My Advice: Do not move from 27" to 24" iMac

[leifp]

In discussions of monitor size and multiple monitors here and elsewhere, the topic of multiple desktops or workspaces seems never to come up. I'm retired and do only typical home user things (except for virtual machines in VMware Fusion Player), but I always have four workspaces with keyboard shortcuts for switching and key apps pinned to the various workspaces. The only time my 20" monitor feels a bit cramped is when I need to copy from one window to paste into another, which requires resizing the two windows.

Glad that works for you! I have two 32” monitors with multiple spaces on each. One is dedicated to work apps and email/browsing (each in its own “space”) and the other has dedicated spaces to comms, to personal email, and to spare time browsers. I am constantly frustrated by moving between monitors! So I remove one… and that lasts about a week before I add the second screen back… turns out one monitor with 5 spaces is too annoying for me. Until I get annoyed by having two monitors again… and the cycle repeats.

And in typing this, I have determined a new constellation that I will try: work spaces, and personal spaces, on both monitors so that I have two screens on work or play at a time, rather than flitting between them. No idea if I’ll prefer that.

 

[phrehdd]

When the 24" M1 iMac came out, I tried it for about 6 months then sold it.

Went back to 27" with M1 Mini and ATD.

Then got the Mac Studio Max and 27" display + second 27" ATD.

Love it - have not changed.

Similar here - Studio Max with 27" monitor. Soon I'll include my iPad with the Mac as a graphics tool. I will say the Studio Max remains now as one of my favourite Mac purchases. Sometimes I wish the iMac was modular as in perhaps snapping on back a Mini for the guts and later, one can change it out and keep the display portion.

 

[MrGimper]

It doesn't matter how much is "used". What matters is memory pressure. My MacBook Pro has 32 GB of RAM and is "using" 18 GB with just Safari open (granted, I have about 40 tabs but only one is active) and TimeMachine running a backup (OneDrive, Dropbox, and other applications are open in the background). My memory pressure is minimal though. That means the RAM is "used" but is easily available for anything else when needed.

macOS isn't "memory hungry" so much as it allows applications to reserve RAM but the OS will take it back dynamically and reallocate as needed.

Unused RAM is wasted RAM. If it’s not being used for programs, you want it to be used for cache.

 

[phrehdd]

It doesn't matter how much is "used". What matters is memory pressure. My MacBook Pro has 32 GB of RAM and is "using" 18 GB with just Safari open (granted, I have about 40 tabs but only one is active) and TimeMachine running a backup (OneDrive, Dropbox, and other applications are open in the background). My memory pressure is minimal though. That means the RAM is "used" but is easily available for anything else when needed.

macOS isn't "memory hungry" so much as it allows applications to reserve RAM but the OS will take it back dynamically and reallocate as needed.

We will disagree. I have, and others, experienced pauses and slow downs when memory is poorly "managed." The OS doesn't always decided well who gets what but more about first come first served with some apps.

I rather have some unused RAM than not enough and having to depend on swapping on a regular basis.