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Is 8GB of RAM Enough for MacBook Pro?
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A disgrace? Why is that? I guess if someone is into status.
Apparently RAM status now is a thing.
Why stop there? Would be even better as a subscription model. For only $32.99 a month you can utilize the other 8GB of RAM!
For anyone who is reading this, 8 GB of ram is not enough!! for the regular people... well they don't even know what the Random Access Memory does... Apple is treating even the MacBook Pro as an iPad or something worse. I use the MacBook Air M3 for a couple of months, for work proposes and I never have any kind of problem, but all of us know that is a matter of time for those configurations to be useless due to the heavy use of the SSD. Apple is trying to bring the pattern of consume of the iPhone and the iPad to the Mac, and the perception of obsolesce in personal computers.
That's the real crux of it. The upgrade fees are completely unreasonable.
No, I think the person you responded to thinks Apple should sell their MBP's with the highest amount of RAM already on the motherboard. Except when you pay for the 8GB model that's what you get. You then contact Apple, pay the fee and they unlock more RAM, kinda like DLC in a videogame where you get the updates and DLC regardless but don't have access to it until you cough up the money.
no, the base model as it is should not exist and be called pro….
I can see a near future class action against Apple over its 8Gb base. Its recents ads and media have all been focused about Mac gaming. Now at present 8Gb might suffice on many tasks, albeit with potential significant degradation of its SSD through swapping. Some software already stipulates a minimum 16Gb with Adobe being one of them I believe.
So you take the scenario of new Mac user seeing that Apple is getting into games in the same breath as having 8Gb base RAM, but then just 12 months or 18 months down the line their devices with 8Gb just can't cut it on games, games that Apple was crowing about and may have influenced a new user, where significant swapping will degrade performance to make games playing impossible as well as degrade the SSD used for swapping, its a recipe for a class action. They can hardly add new unified RAM! Result device unusable for games.
Likewise when some marketing person suggests strongly that 8Gb is the equivalent of 16Gb but without mentioning the swapping that has a clear effect on performance and longevity of the SSD, its very very misleading. 8Gb is 8Gb. If the RAM then requires swapping then it should be mentioned not strongly inferring 8Gb is equivalent to 16Gb elsewhere, without mentioning the ramifications.
"Games will look more detailed than ever thanks to hardware-accelerated mesh shading. This brings greater capability and efficiency to geometry processing, enabling games to render more visually complex scenes."
So you take the scenario of new Mac user seeing that Apple is getting into games in the same breath as having 8Gb base RAM, but then just 12 months or 18 months down the line their devices with 8Gb just can't cut it on games, games that Apple was crowing about and may have influenced a new user, where significant swapping will degrade performance to make games playing impossible as well as degrade the SSD used for swapping, its a recipe for a class action. They can hardly add new unified RAM! Result device unusable for games.
Likewise when some marketing person suggests strongly that 8Gb is the equivalent of 16Gb but without mentioning the swapping that has a clear effect on performance and longevity of the SSD, its very very misleading. 8Gb is 8Gb. If the RAM then requires swapping then it should be mentioned not strongly inferring 8Gb is equivalent to 16Gb elsewhere, without mentioning the ramifications.
"Games will look more detailed than ever thanks to hardware-accelerated mesh shading. This brings greater capability and efficiency to geometry processing, enabling games to render more visually complex scenes."
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Keep in mind the GPU has to use that same memory as well. So that's a hard "no" from me. It's silly to call a machine in 2023 with 8GB of RAM "Pro".
True, not all professional workflows *require* more than 8 GB of RAM, but they *will* most definitely benefit from the increased amount.
And it’s not gatekeeping—it’s a matter of ensuring the product is in line with consumer expectations. Most people, when seeing the “Pro” moniker, are going to equate that with heavier workloads. If Apple is taking that to mean something different, then it’s up to them to either communicate that better to the customer, or rebrand the product.
16GB ram and 1TB storage should be the baseline for Pro models. 8GB ram and 256GB storage as the baseline for the Air models.
tl;dr: No, no it's not. Not even close and it's insulting that Apple is charging $1600 for a machine with only 8gb of RAM and charging $200 for 16gb, something that normally costs $34.
A machine STARTING AT $1600 should not be coming with a paltry 8GB RAM standard, especially going into 2024, because memory will constantly be being swapped and likely degrading the SSD. Also, these aren't base level machines. MacBook Airs, Mac minis, iMacs starting with 8GB is fair because the price points reflect that they're entry level machines...
My current M1 mbp touchbar has 8gb and i use windows in parallels. the 8gb ram is not good. The swap size is close to 6-7gb when running parallels and doing my windows tasks. On the 64gb of the m3 max 14" i tested, the ram used was 32gb!
Or, maybe people can look at the choices and decided which configuration will work best for them. People aren’t all clueless. If they think there workflow will benefit from 16GB of RAM, they can get that configuration, and it’s still cheaper, btw, than the base spec 14” MacBook Pro from the last two years, while still including all the nice hardware.
Apple will in my opinion raise its base RAM configuration across the board with forthcoming devices.
I would say 8GB is fine, just not on a Pro machine at this price point. Apple advertises it for 4K video editing and from my experience with the base M3 MacBook Pro the experience has been horrible. For the £1700 price tag it's better to get a a refurbished or second hand M2 Pro.
Calling it a 'disgrace' might be strong, but it's more about expectations vs reality. 'Pro' implies a certain level of professional capability, where 16GB RAM is almost a baseline nowadays. It's less about status, more about practicality. With 8GB, professionals will struggle with heavy tasks. It's not just about having more RAM, but about the device meeting the needs of its target audience effectively.
No.
Even if you were to use the example of a professional who performed less local workloads and did their work online, webpages inevitable take up a lot of RAM as your workspace increases. Even with MS Office apps and documents open, music, mail, calendar and other productivity apps, you're pushing your limits. And I know this because I was doing it many years ago with an iMac and the upgrade to 16gb was a revelation.
The fact of the matter is, it's less to do with what Apple considers adequate and everything to do with upselling.
Even if you were to use the example of a professional who performed less local workloads and did their work online, webpages inevitable take up a lot of RAM as your workspace increases. Even with MS Office apps and documents open, music, mail, calendar and other productivity apps, you're pushing your limits. And I know this because I was doing it many years ago with an iMac and the upgrade to 16gb was a revelation.
The fact of the matter is, it's less to do with what Apple considers adequate and everything to do with upselling.
Most likely. As soon as Apple's cost for that extra 8GB of RAM dips below $20, down from the extravagant $22, we'll surely see a bump in the base configuration. We're just a couple of dollars away from a revolution in RAM generosity!
This food fight obviously hasn't been rehashed enough.
It's kinda sucky to intentionally front page this without actually doing anything to further the conversation with hard data.
Hey, how about we also bring up butterfly keyboards in the same post FTW?
It's kinda sucky to intentionally front page this without actually doing anything to further the conversation with hard data.
Hey, how about we also bring up butterfly keyboards in the same post FTW?