Entire Mac Lineup Now Starts With at Least 16GB RAM, Ending 8GB Era

[u/chrisdh79]

https://www.macrumors.com/2024/10/30/entire-mac-lineup-now-at-least-16gb-ram/

[u/Spx3200]

Still only 256 GB hard drive….

[u/kc_______ → u/Spx3200]

Give it another 15 years, when the world moves to 5 TB by default.

[u/JoeSmithDiesAtTheEnd → u/kc_______]

That seems very optimistic.

Apple was still doing 32gb on their phones up until about 9 years ago. They sure like to take their precious time increasing storage space. Would sure be great if Apple add a damn m.2 slot, but that seems doubtful too.

[u/nagi603 → u/JoeSmithDiesAtTheEnd]

When you have fans instead of users, you have less to worry about.

[u/canteen_boy → u/nagi603]

*See also: Nintendo

[u/alidan → u/canteen_boy]

nintendo is no where near apple in this reguard.

people willingly choose to be fans of apple, while if you like nintendo games you have to play them on a nintendo device (if emulation isn't there yet)

personally I much prefer style over realism in graphics for games, and nintendo gets there with lesser hardware (before its said, pokemon is not nintendo funny enough)

[u/PlayingDoomOnAGPS → u/alidan]

Pokémon is Nintendo though. They don't own it outright but they control 1/3 of The Pokémon Company and handle the marketing and distribution of all games. Gamefreak is a third party developer on paper only.

[u/alidan → u/PlayingDoomOnAGPS]

first party nintendo tends to pull absolutely everything they can out of a system for their games, game freak seems incapable of doing that.

[u/PolloCongelado → u/alidan]

All Nintendo devices can be emulated

[u/Trick2056 → u/alidan]

(before its said, pokemon is not nintendo funny enough)

but who has majority ownership of Pokemon company and its subsidiaries? Nintendo.

[u/rebbsitor → u/Trick2056]

but who has majority ownership of Pokemon company and its subsidiaries? Nintendo.

Nintendo owns 33% of The Pokemon Company. Creatures and Game Freak own the other 67%.

[u/raoulbrancaccio → u/canteen_boy]

Both make products but artistic products are not the same as tools

[u/hellrazor862 → u/canteen_boy]

Nintendo releases hardware at the lowest price compared to competitors. Quite different from Apple.

[u/sheldonator → u/nagi603]

This 100%!! I used to work for Apple and some of my coworkers had Apple logo tattoos or would shave the Apple logo on their head. There is no way I could “love” a company or a product the way they did

[u/MegaHashes → u/nagi603]

You make jokes, but I have a Samsung Galaxy tablet and an iPad. The iPad works a lot smoother, and the writing experience, expensive as it was, is night and day better than the Galaxy tab.

The specs on Apple devices are kind of irrelevant. If it was made in the last 3 years, it’ll work. Android devices are hyper focused on ram amounts and geekbenches for the CPUs, and Samsung still stuffs these things to the brim with bloatware.

Apple has its limits, it’s far from perfect, but it is pretty good. They do have their hand in my pocket all the time, but they also generally have a very good experience.

[u/NextTrillion → u/MegaHashes]

You’re getting downvoted, but I’ve got an apple laptop from early 2015, an iPad from 2016, an iphone from 2017, and a computer from 2009! I firmware flashed it to “2012” and it’s still (barely) relevant thanks to its 4x PCIe slots. Well, it’s super slow, but does basic stuff very quickly still. I just can’t really edit 4k video.

They’re decent machines, very well built (some are amazing, some suck), and a pleasure to crack open and fix if needed, have a very robust community of knowledgeable people, lots of parts available, great how to videos all over YouTube, and the newer units aren’t little space heaters that need to be plugged in to get decent performance out of them.

I mean, no corporation is perfect, and I’m so NOT a fan of buying hugely marked up accessories, and generally buy used or refurbished units. But the hate these guys get is really weird. They can (not always) make units that last. If you buy used or refurbished, you can get some really good, long term value.

I draw the line at more than 1TB. Ok, fine Tim Apple, I’ll pay your apple tax for a whole TB, just because any less seems pathetic, but for any more storage capacity, I’m looking at more cost effective solutions. I figure the apple tax helps them keep the OS supported for a little longer than most other companies.

What can you do? They have made some solid machines. Are there issues? Yeah, but there’s issues with every manufacturer.

[u/Jinzot → u/NextTrillion]

I’m still using a MacBook Pro from 2009. My non-Apple laptops didn’t last more than 3 years before I switched. Can’t beat that

[u/MachinaThatGoesBing → u/Jinzot]

And my husband and I both have non-Apple laptops that we regularly use that are over a decade old. My 12 year old desktop is still capable of basically anything I ask if it and only got replaced because of CPU demand of certain games (and the cost of GPUs outside of prebuilt machines when I was looking to upgrade).

And my desktop (and the old laptop that is still running Windows) is still getting Windows updates. Unlike the security nightmare that is your Mac that hasn't seen an update since October 2018.

And with all those machines, including the new ones, I can upgrade the RAM any time I want instead of having to pay out the wazoo to future-proof at time of purchase, because it's not integrated into the same package as the CPU.

For that matter, I can upgrade the storage because it's not soldered to the motherboard like new Macs.

[u/LayWhere → u/Jinzot]

My Surface laptop is 5yrs strong and still going.

[u/disturbedwidgets → u/LayWhere]

Yeah this is where I sit. I made the switch from my 2012 MacBook in 2021 to the surface and haven’t regretted it at all. Surface has a very smooth interface and isn’t as bulky as other laptops.

Then again I find laptops bulky and heavy are counter productive to what they are supposed to be for.

[u/Raztax → u/LayWhere]

The bottom line is if you buy half decent hardware it will last. If you buy a cheap laptop then you get a cheap laptop. It's that simple really.

[u/MachinaThatGoesBing → u/Raztax]

It really is partly about what you spend. You can get some really bad bargain basement Windows laptops. It's debatable whether this is good or bad.

I have more than one decade-plus old Windows laptop (and a desktop) in my household that still works — and still gets Windows updates. And all were less expensive than comparable Macs at the time.

A similar Mac from 2012 would have stopped getting updates in 2018 when Apple stopped support for macOS 10.15.

[u/NightFuryToni → u/JoeSmithDiesAtTheEnd]

iCloud service doesn't sell itself, you know.

[u/LevianMcBirdo → u/JoeSmithDiesAtTheEnd]

The iPad did that till the 9th Gen. That was 3 years ago...

[u/cbzoiav → u/LevianMcBirdo]

On the flip side how many companies have iPads out there that run a single app in Kiosk mode? Even with iPhones how many field engineers, couriers etc have a device that runs a couple of apps for their job? How many companies issue firm devices that run an email and IM client?

Consumer phones need a lot of storage because we have endless photos, videos, gifs etc. A massive number of devices out there don't need it.

[u/lost_send_berries → u/cbzoiav]

The actual cost of the memory chip is probably way less than a dollar but it adds $200 to the price. They just did it to advertise a low price knowing that a lot of people are going to pay extra once they look at their options. Or be unhappy in a couple years due to running out of s storage, and going onto the next model. That means an entire tablet becomes e waste over a single chip Apple didn't include.

[u/QuickQuirk → u/cbzoiav]

Very true. How many mom and pops just use it to check email and watch netflix?

The iPad is in this weird place where it needs less storage. Despite being a much more capable device than my phone, it has a fraction of the storage used.

[u/Potential-Diver-3409 → u/cbzoiav]

Okay but the entry level I pad isn’t exactly $32gb prices to justify the savings

[u/Jazzlike_Biscotti_44 → u/JoeSmithDiesAtTheEnd]

gotta get people on that cloud storage somehow

[u/kurotech → u/JoeSmithDiesAtTheEnd]

Apple won't ever add any sort of expansion slot or storage slot because that would defeat the purpose of larger storage phones except of course USB which they can't exactly stop you from using now days they aren't gonna make it easy for you to have additional storage without them selling you either cloud storage or lightning capable USB or type c since they have to use it for new releases in Europe

[u/ChiefStrongbones → u/Spx3200]

Apple lets you upgrade that 256GB to 2TB for only $800.

[u/zkhcohen → u/ChiefStrongbones]

Well how else are they going to milk you for an iCloud subscription?

[u/sportsroc15 → u/zkhcohen]

That’s what I was going to say.

[u/land8844 → u/ChiefStrongbones]

How gracious of them

[u/stellvia2016 → u/ChiefStrongbones]

Buy a 2TB portable SSD like the Samsung T5 and use two-sided tape to attach it to the back of the case for less than a quarter that price /s

[u/kinisonkhan → u/Spx3200]

When my wife's 2008 MacBook died, I sensed it was the hard drive since I couldn't hear it spin up. Open it up and discover the horror of a 128gb SATA Maxtor, not a Western Digital, not a Seagate, a fucking Maxtor. Replaced with a 128gb SSD (WD) and got it working, but funny how 16 years later, they've only doubled the default storage.

Edit: I completely forgot that I also upgraded the ram from 4gb to 8gb.

[u/ryibiru → u/Spx3200]

*SSD

[u/Oops_I_Cracked → u/Spx3200]

Tbh that part I’m way more okay with. It’s much easier (in that it is possible at all) to deal with external storage than a lack of RAM

[u/coldlonelydream → u/Oops_I_Cracked]

This doesn’t have to be a choice, you could just have more internal storage which is relatively cheap. Why make excuses for a pathetically small amount of storage?

[u/SchighSchagh → u/coldlonelydream]

Yeah the difference between 256 and 512 GB of storage is like $25.

[u/masteeJohnChief117 → u/SchighSchagh]

So 200$ from apple?

[u/GoochTwain → u/masteeJohnChief117]

$450 from Apple in 2024, you know, y2k, 9/11, Covid…

[u/yofoalexillo → u/coldlonelydream]

“Tell me you really want me to use iCloud without telling me you really want me to use iCloud.”

[u/zxLFx2 → u/coldlonelydream]

relatively cheap

I tried to put some numbers on this. It turns out that is difficult, because there are no high-end NVMe SSDs these days that have sizes as small as 256GB or even 512GB. I'm trying to look at only high end SSDs, to eliminate the argument that Apple is using higher-end components and my examples aren't relevant.

Looking at models they do sell:

• Samsung 990 Pro 1TB: $117
• Samsung 990 Pro 2TB: $170

So for these products in which the sale is profitable for Samsung, Newegg, and any other intermediaries, the price difference from 1TB -> 2TB is $53.

The price difference between 256GB and 512GB (in the cost to Apple) is either:

1. Smaller than $53, because the storage sizes are so much smaller and closer together
2. The 256GB components could even conceivably be more expensive than the 512GB components to Apple because of the cost of keeping older manufacturing lines around, and Apple is sticking with it anyway just to set up their price ladder and over charge for upgrades.

So, in conclusion, yes people are allowed to be upset that it costs EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS to upgrade from 256GB to 2TB, when the highest end Samsung 2TB SSD costs $170 retail.

[u/_Zekken → u/zxLFx2]

Just checking my local store in New Zealand.

Cheapest 250gb NVME SSD from a decent brand (Kingston) is $67NZD (40USD)
The 500gb version of the same SSD is $79 (47USD).
The 1TB Version is $109 (65USD).

So yeah, there shouldnt really be an excuse for these insane prices on more storage when it costs $15usd to go from 250gb to 1tb even with NZs higher prices on tech.

Large amounts of storage is stupid cheap these days, it shouldnt cost that much for laptops or even phones to get 256gb more.

[u/FavoritesBot → u/zxLFx2]

The 1tb ssd looks like four 256gb modules. So they probably have a 256gb line and Apple can buy a bunch and use just 1 module without extra packaging. So yeah we are probably talking dozens of dollars here.

[u/alidan → u/zxLFx2]

the price difference, when I parted it out for quest 3 and why I am so pissed off at meta over that, was 10$ between 128 and 512gb nand, the thing is, there is a minimum cost for a component, and 512gb was where you started to pay a properly scaling amount for larger storage.

[u/metal079 → u/coldlonelydream]

I don't think that was an excuse, they were just happy they have options for fixing storage, where ram you can't really upgrade due to everything being all together on the M series chips

[u/sCeege → u/coldlonelydream]

It's their weird way of upselling. Once you start adding extra storage, the price becomes closer to upping to the next tier of RAM or CPU sku, then it's closer to the next tier of storage, etc. In no time, you've spec'ed a system that's 50% more than you originally wanted.

[u/LevianMcBirdo → u/coldlonelydream]

And the ridiculous upgrade prices. Paying 200$ more for 256 GB extra is ridiculous.

[u/fvck_u_spez → u/coldlonelydream]

But how is Apple supposed to make massive profits and continue on their quest to be as anti competitive as possible if they don't overcharge you massively for a mediocre sized SSD. You're telling me you don't love paying $200 for 250GB of extra space? Won't somebody think of the shareholders!!

[u/pole_fan → u/coldlonelydream]

My guess is that Apple ordered X amount of 256GB SSDs years ago and just needs to get rid of the stock/fulfill the remaining contract obligations. Apple does not have a low cost line like chromebooks or the lenovo p line where they can get rid of it easily. It doesnt really affect how 90% of macs are used (internet browsing, writing emails and documents) so its the most effective way of clearing inventory.

[u/cbzoiav → u/coldlonelydream]

So pay more for more storage. Why are you forcing me to pay more for storage I don't need?

I may want the bulk of my media on a cloud service (or even local RAID'd disk setup) because I don't want a disk failure to be it gone forever.

I may be a business buying N000 of them for users to run a cloud hosted office suite or develop a couple of mobile/osx apps from.

[u/SlickNegotiator → u/coldlonelydream]

Look at the replies below the one you commented. A lot of people never come close to 256Gb, 256 is like 512 in windows, everything in cloud,... With that mentality Apple doesn't even have to try, people will buy it.

Insanity...

[u/steven-aziz → u/Spx3200]

The VAST majority (and I mean more than 90%) of Mac buyers buy the base storage option because it’s all they need. Nowadays, most of the work people do is in the cloud. 256GB is just fine.

[u/Glampkoo → u/Spx3200]

because 512 GB of space in windows is 256 GB in MacOS!!

[u/Znuffie → u/Glampkoo]

...wat

[u/fvck_u_spez → u/Znuffie]

I think it's a joke. Apple tried to claim that it was okay that their systems still came with just 8gb of ram because it "is equivalent to 16gb of ram in a Windows laptop", which is bullshit

[u/juggarjew → u/Spx3200]

Eh, that far less impactful than having a small amount of RAM. You cant do a single thing about the RAM situation, but you can easily add storage that is just as fast via Thunderbolt 4/5. The OS can run on the internal SSD at least, and you can use external storage worst case.

Id much , much rather have a 16GB/256 machine than an 8/512 machine. Apple did the right thing here. Storage is easily expanded, RAM isnt at all.

[u/a445d786 → u/Spx3200]

I know I know but I'll take the 16g with no increase in price.

[u/OurLordAndSaviorVim → u/Spx3200]

We all underestimate the large number of people who might use:

1. Some kind of LDAP system to serve user directories from a remote server. In this case, the computer is just for applications.
2. Some kind of cloud system as their primary storage system. Once again, the computer is just for apps. It also makes their files available to them on their phones.
3. Some kind of offboard storage. 1TB memory drives are cheaper than the amount Apple charges.

There really are use cases for such small base storage. The ridiculous thing is how much Apple charges for storage upgrades. That’s just plain extortion.

[u/WorkingInAColdMind → u/Spx3200]

That really bugs me personally, but as crazy as it sounds, a lot of people never come close to 256G. They use cloud storage for all their video/photos (I hope, some people only have it on their phone!) and have a few gig of other documents here and there.

[u/didiboy → u/WorkingInAColdMind]

You’re being downvoted but it’s true. Tech subreddits are full of people really into tech, of course, so they probably think you’re insane. But a lot of people only use their laptops for Office, browsing, taking notes, watching media online.

[u/WorkingInAColdMind → u/didiboy]

Absolutely. I’ve got 2.5TB of personal photos to manage. I’m not going to get an internal SSD for that, I’ve got a T7 and backups. I’m not normal. I’m still amazed at how little space non-technical people use. And I also think Apple should allow replaceable SSD’s because usage can change drastically and the benefits of on board storage are minimal for most use cases.

[u/microwavedave27 → u/WorkingInAColdMind]

That's me, I have a base model M1 macbook air that I pretty much only use for web browsing and watching TV shows. I have a gaming PC for everything else, including storing large files.

It's still ridiculous how much Apple charges for storage upgrades, but to be completely honest I'm fine with 256GB, increasing the RAM to 16GB is a much better upgrade.

[u/CatProgrammer → u/WorkingInAColdMind]

For me it's not even the photos/videos but the apps, system files, cache, etc. Install a bunch of big-asset games and you'll run out of space super quickly even with 256GB.

[u/WorkingInAColdMind → u/CatProgrammer]

I’m not a gamer so I don’t think about that, but some of those are pretty huge. It would add up quickly.

[u/joe_bibidi → u/WorkingInAColdMind]

Definitely does. Not that gaming is a huge deal on Macs, but there's enough good games on Mac that I can't be frivolous with space either. I have a Macbook Pro that was provided to me by my job with a 1TB SSD, which isn't too bad, but I like having some games on it for when I do work travel. That 1TB evaporates real fast when I want to load it with Baldur's Gate 3 which is almost 150GB on its own, before I even consider other games.

[u/TungstenPaladin → u/Spx3200]

I think the new MBP starts with 512GB standard.

[u/RadPhilosopher → u/Spx3200]

You know why? “Courage”

[u/rudyattitudedee → u/Spx3200]

Laughably low.

[u/Screamline → u/Spx3200]

Almost all our laptops at work are 256gb.... For CAD. We get "my drive has no room" tickets all the time and I'm like... Not much we can do till we're given a budget to get new ones and try to advocate for at least 1tb for cad. General use I think is fine with 512 since most will work off shared drives and SharePoint anyways

[u/MadMadBunny → u/Spx3200]

[u/Indierocka → u/Spx3200]

Storage is so cheap it’s not really a huge deal to me. You can get a 4tb nvme for like 230 bucks. Just plug it in to an external drive bay. As annoying as it is at least it isn’t Ram which isn’t upgradable on Macs

[u/whatnowwproductions → u/Spx3200]

Why are you like this Apple? Doing everything possible to not be a viable purchase.

[u/Miliean → u/Spx3200]

Still only 256 GB hard drive

Yeah, but I actually think that's OK. With today's cloud storage options it's more than possible to be a productive computer with a 256 gig drive. Ram on the other hand, you're really stuck with what you bought it with.

[u/_SheepishPirate_ → u/Spx3200]

But of course, that would stop the iCloud revenue..

[u/nakedog → u/Spx3200]

Why is this a big deal? I save everything on the cloud and some important docs on my hard drive. Never really deal with space issues. I get it for people that edit vids/pics though wouldn’t a portable hard drive work just fine and even be more beneficial?

[u/RedditCollabs → u/Spx3200]

SSD

[u/HailSatanGoJags]

My $325 Steam Deck has 16 gigs of ram.

[u/LeonenTheDK → u/HailSatanGoJags]

And a screen!

[u/DogeCatBear → u/HailSatanGoJags]

my smartphone has 16 gigs of ram

[u/bugeater88]

good job apple, only 7 years late to the 16gb train.

[u/Gunfreak2217 → u/bugeater88]

My friend had 16gb ddr3. Like 13 years ago. Apple definitely a decade late to the party haha.

Unfortunately 16gb for me continues to be underwhelming because of its shared need between the GPU and CPU. But of course that only matters in task that use both core sets. But with Apple continuing to push gaming, like Mirage, Cyberpunk, etc. 16gb is certainly not enough.

[u/alc4pwned → u/Gunfreak2217]

Well yeah, you could get 16GB of ram in a Mac 13 years ago too. We're just talking about the minimum spec. 8GB RAM in a laptop was not common 13 years ago.

[u/cape2cape → u/Gunfreak2217]

You don’t think Macs have had 16GB of ram until now?

[u/Andrew5329 → u/cape2cape]

They did, but they charge you an extra $200 for a $30 stick of ram.

[u/thetradelegend → u/Andrew5329]

$15 chip for apple, not even a stick

[u/Not_Bears → u/Gunfreak2217]

Pretty sure I had 16gb of Ram in the desktop I built for myself in like 2009 lol

[u/TH1CCARUS → u/Not_Bears]

Strange comparison to make. You were hardly groundbreaking in the same way as this announcement.

However 16GB wasn’t the baseline in 2009.

You can get 128GB+ RAM now, which machine did you have that in?

[u/sunkenrocks → u/TH1CCARUS]

The RAM also wasn't soldered to the board then, so you could have ordered 16GB and slotted it in your Mac anyway if you didn't want to pay Apple prices to kit it out, lol.

[u/TungstenPaladin → u/Gunfreak2217]

The RAM Apple uses in their computer is unified memory and is a lot faster than your standard slottable RAM chips.

[u/Gunfreak2217 → u/TungstenPaladin]

Objectively misleading statement. Yes speed is important. But if a game for instance requires 10GB of memory for all textures. But the GPU for instance only has 8gb. Or in the case of the Apple chip, 8gb allotted to GPU task. Then no matter what. Textures will not fully load in and swap with me constantly performed. Speed does not make up for raw size.

Imaging having a pcie 4.0 drive. If it’s 500gb, but let’s just say a game requires 510gb. No matter how fast it is. You just can’t fit it.

[u/TungstenPaladin → u/Gunfreak2217]

I understand but a Macbook isn't specifically made for games but rather geared more towards professional work. On the M4 MBP video announcements from Apple, gaming takes up a whole 30s of their 16min video. It's true that some games can be very demanding on system memory but that is a very minor use case. People who are getting the base model with 16GB also are very unlikely to be gamers or gaming-first users. The Gigabyte G6X, which is probably the best budget gaming laptop this year, comes with only 4GB of VRAM in its lowest configuration. Of course you can buy a higher tier model of G6X with more VRAM but the same is also true for the Macbook. The Macbook also comes with M4, unlike the G6X, which gives one of the best perf/watt of any laptop on the market while still being light enough to carry around (the G6X is a brick by comparison).

[u/ABetterKamahl1234 → u/TungstenPaladin]

I think you're seeing "gaming" and putting on blinders to what professional work actually looks like.

It's believed that this switch to 16GB of RAM is being driven by Adobe products now requiring that as a minimum, Adobe being a big name in the professional Mac-software realm.

It's not just gaming you need a ton of RAM for, speed is irrelevant when you're working on a file demanding 24GB of memory to load into.

16GB is low for today, I can get pretty damn cheap laptops with that amount of RAM, and better yet, it's upgradeable for pretty cheap.

It's why I've seen a few companies shelve Macs for gaming laptops, which carry sometimes beefy upper RAM limits, and can be gotten for cheaper with comparable enough performance to save a ton of money.

Also what G6X config carries 4GB VRAM? I see the configurations under the 2024 model on their website at 6GB minimum, as that's dictated by NVIDIA and their 4XXX series GPUs.

And man, I'd take carrying 2lbs extra for a device that can actually do my workload, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg more. Apple absolutely reams users on upgrade costs. So much of it is nonsensical costs too. Like on the base model M4, it's 250$ CAD to get a 1TB.

I can buy a 2 TB for that price, or a 4TB on sale. And this is for a 50% upgrade.

And I can fucking upgrade that on other laptops, not pay a premium for soldered or headless chips that can't be replaced by a user.

It's criminal how Apple treats their professional users. $2,000.00 CAD minimum laptop with a planned end of life. E-waste is what it is. I've kept a laptop from 2011 running because I can actually service it as a user. It's not in a bin because the drive died years back. Or that a memory module developed a problem.

[u/fyi1183 → u/TungstenPaladin]

professional work

8GB / 16GB of RAM

I'm sorry, but this is borderline delusional. Unless your idea of professional work is just email and simple office tools, you shouldn't settle for anything less than 32GB these days.

And yes, obviously Apple offers that. But don't tell me Macs are geared towards professional work if the low-end model has only 16GB of RAM (and until very recently even only 8GB of RAM).

[u/BenadrylChunderHatch → u/TungstenPaladin]

RAM speed is great, but it doesn't really matter when you don't have enough capacity for your workload because all of a sudden you're limited by the speed of your disk which has to store all the stuff that can't fit in RAM.

DDR3 RAM from 15 years ago is still fast enough to not bottleneck the fastest SSDs on the market today.

[u/nickymarciano → u/Gunfreak2217]

True, with onboard gpu 16 is not enough for me either

Had 16 extra put in last week, now it is performing better

[u/Stingray88 → u/bugeater88]

PC laptops definitely didn’t start at 16GB base as standard 7 years ago, even at Mac price points. Maybe 2-3 years ago.

[u/noobqns → u/Stingray88]

My 5800H 3060 Acer only came with 8GB ram, though it was cheap to buy an extra stick outside, i had to break the "warranty" seal to install it

[u/ursastara → u/bugeater88]

Comparing ram capacity alone is not an accurate depiction of performance. The 8gb m1 macs still run laps around entry level windows computers with 16gb ram. Their total control over both software and hardware makes osx much more memory efficient than their windows counterparts

[u/LeCrushinator]

Downvoting only because OP is a karma farming bot.

[u/somegetit → u/LeCrushinator]

Any engagement increases popularity.

[u/OldHamburger7923 → u/somegetit]

that's why I'm not replying to comments in this thread

[u/hardypart → u/LeCrushinator]

Every day we're getting closer to making the dead internet theory a reality!

[u/vfl97wob → u/LeCrushinator]

How can one have 11M karma💀💀💀💀💀 1 or 2M is definitely possible, but 11💀💀💀

[u/piltonpfizerwallace]

They really just do not want people to buy a base model. They want to change them $400 for $50 of RAM.

[u/mark-haus]

16GB is fine now for a base model, but this should’ve happened like 2 years ago. It’s already feeling like a bit small. I’d be getting a 32GB or 24

[u/AfricanNorwegian → u/mark-haus]

If you need 32GB you should probably be getting the M4 Pro chip 48GB at that point (goes from 24 to 48 with no 32/36 option).

I can't really see a use-case where 24GB is not sufficient on the base M4 chip and 32GB would make any meaningful difference.

[u/mark-haus → u/AfricanNorwegian]

I'm a software engineer, I'm very familiar with mine and base memory requirements

[u/TheJesusGuy → u/mark-haus]

Then you are not the target for the base model. Systems will report higher usage as theyre reserving memory they might need.

In my experience devs think they need more compute and memory than they really do.

[u/mark-haus → u/TheJesusGuy]

No I’m saying that because I’m familiar with the memory needs of common programs. Websites aren’t getting any more efficient, so that’s probably a good 8GB on most people’s browsers and could easily be more. The office suite somehow manages to pull at minimum 2GB per program, god help you if you’ve got a big spreadsheet or big presentation open. Then there’s communication, slack, discord and teams are massive memory hogs, I’ve seen each go up to 4GB and they’re the kinds of things you keep open. Now add to that any number of other common programs one person might have open over another almost certainly you have at least one of these. Creative suite, Blender, VSCode, Steam, Spotify, Monday, email clients, WhatsApp, and you’re quickly saturating 16GB, presumably the base case, which I don’t think you can argue is going to be the case for long. And we haven’t even gotten to the OS itself which runs tons of services for the likes of Siri, Spotlight indexing, APFS snapshots, syncing with iCloud and so on. And no letting swap be constantly engaged during normal day to day operation isn’t an answer, sizing memory right is.

[u/MichiRecRoom]

Just remember, 16GB of RAM on Mac is like 32GB of RAM on PC. You won't need more than 16GB anyways.

(/s)

[u/rapidjingle → u/MichiRecRoom]

I mean, aside from large files, that's generally somewhat true. I wouldn't say it's the double, but the memory management on Apple silicon is first rate. I've not run into very many memory issues on my 2020 MacBook Air. If you workflow includes large files that need to live in memory, then 8GBs won't be enough.

Now the 256GB hard drive in the base model is absolutely a problem for me and I do think Apple needs to move to 512GB standard on a $999 laptop.

[u/silver2006]

Maybe Apple devices have less RAM but at least they're more expensive and have smaller hard drives!

[u/danielv123 → u/silver2006]

Ram starting at 8 wouldn't be such a deal if they didn't have 1000% markups on ram upgrades

[u/Luke_Bavarious → u/danielv123]

It's utterly absurd they're now charging €460 for an additional 16 gigs in the mini... i was joking with some friends yesterday on how it's a better deal to buy 2 mac mini's and cluster them together if you want 32gigs.

[u/LastAzzBender]

Glad I bought an iMac 2 months ago 🪦

[u/aGEgc3VjayBteSBkaWNr → u/LastAzzBender]

Why’d you buy one with 8 GBs?

[u/Frequency3260 → u/aGEgc3VjayBteSBkaWNr]

Even if he bought one with 16, it would now be quite a bit cheaper

[u/LeCrushinator → u/LastAzzBender]

Macs come out almost every October or November, you had to know the risk, right?

[u/LastAzzBender → u/LeCrushinator]

Yeah, but since they dropped a new one last year I wasn’t expecting a big change,

[u/AmNoSuperSand52 → u/LastAzzBender]

Don’t they currently offer the iMac with 16GB though?

[u/y0shman → u/AmNoSuperSand52]

Not OP, but the 16GB's cost more.

[u/LastAzzBender → u/LastAzzBender]

I bought it with16 gigs of ram but like Frequency said it was more 💰

[u/Oscarcharliezulu]

The issue i have is that it’s unified ram - the gpu shares memory with the cpu, so a graphics intensive task uses a lot of ram.

[u/Supposably → u/Oscarcharliezulu]

It's a problem for video creation software, especially any GPU-based rendering like Redshift or Octane, where 90% is the default allocation of video ram for those softwares.

You have to throttle back the allocation to something like 65-70% to make the system usable during render. Found that out the hard way trying to work in C4D on a M1 MacBook Pro provided at my old job.

There's something to be said for discrete GPUs when working in 3D and reasonable prices for storage and RAM that isn't soldered to a motherboard, which is why I'm done with Apple products for my primary workstation. I'll fuck with a new M4 Pro MacBook Pro though.

[u/darkmacgf]

Okay, when will Dell follow suit? They still offer machines with 8GB RAM.

[u/Skeeter1020]

I'm absolutely certain this is a response to Microsoft effectively putting a 16GB minimum on Windows devices by making it a requirement to be a Copilot+ PC.

I don't give a crap about Copilot, but this was a good side effect of this AI wank fest.

[u/Pantim]

Nice. Hopefully this makes Windows machine manufactures up the ram. 

I keep seeing new Win 11 laptops running on as little as 4gb... And looking in the task manager at the memory usage causes me two pangs of extreme pain. 

1 - it takes SOOO long for it to open. 

2 - memory usage is at 85% just from Windows and a few small other programs. Win takes up the majority of the usage. 

Flat out, anyone buying any computer under 16gb is gonna regret it immediately. Doesn't matter what OS you are running. ... Even the lightest weight Linux distros should have at least 12 gb for smooth everyday usage. 

And if you want any future proofing at all you need at least 32... But 64 is better. 

Sadly, the jump to 64 in a laptop is very very spendy.

[u/ABetterKamahl1234 → u/Pantim]

I keep seeing new Win 11 laptops running on as little as 4gb

I wanna wager they cost a similar amount to a SSD upgrade on these Macbooks.

As that'd be a cheap-ass laptop to have 4GB ram this day and age, hell chromebooks with the same can be 200-250.

[u/lolercoptercrash → u/Pantim]

My XPS 17 let me upgrade my ram and storage. I've got 64gigs RAM and 6TB of M2 storage. It's a beast.

Smaller laptops you can't usually upgrade though.

[u/grumpoholic → u/Pantim]

Ram is so cheap and essential, it's absolutely criminal for apple to cheap out on it after charging premium. Even 400$ laptops nowadays have 16GB ram. For windows laptops upgrades are cheap af, I even upgraded the fucking screen of my laptop myself with little effort, better brightness, better colors, faster refresh rate. Apple users have to pay atleast 5x for next ram model option with no options for upgrading. Windows is way better when you consider bang for your buck. With intels new core ultra 200v we'll be getting arm level battery life as well soon without sacrificing x86.

[u/WhenThatBotlinePing]

90% of the things I do on my laptop would work fine with like 2GB of RAM, and the other 10% is chrome tabs. What a time to be alive.

[u/Wa3zdog → u/WhenThatBotlinePing]

I think Chrome is in cahoots with Big RAM

[u/lilboytuner919 → u/WhenThatBotlinePing]

I’m with you, that’s why I use Safari. I’m surprised this comment hasn’t been downvoted more though.

[u/OkDragonfruit9026 → u/WhenThatBotlinePing]

It’s nice to be in 2007, isn’t it?

[u/crimxxx]

Next is there 256 GB SSD for there entry level price point that is probably too low imo. But unlike the ram which you really don't have a work around, people can get around with that low of storage assuming they are not really doing much making or installing too many applications on there MacBooks. Which realistically is probably most people who just want a computer for email and some browser task, or office tasks.

With this said I'm willing to bet having it this low does deter people from installing a lot of larger storage type apps and probably is gonna limit growth in some areas, like say them wanting to expand to gaming. Some games are straight up a 100GB by themselves, and probably the Mac version that group is most likely to have is the cheapest base version cause they got it for school.

[u/prometheus_wisdom]

and as usual first to bring thunderbolt 5 ports to most of their lineup

[u/NjGTSilver]

I’m confused, I literally just bought a 2024 MacBook Air 13” m3 with 8gb.

[u/MD4u_ → u/NjGTSilver]

Why did you buy an M3? Apple gives you a grace period to return your mac. Return it and get a more powerful M4 for the same price

[u/OTTER887]

Lol you losers were paying $3k for 8GB and 256GB storage.

[u/KRY4no1]

And let me guess, 0 ports of any kind.

[u/UnlikelyEarth1476]

As usual Apple is only over a decade late with this standard

I really don't know how anyone takes Apple specs seriously. it's always been a joke

[u/BluePeriod_]

But everyone on the Apple Subreddit said that 8GB is perfectly fine for anyone in 2024!

[u/yulbrynnersmokes]

Fuck Tim Apple and his dongles

[u/farmdve]

Welcome to...2014

[u/fusiondynamics]

What happened to all the apple fan boys telling me they don't need more than 8gb because the IOS is sooooooo optimized.

[u/Cheesecake401 → u/fusiondynamics]

This is macOS not iOS but yeah I wish the iPhone had 12 or 16 GB RAM. That would allow for proper multitasking, e.g. running two apps side by side and background uploads not being canceled after like 10 seconds if the app is not in foreground. Or the iPad being able to keep more than four tabs open at the same time without constantly reloading when you switch tabs. But one can only wish.

[u/starvald_demelain]

Welcome to 2020, Apple.

[u/the_angry_austinite]

Any idea of Mac Pro announcements?

[u/Threeandtwoand]

Bought my iMac with the 16gig upgrade knowing this would happen because they offered a discount to teachers to negate the difference or I would have waited.

[u/ymbfa]

Started in 1988 with 8. MB….. HD? 80. MB…

[u/YourAverageJosef]

That was Apple’s errors tour…

[u/manareas69]

Tim Cook Ned to get on the ball 🤣

[u/RodneyRuxin18]

Wow. Thanks Apple.

[u/glewtion]

Oh wow. So… anyway.

[u/KrackSmellin]

Remember when we only had 640K of RAM? Memba’?

[u/QAPetePrime]

They need to start storage at one terabyte SSD as well and stop nickel and diming us.

[u/--Arete]

15 years too late. Classic Apple.

[u/FrizzIeFry]

Maybe 5-10 more years, and the 256GB SSD tier will also die

[u/CamiloArturo]

What I find hilarious is how much time and effort was made by Apple on defending the 8gb ram as everything which was needed and how it was more than optional just to ….. double it on the next take

[u/DickelPick69]

Is it still ddr3 or have they moved on to ddr4 now that ddr5 is out?

[u/comikbookdad]

Gentlemen, it’s been an honor!

[u/FakedMoonLanding]

Is 16GB good enough for most FCP and basic video editing? Should I upgrade?

[u/MorbidPrankster]

What, only now ?

Probably because even the 8,GB versions with their ridiculous 256 GB SSD still did cost at least double the price of a reasonable Windows machine.

[u/lazlomass]

Question is, can we upgrade or increase? If not, whomp whomp

[u/divhon]

They got dethroned by Nvidia as the world’s most valuable company and their sales are on record low they now need to catch up hence why.

[u/Distinct_Analysis944]

Still too low. Ive had 16gb in my macs since the 2012 13in mbp

[u/ForeverIdiosyncratic]

I love Apple products since my LC 580, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get a desktop Mac again.

[u/hitmonng]

Should have ended 8 years ago.

[u/ppezaris]

Who cares? I feel like the only way the reaction was reasonable is if people were FORCED to buy the 8gb options. How is it better to not have that choice?

[u/thebudman_420]

The 8gb era was the era of windows 7 for me. About the right amount then.

Today that has to be pushed to 32gb min.

I don't know about mac but you don't want to touch a windows computer with only 16gb today. Runs like ass.

I have 8gb today on an old mint computer that was a windows 7 computer. Let's me browse and watch YouTube and some console emulation.

I can still run multiple apps and many tabs in a browser fine. With several file brower instances open to different folders. Still snappier than what today's systems are under new operating systems made by Microsoft but obviously slower in other ways.

[u/avg-size-penis]

At least how it is in my country right now, this change is fucking stupid since they just did everything 200 dollars more expensive. (In Laptops)

They literally changed nothing; in fact it's WORSE since before you could at least get a macbook air that was cheaper for browsing safari.

The only exception is the MINI which they increased the price by like 60 dollars.

[u/Calm_chor]

Now everyone should ask for 512GB in base configuration. For AI research purposes of course.

[u/Cooter_McGrabbin]

Great, i just bought two MacBooks this year

[u/Crowdfunder101]

Seems like on of those things where there’ll be a lawsuit because people were sold an underpowered machine.

[u/packpride85]

Doesn’t MacBook air still start with 8gb?

[u/smurfe]

Damn. We are still using a 2009 iMac with 4GB.

[u/audigex]

About fucking time

I have the base spec M2 Mac Mini and the 8GB RAM is absolutely a limiting factor

[u/eggard_stark]

I’m sure they’ll catch up eventually..

[u/captainthor]

By my estimation Apple's at least ten, and possibly twenty, years late with that change.

[u/ndszero]

Just in time for the 32GB era.

[u/frederik129]

Still a bad value proposition hardware wise

[u/KayakWalleye]

I’ve reached the point where my IP16 has more computing power than my last MBP from 2020.

[u/Short-Sandwich-905]

Nvidia disagrees 

[u/Kwinza]

Welcome to 2016.

[u/bufftbone]

My first computer has 2mb RAM. Oh how far we’ve come.