the 8GB ram roadblock

agreer4

I am looking at a Mac Mini - I dont think I need an M-Pro chip but I cant wrap my head around the idea that 8gb RAM is enough for pretty much any computer at this point assuming you want to have it last more than a year or two. Is my vast experiance in Windows configurations clouding my judgment here? do I really need 16GB on the M-class side of the world or has Apple figured out a way to make things not get bottlenecked by swapping, even to NVME/PCIE based flash, its still a bottle neck. I dont want to end up with a brick 2 years from now because I was too cheap to pay the (very over priced) $200 for 8gb extra ram, but on principle i dont wanna spend that much extra on ram. 

My planed useage is for all the basic computer stuff and maybe some media creation - When i had my Mac Mini / Macbooks (2004-2019) i loved Garage Band and am considering stepping up to Logic Pro. Not sure if that would need the ram. 

marvin

agreer4 said:

I am looking at a Mac Mini - I dont think I need an M-Pro chip but I cant wrap my head around the idea that 8gb RAM is enough for pretty much any computer at this point assuming you want to have it last more than a year or two. Is my vast experiance in Windows configurations clouding my judgment here? do I really need 16GB on the M-class side of the world or has Apple figured out a way to make things not get bottlenecked by swapping, even to NVME/PCIE based flash, its still a bottle neck. I dont want to end up with a brick 2 years from now because I was too cheap to pay the (very over priced) $200 for 8gb extra ram, but on principle i dont wanna spend that much extra on ram. 

My planed useage is for all the basic computer stuff and maybe some media creation - When i had my Mac Mini / Macbooks (2004-2019) i loved Garage Band and am considering stepping up to Logic Pro. Not sure if that would need the ram.

16GB RAM is still best for media work because media gets uncompressed into memory. 8GB can hold up ok for performance due to the SSD but it will be swapping a lot. The system will use 2-3GB to boot the OS and this is also used for the graphics memory, which would be 1GB. App memory left after this is 4GB. A single browser tab can use 0.5GB RAM.

Most media apps will say 4-8GB minimum requirement and 16GB recommended like Photoshop:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html

If you open two apps like Photoshop + Final Cut Pro, that doesn't leave enough to meet the minimum for both. 8GB RAM is for the most basic use case of browsing, document-based workflows, emails etc. Any kind of audio/video/image work should get 16GB.

agreer4

Thanks for the info. I ended up finding Bestbuy running a sale for $200 off the Macbook Pro 14 inch m2 pro/16g/512g config. Im very happy I spent the little extra on the pro over the air with 16g and frankly the air 8g wouldn’t be able to keep up based on my eyeballing activity monitor. 

edited July 2023

marvin

agreer4 said:

Thanks for the info. I ended up finding Bestbuy running a sale for $200 off the Macbook Pro 14 inch m2 pro/16g/512g config. Im very happy I spent the little extra on the pro over the air with 16g and frankly the air 8g wouldn’t be able to keep up based on my eyeballing activity monitor. 

That's a good choice, the XDR displays are great quality with really nice black levels and very little reflections. It really shows in videos like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njX2bu-_Vw4

Another place to look at when buying is Apple's refurb section, they are usually like new and have full warranty. The 14" models are pretty close to the Bestbuy price but more savings on the older M1 Pro model:

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FPHE3LL/A/refurbished-14-inch-macbook-pro-apple-m2-pro-chip-with-10-core-cpu-and-16%E2%80%91core-gpu-space-gray
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FKGP3LL/A/refurbished-14-inch-macbook-pro-apple-m1-pro-chip-with-8%E2%80%91core-cpu-and-14%E2%80%91core-gpu-space-gray
https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/mac/macbook-pro

mikedzpl

agreer4 said:

I am looking at a Mac Mini - I dont think I need an M-Pro chip but I cant wrap my head around the idea that 8gb RAM is enough for pretty much any computer at this point assuming you want to have it last more than a year or two. Is my vast experiance in Windows configurations clouding my judgment here? do I really need 16GB on the M-class side of the world or has Apple figured out a way to make things not get bottlenecked by swapping, even to NVME/PCIE based flash, its still a bottle neck. I dont want to end up with a brick 2 years from now because I was too cheap to pay the (very over priced) $200 for 8gb extra ram, but on principle i dont wanna spend that much extra on ram. 

My planed useage is for all the basic computer stuff and maybe some media creation - When i had my Mac Mini / Macbooks (2004-2019) i loved Garage Band and am considering stepping up to Logic Pro. Not sure if that would need the ram. 

One way you can save money is buying through the Amazon Apple Refurb Store. I just purchased a MacBook Air M1 512GB SSD and 16GB Ram for $806.94. I did a lot of research on Amazon and their extended warranty company before purchasing (because most aftermarket warranties are 100% worthless) and I've only ever purchased direct from Apple, but some of the newer models have AppleCare available to be purchased. Now mine was supposed to come with 8 but shipped with 16. I haven't had mine long but it's perfect. No scratches, marks, dings, notta. Runs great. The warranty which was $146.99, same coverage as AppleCare, including accident protection but lasts 4 years. 

edited July 2023