M3 MacBook Pro - How much RAM do you ACTUALLY need? 

So many RU-vidrs forget how RAM intensive running a VM is. I have an M2 Max 16” with 32 GB of RAM because I’m using Parallels for certain programs. Not to mention a Docker container to run SQL Server Management Studio. Yes, 18 GB is a good baseline, but it’s not just video editing and music production that uses RAM.

8GB is a joke in 2023. I don't know why Apple would even try that with a system called the Macbook Pro.

I personally recently bought a used base model air m1. I'm doing some 1080p video editing, and simple photoshop and figma stuff, and it's doing fine. But it's also because I have a gaming pc I can rely on in case there's really something out of the ordinary I have to do. Picking an 8GB model was totally a conscious decision, and I know that in case I need to upgrade, I could just give it to my parents who only do browsing and mailing exclusively, or maybe some Netflix.

Hey good day I just wanted to know if the M3 8RAM will work well with Serato Pro with stems features for DJs?

I just ordered the M3 Pro with 18 cores and 36 gigs of RAM. I feel it's the sweet spot for performance to price value.

I’m thinking of either getting the M3 Pro 16” with 36gb, I want it for some light 4k video editing and photoshop, is 36gb an overkill? Should I just got with the 18gb with 512gb storage? Thanks!!

I use Mainstage and Ableton at the same time to run virtual instruments in live music performance and running tracks at the same time in which I'd run many instances of very heavy sample based instruments in Mainstage to the point where I use to use up my 16 gigabytes of ram years ago so fast that it'd crash often, I upgraded to the i9 with 6 cores of 32gb of ram, after around 5 years I've started using up all 32 gigs and often do have issues with CPU overloads with audio dropouts using up pretty much all the memory, therefore, in the search for an upgrade I come to be torn between the m3 max with 14 cores and 96 gb of ram or 16 cores with either 64gb of ram or 128 because of my exponential usage of RAM with mixing and mastering projects with over 100 tracks per session of recorded tracks of up to 30 gb of length between each track, with a lot of virtual instruments, and video editing, and occasional streaming. Any thoughts or comments on my situation?

I currently have the 2018 MacBook Pro with 8gb of memory. Trying to figure out what’s the best to get. I use illustrator, photoshop, premiere pro and after effect for motion graphics. I also play the fpv simulator to practice flying fpv drone. Most of the time I have either illustrator and after effect open or premiere pro also. What would be the best option for me?

Your channel is great, you describe things I can understand.

64gb is good enough for me with two 5k displays vRam shared, another reason is that 64gb has more memory bandwidth than 48gb or 95gb variants.

Working since 2021 on my M1 mac book air with just 8GB and I couldn't be happier, I don't do too much power intensive stuff, except trading but what I can assure you that if you use your notebook lightly, 8GB is more then enough. In case you do power hungry stuff, I cannot imagine you need more then 16GB and an upgrade to 32GB is probably a waste of money. It really depends on your work and I think its an ego problem if you really have to upgrade the RAM etc and throw your money out of the window. 400USD for 18GB of Ram is insane! The new Macs starting from M1 are amazing machines! For disk space, I would rather buy external drives and cloud bases solutions and if locally needed and speed is the priority, build a PC.

Would 18gb ram be enough for music recording and light video editing?

Came from a windows Asus gaming computer but never gamed, as I use it to produce EDM on FL studio. Got the m3 pro 18 gb with 12 core cpu and my GOD this thing is a beast. Everything runs so smooth with all the multiple plug ins and the heavy cpu orchestral sounds. Added benefit it the battery life/ quietness I can produce anywhere I go.

Just got an m3 pro w/ 18gb and 1tb and it is great!. I hardly ever go past 14 gigs even while multitasking with lightroom and premier, safari tabs with youtube and spotify. The only time I encounter yellow memory pressure is when working with 4k footage in after effects, but I haven’t seen any swap so far.

Great video. Most people can stop watching at around 6:30 as anyone who is even looking at more than 16/18gb of RAM knows it and doesn't really need to watch this. But, fun to watch none the less.

Cool video! I’m still researching which Mac I want, what chip, and RAM needed.

Hello, I would like to use Parallel desktop on mac. How many GB ram do you advise in the MBP-M3 PRO. I would like to buy MBP next year, and i dont know how many GB rams to buy. THX a lot!

This was very helpful thank you. I'm debating on upgrading from an 18 gig m3 pro to 36gigs. I personally don't think I'll need it but my friends say I should consider it since I don't plan on replacing this laptop unless it dies or becomes unsupported like my current iMac.

My 16gb M1 Mac mini can even dig into swap just because I forget I have to many excel sheets and safari tabs. I couldn’t imagine 8gbs. Looking forward to upgrading to the M3 pro with 18gb

Love those shout outs 😂 Great video explaining RAM needs.

Thanks for personifying the entire Apple product marketing ladder.

Hello. whats your eye glasses frameless brand

I hope I get a response before this day gets started. I bought the 14inch MacBookPro M3Max with the following specs! 14 Core CPU, 30 Core GPU, 36GB of unified memory. I believe = max 300GB/‘s memory bandwidth. My question is this.,. I will ONLY use this laptop for editing 1080p and some 4k files (drone footage) maybe some 4k DSLR footage as well with a lot of 3rd party plug in’s for Final Cut Pro X like Titles, Generators, Effects and transitioning etc… should I return this product and upgrade to 64 GB of unified memory with 16 core CPU and 40core GPU? Which by the way would = Max 400GB/s memory bandwidth! OH and does 14” vs 16” make a difference with the same exact specs? Thank you in advance.

What is your opinion on a MBP M3 Chip 8-ccpu 10-cGPU and 24 GB of unified memory to run a VM for just basic windows excel ect? Thank you for your response 🎉

Hi guys, i have an Imac 27, i9 10c. 128ram at 2111mhz, ssd1tb and i wish switch dor mobility, can someone tell me what macbookk shoud be similar with thats specs ?

nice one.. thx bro

I use Adobe Photoshop and technically the most advanced interaction I’ll have with it is Perspective warping and some general edits to make my work cleaner and crisper. I also intend to use After Effects for some relatively basic video work; multi-slide complications featuring panning video clips, some light transitional effects, nothing huge. While I intend to get the M3 Max chip, should I get 36GB (which I think will future proof me for what I do) or spend the $$$ and get 48GB??? Any advice would be appreciated. I haven’t bought a MacBook Pro since I was gifted one in 2009!!

So for complex 3d modeling and some rendering related. It’s better an m3 max 14/30 96ram or the m3 max 16/40 64ram? (around 5k budget)

Can i edit 4k video in davinci resolve, right now using m1 air and it struggles alot in 4k editing

is the m3 max with 36gigs enough for Videoediting?

Do you know how you can clear swap without turning off your MacBook? On Linux it was swapoff -a ; swapon -a

I have an M2 Pro w 32GB of RAM. I’ve run Parallels, Topaz, etc and so far barely topped 50% usage.

what about after effects on 4k projects with a bunch of effects 36gb ram is enough?

I just bought a 14inch M3 Pro 12C/18C GPU, 18GB Ram, 1TB. Thinking about returning it for the exact spec except opting for the 36GB Ram. Can’t decide.

I have a macbook pro M2 with 24GB & 1TB HDD running FCPX,Motion Pro and Unreal Engine 5 without a hiccup. Love it! Pawn shop find for $700

I am in medical school now, but when I was a data Engineer/Scientist for the US Gov making huge ML/AI models, I worked with streaming data (so over 200GB of changing data, sometimes TB) and easily could have used 128 GB of ram.... I had 64 GB of ram, and I had to run some programs while I was sleeping so they could be done in a reasonable time. To give you a real life use case. When presenting my work to stakeholders with live demos, we usually had to use a subset of the data. but due to the nature of the work and how important it was to be 100% accurate, when really using it, we had to use all of the data.

Which MacBook is more performant for video editing: MacBook Pro 13” M2, CPU 8-core, GPU 10-core, but with 24 GB unified memory, or MacBook Pro 14” M3 Pro, CPU 12-core, GPU 18-core, and only 18 GB unified memory? Thank you in advance!

For edit 600mb fx3 video , 36gb it's nice?

I love how you explained RAM😊

I am a graphic/web designer, I currently have a MacBook Pro M1 Pro with 10 (8 performance and 2 efficiency) cores, 16 GB RAM and 1TB storage. I'm searching to upgrade to an M3pro, which one is better: Apple M3 Pro chip with 12‑core CPU, 18‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine 36GB unified memory 512GB SSD storage or Apple M3 Pro chip with 12‑core CPU, 18‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine 18GB unified memory with an upgrade to 1TB SSD storage?

I use always around 50 GB Ram as I run a virtual Windows 11 machine and a virtual Linux Machine on my MacBook. For this I have the Max with 128 GB Ram, so it never swaps.

So I am looking at the 16 inch M3 pro I am trading in my M1 air because it was good value but med school demands more ram at this point. I am little torn. Should I get the base 16 inch M3 pro or upgrade it the ram from 18 gbs to 36 gbs of ram or should I opt for more storage to 1 TB storage or neither and just stick to the basics

Which MacBook Pro is recommended to make videos like this?

I took my m2 MacBook Air with 16 gb and 512gb. The 256 gb would have been a mistake because it’s slower.For my work I also need windows 11 so I use parallels. It’s a dream to run. But with 8gb you would not get the same performance because of excessive swapping. In other words if you do anything else besides the regular user tasks take more memory

Just ordered the M3 Max 128gb 16”. I’m upgrading from a 2013, which was finally starting to show its age. That’s how long I make these last, which is why I maxed it out.

For folks running LLMs, VMs, along with heavy video and 3D work...it feels like 64 GB is the minimum, which unfortunately is *only* available on the top spec M3 Max chip. I wish Apple gave us the Max-30c with 64 GB as an option. The 96 GB is way too expensive of an upgrade.

Should I get 48 or 64? Im a video editer, business owner, and a daytrader. I don't know if I should get 64gb of ram because I feel like that's too much, but I dont wanna regret it later down the line, and i really dont wanna upgrade either. This is for the m3 max 16 core, btw.

I have maxed out over 64GB of ram on my PC before. just once. i was 3d modelling on solidworks. it was not a fun time always on the fear of the system crashing loosing my work.

Which is the best ram and m3 max for aaa gaming and is it worth 1 or 2tb ssd?

I’m a graphics designer and using photoshop illustrator indesign, lightroom and general productivity. Photoshop can use 16gbs easily in my experience. I smash 64gb on the daily and get ram low errors through istat menu all the time. So ye “I can’t think of anyone” who could use 96, I could saturate that with my workflows. If you’re a pro using your machine everyday you don’t shut programmes down because it takes time to get back to where you were. I don’t think I’m in the 5% but ram is ram and the more you have the more the system will use. Kind of sick of hearing this advice from apparent people who “know” what others need.

lol I just ordered a 128Gb version with 4TB storage. I don’t need it at all but having it makes me feel like a pro 🤣 yes I’m one of those guys

1:28 That's what I was thinking too. But for those who just use it for watching videos or doing note taking, this is a decent price for MacBook users, if u want to game on it, I don't think it may handle well with intensive graphics

The old memory swap. In theory yes I say this makes sense. For 99.999999% of users will never have an issue with this as far as damaging you SD or ram.

I just got my school macbook. and it is the M3 Pro with 18 gb

You need at least 128gb, because of Chrome. Wish they made a 1TB ram option soon.

I have the MacBook 2023 M3 chip 16GB of Ram 8 core CPU and 10 core GPU and I'm honestly impressed (Coming from a MacBook Air 2020 intel model)

I own a 1st gen 2020 M1 MacBook pro 13" non "pro chip" as they weren't available at the time. One critical point most reviewers miss is the fact anything non pro only supports one external display.

I wish I could get the 48gb ram with the 12c M3 Pro configuration.

Do you think the base model M3 pro specs 11 core cpu is good enough for normal usage and video editing?

With a few Chrome tabs, Messages, Mail, and Spotify bumping leads to my base M3 Max to use over 22gb according to Activity Monitor. Happy I went with at least 36gb although the Max chip is overkill for me, I bought refurbished and saved some money.

I’m sorry that advice is waaaay too vague. Basically “buy lots of RAM on your M3 MacBook…if you think you need it”…Seriously? I think you guys need to do some more homework (benchmarking) before you release a video claiming to have the answers.

LLMs need a LOT of RAM. If you want to do inference on bigger models you need the RAM.

thxxxx

I bought the m3 pro with 12 cores cpu/18 gpu and it looks great. The only problem is that I often as a student have a lot of tabs with homework opened on safari to the point where even with 18GB of unified memory my safari just straight up stops responding and I have to quit, thus losing all my unsafe work. This happened twice in one week already and once I captured it on the video and it crashed just safari when I was browsing threw my gmail, but the second time the photoshop was not responding when I was working on at the time (thank god for autosave). I could still tab in and out, so it was not a crash, but I usually have a lot more demand when it comes to work on my main windows pc. Anyway, I have now Activity monitor in the background and I found out that when memory pressure reaches yellow, it just straight up crashes safari and I lose all the tabs. Is that normal? How much unified memory or which model should I get (considering I want to start studying computer science/engineering next year? (I can still return the Mac for a refund, it has been less than 2 weeks and I am returning it today.)

I was under the impression you would explain on more technical terms how mac’s use ram

Oddly enough my new MacBook Air 3 days old. Is consuming 14gb of ram and has 1gb of swap used just opening safari tabs. No more than 20 tabs. I find it interesting they will use everything possible. But it’s very snappy and I love it. Thought about a 32gb m1 or m2 pro instead but think I’m gonna rock with my 15in m3 air.

I'm using Aftereffects (mainly making 2D motion graphics) and considering studying C4D. What would you guys recommend? MacPro14" M3 pro 18GB vs MacPro14" M3 pro 36GB

RAM is a problem, as shared Memory support is still weak. Meaning, if you got 18 GB, you 9 for CPU and 9 for GPU. Which is extremely low. Also the memory is super expensive. Same for SSD. Apple is doing it wrong, when selling Pro Laptops, that suddenly run out of memory because you didn’t wanted to pay the additional 400 for a RAM that would have cost a fraction of it. Apple driving us into a huge expensive experiment.

I buy a high-end Apple laptop once per decade initially as a desktop replacement (which is what Apple silicon has given us in these MacBook Pros), then mid cycle (at the 5 year mark) a newer technology desktop will enter into the equation. Rinse and repeat, or at least that's how it's been for the past 3 decades, more or less on this end. Just got an Apple refurbished store (plus military discount) for a 14" M2 Max with the GPU bump, 64GB and 4TB. Saved $1500 just through the two discount mechanisms. Talk to you again in 2033.

im confused my mac has 18 gigs of ram and 18 cores and 1TB its a M3 why does everyone else have 16...

People forget that there are other ram consuming tasks that video/music/photo editing

Thank you doing this video Who is the guy keeping you in check? OMGosh hilarious. I have to keep stopping to listen over because you get excited and talk quicker and quicker hee hee You remind me of one of those wind up torches, the more, you wind it, the higher, the brightness, but in your case, it’s talking about Apple MacBook Pro ❤

But there is one more thing :D M3 architecture is way more different than the previous ones, and in one thing M3 is different than M3 pro, the choose of 18 and 48GB is because of amount number channels available. Do not paying attention of amount of ram itself, the memory channels ai its plays on memory bus as well. Valid for M3 max as well.

I like your RAM videos, man; but, please, timestamp the chapters in your videos. It facilitates getting to the main points or going back to review and knowing where your ads are.

I’m getting ready to make the leap from a 13-inch 2019 Quad Core Intel i5 MacBook with 8GB UM and 250.69 SSD. I’m heavily leaning toward the M3 MacBook Pro, with 36GB UM, and 500GB SSD for Music Production in Logic Pro. My only issue is deciding on whether or not to just get the 10-Core CPU as opposed to paying an extra $200 for the 12-Core. Would 1-core more really be worth it? Either way I imagine I’m gonna notice an extreme difference from what I’m used to coming from an Intel Mac. I also noticed some people are saying that the M3 is not worth the upgrade from M1 and M2 and that the memory bandwidth has been nerfed and performs a tiny bit slower than the M2 and M1. UPDATE: I was convinced into changing my mind about getting the M3. Two people, a B&H agent and one other person both advised me to not get the M3 unless I get the m3 max, which I’m not gonna do. Instead I’ve decided on going for the 12-Core M2 Pro with 32GB UM and 500GB SSD. The other person said: “Do not get the M3 for Logic unless you go M3 Max. Logic does not use Efficiency cores. So if you get the 11 core M3 Pro, that's only 5 Performance cores compared to 8 Performance cores on the 10 core M1 Pro and 12 core M2 Pro. The M3 Pro, even the base 11 core variant, is an upgrade in most ways, but not when it comes to Logic. I know this because I just dealt with it for Ableton, which similarly does not use E cores. I returned my 14" M3 Pro 11 core 18/512 for a refurb 14" M1 Pro 10 core 16/1tb. I get better Ableton performance, and have an extra $600 in my pocket. Now that I've been using the M1 Pro for a few days, I will say that the M3 Pro has it easily beat for battery life. An expected result of the trading P cores for more E cores. I definitely miss the battery life and how cool it ran. But it wasn't worth it to me paying significantly more money for worse performance in Ableton. But for anyone reading this, if your usage is more varied and Ableton/Logic/other non-E core program are not your primary use case, then an argument can definitely be made in favor of M3 Pro. Especially if picked up on sale.” And “I'm impressed by the B&H agent staying on top of this info. Good for them! The M2 Pro 10 core only has 6 P cores(6P+4E). So if in budget, go for the M2 Pro 12 core (8P + 4E). That would be the best configuration. If you want to save some money, you can do what I did and get a refurb M1 Pro 10 core (8P+2E). I personally was looking at refurb M2 Pro 12 core options, but it was another $600 compared the M1 Pro I got. I can afford it, but it came down more to principle. Didn't see the point spending that much more money just for 2 additional E cores. Also, I plan on seeing what the core configuration of future M4 Pro devices will be and might consider trading up to that. So it made sense for me to go with M1 Pro 10 core at this point in time. Edit: Wanted to add that while the extra cost of M2 Pro 12 cores wasn't worth it for me, it may be for you. The additional 2 E cores might be worth it to you if you have any other workload that can actually use all available cores.”

128GB is the way to go if you are a graphic designer/3d modeler who is working in blender3d, photoshop, illustrator + windows in VM (Parallels) to run something like 3dsmax at the same time. I know because I'm one of those people. Multiple projects opened daily. Also 2x 4K monitors help a lot in this workflow but require additional resources. So yeah, if you can afford it and need it go for as much RAM as you can. You won't be able to upgrade later so choose wisely.

Ram is more important that the processor for me at this point. Apple isn't making any bad processors..... There's no longer a reason to prioritize the processor first IMO. Ram bandwidth is also something that has become important..... I think the top bandwidth is only available with the Max chips sadly. For M3

I've ordered a Macbook Pro 12 Core CPU 18 Core GPU 18 GB RAM 512 GB SSD Storage. I'm basically a backend Java developer and will be using Docker engine and maybe minikube of Kubernetes. I'm planning to learn and work on Go language as well. I will not edit videos or music professionally. Do you think this RAM will be enough for me for a couple of years? Or should I pay $430 and go for 36 GB RAM? ( I have the right to return back the above config and request for a new one)

I am torn between the 30 core max chip with 36gb ram or to jump up to the 40 core max chip with 48gb ram. I am getting into 3d animation and wanted something decent. Would going with the 64gb ram be overkill?

So it's not the same having 32gb ram intel based mac than M2 Max 32gb? I mean in terms of ram usage.

I am not a profi and my Mac Studio with 32GB RAM often needs to swap. I am recoding videos, stabilizing videos and attending 24/7 gridcomputing.😊 Right now, with UTM, I need to care much more.

@justjosh already explained about the ram in depth for macbooks, where it clearly says, 16gb myst be a minimum for everyone. Whatever you do with that piece of electronics. In addition if you short with money, why do you even look at apple (;

I wanna mention sth. else. It takes a lot of vram (not ram) for stable diffusion and machine learning optimisation, unless Apple debuts its own ml app. So, it is not much helping to talk about adding ram in this scenario

Apple made it in a way where you say “might as well upgrade” M3 Pro with 1 TB of storage is the same price as the base 16 inch, which you can upgrade the SSD for just $100 more…

8:51 What you smokin’?? Apple doesn’t give any free RAM upgrade. $300 is for the M3 Max upgrade to 16 cpu/40 gpu alone. However, that selection forcibly upgrades RAM to 48 gb, but this is not free either. It adds another $200 RAM fee to the total price. In effect, $500 more for the 16 cpu/40 gpu model.

I got my wife an 8gb M2 Macbook Pro. She only uses her Macbook as an internet machine, to write papers for her doctorate classes,and prepare work for the classes that she teaches in high school. Zoom also. It's still considered light use. Her Macbook does use file swap. It's bullshit that 8GB is enough RAM. Total bullshit.

As someone who has just bought a 16 inch MacBook Pro I have been using windows all my life. I have never had it crash or had any of the problems people in the comments are saying. I bet most people bought a $350 Windows laptop and hated it then tried a Apple laptop for $1500 and comparing the 2 experiences. Considering 90% of businesses use windows you would expect the world economy to collapse if it was as bad as you are all saying. Can’t even use MacOS out of the box without it driving me crazy (rectangle app a must). The quicker you stop blindly following apple the harder they will have to work to sell you products and everyone wins. Believe me if everyone boycotted the MacBook for a year the next MacBook you will see would be the greatest thing ever made.

Right now, on my 2019 i9 iMac with 40 GB of RAM is using 23 GB of RAM with no special productivity apps open. Interestingly, apps like Mail seem to take up more memory as time goes on until I close down the app and open it up again. It seems like RAM is not properly being deallocated in some apps. Upon reboot, somewhere between 7 to 12 GB of RAM will be in use but it grows from there. It seems that someone that uses the machine for pro like activities really want to upgrade the RAM. Folks who work in ML and data science seem to want at least 64 GB of RAM.

Honestly though if I were a true “MAC”, power user, I wouldn’t be buying the regular M chip to begin with. MAX to ULTRA is where I’d see heavy users going. The M with 8 GB is ok, as pointed out, it’s just the unit has the wrong model name. In that case, I’d see more M2 Airs selling in similar spec. I got my first MAC in 2010, it was a 2010 MacBook Pro. Back then, it was easier to distinguish between regular and Pro. Their other lineups kind of do that. Why not bring that same approach back to MAC?

well put together video, but I can't agree that 16gigs is enough for anything, minus anything very intensive. ive had my m1 MacBook Pro with 16c gpu and 16 gigs of ram for 6 months now, trying to edit 4k footage from my mavic 3 in Final Cut Pro, and I get constant beach balls (literally two effects added ) no other programs open, codecs are all apple codecs, nothing from windows etc...did I just get a lemon...ram usage never goes into the yellow or red area when I monitor it...idk.

As an Arab I'm amazed that you're using a macbook with an Arabic keyboard. I guess you bought it from Dubai/UAE apple store

I upgraded my old 2013 trash can MacPro to 128 gigs of RAM. Runs like a champ now despite it being over a decade old and the memory only being DDR3 at 1066Mhz. Still faster than a swap file on an HDD or SSD. It originally shipped with 12 which was already a joke back in 2013. Apple's pricing strategy is nothing short of extortion. Let's be honest here. The whole point of it is to push consumers to opt for a higher end machine which costs more.

Arthuuur 😃

What about the issue of ram bandwidth?

Many intel makes are still beast years later.

Atleast make us bye the 8gigs and upgrade option later even sell their own rams to change

nah I do worry and as soon as you said that I had to switch to a different video

so far for what i do 16 gigs has been fine but it is getting boarder line soon and yup no upgrades for my M1 ill need a new system by 2025 for sure unless apple starts using less ram for the OS and that wont happen so up new computer in 2025 for sure..

My MacBook Pro just died. Insurance sent me a check. Just ordered the 16 inch M3 Max. 64GB of RAM, 2TB of storage

Audio editing can definitely use 196 gb ram.