OK crew,
I'm deciding if I'll splurge on 32gb of ram or not. I'm mostly a casual user, but considering adding 32gb for a few reasons:
Pros:
- would better support xcode/programming
- would be much better for any needed VMs (though not even sure what i'd use now since no Windows support)
- I tend to keep my laptops for a very long time (though may change this pattern)
- 16gb feels ancient to me. My 2015 macbook from 6 years ago has 16gb!
Cons:
- +$400 most likely
- I was able to buy $2800 of apple gift cards at 20% off (target), which means that it would cover a 1tb/16gb model most likely. It also means that the additional $400 of cost wouldn't get that 20% off making it even more expensive
- Base model macbooks tend to hold their value the best when you look at depreciation
- Integrated RAM is more performant than old DDR style ram, but obviously is still limited
What's your vote? 16gb or splurge on 32gb? I think at $300 or less I'd pay for the upgrade but I doubt that's happening based on the other models.
I'm going to get 32 GB because:
-My 2019 16" had 32 GB and while it might have been overkill, I'm not going to "downgrade".
-The early reviews of M1 machines pointed out that they used a lot of RAM, and if the RAM was inadequate, the SSD was being used at a higher rate (or something like that, I don't remember, but it freaked me out).
-I want the highest graphics option, which presumably will require more RAM since it will be shared.
-I agree 16 GB feels old. My 2016 13" MBP had that and five years later, I feel it's time to move on. SSD storage keeps increasing, RAM in the iPhones has increased since then, time to get the next step up.
I'm just hoping that rumor that the 32-core GPU will require 64 GB of RAM is not true.