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Technerd108

macrumors 68040
Oct 24, 2021
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4,313
There is possibly going to be a new release of the MBP 13" with M2 processor. It might be available with more RAM and that might be perfect for your needs. Next week Apple will announce new devices.
 
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GigabitEthernet

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 21, 2013
1,195
896
United Kingdom
There is possibly going to be a new release of the MBP 13" with M2 processor. It might be available with more RAM and that might be perfect for your needs. Next week Apple will announce new devices.

Thanks mate. That’s what I’m waiting for.

Back to my 2013 MBP once this one is sold I think! Ironically with 16GB of RAM.
 
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CheesePuff

macrumors 65816
Sep 3, 2008
1,456
1,576
Southwest Florida, USA
Thanks mate. That’s what I’m waiting for.

Back to my 2013 MBP once this one is sold I think! Ironically with 16GB of RAM.
FYI I do similar dev work as you on the 13" M1 with 16 GB RAM with no issue, but if you want to get 8 years out of it then you'd probably want to do the rumored new 13" M2 with 32 GB, or the 14" with 32.
 

wilberforce

macrumors 68030
Aug 15, 2020
2,932
3,207
SF Bay Area
I am in the process of selling my machine to get a machine with more RAM, wish I could get 32GB or 64GB RAM in this model but it seems I cannot.
There is a huge difference between 16GB and 8GB, in terms of memory pressure capability.
I can understand if you want to make 100% sure you don't ever have the same situation again, but 64GB is likely to be expensive overkill.
 

alien3dx

macrumors 68020
Feb 12, 2017
2,193
524
I am a professional developer, so this is how I use the machine.
Just get more RAM , calculate the cost of database size = ram size + 2 gb min for good vm/docker. Unless you deal with visual studio .

The best solution was , as i mention . Get a dumb intel/amd pc and network do it . Local m1 for local editing code . Even i code in imac 2017 16 gb ram instead 8 gb m1.

I don't know these day trend love docker /kubernate but for me ,it's easier to get dumb pc or rent vm like digital ocean for testing purpose.
 

Bodhitree

macrumors 68020
Apr 5, 2021
2,085
2,216
Netherlands
Yeah, this looks pretty sad. There is no process sucking up an unusual amount of memory; you simply don't have enough RAM. Pretty disingenuous for Apple to pretend that 8GB is fine for a so-called "Pro" Mac in 2021.

That’s a good point, I think there is a good case to be made that the 13” MBP should have shipped with 16 GB of RAM as a base spec. Just to show that Pro usecases are almost always going to need the 16 GB upgrade.

I think I agree that 8 GB is really just for casual users, people who write reports, internet banking and a bit of browsing and so on. As soon as you want to do dev or combine Zoom and Teams and a few other things then you will run out.

Its worth keeping in mind that 8 GB is really 8 GB minus the system, which I think is about 3 GB. So the 16 GB version has about two and a half times as much free memory to play with.
 

alien3dx

macrumors 68020
Feb 12, 2017
2,193
524
That’s a good point, I think there is a good case to be made that the 13” MBP should have shipped with 16 GB of RAM as a base spec. Just to show that Pro usecases are almost always going to need the 16 GB upgrade.

I think I agree that 8 GB is really just for casual users, people who write reports, internet banking and a bit of browsing and so on. As soon as you want to do dev or combine Zoom and Teams and a few other things then you will run out.
it all depend on how you delegate the memory.

8 gb ram

1. no browsing
2. open just lite ide
3. for mobile developer, test in real device instead of emulator
4. for back end developer , get a vm .

The most problem ,some developer prefer 1 docker one customer. If you open 10 customer docker same times, you will be out of memory. A laptop just a laptop, if need server requirement get a server instead.
 
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mr_roboto

macrumors 6502a
Sep 30, 2020
856
1,866
There is possibly going to be a new release of the MBP 13" with M2 processor. It might be available with more RAM and that might be perfect for your needs. Next week Apple will announce new devices.
I think there's a chance the old MBP 13" just goes away. It's a product which made sense in the old Intel product lineup, and during the Apple Silicon transition, but now that the 14" MBP exists it doesn't make much sense to me. M1 has greatly narrowed the performance gap between Air and 13" MBP, and if you want more power than an Air you're likely going to upsell yourself to a 14" M1 Pro.
 

GigabitEthernet

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 21, 2013
1,195
896
United Kingdom
There is a huge difference between 16GB and 8GB, in terms of memory pressure capability.
I can understand if you want to make 100% sure you don't ever have the same situation again, but 64GB is likely to be expensive overkill.

Even if I were to keep the machine for 8+ years like my last one?
 

mi7chy

macrumors G4
Oct 24, 2014
10,623
11,296
Even if I were to keep the machine for 8+ years like my last one?

If you don't have a set budget then max out. 32GB -> 64GB is +$400 so amortized over 8 years is ~$4/month vs having to buy a new device if workload happens to require >32GB. Otherwise, with set budget maybe consider more balanced 32GB + bigger SSD since endurance increases with larger size.
 
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ahurst

macrumors 6502
Oct 12, 2021
410
815
Even if I were to keep the machine for 8+ years like my last one?
I mean, maybe the demands of your specific workload will get heavy enough to need 32 GB over the next 8 years, but year-over-year growth in base RAM sizes has slowed considerably over the past decade (this plot is just for Mac SKUs, but it reflects broader industry trends as well):

1646452506332-png.1968088

Unless there's a major shake-up in RAM technology or RAM demands in the next 8 years, 16 GB RAM is will likely be equally or more usable in 2030 as 8 GB RAM is today, based on the trend line of the plot.
 

tpfang56

macrumors regular
Jul 1, 2021
183
328
Wow, I would never use an 8GB machine for any programming work, let alone using Docker (which I have no experience in, I only know that it's a heavy app.) Even when I'm doing basic web dev eg. CSS in the browser, I want 16GB as a safety net to accommodate a million open tabs.

My 16GB RAM MBA is able to handle most of my frankly fairly light/beginner work, but it's been dipping into the yellow when I start debugging Java code or use Citrix.
 
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alien3dx

macrumors 68020
Feb 12, 2017
2,193
524
Wow, I would never use an 8GB machine for any programming work, let alone using Docker (which I have no experience in, I only know that it's a heavy app.) Even when I'm doing basic web dev eg. CSS in the browser, I want 16GB as a safety net to accommodate a million open tabs.

My 16GB RAM MBA is able to handle most of my frankly fairly light/beginner work, but it's been dipping into the yellow when I start debugging Java code or use Citrix.
we do real programming 8 GB long time from 2010 till my imac broke and upgrade to 16 GB. 8GB for serious application development no problem. But if you stick with java ide it take a lot of memory. Visual Studio these day also hunger memory.

Betwen Visual Studio for mac and windows. We prefer mac version because low resources . It's all about flexibility .

I don't open million of tab, because we know limitation .
 
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ahurst

macrumors 6502
Oct 12, 2021
410
815
It hasn't been slowed. It has completely stopped growing.
I mean, on a long enough timeline I’m sure we’ll see the day where the lowest RAM a Mac ships with is 16 GB. It just looks like that’s at least 5 years out based on the current rate of progress: 8 GB has been a healthy amount of RAM for *most* users for a long time now.

Then again, who knows? Maybe now that phones are catching up to laptops in RAM capacity web developers will get lazier about optimizing and multiple tabs will start to fill up 8 GB faster, forcing the market.
 
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alien3dx

macrumors 68020
Feb 12, 2017
2,193
524
I mean, on a long enough timeline I’m sure we’ll see the day where the lowest RAM a Mac ships with is 16 GB. It just looks like that’s at least 5 years out based on the current rate of progress: 8 GB has been a healthy amount of RAM for *most* users for a long time now.

Then again, who knows? Maybe now that phones are catching up to laptops in RAM capacity web developers will get lazier about optimizing and multiple tabs will start to fill up 8 GB faster, forcing the market.
my vivo phone 8 GB ram and 128 GB space and it can get only 100 dollar or less .y31 . While my xr only ouch, 3 gb.

The problem browser today is about to cache all 100 tab or just zip em all in sqlite and retrieve back ? With video everywhere, the more browser use it ram.

The only conclusion some people in early day m1. 8 GB equivilant with 16 GB . Ram is ram. Space is Space . Only speed m1 can counter it but not for long.
 

MrGunnyPT

macrumors 65816
Mar 23, 2017
1,313
804
I don't think 8GB is decent at all for someone who multi tasks coming from a 8GB Air, I think the 16GB on my M1 Pro is more than enough

1646841159123.png
 
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