Apple

i dont get the point of this discussion.

if your workload requires 8gb or less on a daily bassis, then get the 8gb. if it requires 16, then get 16.

it's that simple.

It is so funny that there are so many YouTubers claiming that 8GB in a Pro laptop is "enough".

At the same time, I cannot accept the fact that we can't even get more than 36GB of RAM in a Pro computer. Not even the base Max version allows 48/64 GB of RAM.

A MacBook is a luxury computer. If I was worried about my “pro” workload cost to performance ratio I’d run it on a Linux desktop I built myself. Did that for years until my career took off and I could afford a MBP with the specs I needed. Ryzen 7 7800X3D and 128GB of ram can be had for less than the base MBP. Why is this even a discussion?

As someone who owns and iPhone, watch, and iPad…. Fairly into the Apple ecosystem. I have absolutely zero clue why people buy these things. My Dell G7 has 32GB of RAM and a 2060 in it. Smokes these things and is much, much cheaper. 8GB is straight up disposable chrome book territory lmao.

Really, the M3 "Pro" makes no sense at all...if you spend $400 more, you get 18GB of RAM AND the M3 Pro chip!

The only people that should even consider the base models are those that “live in the cloud” and do super basic tasks (emails, short word documents, and stream a video here and there). Everyone else should definitely go for a Mac with at least 16GB of RAM.

8GB on a pro laptop is just dumb. M

I always assumed that this is one of those things that Apple will hold on to ridiculously long until a ‘government body forces them to legally do it’ (unlikely) or until the development of MacOS is limited because of having to support 8GB ram (most likely)

I just don’t understand. Memory is somewhat cheap. It just looks like a cheap tactic to upsell an entry level config.

Apple is really stingy. Even with the 15 Pro, it still starts with 128GB while the Max starts with 256GB.

Apple either pull antics or disrupts to keep them in the conversation. This seems more like the former but I’ll wait for the tests.

I’ll give this debate one thing: I haven’t heard anyone complain that the new Macs only have 1089p front cameras still.

I love a Mac but I bought a non-expandable 8gb iMac once and I’ll never make that mistake again.

Don't link MaxTech. They were one of the idiots originally making the 8GB == 16GB claim. They have no idea what they're doing.

I can't even watch VR porn with 8GB ram. What are they thinking?!

Being an Apple shareholder must be so nice these days knowing that there will always be fanboys, shills, articles, etc. willingly suck Apple's dick and defend their anti-consumer behaviours.

It's almost 2024 guys.

The amazing thing is 8GB might not even be enough for the iPhone anymore, the stuttering and frame spikes in Resident Evil could easily be caused by not having enough RAM and having to shuffle art assets between storage and memory.

On the other hand, it's a hard game to actually recommend playing on an iPhone. Performance is compromised with frequent frame-time spikes and punctuated occasionally by severe bouts of stutter.

https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2023-full-fat-resident-evil-village-on-iphone-is-a-captivating-tech-demo-but-hard-to-recommend-playing

if only mba was 499$, but now, with talks about gaming which require 16gb at least, it won’t even run on most popular apple computer

At least you can buy a model with 16GB easily in stores now without needing a BTO. I remember it actually being easier to buy an iPad with 16GB of RAM than a Mac.

here we go again... 8GB is plenty for the vast majority of people that buy MacBooks because they have basic needs. If your needs aren't basic, simply buy a MacBook with more RAM.

Complain about the price of 16GB, not if 8GB is enough.

I use a MacBook for basic needs. I have an 8GB M2 Air, I don’t really need a MacBook for what I use it for, but I’m in the ecosystem and enjoy what Mac has to offer within it, I love knowing that if and when I’m ready to push my MacBook further, I’ll be able to comfortably. 8GB is enough for me and likely always will be enough.

Everybody of course is different, but I’m an average user and it’s more than plenty for me

I don’t understand it anyway, I just got 32gb ddr5 for my pc for a little over €100. Why would they hold out on something that important in a 1800+ bucks product?

i have both an m1 mac mini 8 gb, and a m1 pro max 32 gb mac studio. from my experience, 8gb is enough for any hobbyist basic stuff. even music production which i was doing unless youre doing professional level 100+ channel heavy sample based VST instruments... 8gb is enough. i used it on a professional level for 2 years with 8gb before i upgraded to the 32 gb mac studio

For the most part this video just says “more RAM = better performance”. That is true of any PC setup and isn’t unique to 8gb vs 16gb Macs — any comparison to a higher RAM machine will show the higher RAM device performing better.

The real question is whether the worse performance is so bad that it matters to its buyer base, which includes consumers who wanted an XDR display (which is not available on the Air) and lot of enterprise customers who previously were buying 13” Pros for their staff.

The video makes it clear that professional creators should not buy the 8GB machine, but I have a feeling most professionals already knew this.

This feels like the 128GB MacBooks all over again. That base model is probably fine for some small subset of users, but the problems that it causes for a lot of users is so terrible that it shouldn't be the base model.

I personally thought having 12GB for a base MBP would have been the way to go. I was surprised when they didn’t go up from the 8 GB. As a retail store employee so many parents, grandma’s, educators, are fine with 8GB for the simple fact that they are not doing hardly anything with the device itself. Maybe 4-5 apps open at once, no photo/video importing or exporting. No heavy duty Photoshop or Lightroom. Just basic needs and for that 8GB is enough.

I do personally feel as if the Air can have 8GB base M3 should be 12 GB base M3 Pro - Max 16-32GB base

8GB ram was the standard over 10 years ago, things have changed and so many apps have been hogging more ram with each update. I have a 8GB Mac Mini and I worry about constant swap memory (thanks Edge and Sketch) so instead, I have to switch using my other Mac Mini with 16GB of ram.

Bruh I’m still doing okay with my base 2014 Macbook Air with 4GB of ram. Youtube, web browsing and Microsoft word is all I really use it for. I’m sure a new MacBook with 8GB is perfectly fine in 2023.

Don’t understand the fuss, if you need more than 8gb then just upgrade it, it’s not like it’s not available.

Feel bad for the people buying it for Logic. My 2019 8gb did not last long before I realized how much 16gbs was needed.

My biggest issues is that on some lines (like MBA, iMac, non-Pro mini) 16GB is only available as BTO. They don't offer say a 16/512 configuration that retailers like BestBuy and Costco and Amazon (although Amazon has been covering through 3rd party more BTO options) carry and discount regularly. So it ends up cost much more than $200 extra to upgrade the RAM since you lose out on all the great retail sales/discounts.

God I hate that guy. Stop yelling at me. I don’t understand why you’re yelling.

He’s right though. I mean, probably. I didn’t watch, but if the consensus is “it should be 16GB,” he’s right.

You’re comparing it wrong - Apple

Literally had an argument yesterday in this thread about this exact issue:

https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/s/nc7m6nhwuM

Even if someone felt 8 gb was enough today workflows change. In a decade you might need 16 or more gigs of ram for your workload.

If confirmation bias was a post.

Why are people so pissed off. If you need more than 8GB then get 16GB, and if you’re complaining about the cost it’s not like Apple is a charity. It’s a damn company trying to make money and they’re selling a premium product. Buy another laptop if it’s too expensive 🤦

lmao Blender... come on. no one is running blender on a 8gb machine. its for web based apps, not for blender and "20...30...40 things open".

TLDW: the 8gb is slower than the 16gb.

Since when is blender a “hobbyist” application? I do think it should have more RAM for the price but at the same time 8GB is enough for many users. I edited 4K 10 bit while also using Lightroom on an 8GB M1 Air for years and never had issues. A lot of people looking at a base model won’t even be doing anything that labor intensive.

This channel SPECIFICALLY when m1 came out had a handful of videos saying 8=16gb.

Tech YouTubers are just a mass of trend following blowhards.

Any $500+ computer should come with 16gb of ram at minimum

THe best thing that made me laugh yesterday, if you configure the M14 manually from a pro to a max chip, you will be upgraded automatically from 18gb to 36gb of ram, of course the price goes up 600 euros for the chip AND additionally for the 18gb ram extra that you CANNOT unselect. AND the best thing, the SSD will stay at 500gb even though you are at 3.4k euros. I laughed so hard and closed the page

I may be old fashion, but Pro should be Pro. For laptops, M3 Pro with a decent base RAM for Pros and M3 for Airs would make things easier. M3 Pro would offer configs from the current Max and Pro.

apple is literally poverty grade