Users of Macs with 256GB SSD... what apps do you use that requires more than 2GB/s read/writes?

[sam_dean]

Off the top of my head it needs to be faster for 4K video editing.

I can't imagine opening a Word file would require more than 0.2GB/s.

Makes me wish we can at the very least upgrade SSD ourselves via a m.2 NVMe SSD that can do 7.5GB/s or faster.

 

[rm5]

I have an M1 MacBook Air, so it's not affected by the "one NAND chip" problem.

I'd say mainly for hosting sample libraries, I require at least 1.5 GB/s read and write. I have some libraries on my internal drive, but most on an external SSD (SanDisk Extreme Pro 1 TB), because I just don't have enough disk space for all my 400+ GB of samples. Other than that, it's just convenient having a fast SSD—I can install DaVinci Resolve, which is a 5.5 GB installation, in less than 15 seconds.

That's about it. Anyone else?

 

[netnewswireuser]

No app "needs" 2GB/s read/writes but every app benefits from it.

For example, OS mem swapping (downloading/uploading RAM to disk) requires much more than 2GB/s to be transparent to the user, in fact, even 7GB/s is not enough and the user will perceive slowdowns when the OS is swapping.

So the faster the better even if no app "requires" it.

 

[leman]

For example, OS mem swapping (downloading/uploading RAM to disk) requires much more than 2GB/s to be transparent to the user, in fact, even 7GB/s is not enough and the user will perceive slowdowns when the OS is swapping.

Swapping is about latency, not bandwidth.

 

[handheldgames]

A computer being sold in 2023 with 256GB of SSD storage is an insult to everyone. No one makes 256GB SSD's for a reason, they should be obsolete. Apple leadership should be ashamed, but they are laughing all the way to the bank...

 

[i486dx2-66]

Swapping is about latency, not bandwidth.

It takes both in balance. Either one being sufficiently off would impact the end result.

 

[Jack Neill]

Finder.

 

[smirking]

A computer being sold in 2023 with 256GB of SSD storage is an insult to everyone. No one makes 256GB SSD's for a reason, they should be obsolete. Apple leadership should be ashamed, but they are laughing all the way to the bank...

I sometimes repair PC laptops and older Macs for friends and family who can't afford stuff. Before I touch their laptop, I'll typically clone their entire filesystem. 256GB is not only fine for most of them, but actually overkill. Many of them don't even come close to filling up a 128GB drive. I've done my share of 3.5" HDD to SSD upgrades for people and most of the time I order a 128GB SSD because I can't see them ever needing more based on how they've used their computers.

I'm sure 256GB would be a joke to you. It certainly is for me, but not everyone is like you and me.

 

[handheldgames]

I sometimes repair PC laptops and older Macs for friends and family who can't afford stuff. Before I touch their laptop, I'll typically clone their entire filesystem. 256GB is not only fine for most of them, but actually overkill. Many of them don't even come close to filling up a 128GB drive. I've done my share of 3.5" HDD to SSD upgrades for people and most of the time I order a 128GB SSD because I can't see them ever needing more based on how they've used their computers.

I'm sure 256GB would be a joke to you. It certainly is for me, but not everyone is like you and me.

A 256GB NAND costs 1.10 and lets be honest 256GB is barely enough for Macos some apps and NO data. I don't buy it and unfortunately too many do.

 

[smirking]

A 256GB NAND costs 1.10 and lets be honest 256GB is barely enough for Macos some apps and NO data. I don't buy it and unfortunately too many do.

What is it that you don't buy? That those people who don't even use 128GB exist?

 

[sam_dean]

A computer being sold in 2023 with 256GB of SSD storage is an insult to everyone. No one makes 256GB SSD's for a reason, they should be obsolete. Apple leadership should be ashamed, but they are laughing all the way to the bank...

256GB SSD in 2023 has a place.

Not within a

- $599 Mac mini
- $1199 MBA
- $1299 MBP 13"
- $1299 iMac 24"

It should in a Mac with 3nm A17 Bionic

- $699 Macbook 12"
- $299 Mac mini using a 2022 Apple TV 4K enclosure

 

[tstafford]

A 256GB NAND costs 1.10 and lets be honest 256GB is barely enough for Macos some apps and NO data. I don't buy it and unfortunately too many do.

What? While you can make the case that 256GB is too small for many, saying it's "barely enough for MaxOS and some apps" is just incorrect. Just looked at my Studio storage and I'm using 83GB which includes some apps and obviously the OS as well. It's not going to go up much from there as the vast majority of my data is stored in the cloud. There are definitely those of us that don't need a 1TB or bigger drive.

 

[Jack Neill]

$299 Mac mini using a 2022 Apple TV 4K enclosure

I would totally buy that in a heartbeat. I have some HP thin clients setup for the kids that a ARM Mac could replace perfectly.

 

[sam_dean]

I would totally buy that in a heartbeat. I have some HP thin clients setup for the kids that a ARM Mac could replace perfectly.

Even if it has 8GB RAM & 256GB SSD for $299?

 

[Jack Neill]

Even if it has 8GB RAM & 256GB SSD for $299?

8Gb on a M1 works great and 256 would be fine for what my kids do with computers. At 599$ that's a little to steep for the use case.

 

[i486dx2-66]

lets be honest 256GB is barely enough for Macos some apps and NO data.

Which apps are you using that they are occupying 240GB+ of storage? 😆

 

[Jack Neill]

Which apps are you using that they are occupying 240GB+ of storage? 😆

My photo library is 150Gb and my music library is 580GB. I have about 50Gb in apps, so sans libraries I could live on 256 and I do on my 2017 MBP but then I need to use an external which I do, as I have a 1TB T5 that works nicely but having everything onboard storage is much more preferable. My M1/16/1TB has everything and it's wonderful being able to go drive free. I would also say that 256 is still the base option in most x86 laptops as well, I bought my kids mom a Samsung Galaxy book for her birthday/Christmas in Dec and it came with and i5/8/256 and it was 700$. It's more than enough for her needs running Windows 11 Home.

 

[MBAir2010]

My MacBook Air M1 with 256 GB ssd 8GB of ram works great!
very great!

the day I worry about
"what apps do I use that requires more than 2GB/s read/writes"
is the day I only read paper books for entertainment and drawing cartoons on.

which will be blessing for many here, since I won't type on a computer.....

 

[Toutou]

lets be honest 256GB is barely enough for Macos some apps and NO data

Not this again. Some people just aren’t data hoarders. I’m a fully functioning person, with a job, interests and hobbies, my 256 GB MacBook is my only machine for work and personal stuff. I have my whole photo library there (around 15 GB), my dev software, my accounting stuff, docs, but no games (PlayStation), music (Spotify) or movies (Disney and HBO streaming). Still more than 90 GB left.

 

[AirpodsNow]

What is it that you don't buy? That those people who don't even use 128GB exist?

I know plenty of people just using their computers for surfing and and doing some of the “office / administration“ stuff. I would also expect some businesses have very low requirements like at The entrance of restaurant you see them sometimes with a computer to check the latest reservations etc.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that is also the most sold model as well.

 

[Analog Kid]

I have an M1 MacBook Air, so it's not affected by the "one NAND chip" problem.

I'd say mainly for hosting sample libraries, I require at least 1.5 GB/s read and write. I have some libraries on my internal drive, but most on an external SSD (SanDisk Extreme Pro 1 TB), because I just don't have enough disk space for all my 400+ GB of samples. Other than that, it's just convenient having a fast SSD—I can install DaVinci Resolve, which is a 5.5 GB installation, in less than 15 seconds.

That's about it. Anyone else?

Why do you think you require at least 1.5GB/s? I don't mean to imply you don't need what you say you do, but you gave enough information about how you use it that I thought it would be interesting to look at in more detail.

I'm assuming you mean audio sample libraries. I'm not sure how you've encoded your samples, but Apple Lossless would use either 16bit/44.1kHz or 24bit/192kHz per channel, likely stereo, and a typical compression ratio of 1:2. That would be somewhere about 88kB/s and 576kB/s.

1.5GB/s would provide between 2,600 and 17,000 simultaneous lossless sample streams. That seems like... alot...

The other sign that you may not need 1.5GB/s is that you're currently using a SanDisk Extreme Pro (portable?) drive. That drive only provides 1GB/s over USB3.2. (It advertises as 2GB/s, but that's only over USB 3.2 2x2 which Macs don't support).

If you installed a 5.5GB application in 15sec, only 2.4sec were spent writing that 5.5GB on your 2.3GB/s drive, and the remaining 13sec were spent processing (presumably decompressing and such). On a 1.3GB/s drive you'd spend 4.2s writing data plus the overhead so about 17sec.

I mean straight arithmetic is never spot on, but even assuming a lot of variance for real world conditions, it doesn't seem like these uses have you SSD limited here at 1.5GB/s.

 

[smirking]

For example, OS mem swapping (downloading/uploading RAM to disk) requires much more than 2GB/s to be transparent to the user, in fact, even 7GB/s is not enough and the user will perceive slowdowns when the OS is swapping.

I spent a couple of weeks running a very heavy workload on an 8GB M1 a couple of years ago. I was intentionally trying to crush it under a massive wave of swap. I expected it to be a disaster. It wasn't.

I also have had to borrow my wife's 2018 i5 8GB MBA a few times for work purposes. I went from a loaded 32GB i7 to that. It wasn't bad. It was slower, but not so much that I'd notice if I wasn't watching for it. The only time where the difference was obvious was when I had to compile something in XCode.

Most people are not going to have XCode installed much less be compiling something on it. Some people here definitely need the RAM. Most of us here just have RAM Anxiety.

 

[Ben J.]

People talking about audio sample libraries are likely to refer to programs and virtual instruments that loads gigs of data before they are operational, so faster drive means faster loading.

I just bought a M2/16gb mini and saved money on going with the 256 drive. I already had music, video, photos, etc on external 2.M NVMe drives with around 1300MB/s r/w speeds. I managed to get the data on the internal drive down to 50% free space by moving stuff from internal to external and using symlinks, aliases.

System, apps, all essential files are still on the internal 256, that's about 120GB, and if I unplug every external, everything works except for a couple of sampler VIs.

Coming from a M1 mini 16/512, The internal on the M2 is half the speed of what I had, 1500MB/s, but it makes no difference. Startup and apps launches are even faster than on M1 with its 3000mb r/w speed.

 

[Ethosik]

General rule for these massive YouTube videos and threads. If you are buying SSDs for swap memory speeds, you are solving the wrong problem. Avoid more swapping by upping the RAM you get. Other than a recent bug I experienced with Davinci Resolve. My Mac Studio and MacBook Pros do not experience ANY swap issues in my work. I have fully maxed out systems except storage. You can't solve swapping completely, even my 128GB of RAM system working on a 1080p video swapped a few GBs throughout the day.

Also, there are people that do not put a lot on their internal storage. I work exclusively on external SSDs. Therefore, even though I have macOS and dozens of applications installed. I am only using 160GB of my 4TB. I could get by with 256 if I had to.

I can still run my business on my 2010 Mac Pro, which is not only limited to SATA speeds, but SATA 2 speeds. They are SSDs but limited to just 250MB/s and it works just fine. 8K Red requires only 280MB/s

 

[jlc1978]

Coming from a M1 mini 16/512, The internal on the M2 is half the speed of what I had, 1500MB/s, but it makes no difference. Startup and apps launches are even faster than on M1 with its 3000mb r/w speed.

And that is the key - a difference that makes no difference is meaningless. What counts is real world performance, not random specs.