[M4 Mac Mini] Is 16GB RAM Enough For Me as A First Time Mac User?

[KooL BeAnZ]

I’ve ordered the new M4 Mac Mini and wanted to ask if the 16GB of RAM was enough?

Apple being Apple, the next step is £200 for just 24GB !!

What I will use it for:

- Chrome Browsing
- YouTube
- Discord
- Pages/ Numbers Apps
- Maybe Gaming from the App Store to test out M4

Now, I’m sure the first few uses are fine, it’s more that if I did want to try some gaming on it - would 16GB be too limiting?

I’m so used to having a PC with 32GB+ RAM so just making sure I’ve got longevity in the Mac.

 

[danb1979]

I’ve ordered the new M4 Mac Mini and wanted to ask if the 16GB of RAM was enough?

Apple being Apple, the next step is £200 for just 24GB !!

What I will use it for:

- Chrome Browsing
- YouTube
- Discord
- Pages/ Numbers Apps
- Maybe Gaming from the App Store to test out M4

Now, I’m sure the first few uses are fine, it’s more that if I did want to try some gaming on it - would 16GB be too limiting?

I’m so used to having a PC with 32GB+ RAM so just making sure I’ve got longevity in the Mac.

Yes…

My M1 Mac Mini with 8GB has zero issues and it’s been used hard and never faltered…

I’ve recently sold my M2 Mac Mini Pro as it wasn’t getting used; so that’ll go towards a new M4 Mini but not sure if the Pro is needed; like you I’ll probably up the RAM for future-proofing

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Oh no, it's happening! The conversations from "is 8gb enough" are now " is 16gb enough"...

 

[Mr.Ben]

I have a 16gb M2 model - works perfect for me. General web browsing, 4k streaming, design apps etc. It'll be fine, don't overthink it 👍

 

[JokerPower]

Last year, I upgraded from a 16” MacBook Pro with an Intel Core i7 and 16 GB RAM to a 16” MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip and 16 GB of Unified Memory.

After a year of use, here’s my take:

1. The Unified Memory outperforms traditional RAM impressively. Even with the same 16 GB, it feels comparable to using a Windows machine with 32 GB of RAM.
2. The performance has been flawless – I haven’t experienced any lag since getting the M1 Pro. The responsiveness is noticeably faster compared to my previous Intel MacBook Pro.

Hope this helps!

 

[M4pro]

Now, I’m sure the first few uses are fine, it’s more that if I did want to try some gaming on it - would 16GB be too limiting?

Game performance always varies - a lot.

(Just like on PC hardware)

 

[cassmr]

I dont think you'd see a notable gaming improvement by getting slightly more ram. There will be some games of course that do better, but not many and likely by not much. If you want to spend extra for better gaming performance, you should look at the base m4 pro. But given the state of gaming on mac, unless there is a very specific game you want to run (in which case you can research how it performs), then its probably better to save the money and get the m4 16.