MacBook RAM Explained - The REAL Problem with 8GB RAM 

Mac user - I wish I paid a little bit more for 16 G of RAM. Mac user's definition of a little bit more - $200.

Very well explained topic and just such pleasant videos. Your voice is soothing and there is no dramatic/theatrical speaking, which is a blessing for my ears. Thank you for your professionalism! And being handsome definitely is in your advantage!

Hi and thank you for this video. On a 13" MBA M3, is there any point in taking 24 GB or 16 GB is enough? And regarding storage capacity, I currently have a mid-2009 MBP with a 256 GB SSD and I have 133 GB free. I multitask with around 20 RU-vid tabs, Excel (files with lots of pages, macros, etc.) and Lightroom. Do I need 512 GB of storage ? Thank you for your insightful responses. Regards.

Thankfully I thought thrice and ended up getting the 16gb RAM. I'm a moderate user and I think choosing this can save me later on from potential performance issues.

could you please do a comparison between 18 vs 36gb ram m3 pro?

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

Hello! I'm trying to understand the CPU and RAM performance. I have an early 2015 macbook pro with 8gb of ram. Ram pressure is always green (5-6 gb of RAM usage), but CPU sometimes hit the 60 percent, mostly when seeing youtube, and get a little laggy. My question is, if 7 years ago, when I bought it, if I had bought it with 16gb of RAM, I would have seen now the diference? I mean, the CPU would go better if I had that 16gb of RAM? Or it's just an CPU thing?

yo I can't just buy 16 gb of ram. in my country it's not EVEN CLOSE to a 200$ upgrade. it's around 500$ JUST FOR an EXTRA 8 GB OF RAM. What should I choose ? M3 macbook air 8 gb or a windows laptop ? I make music in FL Studio and simple photoshop / video editing.

RAM. Love the video! Can you do a tesla update with your fav features and games to play?

Just purchased an M2 macbook air 16gb ram 256 GB ssd. I was just going to go with the base model. But thanks to other videos on RU-vid like yourself now I decided to upgrade the ram. I'm so glad I did! I was so surprised how much ram it was using by just having a few tabs open like music, apple TV, safari! Not even labor intensive apps used like Photoshop. One time it went up to 12gb used up! Its not gone into swap once as that would slow down the machine. So if I had chosen the 8gb ram it would have been such a wrong choice.

RAM - love the video

RAM. Totally agree. 8Gigs is not sufficient. Great video.

RAM. Good video and well explained. In the past I'd only ever upgrade hard drive space but I find more use from RAM upgrades.

If Apple selling 16GB RAM as the base config but with the price it is now, it doesn’t serve any purpose

IMO I reckon the 16GB RAM would be the sweet spot for many moderate users like myself, at least with a MacBook Air. Heavier users of business applications, creative work and university students, and for occasional light photo and video editing. 16GB RAM would also provide some future proofing for those who would be planning on keeping their machines for a longer time and easily worth the $200 investment

I sold my 16G m1 pro MacBook Pro several days ago, and replaced with 32G M2pro MacBook Pro. I should buy 32G earlier. 16g is not enough for full stack developers.

2:29 bro, just dont use Chrome ...

They will not drop 8gb models because it's their strategy to have reasonable prices product but the specs suck thus leading customers to higher tier models that cost way too much. Also, you should clarify that by upgrade storage in the future, you mean using cloud or external storage, since ssd is soldered like ram.

Apple won't move to a new base level of RAM until forced and even then it will only be to 12GB.

My friend have m1 air 8 gb it’s baaad , cant working with excel and browser!!

I have no objection to Apple offering an 8GB version as it is obviously the best seller and allows them to discount. I have seen £200 off the base MB Pro 14 M3. The people complaining about having a base 8Gb are self-centred, as many laptop users do not need more. We are not all the same user case. If you need more, buy one with a 16GB minimum; common sense is a valuable asset. I have used an MB Pro 13 M1 for three years and am typing on it now and have no issues. It does all I need without a problem. My flow is office and web-based, so it is not RAM-intensive. Because it was 8GB, I got it for £900 (£350 off in a deal). Apple's business model is how they survive a cut-throat PC market, and that means margins come from people upgrading and allows Apple to tap down lower on the demand curve with discounts. Having a base 16GB model would likely mean price rises all around, defeating the purpose; unintentional consequences. I see 12GB being the base RAM sooner than later, hopefully stopping most of the anti-Apple rants.

$16000 later you have a functional computer!

As a rule of thumb, just understand that Apple, while they ship great products, they're greedy as ***. The definition of money-face. The actual entry price is higher than those advertised. Wait til you can afford the actual entry price, like Andrew says here, with 16gb of RAM. And if you're buying M2 models, be careful of the 256gb models also. I highly doubt Apple are going to ship with 16gb base. They'll probably go with 12 or something silly like that, just to get most users to pay more. They want the ARPU to be high, because it's a key share price metric. And nowadays, as in Boeing, c-suite compensation is tied directly to stock price performance & shareholder return. So don't be the one that tries to get the base model only to have to upgrade relatively much sooner than you otherwise would have had to. Don't look individually at the RAM upgrade pricing, obviously it will look like a ripoff. Instead, just understand that that price is the actual entry point for the Apple device you're looking at.

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200$ more for +8gb is wild in 2024

The irony that Mac users freak out about swap when we’ve been using swap for decades on Windows and Linux, with Linux even requiring you designate how large the swap partition is to be. Trying to just avoid swap is an overly obsessive task. MacOS manages memory so well that we need to just use our machines. Example: people with 18GB Pro chips complain they get close to swap or even see their machine using swap. Same apps on an 8GB RAM machine may not use as much RAM as the machines with more RAM because MacOS doesn’t just let RAM sit unused. It uses it if available and manages the system around the resources available. Swap isn’t a cry for help. It’s a utilization of resources by intent when RAM is needed for higher priority tasks and is limited in availability. Yes, more RAM is always a great choice. But buying unnecessarily at Apple prices is not wise. Most of us know if we need more RAM and we buy accordingly. It’s when we’re on the fence about it that the pain of more or less gets difficult and I’m pondering it myself right now for a MacBook Air. But after watching how much a base M2 Mac Mini can do with 8GB RAM, my personal photo editing and office tasking probably doesn’t need more RAM until software demands grow that require more. And I do not run Chrome because it’s always been a memory leak issue with horrible memory demands.

After researching, and then buying the refurbished m2 15” mba, with 16gb of ram, It’s more than sufficient for 8k videos if need [ thus future proofing for next 3 years for me ] Anyone who is still on the fence , go for the 16gb ram, with the onslaught of the AI, 8gb is not gonna cut it for daily automation [ using the Shortcut app ] to automate , it really isn’t that slower than the m2p, And its so quiet and light, only down side is the slow non-promotion But at work, which im fortunate enough to use and test all the latest MacBook and other intels, mba IS a safe buy, but 16gb and spec up, But if between 1tb and 16gb, still go with 16gb [ think there was another RU-vidr ] who tested the 512gb vs 1tb 16gb still was much “snappier “ But 512gb or even better 1tb will save you headaches for the future, and buying refurbished with CC 0% installments to maximize your wallet during such times is still worth. No its not a gaming device, but rather almost a jack of all trades type of Lambo status

It’s basic math, 8gb is not equivalent to 16gb as apple declared.

Do you think 32 GB Ram is necessary?

If nothing else more ram will increase the longevity of the machine. 8gb of ram is fine if you’re doing super basic stuff and upgrade machines every 2 years or so otherwise I would say you need at least 16.

even 16GB is not enough, right now at this moment doing nothing completely ZERO action no programs only google chrome is running and youtube app and right now writing comment under this video. I have Macbook Pro M3 Pro 18/512GB version and right now Activity Monitor shows me 374MB swap memory, this is nonsense

7:35 I don't think selecting the $200 ram upgrade will persuade Apple to make it standard on the base models. They are probably very happy to make 20x the price of ram chips off those people.

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I love how he switches from british-sounding to american-sounding for a split second every ten seconds….

Apple's justification for 8GB RAM is 100% reality distortion field type stuff

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