What to do: 14" M1Pro with 16 or 32 Gb memory

[SimonQ]

I rang Apple support four times to get four different views and all said 100% go for 16GB for my usage.

Below I have pasted my memory usage form Activity Monitor (which will not change over time other than maybe using Logic Pro X sometimes - I have also pasted the many apps that I have open). It shows that I am sometimes bumping up against it with 8GB (and Intel i5) but only just. Given that I won't really change how I use a Mac (I won't start editing video etc) surely moving to 16GB should be enough and I can save the $A600 rather than having 32GB just in case I somehow double the memory demand of what I am doing now (not sure how I could so that - add another 20 open apps)?

The only thing I was then worried is whether the M1 Pro uses more RAM than my Intel MBP and I end up short. But it seems than more, you need LESS RAM in an M1 Mac:

Why M1 Macs Need Less Ram

Apple M1 macs has shown that with only 8GB, it can out perform PCs with double or even quadruple the RAM size. The answer to the mystery of how this is possible is Apple stance to optimize the marriage of software and hardware to reach the common goal: process as much I/O as possible. However...

techjourneyman.com

how-much-ram-do-you-really-need-on-an-m1-mac-4a6c287c0d91

Could these chips get any better? Wowsers!

So 16GB with the less RAM hungry M1 chip should be heaps for someone like me. Unless smarter people here see flaws in my logic.

Thanks, love this forum.

 

[dead flag blues]

I ordered a new 16” today with 16GB. I’ll kick the tires pretty hard, and if it’s not up to snuff, it goes back in favor of something else. I’m on a 2 year refresh rate, and the 64GB in my 2019 16” has been largely unused. Lesson learned.

 

[macintoshmac]

The way I approach future-proofing is assessing my needs today and for next 3-5 years. If I feel I might be doing wildly different thing after 3-5 years, no point in future-proofing now, just buy appropriate tech then which would also be better at whatever wildness I can think of.

If I foresee some workload increase that would require some more processing power and memory, I will figure out how much headroom do I have today. As of right now, nothing the cheapest M1 Pro can’t do, right? It’s good enough. Memory of 16 GB is also largely adequate for 95% of cases unless you’re into heavy deployments such as virtual machines and compiling and encoding.

 

[MrGunny94]

I need some opinions regarding 16GB vs 32GB for the upcoming MBP 14", please check my print screens below.

I rang Apple support four times to get four different views and all said 100% go for 16GB for my usage.

Below I have pasted my memory usage form Activity Monitor (which will not change over time other than maybe using Logic Pro X sometimes - I have also pasted the many apps that I have open). It shows that I am sometimes bumping up against it with 8GB (and Intel i5) but only just. Given that I won't really change how I use a Mac (I won't start editing video etc) surely moving to 16GB should be enough and I can save the $A600 rather than having 32GB just in case I somehow double the memory demand of what I am doing now (not sure how I could so that - add another 20 open apps)?

The only thing I was then worried is whether the M1 Pro uses more RAM than my Intel MBP and I end up short. But it seems than more, you need LESS RAM in an M1 Mac:

Why M1 Macs Need Less Ram

Apple M1 macs has shown that with only 8GB, it can out perform PCs with double or even quadruple the RAM size. The answer to the mystery of how this is possible is Apple stance to optimize the marriage of software and hardware to reach the common goal: process as much I/O as possible. However...

techjourneyman.com

how-much-ram-do-you-really-need-on-an-m1-mac-4a6c287c0d91

Could these chips get any better? Wowsers!

So 16GB with the less RAM hungry M1 chip should be heaps for someone like me. Unless smarter people here see flaws in my logic.

Thanks, love this forum.

View attachment 1872948
View attachment 1872949

Honestly the big problem right is with apps using rosetta.

Look at my print screen below this is the moment I fired Teams, the graph and memory pressure went crazy.

Now let's look at me doing my normal workflow including VDI to take some of the effort from the local machine for compiling and HDB connections.

And here's my memory pressure for the last 30 days.

 

[Jára Tyky]

I ordered M1 Max with 32 GB RAM because I want to have Paralels and Windows 11 as second system.
What do you think? Is 16 GB for two OS enough? I just do not like the price of RAM upgrade as well, so I am thinking about changing it

 

[arvinsim]

I ordered a new 16” today with 16GB. I’ll kick the tires pretty hard, and if it’s not up to snuff, it goes back in favor of something else. I’m on a 2 year refresh rate, and the 64GB in my 2019 16” has been largely unused. Lesson learned.

Don't you think it's better to be on the safe side and upgrade to 32GB?

 

[arvinsim]

I ordered M1 Max with 32 GB RAM because I want to have Paralels and Windows 11 as second system.
What do you think? Is 16 GB for two OS enough? I just do not like the price of RAM upgrade as well, so I am thinking about changing it

Err, you can't run both OS at the same time so RAM is irrelevant.

You should look into the SSD configuration instead.

I am an idiot. This guy is running VMs

 

[Acronyc]

Initially I just ordered the base model (with a delivery date of the 29th), but after thinking about it a lot over the past few days I cancelled my order and ordered a different configuration.

I tend to keep my Macs for 4 to 5 years and I have been on 16Gb of RAM ever since I bought my 2012 retina MBP. That's almost 10 years and 16GB is starting to feel a bit limiting, so I decided that 32GB of RAM should easily last me the next five years.

I also ended up upgrading to the 10 core M1 Max CPU but sticking with the 24 core GPU. I debated between this and the 1TB of SSD, but right now I'm only using 300GB in my 1TB M1 MBP and since the SD card slot is back I can always use that as a way to add a bit of storage for music, movies, and other media.

My total came to $3,100 here in Europe and that is about $1,000 more than I wanted to spend, but, I'll be getting a Mac that will last me the next 5 years. Plus I'll sell my M1 MBP (it was a stopgap purchase in the summer) and my old iPhone 11 so that should help make up at least half of the cost.

Still, I have never spent this much on a Mac. The little upgrades of a few hundred here and there really add up.

My delivery date has now moved to between November 29th and December 6th.

 

[Ynk]

I ordered M1 Max with 32 GB RAM because I want to have Paralels and Windows 11 as second system.
What do you think? Is 16 GB for two OS enough? I just do not like the price of RAM upgrade as well, so I am thinking about changing it

I assume you know you can only run the arm version of the Windows insider build and so will have limitations on what you can do/run within your Windows VM - it will really come down to what Windows applications you want to run and how snappy you need it to be and if you need it running all the time.

Almost all normal use would make more sense to do outside of Windows so say a 4GB VM - What mac do you have now, is 8-12GB enough for your current needs?

 

[DennisdeWit]

Or you could rent a VM with Windows on it and run your stuff there. I have my own dedicated server at the datacenter, so I run my Windows stuff there. It makes 16GB a very sensible choice.

 

[Blue Sun]

Or you could rent a VM with Windows on it and run your stuff there. I have my own dedicated server at the datacenter, so I run my Windows stuff there. It makes 16GB a very sensible choice.

In a recent video from Max Yuryev he mentioned that 16GB of unified memory in an M1 Mac is more akin to 32GB of RAM in an Intel machine. So yeah, I think you’re right. 16GB of unified memory will be more than enough for most owners of these MBPs.

 

[Koni17]

In a recent video from Max Yuryev he mentioned that 16GB of unified memory in an M1 Mac is more akin to 32GB of RAM in an Intel machine. So yeah, I think you’re right. 16GB of unified memory will be more than enough for most owners of these MBPs.

I think we're just going to have to wait for reviews on this to know for sure. At this point, I would probably just cancel my order and change it to a different configuration according to what the first reviews indicate next week.

 

[tdbrown75]

In a recent video from Max Yuryev he mentioned that 16GB of unified memory in an M1 Mac is more akin to 32GB of RAM in an Intel machine. So yeah, I think you’re right. 16GB of unified memory will be more than enough for most owners of these MBPs.

By that argument the 8GB M1 machine should act like 16GB on Intel, and as an owner of an M1 w/ 8GB, I can tell you that it certainly does not. And again Apple doubled the baseline specs on the top config. If the RAM was truly more efficient, why not lower or at least keep the same?

Tim

 

[tdbrown75]

I think we're just going to have to wait for reviews on this to know for sure. At this point, I would probably just cancel my order and change it to a different configuration according to what the first reviews indicate next week.

I'm thinking you are right, at $400 to go to 32GB it makes sense to wait for those sensitive to the extra cost.

Tim

 

[GoodGuy313]

In a recent video from Max Yuryev he mentioned that 16GB of unified memory in an M1 Mac is more akin to 32GB of RAM in an Intel machine. So yeah, I think you’re right. 16GB of unified memory will be more than enough for most owners of these MBPs.

This.

As in my experience, I was using a 2017 15” with 16GB of RAM in 2020 for a lot of video edits in FCP. There were some slowdowns and memory warnings. Decided to try the M1 MBP base with 8GB and wow! No issues until I decided to go overboard and edit a 70 participants piano project ? but it did manage to pull through. With this in mind, decided to upgrade to a 14” with 10-CPU/14-GPU with 16GB. Also, the new RAM is LPDDR5 which is faster and more power efficient.

 

[tdbrown75]

@tdbrown75 So now you cancelled based on a decision you made because someone on a forum is making you doubt. I would first try 16GB RAM. If it’s not enough, I can always return. But you still can not compare this stuff.

Actually I was doubting prior to reading this thread, that's the reason I ended up here in the first place. Keeping an eye on my memory usage this AM, I've hit 13GB used a handful of times and I'm not even editing anything or working intense tasks. Nor am I running external displays at the moment.

Add to that the Cached File usage, and whatever Video Memory usage might be, and if I had more than 16GB I'm certain the machine would utilize it as my cache reduces as the memory loads. Cached files speed machine performance, one of the benefits of a Linux based OS.

Even if the M1 Pro is more efficient at memory usage, for my use case I feel 32 is a better choice. I totally agree baseline is fine for most (it always is). But I'm not most users, as evidenced by my usage. I don't mind spending the extra money and having some overhead for growth, I do the same with processors and storage.

Same with the OP, he's running a very similar workload to me and also runs VMs. He should also invest in the extra memory. I understand you have VMs in a DC somewhere, and that's awesome, but many of us must run our workloads locally and can benefit from the extra RAM.

Tim

 

[shower999]

I went for 16GB RAM. I took 10/16 core CPU/GPU though. Apple have been doing good job on RAM management and I didn’t need that much RAM like windows. If you don’t need it day 1. You don’t need it in 5 years. Unless you upgrade or other reason.

to prove it, I have a 2015 MBP 8GB RAM and it’s still working fine. It’s slower because having hard time on CPU/GPU catching up with today‘s standard, but not RAM. It still run FCP, garage band, iMovie, Safari loading many tabs is fast too.
so a 16GB will last you long enough.

 

[DMG35]

OP you would be fine with 8GB. You absolutely don't need 32GB and are just wasting money buying it. You will never see a benefit of having that much RAM.

 

[tdbrown75]

I went for 16GB RAM. I took 10/16 core CPU/GPU though. Apple have been doing good job on RAM management and I didn’t need that much RAM like windows. If you don’t need it day 1. You don’t need it in 5 years. Unless you upgrade or other reason.

to prove it, I have a 2015 MBP 8GB RAM and it’s still working fine. It’s slower because having hard time on CPU/GPU catching up with today‘s standard, but not RAM. It still run FCP, garage band, iMovie, Safari loading many tabs is fast too.
so a 16GB will last you long enough.

Agree the RAM management is awesome, but it takes overhead too. For the absolute best performance (even if nominally better) the system will benefit from the extra RAM if you are pushing the limits now.

For reference, my 2013 Macbook has 16GB of RAM, and it uses every bit of it today. Upgraded software, upgraded OS, new programs change requirements over time.

As for the "if you don't need it now, you will never need it argument", I agree trying to future proof by bumping specs is folly. However, requirements do grow over time. For example, what was baseline RAM in 2015?

Tim

 

[shower999]

Agree the RAM management is awesome, but it takes overhead too. For the absolute best performance (even if nominally better) the system will benefit from the extra RAM if you are pushing the limits now.

For reference, my 2013 Macbook has 16GB of RAM, and it uses every bit of it today. Upgraded software, upgraded OS, new programs change requirements over time.

As for the "if you don't need it now, you will never need it argument", I agree trying to future proof by bumping specs is folly. However, requirements do grow over time. For example, what was baseline RAM in 2015?

Tim

Ya, technology might change too fast that your today standard might be outdated in few years. but I only agree if it’s windows. at least not the Mac I know of.

if you computer usage changes that you need a more memory hungry workflow, you can trade in and spend the money when it happen. You might spend more than 400USD, but if you end up didn’t utilise it at all, you confirmed lose 400USD upfront. I mean you do not need to spend the money now if it’s likely not going to be happen.

for foreseeable future, I think stick with the 16GB is a wiser choice

 

[tdbrown75]

Ya, technology might change too fast that your today standard might be outdated in few years. but I only agree if it’s windows. at least not the Mac I know of.

if you computer usage changes that you need a more memory hungry workflow, you can trade in and spend the money when it happen. You might spend more than 400USD, but if you end up didn’t utilise it at all, you confirmed lose 400USD upfront. I mean you do not need to spend the money now if it’s likely not going to be happen.

for foreseeable future, I think stick with the 16GB is a wiser choice

16 is wise for you, but for the OP and I no. I’m happy Apple offers us choices to suit individual needs.

Tim

 

[shower999]

16 is wise for you, but for the OP and I no. I’m happy Apple offers us choices to suit individual needs.

Tim

I don’t know about you. But the original post says

No heavy apps are used, sometimes a bit of movie or photo editing, but nothing professional. For this a 16Gb would be sufficient.

So 16GB is more than future proof for him

 

[tdbrown75]

I don’t know about you. But the original post says



So 16GB is more than future proof for him

The OP shared he needs to run VMs in a subsequent post.

Tim

 

[shower999]

The OP shared he needs to run VMs in a subsequent post.

Tim

??

 

[PhallicPhillip]

This.

As in my experience, I was using a 2017 15” with 16GB of RAM in 2020 for a lot of video edits in FCP. There were some slowdowns and memory warnings. Decided to try the M1 MBP base with 8GB and wow! No issues until I decided to go overboard and edit a 70 participants piano project ? but it did manage to pull through. With this in mind, decided to upgrade to a 14” with 10-CPU/14-GPU with 16GB. Also, the new RAM is LPDDR5 which is faster and more power efficient.

View attachment 1873381

Thanks for sharing this. I heard the MaxTech guy say the same thing, and went with the 16 GB while springing for the 1 TB SSD upgrade. When I ran FCP and stabilized 4k ProRes HDR footage, rendered it while running Apple Music and safari, my memory pressure only spiked into yellow intermittently (like for a second or two) once in a while. Otherwise it was all green, and my god did it render faster than I'm used to. I think 16GB is the right amount for my video editing needs. Unlike OP, I don't use VMs.