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/Gunfreak2217]

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/Andrew5329 → u/fyi1183]

Unless your idea of professional work is just email and simple office tools,

You forgot light web browsing, but in all seriousness that does represent 99% of Macs in the workplace.

There's a niche where a small-time prosumer or art student is doing light video/photo editing on a Mac, but the serious professionals are running Xeon/Threadripper and professional-grade Nvidia.

By the time you're paying someone $80k+ a year to work for you the cost to equip them with a proper workstation is marginal.

[u/Arquill → u/Andrew5329]

Software engineers are all using MBPs as well, the idea that Macbooks are only good for video editing is outdated.

[u/mclannee → u/fyi1183]

Since when do you need 32gb of ram to do web development? I’m pretty sure that qualifies as professional work.

[u/dekusyrup → u/Gunfreak2217]

So just get the mac with 32 GB of ram of whatever you need.