laptops at Costco in this price range. They come with 32 GB of RAM. The midrange models come with 16 and they give you a slot if you want to add more.
The corporate space is where cost really matters because you're buying 10s, 100s or 1,000s of them. What do corporate buyers get on their systems?
Well, I can still buy the MacBook Pro cheaper or about the same as the normal price of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which has an inferior CPU even specked up to i7, and has a much lower quality display. Plus, the battery runtime wouldn’t be nearly as good…
Even if the 8gb memory of a macbook can achieve the experience of using a Windows laptop with 16gb memory, at this price (2000usd), you can easily buy a 32g or even 64g Windows laptop.
I'm not complaining about the cost of Apple's products, just their overpriced upgrade options.
I think that we can all agree that sometimes 8 is 16 and sometimes 8 is just 8.
I run a Windows 11 virtual machine on my Apple Silicon Macs. You could theoretically run Windows with 8 but I'm pretty sure that it would be a rather unpleasant experience.
The stock configuration of a pro machine shouldn't come with 8GB of RAM.
Every Mac I've bought, every PC I've bought, I've upgraded the RAM on at some point. On my 2010 MBP, I've gone from 4 to 8 to 16 gb...............
NOT being able to upgrade the RAM makes the machine more of a disposable device to me.
NOT being able to upgrade the RAM makes the machine more of a disposable device to me.
I wouldn't mind cheaper products, but it's the same for me. If it wasn't for the 900-1000% markup on upgrades I doubt this thread would exist.
This is a discussion about specifications in 2023, not about gatekeeping who should or shouldn't buy a Mac.
"It depends on the workload" is correct. But if 8 GB is enough for you, then you shouldn't be buying one over an Air.
Hmm....I think I wouldn't say that.
Pro could mean to Apple, and I'm guessing here, that it is another way to monetize and portray a product as having improved/higher/better qualities and therefore increase the price. Note, this is a portrayal vs. actual in substance.
Anyhow, I feel like we've been going in circles about the same thing ;-) Or at least I have.... ;-)
You might not be aware that discussions can go in many different directions on forums.
Feel free to buy a Mac. Or if you feel it's a poor value, purchase one from a different company.
With respect to the above, choice is a good thing. And for Apple offering an 8 GB RAM option for people who don't need more memory, and certainly don't want to spend extra $ for something they don't need.
You were responding to my string of posts and I never said anything about "we should expect very little from MacBook Pros simply because there are professional people out there who need very little in terms of compute power."
That's how you interpreted what I wrote. It isn't what I said.
What I'm essentially saying is Pro just means something along the lines of more features, or more of the same (e.g., more ports), or faster -- that kind of stuff. It doesn't mean you should expect less from a MacBook Pro. Where you draw the line of what is to be called Pro is marketing and from another view, rather arbitrary.
In some instances yes, in other instances no.
For instance, the current line of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro means that for the most part the MacBook Air actually works well for me. But, I don't like that it has so few ports so I wouldn't go for the MacBook Air and rather go for MacBook Pro. It has nothing to do with 8gb or anything RAM related. In fact, I so much more prefer the thinness and lightness of the current MacBook Air over the MacBook Pro, but it is lacking some features I would want, namely more ports.
Well, that's a bit of an apples to oranges comparison. Mac silicon can't use slotted memory because of the high bandwidth demands on the unified memory in the SoC architecture. And as such they are also much more efficient with less memory.
However, if, as the article states, 8Gb is only good when "you have light usage requirements" than I would say;
a. If you have light usage requirements, you're buying the wrong laptop
b. No Pro model should only be suitable for those with "light usage requirements"
Apple's claim that "8GB RAM on M3 MacBook Pro 'Analogous to 16GB' on PCs" to me only proofs the second point, because no-one with somewhat demanding requirements should consider only 16Gb in a Windows laptop either, nor would that be considered premium. My last Intel MacBook Pro from 2018 already had 32Gb.
Furthermore, the tests linked in the article show that performance is sometimes 4-5 times higher on certain tests when comparing 8Gb to 16Gb models. I do feel Apple is selling short it's own performance advantage claims regarding their apple silicon by offering 8Gb MacBook Pro's
The base should be 16GB, not 8GB. 8GB was standard a decade ago. 16GB isn't going to hurt you, if you don't fully utilize it.
Well, I’m glad you know what everyone wants or needs from their computer. What if they want the better display and ports of the MacBook Pro? Or the better battery runtime? Gatekeeping which Mac people should or shouldn’t buy isn’t a very good look…
Dude, no one's gatekeeping anything. You're dying on the hill of 8GB for some strange reason, when Apple could easily just make the standard 16GB. There's literally no benefit to the end user of only 8GB of RAM.
Exactly this. Some people’s idea of “Pro” is the M3 Max chip decked out with 128GB of RAM. It’s an arbitrary scale, and ignores the fact that many professionals only need 8GB for their workflows.
This is true, but I definitely would not be one to complain if the base RAM was upgraded on the pro lineups if the price levels stay the same. $1,600 is a price point where you would really start to expect more than 8GB (and it's also the price point at which you expect a machine to easily last 5-7 years, and RAM requirements will grow in that timeframe).
All of that being said, the real costs for Apple aren't in the upgrade costs. RAM is cheap to buy wholesale. It's the opportunity cost that they are probably considering, they would lose out on the $200 upgrade that a certain percentage of their buyers would purchase.
8GB is cheaper. If they switched to the 16GB version, it would likely be more expensive. And it’s unnecessarily excessive for very many people, there’s really no reason to be creating all these threads complaining about base specs. The content creators need an artificial scandal every Apple product release, and that’s really what this is about. Why was it not a scandal when we payed $400 more for base spec MacBook Pros the last two years? Because they had other artificial scandals to focus on, like trashing the M2 MacBook Air base storage model…🙄
Omg dude. Yeah, 16GB for Apple, charging )1500+ for a laptop, is slightly more expensive. 8GB shouldn’t be the standard on ANY machine in 2023. You’re delusional if you think otherwise.
Or purchase an Intel Mac. They are so cheap these days and it's easy to throw in more RAM on iMacs and Mac Pros.