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MacBook Pro 13" - suffering with 8GB RAM or is there something else wrong?

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GigabitEthernet

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 21, 2013
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United Kingdom
I have the M1 13" MacBook Pro.

On it I do development, primarily using Visual Studio Code on TypeScript, also the occasional use of Docker.

I am finding that if I open a few projects in separate windows, have Zoom running and do a bit of Chrome debugging, the system grinds to a halt, to the degree that music/audio starts skipping.

Is this simply a limitation of 8GB of RAM and I need to buy a machine with more, or is there something else going on?
 
Andrea Filippini

Andrea Filippini

macrumors 6502
Jun 27, 2020
394
339
Tuscany, Italy
GigabitEthernet said:
I have the M1 13" MacBook Pro.

On it I do development, primarily using Visual Studio Code on TypeScript, also the occasional use of Docker.

I am finding that if I open a few projects in separate windows, have Zoom running and do a bit of Chrome debugging, the system grinds to a halt, to the degree that music/audio starts skipping.

Is this simply a limitation of 8GB of RAM and I need to buy a machine with more, or is there something else going on?
Click to expand...
8 GB is a bottleneck nowadays. Can you post the screenshot of your memory pressure from activity monitor during these tasks?
 
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O

oz_rkie

macrumors regular
Apr 16, 2021
177
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GigabitEthernet said:
I have the M1 13" MacBook Pro.

On it I do development, primarily using Visual Studio Code on TypeScript, also the occasional use of Docker.

I am finding that if I open a few projects in separate windows, have Zoom running and do a bit of Chrome debugging, the system grinds to a halt, to the degree that music/audio starts skipping.

Is this simply a limitation of 8GB of RAM and I need to buy a machine with more, or is there something else going on?
Click to expand...

I have 2 m1 macbook airs. One is an 8gb version and another 16gb version. My workflow is also mainly vscode, docker, slack, few terminal windows and a bunch of safari tabs. The 8gb version definitely struggles. Desktop can become less responsive, with the rainbow wheel cursor and stuff becomes generally unusable while the 16gb version does not suffer from any issues with the same workflows. For development, I would definitely suggest going 16gb as a minimum.
 
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alien3dx

alien3dx

macrumors 68020
Feb 12, 2017
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GigabitEthernet said:
I have the M1 13" MacBook Pro.

On it I do development, primarily using Visual Studio Code on TypeScript, also the occasional use of Docker.

I am finding that if I open a few projects in separate windows, have Zoom running and do a bit of Chrome debugging, the system grinds to a halt, to the degree that music/audio starts skipping.

Is this simply a limitation of 8GB of RAM and I need to buy a machine with more, or is there something else going on?
Click to expand...
find a dumb intel pc for server, pushing m1 like intel nono.. ** using intel instead m1
 
U

UBS28

macrumors 68030
Oct 2, 2012
2,893
2,340
GigabitEthernet said:
I have the M1 13" MacBook Pro.

On it I do development, primarily using Visual Studio Code on TypeScript, also the occasional use of Docker.

I am finding that if I open a few projects in separate windows, have Zoom running and do a bit of Chrome debugging, the system grinds to a halt, to the degree that music/audio starts skipping.

Is this simply a limitation of 8GB of RAM and I need to buy a machine with more, or is there something else going on?
Click to expand...

According to MacRumors, 8GB of RAM is all you need. So there must be something else going on.
 
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Technerd108

Technerd108

macrumors 68040
Oct 24, 2021
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For the MBP 13" 16gb ram should be standard. It really isn't a "Pro" machine with 8gb ram. Ram is Ram and Apple Silicon is not Magic. I would say since the iGPU shares RAM that 8gb would only suffice for an air machine and someone who only does nominal processing tasks like web browsing, email, online games, word processing, etc.

I would never buy am M1 Mac or any Mac for that matter with only 8gb Ram unless it is just for the simple tasks above and for a more portable long battery lasting device when traveling. If I need to work with my Mac 16gb is entry level RAM and the base I would get and 32gb would be the sweet spot. Just my 2 cents.
 
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G

GigabitEthernet

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 21, 2013
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United Kingdom
Andrea Filippini said:
8 GB is a bottleneck nowadays. Can you post the screenshot of your memory pressure from activity monitor during these tasks?
Click to expand...

Screenshot 2022-03-04 at 18.04.56.png

If I connect a secondary monitor - which I do sometimes - music will start skipping now but already the system is becoming unresponsive.
 
Last edited:
Technerd108

Technerd108

macrumors 68040
Oct 24, 2021
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If I were you I would sell your MBP 13" and get a new air with M2 and 16gb ram. That would probably be enough for you or the new 13" MBP with M2 and 16gb ram. You should be able to get a good price now for your MBP 13" before the new model is released and it might not cost too much out of pocket and all of your memory pressure would be in the green.
 
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B

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
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I've been doing VS development with Windows on Parallels on Mac for awhile now. 16GB has been a minimum (at least for me personally) for quite some time (years). Yeah, 16GB on the M1 felt free'er than the 16GB Intel MBP but there's no way I'd do virtual machine stuff and development on anything less than 16GB. My work got me a 32GB Intel MBP 13' and it has been amazing.
 
pi=e=3

pi=e=3

macrumors regular
Jun 18, 2021
192
407
GigabitEthernet said:
With secondary monitor connected (this is all that has changed between the above screenshot and now):

View attachment 1967863
Click to expand...

Well theres yer problem!

Orange is "uh oh" territory. Red is "We're gonna need a bigger boat" territory.

8GB machines exist for casual users/students, who despite thinking they need a CRAY super computer, could get by with a Ti-84, a 3 ring binder and a pencil.
 
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alien3dx

alien3dx

macrumors 68020
Feb 12, 2017
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UBS28 said:
According to MacRumors, 8GB of RAM is all you need. So there must be something else going on.
Click to expand...
i bought the m1 air for development. but some people don't "delegate" .One everything one man show , that's the main problem.
 
AlixSPQR

AlixSPQR

macrumors 65816
Nov 16, 2020
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Sweden
I suppose that if you need to have four tabs of Amazon open, and three tabs of YouTube as well, with a lot of other tabs also running, a Virtual Machine Service, and other stuff, then you will surely run out of RAM eventually. Perhaps you need all of that if you are a pro on a pro machine. 8 GB is otherwise enough for most people.
 
G

GigabitEthernet

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 21, 2013
1,195
896
United Kingdom
AlixSPQR said:
I suppose that if you need to have four tabs of Amazon open, and three tabs of YouTube as well, with a lot of other tabs also running, a Virtual Machine Service, and other stuff, then you will surely run out of RAM eventually. Perhaps you need all of that if you are a pro on a pro machine. 8 GB is otherwise enough for most people.
Click to expand...

I am a professional developer, so this is how I use the machine.
 
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L

lcubed

macrumors 6502a
Nov 19, 2020
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where's the virtual machine that was in the earlier activity snapshots?
that was sucking up a huge chunk of memory
 
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