POLL: How much RAM do you use for your Mac Mini or iMac or MacBook?

[Mac Hammer Fan]

Some people choose for 8 GB RAM and others for 16 GB or even more. What did you do or will you do?
I am only interested in what you choose, no need for a debate.
This is not a buying advice.

 

[ignatius345]

Good god. This has been debated absolutely to death in thousands of posts at this point. Enough.

 

[frou]

32GB if you are paying. Very kind of you.

 

[curnalpanic]

Depends on what you are doing with the computer.

 

[smirking]

Oh boy, if there's anything we need is another RAM thread.

What's even the point here? It's all about the person using it. There is no right amount. If it's mine, it's 32GB. If it's for my wife, it's 8GB.

 

[Mac Hammer Fan]

Good god. This has been debated absolutely to death in thousands of posts at this point. Enough.

No need to debate. I am just curious in the votes.

 

[azentropy]

I've bought 8GB, but wouldn't buy 8GB going forward.

 

[picpicmac]

Let's see... I'm in the market, waiting for the rest of the M3 lineup to be unveiled, so lets do some weighted responses:

1) 40% chance I'll get a new, base spec, Mini M3 Pro, so .4x18GB;
3) 30% chance I'll get a new, 16GB spec Mini M3, so .3x16GB;
3) 30% chance I'll get a new, 24GB spec iMac M3, so .3x24GB.

If I do my math correctly, that comes to 19.2GB. Not unusual.

But please read my signature line, if you want to interpret your poll.

 

[cubbie5150]

For the M2 mini I am thinking about buying purely for use as a headless music streamer (connected via USB directly to a DAC and controlled by my MBP and maybe iPhone using screen sharing)? I might opt for 16GB RAM. If I was buying a mini for actual daily use/work, I'd likely go for a M2 Pro & max it out to 32GB RAM.

 

[0339327]

Daily e-mail / web browsing: 16 GB.

Editing M2 Max MBP for on the go: 32+

Main edit computer as a daily work beast: 256 in my 2019 MP

 

[MRxROBOT]

On my main machine, a 16" MBP M2 Max, I have 96GB of RAM.

 

[AlixSPQR]

I bought 16 GB for my Mac mini Late 2012 back in 2013. First thing that I did. Still running.

 

[TVreporter]

40GB in my 2019 i5 iMac - runs great.

 

[Boyd01]

64gb in my 2018 (Intel) Mini. Running Windows 10 in a 32gb VM most of the time and total memory use is typically over 50gb, right now it says I only have 5gb free. I plan to keep this machine as long as possible, I also use MacOS Mountain Lion and Sierra VM's sometimes, and none of this would really be possible on Apple Silicon.

 

[Juicy Box]

Some people choose for 8 GB RAM and others for 16 GB or even more. What did you do or will you do?

The poll is flawed, why limit the number of options to pick to just one? What about the many people that have multiple Macs with different uses and RAM amounts?

Also, why is this listed under the Mac Mini sub-forum?

 

[Mac Hammer Fan]

The poll is flawed, why limit the number of options to pick to just one? What about the many people that have multiple Macs with different uses and RAM amounts?

Also, why is this listed under the Mac Mini sub-forum?

Sorry for the inconvenience, but I made two options possible now and I can't list it under the main desktop forum.

 

[Boyd01]

Moderator note: instead of posting about it, if you feel a thread is in the wrong forum, just click the Report button on the first post and ask to have it moved. The moderators will review the thread and move it, if appropriate.

 

[Juicy Box]

Sorry for the inconvenience, but I made two options possible now

Thanks. Although, it doesn't make sense to me to limit it at all.

For example, I have three AS Mac Minis, one 8GB, one 16GB, and one 32GB. Doubt I am the only one. Which should I choose?

Another suggestion is to a "Less than 8GB" and "Other - List Below", as I have a daily used MBA with only 4GB of RAM, and a daily used Mac Pro with 11GB of RAM. Again, doubt I am the only one that has daily used Macs that do not fit in the poll.

Moderator note: instead of posting about it, if you feel a thread is in the wrong forum, just click the Report button on the first post and ask to have it moved. The moderators will review the thread and move it, if appropriate.

Noted, thanks.

 

[MBAir2010]

well my MacBook Pro 2012 only has upgradable RAM which is 16, as my vote indicated.
while I have 4GBs on the MacBook Air 2010 which is enough for
both Snow leopard and Mountain Lion.

 

[Juicy Box]

Of my currently daily-used Macs I have the following:
Three with 32GB of RAM
Two with 16GB of RAM
One with 11GB of RAM
One with 8GB of RAM
One (maybe two) with 4GB of RAM

Just recently added a Late 2009 iMac with 4GB of RAM as well, but not sure if I should count that as its only purpose is to be used as a display for one of my AS Mac Minis.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Some people choose for 8 GB RAM and others for 16 GB or even more. What did you do or will you do?
I am only interested in what you choose, no need for a debate.
This is not a buying advice.

In more years of Mac use than pretty much anyone not working for Apple in 1984, I have always wanted more RAM by the time I moved up to a newer box. Always. And I always have bought the max RAM available, or added it when we used to be able to do that with lower-tech RAM.

So discussions around intentionally limiting to 8 GB or 16 GB RAM make no sense to me except for the very lowest end usages. Those amounts will make most new boxes operate sub-optimally before their life cycles end; often actually shortening life cycles. It is all about choice.

Edit: Note that of course one can do good things with less RAM. The point is about what choices one makes when building a new box. Forever limiting a new box to sub-optimal operation due to low RAM is poor decision making IMO. And, buying a new box is not about what usage one did last week, it is about 2029. Apps/OS demands always grow.

 

[Rychiar]

My old imac had 40. My current mini has 8 but was a $499 computer. It impresses me at that price… It’s just a stop gap machine til i buy a Mac Studio with either 64 or 96 though.

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

I currently have 16 and that works well for whatever I personally chuck at it.
If I were to buy a new one now and had the money, I'd go for more just for future proofing, but 16 GB is perfectly fine for me.

The laptop I'm writing this on, however, has 8 and for what I'm doing on the laptop, that's also perfectly fine, but I think I'm more willing to make slight compromises on a laptop than on a desktop.

 

[Populus]

I've bought 8GB, but wouldn't buy 8GB going forward.

I’ve been on 8GB of RAM most of my Mac-life, it started when I purchased a 2010 13” MacBook Pro with 4GB that I easily upgraded to 8GB. That was on 2012.

Since then, my next Mac, my current 2014 Mac mini with already soldered RAM, has 8GB as well.

I’m wishing to upgrade to an M3 or M4 Mac mini, and get it with 18, 24 or maybe even 36GB of RAM, in order to have a good computer for many, many years.

 

[Zdigital2015]

Oh boy, if there's anything we need is another RAM thread.

What's even the point here? It's all about the person using it. There is no right amount. If it's mine, it's 32GB. If it's for my wife, it's 8GB.

I got 64GB on my iMac and 8GB on my M1 13” MacBook Pro, if that doesn’t muddy the waters further I don’t know what would.

I have pushed the 13” MBP well beyond what I thought it could handle and other than apps taking a bit longer to load, I’ve never encountered any issues. But, the debate will range on.