Its not a pro chip so should not be called a Pro. The branding should be:
- Macbook Air
- Macbook
- Macbook Pro
For some reason Apple has lumped it in with the Pro models, and its created a lot of unnecessary fuss surrounding the limited 8GB RAM
this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2023
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Calling it a “pro” device isn’t the issue. It’s an arbitrary name that means different things to different people.
The issue is that it costs 1600 USD for 8gb of ram.
8gb of RAM isn’t a issue; it’s the fact they call it a “pro” machine and charge $1600 for 8gb of RAM.
Apple usually isn’t competitive in pricing when it comes to RAM of storage but charging $1600 for 8gb of RAM is insulting.
The Pro stands for "PRObably Enough?"
“PROven failure”
The pro moniker is just marketing.
This is basically an air with the 120hz screen, more ports, etc.
It will be popular
Call it whatever you want, $1600 for 8GB of RAM is an insult
If you spec out a dell ultrabook and match it spec for spec, you’d get the same price. It’s what stuff costs now.
I get that. I was looking for a Thinkpad X1 to run Linux and they have similar prices, so I said screw that and I’m getting a Framework as my Linux laptop
It is. What is really pissing me off are the Apple apologists who are like “this is fine, Apple knows best”.
I like one review yesterday that categorized Pro as consumer and Max or Ultra being what professionals should be using for video and photo work.
Well you do get a “Pro” machine. That’s their brand. It’s a name for their laptop. It’s all it is. It’s like getting pissed at the PS Vita for not being alive because vita means life.
A professional would know better.
The biggest problem isn't that 8gb of RAM isn't enough....
It's that you cannot change the RAM after buying it, so if you're just under an 8gb RAM headroom now, you'll be over it in a year's time and you'll never be able to change it for the next four years minimum of ownership.
'Always buy as much RAM as you can afford and NEVER buy 8gb, if you can only afford 8gb, save until you can afford 16.'
8 gb is not enough for chrome let alone anything else! Its 2023 ffs
For professionals?! 32 GB is the bare minimum now, what the fuck?
I had 64 GB in my previous PC, that was overkill, I admit, I only got as much because I ran into RAM issues on my previous PC which had only 16 GB (built in 2014) and had to upgrade to 32 GB later on, so I decided 64 is the way to go.
Now I have a corporate MacBook, a corporate ThinkPad and my own PC. All three have 32 GB, and while it's enough for now, I definitely use more than 16.
16 GB is OK for a professional that only does light office work.
It also depends on the version and power of your RAM. DDR5 > DDR4 > DDR3.
Power levels in mhz: DDR5 5200 mhz
LPDDR5 6400 mhz
Not every workload needs fast RAM. I was absolutely fine at my previous job with 16 GB of DDR3-1600, and that's for professional software development. The same PC had 8 GB before and was barely usable, so I had to upgrade.
And if you don't have enough RAM, it doesn't really matter how fast it is, as you'll be bottlenecked by swapping, which is limited by SSD speed. If anything, a faster SSD could help, not faster RAM, though trying to compensate with SSD speed for lack of RAM is kind of crazy.
True, i remember m1 8gb vs 16gb had no difference in performance, but here with the m3, the gap is huge, most likely apple limited the swap speed to push people to buy high end models.
You remember incorrectly. The M1 review units were all 16GB. Apple has kept the real world benchmarks of their base models obfuscated for years. It's as simple as this. Sonoma and a tab of Safari consume upward of 7GB of RAM. That means under light use, 8GB models will have to swap constantly, slowing them down, heating them up, and wearing the SSD out exponentially faster. All of that goes away on 16GB.
This is also why Windows 11 is more performant on 8gb Intel models, but not necessarily 16gb.
Regardless of how much RAM a machine has, don't buy one that can't do what you need it to do.
Full stop.
Apple: FU, people will buy it
Don't buy one and tell your friends to wait. I thought Apple had poor laptop sales and wanted to sell more, but I was wrong.
The laptop market has taken the piss for a while. I’m a fan of Apple, got their phone, watch, AirPods, etc.
But their laptops are a joke. Dell are just as bad.
I think they’re all in kahoots about how they price their resources to force customers to pay more when they really shouldn’t have to.
Want 1TB? Those models start at £1,500. Want 1TB on that £500 laptop? Tough shit.
It being user-upgradable isn’t good enough for most people. And that’s becoming a luxury too.
Mental.
You don’t have to pay that. Just buy the components and assemble the laptop yourself.
Completely missing the point
So basically what you're saying is that corporations are just trying to maximize their profits via the products they sell to the consumer, and that this practice is an annoyance?
The primary goal of any business is to maximize profit.
Throughout history, merchants in every part of the world were trading and exchanging goods for profit. You want to try telling us that it is an insane thing for someone to upsell something for a bit of extra coin?
Mental.
No I’m not saying that at all. Try again
What do you think of this statement? “8GB on an M3 MacBook Pro is probably analogous to 16GB on other systems. We just happen to be able to use it much more efficiently.”
source
This is what people are missing. 8 GB of ram on the new silicone isn’t the same as 8 GB of ram on an Intel device. People wont understand this until they use a new M series machine.
I have an M2 16 GB MBA 15” with 512 and I edit 4K video in FCP with ease, and can export it in no time. I still giggle a little when I see how quick the estimated export time week be after I click export.
The only issue I’ve had with this laptop is that the Finder will freeze up. It does this when I’m working as well as when there isn’t a single program open. It’s strange but force quitting fixes it.
There was literally a post a few days ago where someone said the RAM in the base 2023 MacBook Pro was the same RAM in the base 2015 MacBook Pro. Not the same amount of RAM, they said they have the same RAM.
That's the level of technical literacy the people complaining about this have—and I get why Apple doesn't publicize the amount of RAM in the iPhones or iPads.
To be clear though, I do agree that the amount of RAM for the cost of the computer isn't right, I'm not trying to defend Apple.
A bit misleading. 8GB compared to what version 16GB of RAM? DDR5, DDR 4, or DDR3. Apple themselves use LPDDR5 that produces 6,400 mhz with their M series CPUs.
From a power standpoint DDR5 is close enough to LPDDR5 to make that claim false. DDR4 and previous versions makes that claim true from a power standpoint, but Apple was using previous version when released in those years too. Nearly all 2023 released PC laptops are using DDR5 RAM chips.
The only people who care and are complaining are the people that are never going to buy it anyway.
And you are the typical fanboy who believes everything apple says without questioning it. Instead you just say shut up and take my money
Nah; I have currently both recent MacBook and windows sitting on my desk; and while the MacBook is smooth 90% of the time; it’s a bit sluggish with swap memory activated when having 8gb/256 Gb if I have about 7-10 tabs open (using the new 15 inch MacBook Air 2 that I bought for 1299). Base model M2 or M3 should not have any gigs of ram when they were charging over $1000 for laptops. It’s complete robbery and they’re also giving you a single Nand chip and to upgrade to a reasonably functional degree of computer, it will be another $400 and upgrade to get it to 16 GB and 512, which should be the base for 1200+ laptops. Unified memory on high res 15 inch models is shared between multiple aspects of the laptop, and it’s just shortsighted for them to say the average person doesn’t need it. Also they intentionally limit 16 GB variants from going on sale (I’d gladly fork over another 100 bucks for a 16gb variant but fuck 200 bucks more for 8 more gb of ram; that’s plain bullshit)
While I understand that people who are using these for work can write them taxes off, and those students can get $100 off, Apple is definitely taking advantage of the fact that their engineering department is amazing and their business team is trying to squeeze every dollar out of the people. I understand the apple premium prices, and love their products where there is limited customizability, such as the Apple AirPods Pro GEN one and two. But the bullshit they are pulling with the MacBooks has gone a little out of hand. They have learned from their phones that they can provide a base model, which has completely useless specs, and people will still pay for the upgrade. So they’re actuaries have suggested that they continue this stupid ass business model Over to the laptops so they can continue taking advantage of the customer.
Meanwhile Lenovo yoga 7i with 16gb/512gb with 1360p; I bought for 599, and also has a touch screen and is a 2-in-1; and an 2.5k display screen. With original price of 800 bucks; this is still completely wrecking apple in terms of base specks. I’ve had 0 slow downs with this computer and the hard drive is twice as fast at minimum.
I feel like Apple will never have market share because of these stupid practices. Which is sad because their silicon is amazing. Ultimately other people will catch up, or so is my hope so that apple can return back to earth
The title of this post is misleading. No one is claiming that 8GB is enough for professionals
Numerous people over the last year in this very sub have said 8GB is more than enough for professional, or students going who are going into a profession such as programming.
It's not even about professionals. There should not be a $1600 laptop that comes with 8 GB, and an upgrade to 16 GB is another $200.
Learned from reading the comments you can't do any sort of upgrades to their laptops. So what's the point of buying their laptops?
They are extremely fast, and have great battery life.
I'm a developer and on the 8gb mbp. Honestly never experience lag even with multiple instances of vscode instances, tons of browser tabs, and multiple applications open.
I'd have to see side by side comparison like the video presented. Non-comparative statements like "it works on my laptop" mean nothing as a standalone. Reminds me of the history that led to Dockers creation.
Valve is about to sell an entire computer with 16gbs of fast ram and 512 GBs of storage for $550. 8GBs of memory at $1600 with a cost of $200 to get 16gbs and another $200 to get 1 tb of storage is just insane. You can get a top end 2tb Samsung SSD that is better than what apple sells for $100, and apple wants to charge you an extra $600 to get that same amount of storage.
Who is claiming 8GB is enough for professionals?
Or is it because the device is called MacBook Pro? We have an iPhone Pro, are only telephone using professionals allowed to buy them? Or is Pro just a name that means better than the other models?
I honestly don't know why people keep complaining about this. If 8GB isn't enough for you, then don't buy this model.
If you don't know whether or not you need more memory, then 8GB is probably all you need to be honest.
Would everyone stop complaining if prices started at 1800 and had 16GB? Why should the choice to have 8GB be taken away from the people that don't need 16.
My 2014 Macbook Pro has 16GB RAM, come on.
This video is silly. Showing that an 8gb machine is slower or not usable for blender or light room is both obvious and besides the point. The people buying the 8 gigabyte version not running those apps anyhow. Do a few tests just running a browser and basic office apps. That's the audience for this model.
But that can be done with the MacBook Air line or a refurbished M1 MacBook Pro 14-inch at lower costs. The latter comes with 16GB of RAM as the base model.
It will swap just with web browsing and basic tasks
This is madness.