just ordered the MBA M1 with 8GB RAM is it enough for....?

[iPhonePodsrbest]

....to do some video and picture editing, office work, presentations, browsing and for watching videos ?

or is it more like that I can run every program as good as with 16GB of RAM but can't open as many programs as on the 16GB RAM version?

thank you.

 

[hovscorpion12]

I do not have the M1 MBA, but I do have the 8GB RAM Mac mini. For 1080p/4K video edits It does the job. You may hit some peak if you have FCPX and Photoshop open at the same time, but overall, I do believe the 8GB RAM should be good. You also have 15 days for a return. My recommendation for users is to push the product to the max within the first 5 days of use. if it doesn't do what you want, return/exchange.

 

[Apple_Robert]

What kind of programs are you currently using? Is picture and video editing for work or hobby? What size files are you routinely working with?

 

[iPhonePodsrbest]

What kind of programs are you currently using? Is picture and video editing for work or hobby? What size files are you routinely working with?

Adobe Lightroom for example, its just a Hobby. Never looked on the size files but it should be around 500MB for one part of the unedited Video.
Im curious about what happen when the MBA is going warm because it doesn't have a fan right ?

 

[iPhonePodsrbest]

I do not have the M1 MBA, but I do have the 8GB RAM Mac mini. For 1080p/4K video edits It does the job. You may hit some peak if you have FCPX and Photoshop open at the same time, but overall, I do believe the 8GB RAM should be good. You also have 15 days for a return. My recommendation for users is to push the product to the max within the first 5 days of use. if it doesn't do what you want, return/exchange.

I will definitely do that but I guess I won't have any problems. Im just curious about the heat because it has no fans.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Adobe Lightroom for example, its just a Hobby. Never looked on the size files but it should be around 500MB for one part of the unedited Video.
Im curious about what happen when the MBA is going warm because it doesn't has a fan right ?

Given what you said, the base M1 MBA should be fine for your use. I have put my M1 MBA to the test several times early on and didn't have any real problems.

If the M1 MBA gets too hot, the CPU will throttle. Your usage sounds light / typical consumer use and shouldn't produce that result.

 

[Ixon2001]

I recently bought a 8GB Macbook Pro M1 and i've hammered this running lot's everyday tasks plus some gaming, to see if the 8GB is enough & i've not run into any problems yet.

If i was doing more than basic video & photo editing 16GB would have been the better option, but as it stands 8GB is enough for me at least.

 

[Satx]

This is my first post here and I didn’t want to start a new thread.. there’s enough about this already. Hope you all don’t mind me jumping in.

I preordered the new iMac the first day and received it last Friday and I’m having second thoughts about ordering 8gb. I planned on 16gb, but increased the hd space at the last minute instead, mostly because I confused myself reading about ssd swap and the new way to think about ram on the M1 Macs.
As far as use, I tend to have around 10-15 browser tabs open, Lightroom and sometimes sketch up open at the same time. I’m noticing that doing hdr merges with 5 raw files is basically no faster than my 10 year old i5 iMac and I’m getting spinning beachballs with larger Sketchup files. I wanted to start doing more rendering with sketup plugins or maybe CAD, but it doesn’t seem like that’ll be anymore possible than with my old machine.

Lightroom alone is typically using more ram than the machine has installed. Do I have something setup wrong perhaps? Or would returning this for a 16gb computer be the way to go? Thanks!

 

[armoured]

As far as use, I tend to have around 10-15 browser tabs open, Lightroom and sometimes sketch up open at the same time. I’m noticing that doing hdr merges with 5 raw files is basically no faster than my 10 year old i5 iMac and I’m getting spinning beachballs with larger Sketchup files.

Lightroom alone is typically using more ram than the machine has installed. Do I have something setup wrong perhaps? Or would returning this for a 16gb computer be the way to go? Thanks!

"Lightroom" is a big program with many functions - you can be a light user or a heavy user.

HDR merges of five raw files is on the 'heavy' side; that's a lot of data being moved around and operated on.

So personally I am guessing that for you 16gb would be an improvement.

Before doing so though - check activity monitor's memory tab to see what's going on with memory. If the swap file is being used heavily, that's a good indication you would benefit from more memory.

 

[Kung gu]

Update to 11.4 when you get your Mac. Fixes a lot of bugs

 

[senttoschool]

As a developer, 8GB definitely slows me down. I feel the system slow down when I have my terminals running, some chrome tabs, and some chat apps. Still faster than the 2015 Macbook Pro 15" with 16GB of RAM that it replaced though.

I'm upgrading straight to the Macbook Pro 16" with 32GB of RAM as soon as it comes out.

 

[Satx]

"Lightroom" is a big program with many functions - you can be a light user or a heavy user.

HDR merges of five raw files is on the 'heavy' side; that's a lot of data being moved around and operated on.

So personally I am guessing that for you 16gb would be an improvement.

Before doing so though - check activity monitor's memory tab to see what's going on with memory. If the swap file is being used heavily, that's a good indication you would benefit from more memory.

Just viewing images in detail view Lightroom is using 9Gb or so with 9gb swap used. Doing any editing LR is using 11-14gb and swap goes up a little to 10gb or so used. Physical memory used stays around 7gb. Is that heavy swap usage?

That's with only Safari, LR and activity monitor open.

 

[Satx]

As a developer, 8GB definitely slows me down. I feel the system slow down when I have my terminals running, some chrome tabs, and some chat apps. Still faster than the 2015 Macbook Pro 15" with 16GB of RAM that it replaced though.

I'm upgrading straight to the Macbook Pro 16" with 32GB of RAM as soon as it comes out.

Yeah, that's another option I'm considering, just keep the 8gb and plan to upgrade when they come out with better spec'd M2 or whatever. I have a feeling the 24" might me stuck with 16gb going forwards though

 

[armoured]

Just viewing images in detail view Lightroom is using 9Gb or so with 9gb swap used. Doing any editing LR is using 11-14gb and swap goes up a little to 10gb or so used. Physical memory used stays around 7gb. Is that heavy swap usage?

That's with only Safari, LR and activity monitor open.

I would say that is heavy swap usage, yes. (Although to understand you actually need to look not at the amount of swap being used but how actively swapping is in and out)

I don't have an M1 yet but have been following what other users are saying about usage on Lightroom. Short form, it does not seem to be optimized for M1 yet, possibly because Adobe is using some bespoke graphics/memory handling approach (i.e. it's not just a recompile issue) that doesn't play well with M1.

Strong suggestion: go into the preferences/performance tab and try different settings for the use of the graphics acceleration (including custom, turning some of the settings off and on). It seems that the accelerated graphics is in some cases duplicating memory usage and presumably bandwidth (without getting any benefit from that with M1 memory/graphics approach); and that the native Apple/MacOS frameworks don't run into this issue.

Frankly it's disappointing Lightroom hasn't been updated for this yet (assuming you're using the most current).

But still: Lightroom is always going to be memory heavy and likely to benefit from the 16gb. Even browsing thumbnails uses a lot of memory.

 

[iApplereviews]

RAM usage and management is a lot different (in a good way) on the M1. I have been video editing (nothing major) in final cut pro on an M1 Mac mini with 8GB of RAM just fine no lag smooth playback and fast renders. Running other apps while final cut is doing it's work was never an issue either.

 

[Satx]

I would say that is heavy swap usage, yes. (Although to understand you actually need to look not at the amount of swap being used but how actively swapping is in and out)

I don't have an M1 yet but have been following what other users are saying about usage on Lightroom. Short form, it does not seem to be optimized for M1 yet, possibly because Adobe is using some bespoke graphics/memory handling approach (i.e. it's not just a recompile issue) that doesn't play well with M1.

Strong suggestion: go into the preferences/performance tab and try different settings for the use of the graphics acceleration (including custom, turning some of the settings off and on). It seems that the accelerated graphics is in some cases duplicating memory usage and presumably bandwidth (without getting any benefit from that with M1 memory/graphics approach); and that the native Apple/MacOS frameworks don't run into this issue.

Frankly it's disappointing Lightroom hasn't been updated for this yet (assuming you're using the most current).

But still: Lightroom is always going to be memory heavy and likely to benefit from the 16gb. Even browsing thumbnails uses a lot of memory.

Ok thanks. I’m using Lightroom for Apple silicone. And I thought about turning off acceleration, but figured it’d just get even slower, but I’ll try that.
Im thinking that just returning it for 16gb is the way to go though. At least I’d probably feel better.. or maybe just $200 poorer!

 

[Satx]

RAM usage and management is a lot different (in a good way) on the M1. I have been video editing (nothing major) in final cut pro on an M1 Mac mini with 8GB of RAM just fine no lag smooth playback and fast renders. Running other apps while final cut is doing it's work was never an issue either.

This kind of review is what lead me to go with 8gb, when I planned on 16. And it certainly doesn’t slow way down or freeze like it would on an Intel Mac running at the limits of RAM. I think a lot has to do with the apps. But it is also seems able to pull memory in excess of the physical memory installed.

 

[armoured]

Ok thanks. I’m using Lightroom for Apple silicone. And I thought about turning off acceleration, but figured it’d just get even slower, but I’ll try that.

Wow, I had missed that they had updated, I thought I'd been paying attention. At any rate, it won't hurt to try the different graphics acceleration options and seeing how it works. If I'm wrong, then mea culpa. But I still speculate that they haven't "fixed" their proprietary frameworks to use graphics/main memory properly on the M1 platform.

Note I'm running lightroom on an intel mac with a stupid amount of memory (32gb) but on-board graphics. I have to really push lightroom to get it to take more than 3 or 4gb, 6-7gb is heavy use for me.

Given reports of others it does seem to depend on apps, and lightroom does not sip its memory but gulps it down like a frosh chugging beer.

 

[Satx]

LR is using a similar amount on my intel Mac doing the same task. That computer has 20Gb installed, so I never worried about it too much. It's still running along side the M1, that's how I was able to tell that the M1 is not performing the same tasks any faster.

What size files are you working with? Do you shoot in RAW?

I worry about Lightroom alone using all of the available RAM. I like to have a number of programs running concurrently. And I run a virtual machine that you have to allot a fixed amount of ram too, but I don't think any VM's are supported on the M1's yet.

 

[armoured]

What size files are you working with? Do you shoot in RAW?

I worry about Lightroom alone using all of the available RAM. I like to have a number of programs running concurrently. And I run a virtual machine that you have to allot a fixed amount of ram too, but I don't think any VM's are supported on the M1's yet.

I mostly shoot in RAW and they're 24megapixels out of camera. I dont' do a lot of HDR or stitching, etc. But large libraries and large imports.

I don't find I worry about Lightroom's memory on my machines with 24 and 32gb (next step down is an ancient laptop with 4gb - it's painful with lightroom so I don't).

And this is running everything I want to without paying any attention to what's open. Memory-wise, for what I do, the only thing where I get memory issues or heavy swap on those machines (apart from clear program errors/leaks), is doing Stupid Virtual Machine Tricks like having 2-3 plus running at once. YMMV.

 

[Satx]

I never worried about LR's usage either and maybe I'm obsessing over nothing. I'm just second guessing my RAM choice really.

The M1 is certainly 'snappy', but heavier tasks are a bit of a disappointment so far after everything I've read.