Should I return my M3 MBP with 48GB to get 64GB ram?

[ChrisA]

Should I return my 48GB for 64GB M3 Max?

I upgraded from the 16GB M1 pro MBP because my memory pressure was too high and the performance was slacking. Right now I'm seeing the memory getting gobbled up but performance is decent. However, my M1 was also fine at first and then slowed down as my use increased.

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So the "problem" is only noticed if you run a special purpose tool (Activity Meter)? Do you have an problem while actually doing work and then ren Activity Meter to diagnose it. Replace the Mac only if the problem shows up in actual use.

I'd say if there is a problem here, it would be while running Windows apps. You have only given Windows 9 GB of RAM. That is only enough for very simple use.

Finally are you really using all of these apps at the same time or maybe some are in the background doing nothing but taking up space. If they are not in active use, let MacOS swap out their RAM.

 

[scottrichardson]

The more RAM you have installed, the more Mac OS will chew up and throw at the applications. I wouldn't stress.

I have a MacBook Pro M2 Max with 64GB of RAM...

I have open - and ALWAYS open:

- Photoshop open with 5 documents each over 1.5GB in size each
- Illustrator open
- Safari open with a bunch of tabs
- Mail
- Messages
- Notes
- Ableton LIVE music production with a massive electronic music track open
- Text Edit
- Calendar
- Sublime Text
- Codekit
- Github Desktop
- Pages
- Numbers
- Transmit FTP
- Apple Music

.... all running and not even a blip of a drop in performance..... even WITH the Ableton LIVE track running in the background on loop with dozens of layers

 

[scottrichardson]

So many people willing to spend other people's money.

On my M2 Air I had Photoshop, Lightroom, MSWord, MSExcel, PowerPoint, OneNote Pages, Numbers, KeyNote, DaVinci Resolve, Photos, Notes, Text, Mail, Contacts and Maps open at the same time. I was using about 9 Gig of memory and 0 SwapFile. I have 16 Gig of memory and a 1 TB SSD.

48 Gig is probably more than adequate for most mortals. A very select few would require more memory and they would know who they are. Rendering large 4K video with CGI would require large memory. If a person is into that, whether to purchase the maximum configuration is not even considered. They just do it.

If the buyer can afford the additional memory, and wants the additional memory, don't be asking for advice here. The buyer already knows the answer.

This is exactly my point above - your Mac is doing all that with less memory. If you had more memory, it would use up more for the exact same amount of apps, based on my experience.

 

[zach-coleman]

I reordered with 128gb ram. The screenshot I originally posted doesn't show the memory use with the second VM I occasionally run, nor tableau. I also edit 4k and 5k video from time to time and I'm not interested in closing everything down just to edit.

I have a friend who edits video for TV broadcast daily on a 16GB M1 Pro 14” (plugged into a big monitor). They just upgraded him to a 32 so he wouldn’t have to close stuff when doing more complex edits. He didn’t even struggle with 16 unless the segments got really long. There is no world where you need 64, much less 128. But it’s your money…

 

[watchmainspring]

I have a friend who edits video for TV broadcast daily on a 16GB M1 Pro 14” (plugged into a big monitor). They just upgraded him to a 32 so he wouldn’t have to close stuff when doing more complex edits. He didn’t even struggle with 16 unless the segments got really long. There is no world where you need 64, much less 128. But it’s your money…

When I got the M1 pro with 16GB of ram 2 years ago, I thought the same thing. Here I am letting history repeat itself where I buy the base ram offering and hope things work out in my favor. I am not convinced I should take that risk again.

 

[zach-coleman]

When I got the M1 pro with 16GB of ram 2 years ago, I thought the same thing. Here I am letting history repeat itself where I buy the base ram offering and hope things work out in my favor. I am not convinced I should take that risk again.

48GB is far from the “base” ram. It’s only the base for the configuration you currently are purchasing, and the Max doesn’t inherently chew 3x more ram than the Pro. But again, if you want to spend a brand new iPhone 15 Pro just on ram you will never use, thats your decision…

 

[Filmx]

As for me, I'm a photographer and I have the m3 max 16/40 48Gb version and I really think it's not bad at all! anyway, the more ram you have, the more the system memory expands, just to give you an example, Lightroom ran perfectly and didn't consume much ram on my M1 Pro 16gb then on my other M1 Pro 32gb it consumed more than twice as much without me seeing any difference and now it consumes even more on my M3 max 48gb and it'll be the same for the 64 or 96 gb ram version.

14" or 16"? How is the fan noise?

 

[watchmainspring]

14" or 16"? How is the fan noise?

16" none yet

 

[watchmainspring]

How often do you have every single program you use open at the same time? I’m going to be honest, I find the chances OP will even need 48GB in 2028 to be near zero. You can develop extremely complex software with 16, and edit production quality 4K video with 32. And the requirements aren’t going up that much year over year.

You couldn’t even get this much ram in a Mac laptop until recently, is OP a up and coming professional 8K HDR video editor?

I wish I was an 8k HDR video editor. Why is 64GB/96GB/128GB so readily on the menu? My first laptop had a 486 processor and I still have an Apple 2. I have learned that things can progress rather quickly. I got a Dell XPS in 2016 with 16GB of ram though and that would be usable by 99% of the population today, though.

As for me, I'm a photographer and I have the m3 max 16/40 48Gb version and I really think it's not bad at all! anyway, the more ram you have, the more the system memory expands, just to give you an example, Lightroom ran perfectly and didn't consume much ram on my M1 Pro 16gb then on my other M1 Pro 32gb it consumed more than twice as much without me seeing any difference and now it consumes even more on my M3 max 48gb and it'll be the same for the 64 or 96 gb ram version.

Nice. What else are you running simultaneously?

 

[zach-coleman]

Why is 64GB/96GB/128GB so readily on the menu?

Because if Apple didn’t make it, no Mac would have it. And if no Mac had it, Windows would own the entire ultra high performance market. It’s for extremely intense production settings like CGI in movies or extremely large machine learning datasets.

And honestly, I’m not so sure that $5,000 for a single laptop is “readily available.” That could buy a passable used car not that long ago.

 

[mdhaus72]

What makes the RAM discussion especially silly is that the machines are literally designed to expand their footprint into the RAM pool that they are given. So if you have 16 GB, it will utilize it fully. 32 GB? It will expand the program use accordingly. And the same with 64, 96 and 128. They are extremely efficient in how they manage RAM usage, utilizing the super-fast SSDs as needed. This is why most of the time, 16 GB is great for most people, or perhaps 32 GB if they will be doing a lot of heavy lifting. The OP would have been fine with 48 GB and he won’t see much if any difference with the 128.

 

[watchmainspring]

What makes the RAM discussion especially silly is that the machines are literally designed to expand their footprint into the RAM pool that they are given. So if you have 16 GB, it will utilize it fully. 32 GB? It will expand the program use accordingly. And the same with 64, 96 and 128. They are extremely efficient in how they manage RAM usage, utilizing the super-fast SSDs as needed. This is why most of the time, 16 GB is great for most people, or perhaps 32 GB if they will be doing a lot of heavy lifting. The OP would have been fine with 48 GB and he won’t see much if any difference with the 128.

I'm thinking of cancelling the 128gb order. I am not sure where memory demands will be in two years, that's my concern still.

 

[raythompsontn]

I am not sure where memory demands will be in two years, that's my concern still.

Look at history. There are a lot of 8 Gig Macs still operational that are 4, 5, or 6 years old. The size of the software has not doubled in the last 10 years, increased yes, but not doubled. I worked with 32 Gig on my Windows PC for 7 years without issue. I now have 64 Gig on my Windows PC. No real difference in memory needs. Faster because of the M.2 SSD, not because of memory.

In two years you will still be in a good position with 64 Gig of memory. You will still be good in four years. Unless you start rendering large CGI projects in 8K.

I run Lightroom and Photoshop on my M2 Air with 16 Gig. Runs about the same as Lightroom and Photoshop on my 64 Gig Windows system.

You can save a lot of money and drop down to 64 Gig and be good for many years in my opinion. Also, it is your money, spend how you want and if want, and can afford 128 Gig, it is your choice.

 

[Mega ST]

I would love to have some better step by step RAM upgrade options on the MBP16 M3 MAX beyond 36 megs without having to pick the very top chip option. If I get such a nice machine it feels like a possible built in bottleneck coming up with "only " 36 megs for a lot of money.

 

[watchmainspring]

This is what I inferred from your responses.

 

[Hopefully Smarter]

No. Your RAM is fine.

Get rid of Chrome.

 

[SuperPuppet]

I hope the OP doesn’t mind if I jump into this with my own question. I’m mainly planning to use FCP/Photoshop but see myself heading to Davinci Resolve eventually. I had the MBP M3 Max 64GB/4TB in the cart but figured the 4TB storage was probably excess to what I’ll need and I swapped it out for 2TB & increased ram to 128GB.
No particular question but I would appreciate any constructive observation.
Thanks, and Happy New Year to all.

 

[SuperPuppet]

One should buy for life cycle RAM needs, not for today. So think about how much RAM OS and apps may be able to take advantage of over the expected life cycle of the computer rather than about memory pressure today. The fact that Apple now options up to 128 GB in MBPs (a huge increase over Intel MBPs) probably gives us a good clue as to where Apple thinks RAM usage is going.

Why limit an expensive computer by installing less than optimum RAM for the life cycle? Personally I would prefer M2 Max and more RAM over M3 if price is limiting the purchase. Plus M2 Max is stronger than M3 Pro. Personally I would get M2 Max MBP with 96 GB RAM (and I did).

Yep. Agree with that. Max 2 over Pro 3 every time.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

I hope the OP doesn’t mind if I jump into this with my own question. I’m mainly planning to use FCP/Photoshop but see myself heading to Davinci Resolve eventually. I had the MBP M3 Max 64GB/4TB in the cart but figured the 4TB storage was probably excess to what I’ll need and I swapped it out for 2TB & increased ram to 128GB.
No particular question but I would appreciate any constructive observation.
Thanks, and Happy New Year to all.

I agree totally. We can add less costly external SSD capacity but we cannot add RAM in the future. IMO most workflows will need RAM over time, but images workflows need RAM right now.

 

[henrikhelmers]

IMO most workflows will need RAM over time, but images workflows need RAM right now.

I disagree. What do you need RAM for? I would rather have more fast storage to hold proxy clips to avoid having more flaky SSDs hanging.

With image editing it might make sense, if you use many layers. But then you would know, just check what your current setup is using.

It is viable to edit 8k video or 400Mp RAW files with 16 GB RAM. You could probably benefit from more though. But 64 to 128? Not even sure you would be able to tell.

 

[SuperPuppet]

It is viable to edit 8k video or 400Mp RAW files with 16 GB RAM. You could probably benefit from more though. But 64 to 128? Not even sure you would be able to tell.

 

[SuperPuppet]

“You could probably benefit from more though. But 64 to 128? Not even sure you would be able to tell”.

Today. But let’s say it’s a 7 year investment. What’s the odds 64 GB will be sufficient in 3, say 5 years time?

 

[raythompsontn]

What’s the odds 64 GB will be sufficient in 3, say 5 years time?

Probably 100%. I know many people running the same applications they were using 10 years ago with the same amount of memory they were using 10 years ago.

 

[zach-coleman]

Probably 100%. I know many people running the same applications they were using 10 years ago with the same amount of memory they were using 10 years ago.

Not to mention they still sell Macs with 8GB. I’m not saying it’s great but it’s unlikely it’s going to go above 16 anytime soon…

 

[raythompsontn]

Not to mention they still sell Macs with 8GB

Windows laptops are still being sold, new machines, with 4GB of memory. For the intended purpose they work fine. Until about a year ago I was running Lightroom and Photoshop, at the same time, on a machine with only 8GB. Seemed to run just fine, for my needs.

I fully expect my M2 Air to still be performing nicely 10 years from with 16GB of memory. I will not notice any performance difference in 2033 compared to 2023 when I purchased the machine. The battery is an entirely different concern.

Those that need lots of memory know who they are and should not be here begging for advice.