How much RAM do you ACTUALLY need in your M3 Macbook? [2024]
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- Опубликовано: 7 июн 2024
- Which macbook to buy in 2024? How much RAM or unified memeory do you need to work with your macbook without brakes and limitations? In this video, Arthur Winer tries to figure out how many gigabytes of RAM your Apple computer actually needs for web browsing, macbook for games, or creative tasks. Watch until the end so you don't throw your money away.
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As an engineer/software developer I got the 16 inch M3 max MacBook Pro with 36GB of memory. Honestly, I think 36GB is pushing my limits a bit. I am averaging around 30GB of RAM usage in a typical work day. Between software and hardware I have already spent over 4k on the laptop and since my budget was finite being a recent college graduate I am going to try and make it work. Honestly I can’t even imagine trying to make the 8GB version work. That would be a total nightmare and Apple should be ashamed they even sell that for a pro oriented computer 😂.
Shouldve gotten a lenovo legion
@@rahmezbasnight6879no
It’s not a pro oriented computer. Pro is just a name.
macOS will eat pretty much whatever you give it because the memory is powered up, so why not? Many PC users are confused by macOS memory management as they don't realise most memory usage isn't essential usage. Only when memory pressure is medium-high (Activity Monitor shows yellow) are you actually running low on memory & swap will kick in. Before it gets to this state, compression will reduce memory pressure.
So, no there's nothing wrong with 8GB of memory on the base product (as execs browsing Web Apps & reviewing documents are fine) but the memory & storage upgrade costs are ridiculous.
you're kind of a special-use case though, being a developer and such, why on earth would you only get an 8gb? any average person only streaming Netflix and web browsing (and somehow opted for a ~€1k laptop instead of something for ~€400 or less....), 8gb is fine.
For 90% of working people, 16 to 32GB of RAM.
For the small 10% of working adults, 48GB of RAM or more! This includes Machine Learning, daily routine 8k video editors, or extreme engineers.
Does this mean 0% of people will be satisfied with 8GB? But in real life I think 70% bought base Mac with 8Gb. You can probably be happy with 8Gb on the MacBook Air, but having 8Gb in the Pro models is disgusting. Keep in mind that in many countries it's pretty hard to buy a non-base model of Mac.
@EugeneKey Macbooks, Mac Mini, or Imac make up less than 10% of the world computer market share. Also, factor in increased RAM use by apps.
8GB was fine 10 years ago as the floor. 12GB would be fine today for adults, but most RAM configurations go from 8GB to 16GB. Middle school kids and high school kids that don't plan on going to college would be fine with 8GB.
@@akin242002 So … you didn’t go to college?
@@l.m2517 I did. Have you heard of Moore's Law. Interesting subject to look up.
Arthur Winer, This is fantastic! I subscribed because I love it!
Great video! You just made my decisions super easy. I really did not understand how memory works on an Apple computers. You broke it down perfectly. Thank you for a very informative video. You just have a new subscriber out of me.
I read that ML programmers may need the extremely high RAM for LLM's
You can run many with 16, but to compile them and write them? Yeah you definitely need more.
@@ghost-user559“Many“ 😂😂😂
@@bjorneisenseite9482 yes lol “many”, as in almost any model 13B or under for LLMs, and *Any* image generation model for Stable Diffusion. There’s way too many random models to list them.
Yes the higher the better bcoz you will never be satisfied with whatever you have in data science
Cheaper just paying for a API. 20 dollars goes a long way with something like chat gpt-4
I read a post from someone who composes symphonies for a living. He maintains that he needs 128 GB of memory for his workflow. Folks involved in data science and machine learning fields also need massive amounts of memory. I read that photographers who process large amounts of raw photos or work with large panoramic photos with many layers could benefit from having 36 gig of memory.
You can compose symphonies with very little Ram, but you have to use a lot of workarounds like freezing tracks not in use. You can get away with a lot with the right workflow, but the biggest challenge is that not all apps are native and well optimized, and that’s where you need way more Ram to make it work.
@@ghost-user559 A few Kontakt libraries with effects on all articulations and a couple of complex synth channels/.tracks will eat up your RAMM in no time. Don't even get me started on performing live tracks in something like ableton with a lot of processing going on in each track,
The word "Need" is definitely not accurate, but the amount of freedom that 128GB would give someone would be worth it to anyone that;s making decent money from music
@@theorncampbell4432 Oh yeah, I mean if you are making money then money isn’t an issue for you to begin with and you should be getting as much as possible. But Logic for example now has a feature that only allows the sounds of the track playing to consume memory at that moment, so it dynamically freezes and unfreezes tracks on the fly. So an orchestra of Sfz or Kontakt or whatever, really like a ton of them with whatever effects you want, and at any given second only the actual sound you hear is taking any ram. Even in the most cluttered symphony at any given moment you still only have so many layers or parts performing at once, and really in any well composed piece less is more. So realistically 16 Gb is the new “minimum”. I think that is less of an issue with these new chips than it was in the past. The ram and cpu just balance out so much more efficiently than the old x86 world. The exception being heavily mastering and adding filters and dynamics to individual parts, but really you should route through a bus for that anyway.
@@theorncampbell4432 Oh yeah, I mean if you are making money then money isn’t an issue for you to begin with and you should be getting as much as possible. But Logic for example now has a feature that only allows the sounds of the track playing to consume memory at that moment, so it dynamically freezes and unfreezes tracks on the fly. So an orchestra of Sfz or Kontakt or whatever, really like a ton of them with whatever effects you want, and at any given second only the actual sound you hear is taking any ram. Even in the most cluttered symphony at any given moment you still only have so many tracks performing at once, and really in any well composed piece less is more. So realistically 16 Gb is the new “minimum”. I think that is less of an issue with these new chips than it was in the past. The ram and cpu just fly. The exception being heavily mastering and adding filters and dynamics to individual parts, but really you should route through a bus for that anyway.
@@theorncampbell4432 Oh yeah, I mean if you are making money then money isn’t an issue for you to begin with and you should be getting as much as possible. But Logic for example now has a feature that only allows the sounds of the track playing to consume memory at that moment, so it dynamically freezes and unfreezes tracks on the fly. So an orchestra of Sfz or Kontakt or whatever, really like a ton of them with whatever effects you want, and at any given second only the actual sound you hear is taking any ram.
As someone who has been working in music production with only 8 gigs of RAM I rage purchased an M3 Max with 128 gigs of ram and I dont regret a thing
That's a lot, I think I'm gonna switch over to the Mac store after this video and get the pro max3 with 32gb. I want this laptop to last at least 5 years
Am literally in the Exact situation...I've been running logic with 8gb for 10 years now and it crashes almost everytime i open it. I've been compromising for so long that i never want the thought that i "need more RAM" to come into my mind again. I thought 64GB would be enough, but now i'm thinking potentially more, as i will be doing video editing aswell.
Been monitoring my Ram Usage on my M1 Ultra Studio for a Year. I am doing Video editing mostly, have a lot of tabs often, and i write music (with samplers, drum plugins etc that use a lot of ram). Guess what... I had 128 Gigs, and most of the time it did not go over 32. Sometimes it spiked, but it NEVER EVER got over 48. So...
Because Apple also use the memory compression technology (similar for iOS, since phone have no swap memory, they are comopress the unused memory in background).
But all of the youtuber forgot to mention this, this is why the 8GB similar to 16GB and other OS even mentioned, even uf everyone laughing on it, the fact the 8GB Mac can run softwares what required 16GB on Windows proof that they are handling the memory better like Windows.
May I ask what your video editing timeline resolution is? And what software are you using? Davinci Resolve? I would love to be able to edit in the resolution I'll end up exporting my projects which would be 4K but sometimes even 8K. This obviously requires a lot of RAM so I'm wondering if you're using proxy files or only 1/4th or 1/8th of the timeline resolution as your preview or if your preview actually renders in 4K or 8K and you still don't go over 32GB. Thank you so much in advance!
@@TamasKiss-yk4st so 8GB in Mac is truely 16GB on Linux and Windows? So Apple was right
As a music producer , more RAM equals more virtual instruments available in a session without having to utilizing a server, more audio tracks and more plugins. However, someone who is just recording audio doesn't need to max out the RAM 18gb is workable , 36gb is the sweet spot.. Virtual instruments take up the most RAM in a session and even with 128gb it's totally possible to utilize all of it. Most composers that reach that limit however , do run servers to host their virtual instruments. It all depends on if you want to have all that horsepower on the go.
Yes, I spent ~$3,200 for my M3 MacBook with 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and a bulletproof Operating System with a useable CLI terminal that will last longer than 3-5 Windows devices used in succession. I don’t have to reboot once or more times a week for software updates.
The M3 is outstanding and the only issue I have had is finding ARM64 Linux ISO images to run under Parallels as a virtual machine. Also, not all software for Mac OS from my Intel MacBook worked on the M3 and I had to upgrade or reinstall the ARM64 version. Why 64GB RAM? Speed and the fact I fun multiple VM’s at the same time. I have hit 49GB utilization on occasion.
My attitude is buying RAM one up from what you need. Someone, somewhere, sometime, somehow will write some code or app (or bloated web page running an AI subroutine) that will require more RAM. In 2012 a MacBook Pro came with 8GB or 16GB RAM (Intel CPU) and that was sufficient. I remember when MS/DOS had a 512/640KB RAM limit. In 2008? Desktops and Notebooks had ~256MB RAM on a high-end Windows notebook. If you are shelling out the bucks for a MacBook (Pro or Air), Don’t stint on the RAM. Hard Drive? I use about 120GB of my 1TB SSD. MacOS is not a disk hog. You want VM’s? more space? Get a good SSD USB-c external drive. I recommend a Beetle 512GB or 1TB on Amazon with a 40Gbps USB-c cable. So far it has the best times for R/W using Backmagic disk testing application. My MacBook will last at least 7 years simply because I added the RAM.
Upside? I have had Windows 11, and ARM64 Linux VM’s working fine. Unlike the Intel 2019, I can run Windows 11 (Visio is the main reason) and 3-4 other Linux VM’s with no appreciable, noticeable performance issues. More storage? I added two Beetle 1TB SSD externals in a RAID1 configuration to keep the VM’s. Additionally, with SoftRaid, I added a 2TB RAID5 set using 4x1TB USB SSDs for archive and backup.
Excellent Video!
I got 128GB RAM for my PC for $180.00. I know unified memory is different but the cost is ridiculous.
Just bought my M3 Max 64GB. It’s arriving tomorrow, so excited!!!
I hope the RAM is enough, but I couldn’t afford the 128 for $1000 more.
I do AI so need all the RAM I can get 😂
how would you play sudoko with just 64 GB ?
@@vaibhavsingh8122Just can’t have Netflix or RUclips playing at the same time. One workflow at a time with such a low amount of RAM 😂
Dang that must have been expensive. But I feel like it's kind of worth it for ai, because of the unified memory.
How long did it take for yours to arrive from the day of purchase?
Going to buy the same configuration tomorrow.
@@vaibhavsingh8122 if you have 64 gb of ram, you dont play sudoku, sudoku plays you
I appreciate this video since I have been struggling with how much Ram I should get with my 16" MacBook Pro M3 Max. I typically have PPT, Photoshop, Adobe Audition, Adobe Premiere for editing 4K video and the internet open all at once. I will be running Parallels for some things since I will need to have Windows installed for some plugins that Mac doesn't have but it is essential to my production. I will also have Clip Studio paint for my drawing tablet and Luxology Modo for 3D modeling and rendering.
I was originally thinking of going with 128GB of unified memory but do you think I can get away with 64GB?
For what I do + comfort that I would be good for a number of years, I went with the 36gb m3max. I initially bought the m3pro with 18gb, but in the week I had it, I was in the yellow on memory pressure a ton..and on my previous machine with 16gb of ram (2019 mbp), I would somewhat regularly get out of memory messages..
There is no such thing as too much memory for teaching an LLM model. This type of memory is a huge competitive advantage over all other manufacturers.
But people use External GPU and basically a desktop or a server for that kind of task.
I use a lot of RAM for ram-disk. If you care about SSD and longevity, you use ram-disk for cache, temp data etc. If you have your memory usage under control, you can even turn the whole swapping mechanism off, and then there's no unnecessary swap files created in your system at all.
That's a VERY good point I might start doing that as well. What software are you using to do that on your Mac? I've only ever done that with my Windows PC.
@@jonasgillmann I just wrote a script. All you need is already in the system.
@@PeterRince Well, I guess I'm not talented enough to write such a script for myself. Is there any way you could share it with me or all of us?
@@jonasgillmann It's hard to paste here anything. Check pastebin with A59BcBfp
@@jonasgillmann Have you received any of my responses? Probably not. It is not allowed to pass any info of that kind here. The channel owner turned on filtering on everything.
I love doing photoshoots outdoors because I like the golden hour or having the sky in the background. My old 9 year 27 inch IMac Intel had 16gb of ram and I would batch process photos in photoshop. I would push that. I got the Max with 128 GB and I would push 200 photos with a photoshop action to replace the sky now, no problem. I also love video editing with Final Cut Pro and want to get into more compositing for filmmaking now. I dreaded using my old computer. The laptop allows me to turn work around quicker too, onsite with a client vs the IMac I had.
Software development is also a big one. I work on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and have to run different virtual machines with different code bases and packages etc. Thus even the 64GB on my machine get's eaten away to 1/5 remaining after opening up 2 virtual machines + my actual device.
Edit: My fractions were backwards lol.
I need 128 GB RAM for training lightweight object detection algorithms and playing around with LLMs. I had an intel macbook pro with 16 GB RAM, I remember using 3TB swap in a single night.
Hi, any idea if virtualizing Win11 will need 8 or 16GB ram? Shall you go to 512 SSD for swap file rather than increase to 16GB Ram?
I use 16gb for parallels running windows and it is great with m1pro very smooth. 8 go was doable but a lot of swap and not as smooth.
Someone knowswhich programms of design does it bring the new M3 Pro Mac ?? Does it come with office as well ?
I plan to use logic pro and high school on a m2 air 512gb. How much ram should i get?
I bought 24GB in my 15" M3 MBA because I want the light weight of MBA over MBP, and future proof it to stay snappy for years as software gets more bloated
Honestly for $200 it's a pretty sensible decision. We're already at the point where 16GB is what should be considered the minimum which is why people moan about Apple (and other laptop makers) selling machines with 8GB RAM as the base config being too low to be useful long term. If you want your Air to last you a couple more years before you need to replace it having that extra 8GB with a 24GB config is going to be great. The M3 chip is powerful enough to be great for the intended use cases of an Air model but as you said software get more bloated and it is the memory not the CPU performance that is the biggest bottleneck over time. Small SSDs can also be a pain point but you can at least augment storage with high speed external USB SSDs that are pretty cheap these days. You can't do that with RAM. IMHO the "perfect" Air (13 or 15 inch) is 512GB SSD (or more) and 24GB RAM. That is a lovely laptop that will last you a solid 5+ years before it even begins to show any signs of slowing down. Look at the M1 models with 16GB, they're still excellent machines today and will be for a few more years before people hit issues with 16GB being not quite enough but that M1 chip is still going to be fine performance wise for much longer.
@@satysin630 I'd wager it'll be even longer than 5 years before any signs of sluggishness occur
@@leebeeskee You're probably right so I wouldn't take you up on the bet as I would just lose 😂
i specced my MBP with 32gb and on any average day i sit between 20 to 22gb of RAM in use
but if i want to run an LLM locally that ALONE will already occupy between 20 and 28gb all by itself (depending on model and quantization), slowing everything else down to an absolute CRAWL
even opening a simple finder window can take up to a minute to load thumbnails or expand complex folder structures on an unbinned MAX chip
my next MBP is going to have 96gb at the LEAST
but yeah, everybody's use case is always unique
You can easily run many LLMs on 16 GB, but obviously quantized. It definitely allows larger models, but I have heard hallucinations are worse the larger the model is, and many people have reported ironically that the 13B models can sometimes be more accurate than larger models at this point. I’d like to get my hands on a 128 GB system to really test the top tier models to see how they compare. But there does seem to be less hallucinations with the smaller models.
My daily workflow, with various applications open, word, adobe, excel, powerpoint, maps, Pixelmator, VS Code, Teams, Apple Email, safari, Edge, and Parallels running Windows, is typical; I will easily occupy 64 GB. Indeed, I could close each when done and start them up again, but it would slow me down. So I have 128 GB, and I am never slowed down. I tried 16 GB Air, but there was no way. I am a consultant charging $250 per hour, easy math. Can't believe my workflow is that unusual.
How can I too make 250 an hour?
@@BeeNice-ou3op Ph.D. Chemical Engineering
Things you did not mention, unified ram means also your graphics engine takes something from your working ram upto 30%?, 2nd think about memory channels are 36G faster (4 channels ) then 48G ( 3 channels) ???
I got 128gb because I wanted to future proof my system, and I switch between many tasks. I value not feeling the need to close apps at any point. I also have a hard time predicting what my needs will be in the 5-8 years I plan to work professionally on this workstation. Currently I do a variety of low level programming tasks, but in a year, I may need to run a stack of emulated machines, VMs, dockers, or something else. Looking at my system monitor now with all my various reference tabs open in browser, a couple IDEs, productivity apps, and some random interpreter environments, I am idling around 64gb of ram utilization. Who knows what that will be in a few years?
Hi am an app developer, will 16g ram be enough with 512g SSD ??
Buy it nice or buy it twice. I was looking at the m2 air 16/512. Every windows laptop I owned previously I ended up upgrading. Because of this I went with 24gb & 1tb on 15” M2 Air. I plan to keep it as long as OS is updated on this device.
Yeah that'll last you a long time for sure! I went with M3 iMac 16/512
If you need to run multiple Virtual Machines for testing a network or hitting a server application with some clients it's gonna exceed 64gb RAM quite readily
I get low memory errors all the time on a iMac with 16 GB of ram when I run Parallels.
Makes sense
i have 16gig ram on my mba. It’s always swapping and i only have browsers open. SMH.
I need 128 because I run windows alongside with parallels
I currently have a 2011 imac 27” with 1tb of storage and 16gb ram but more importantly I have mid 2014 macbook pro 15” w/ retina display, i7, 2.8 hz 16gb ram and 1tb of storage because I use to do a lot of photo work but I don’t do it as much anymore. I want a future proof apple machine anyone have suggestions on what to get. M4 processors will be on their way soon and not sure If I should wait or buy now because my echo system is getting old and running out of updates. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I know for sure that I’ll need a 48gb MacBook, minimum but I can’t gauge if a 64gb will be overkill ( I use it mostly for graphic design/ video editing/ motion graphics/ large music sessions/ 3D)
Many says that if you can afford it , go for it but this is the only argument that I find for choosing between these too , Do guys have feedbacks ?
If you already know for sure you'll need 48gb then there's no way 64gb is overkill. Look at it like this: for every day that goes by software becomes more hardware demanding. Meanwhile, the hardware in your Macbook can't get replaced/upgraded at any point, you're stuck with what you got. So the more RAM you got in your machine the more future proof it is. It's a matter of longevity. I'd rather have a little too much than too little.
That said, if you're planning on selling your Macbook in a couple of years, and use that money to buy a a new M4, M5 etc., then it doesn't make sense to go overboard with the specs on the one you buy today, because of course there is diminishing returns relative to the extra money you have to pay. If you have no plans of selling your Mac and would like to keep it for many years, I wouldn't hesitate a second getting the 64gb version. It's ”only“ $200 extra, which isn't a lot relative to the total amount you pay.
After years with a mac pro that never dips below 40 gb of ram use, I sprung for 64 gb. I suspect that driving scaled displays eats up a good deal of memory if you have a funky resolution and orientation
I have the base m1 8GB and primarily use it for music production. 8 gig is enough to handle smaller projects, it the moment I fire up Superior Drummer 3, the swap kicks in and immediately jumps to 4 to 8 gigs
I have an 14 in m1 macbook pro and google chrome stalls my computer because of ram usage. I will have like 40 tabs open avg ram usage per tab around 300mb and you have already used all your ram
Saving up for a m3 pro max with 64gb ram. Im a portrait photographer that likes to do INTENSE and meticulous spot correction on multiple full frame 45mp images across multiple shoots (ADHD so I like to bounce around projects at will) THEN ill bounce the ones I REALLY like to photoshop where I continue the process. I really want overkill and to keep my options open for video work and/or a larger sensor camera (fuji or hassleblad….maybe a phase one 👀)
Coming from a 2014 i5 Dell XPS with 32gb ram 🤣
I got 64 gb of ram on the m3, its pretty great
32 - 36gb is really for heavy tasks...I think 80% of Mac users have more than enough with 8 - 16gb even for artistic work...it just depends of your use. I use a base M2 MBA and it is more than enough but next year I think to buy an M3 Macbook Pro with 16 gb Ram
Im using old good boy MacBook 13’ 2013 late with dual core processor and i can’t complain, it’s fine for web browsing and note taking, music etc, my da Vinci resolve free can’t play a video 1080p in raw downscaled from 6k footage but it’s an old computer, but after 11 years the battery can get up to 3 hours
I need the 128 for the chrome browser 😂
I just got my new MBP 14 inch M2 Pro 12 Core 16GB RAM 1TB SSD in fairly cheap price (MYR 7999 ~ USD 1690), somehow one of the Apple Reseller in Malaysia still hold quite some new stock and decided to do stock clearance
While as per comparison:
MBP 14 inch M3 16GB RAM 1TB SSD -> MYR 9099 ~ USD 1920
MBP 14 inch M3 Pro 12 Core 18GB RAM 1TB SSD -> MYR 11599 ~ USD 2450
As I'm full stack developer with DevOps background, initially I'm still worry about 16 GB might can't cope but currently so far so good on this for my daily drive, as I got another Intel Linux company laptop with 32 GB RAM I think should be enough for me on my workload
I have a Mac Pro with 128 gb I run out of memory I’m looking into the 1tb ram now I run a 3d autocad program and I design parts for nasa and jpl trust me rendering a file that’s over 300 gb of raw data I could probably use all 1tb I’m looking at getting now
16 GB of Unified Memory is enought for 4k video editing with many effect ?
Depends on what app you use. If Adobe, I recommend 36GB M3 Pro MB Pro.
Brother probably not, but what was your experience so far?
Cuz I’m doing 1 hour movie with a lot of effects in Adobe ( not 4k however) and by 16 ram literally crashed all the time.
I ve got 64 today and don’t know if it will do the trick
My M1 Max MacBook Pro regularly uses 36-40Gb of RAM while rendering in Adobe Premiere, and with only a few Chrome tabs open.
Thankfully I got the 64 GB version, without listening to the hype that you need less unified memory than RAM in windows... I guess 32GB could work in a pinch, but it would eventually turn out to be the bottleneck.
With that said, for people using Final Cut or Davinci Resolve it could be slightly better as these applications are a bit less RAM-hungry.
I would suggest that for people doing professional work 48 or 64GB is the sweet spot leaving some headroom for the future, and 32GB is the minimum to get.
It is a pity to spend so much money to get a laptop and then be bottlenecked by RAM...
It will use whatever you have. So you can’t really make the comparison like that. I can do the same thing with 16 GB. It will always use the amount that you have no matter how much, to a point. So if you have 16 it will use most of that, if you have 32 it will use most of that, and if you have 64, it will use most of that. The algorithm ensures there is no wasted resources no matter what. More is always better if you can afford it. But 16 and up are all able to do similar tasks with ease, 8 is where you run into issues.
RAM also keep cache, and it make work faster (when you often close and open different apps, or one but many times) I'm software developer and on my intel based macbook pro 18GB used by apps and 14 is cache and system use a swap a little. In my opinion for developers 48GB is must have for work without any limits. 16GB is for machine which works only as thin client, when you use ssh or remote desktop for work (ML developers usually use remote powerfull servers for calculations)
I'm running VMs...a lot. For one shot I ran 8 Windows VM with 8 virtual routers (each VM has his dedicated router.) This eats around 40GB.
Then I have a complete test environment where 4-5 client VM, 5 server and 8-10 virtual switch. That on a single server.
How much do I need to run photoshop?
The only reason for high RAM: With ray tracing in M3, and support of metal on Octane, Cycles, Redshift PLUS with fact that ram is shared with GPU you may need 32-64 for 3D rendering and composing
M2 Max 32/512 lots of tabs in Firefox -> 18 GB used
So close some tabs.
The funny thing is when I went to upgrade my ideal model of Macbook Pro M3 Pro with 1TB and a little more ram than default, the price of a refurbed M3 Max Chip (Which comes with those specs at Default) is only a little more, but comes with a way more powerful machine. Bloody Apple ladder gets me everytime. The M3 Max refurb im looking at is 5k Australian.
I wouldn't mind a 16gb/512gb set up. Unfortunately that may wind up to be the MacBook Pro low end. I still prefer the Airs but there are trade offs for everything.
48Go of ram is not overkill if you are doing marchine learning or run local LLMs even with 48Gb or ram there are some very large models that you won’t be able to run and if you work with multiple agents then it’s game over
Hopefully, though unlikely,
M4 models will have more standard RAM. It’s absurd watching Apple push up RAM in the iPhone while leaving desktops to suffer. It should not surprise them that Mac sales are declining, my presumption being due to the absurd cost of RAM and storage. “Lock them in with soldered components” only works when you have no competitors. Interestingly, some of the Windows hardware manufacturers, Microsoft in particular, are copying Apple’s soldered component design.
I own an 24" M1 iMac 8 Gb. It always use around 6 Gb swap. Now I own an 16" M3 Max with 36 Gb and if I do exactly the same things on it, it's using 26 Gb of the ram and zero swap. I hope 36 Gb will be enough in the coming years.
I've used an M1 iMac since the day it came out with only 8gb RAM (Final Cut Pro and normal tasks). Sure, your RAM usage is in the yellow when exporting video, but I never really experience slow-downs or beachballs. If you spend $600 on upgrades, you might as well get a MacMini base model and pass over work to that machine.
I put 64 GB on my M3 Max and just 1TB on the SSD - 48 probably would have been good enough but so far swap file has been zero
Watching your vid on a MacBook Pro M3Pro, 18gigs.
My 32GB MBP is too small for my daily browsing habits. I want to run large LLMs locally so am headed for 128gb, but for now just picked up a used M1 Max with 64 gb because the M4 will be out by early next year supposedly with enhanced neural processor. The 64gb will help even just my insane tab-habits.
Just apply noise reduction on a RAW clip and you will need plenty more RAM
So I watched videos about the daw I use which is bitwig. They told that bitwig will use only the performance cores for audio. 14 cores showed significant performance bump in daw tests. So I went for 14 cores which requires 36 gigs of ram. Reality is bitwig is using all the cores. Well, 20% cpu usage on a has enough tracks EDM. I could go for a smaller cpu with less rams. Also reality is I have a few tabs and some apps open right now and using 18 gigs of ram. Mostly file cache I guess.
I have 192 gigabytes. I just turn on the computer and I have 24 gigabytes occupied. How can you survive with 8 and 16? my work tasks consume 80-120 gigabytes (graphics, texturing, rendering). I have about 10 applications running simultaneously in which I work throughout the day, 4 of them are memory hungry. I think that 128 would have been enough for me, but I played it safe and took a little more, but in 98% 128 gigabytes would have been enough for me and in 70% 64 gigabytes would have been enough for me. so for me personally 64 is the required minimum
My Mum gets on fine with 4GB. Try and wrap your head around that! lol
Selling the ram sticks 🔥
I plan on learning to code AI in the future (fingers crossed I get a career in that field). But currently I work with 3D graphics, most of my time is working on the model/animation, the rendering definitely matters on the power of the device. I’ll be saving up from work, but I have a feeling by the time I saved up enough money for a beefier MacBook Pro with extra RAM and storage, the M4 Max Macbook Pros will be released so by then I’ll be getting that laptop over the M3 Max for future proofing.
Well. U need lot of memory, 128gb. When you open spectrasonics vst and other vst like Kontakt 7 etc in Daw. they eat hell lot of memory. Suppose I open 15 heavy vst it will take hell lot space coz they are sample based & that eats hell of space
What Daw do you use currently?
I was having trouble using an AI video transcription tool on my MacBook Pro M2 Pro 16GB. Any video longer than 15-20 minutes would cause the AI to run out of memory and stop working. I asked a friend with a 32GB model to test it out, and it worked fine. I tried it with even longer videos, and it started requiring more and more RAM, until even 32GB wasn't enough. This is a use case that requires a lot of RAM, even up to 128GB.
I use 16GB for game development and it works great, but those are 2D games. I wouldn't even recommend a Mac for 3D development because it doesn't have a lot of GPU libraries, which makes development very difficult. 3D development is only really feasible on Windows.
more than 64 Not even needed for gaming in parallels?
Mac os not only use ram they use more memory from swap, so it doesnt need 8 gigs only.
I have 64GB with M1Max and it was one of the best decision in my life... in daily work I'm using 60-80% of it right now... over 2 years ago it was around 40-60% so in that case I have 2-3 years of comfortable use before I will start thinking about new MBP16. (SSD degradation is in 1% lifetime usage... 2TB SSD)
Is there a way to set some boundary on the max RAM that a computer can use? Cuz mine crashes ( literally turns off) in rendering and I’m thinking if I’m gonna set some boundary it won’t take as much ram that it crashes everything
Hi. I want to get a M3 Pro 12/18 18gb 1tb for video editing (prores shooted on iphone 15 in final cut) and music production in logic. when im working i'm always doing only one thing at the time. i mean if i want to make a song i only making a song, if i want to edit video im only editing video at the moment. so the question is - 18gb ram is enouch for me? maybe i add - i want to get ipad also and using is to logic remote and secondary screen if this is important
8 TB will make sense to me and 60 EB storage.
tabs open... because bookmarks are hard to cycle through and Chrome uses a lot of memory. 😂
Why not take Mac studio for power house 2000 dollars
Its !200 for 8 gb ram.bevause you alteady have 8gb
$ 2090for 256gb ssd thats just 1/4 tb to get you to 512 ssd
One thing that is really crucial and no one talks about is the different countries. In my country the base model of M3 Air cost about 1470 Dollars...You guys in the US could upgrade your MBA M3 to 512Gb and 16Gb and still save 70 bucks...OH! And what is really funny, that the upgrade costs 277 dollars and not 200. So...in this case it would be 2024 dollars for a MB3 air... :) So no, I won't pay that much, thank you apple and my home country.
It is absolute absurdity seeing people try to run enormous LLM's on compact form factor laptops. I like that people are testing the limits of the new chips but unironically talking about spending 3k+ on a laptop with 128gb of ram is laughable. If you need to run these models just build a desktop computer for 1/3 of the price
Yeah I run LLAMA3 8b on 16 big never even hit swap with multiple browsers open and vscode. 128gb ram not even going to be able to run a 70b LLAMA 3 so it is kind of pointless. I rather just pay for a API but you can use 70b LAMA 3 on GROQ API that is free and fast Google Gemini Pro is currently free too. Almost every where there is better chipsets etc made by apple anyways.
Orchestral templates could chew through 128gb like Godzilla
I do financial data analysis, and I have built my own software to analyse tick by tick data across 28k tickers. 128gb is actually not enough for me.
For quant finance, ML, and data science. 128gb is equal to 8gb. You can barely do anything heavy.
That's quite amazing. I read a rumour that M4 chips will allow more memory, maybe up to half TB? We'll see...
As a long time Mac user and enthusiast (started with G5 tower in 2005 and having known about Macs all my life) I’m simply infuriated to se artificial marketing segmentation using storage and memory. These videos are nice and everything, but to put it into perspective in a PC notebook you can customize 1TB SSD and 32GB memory for next to nothing. That is the base in 2024. To have it even worse, here in Europe upgrade prices are further inflated by having the US options converted to EU pricing as an sku item. This has nothing to do with actual HW prices.
and y did not make a mistake when y said 8TB ram
I have a 3.5-year-old MB Pro 13 M1 8GB and have never run into slowdowns for my office work. So 8GB is enough if you have a similar usage. My parents also have an 8GB version; they are in their 80s and will never need more; they mainly watch media and use social media, iMessage, web and Facetime. I suspect the market for 8GB is significant, and of course, by offering a lower config, Apple can get the price down. For example, the M3 MB Air has been as low as £1000 for the base model. Considering that if Apple killed the base 8GB/256GB model, the starting price would be £1500 as per the Apple website, then that would be bad for consumers and a stupid economic decision, decimating their sales. So ignore the haters; 8GB is a good option, though I hope Apple will increase the base to 12GB sooner rather than later, hopefully appeasing some of the complainers.
The rule for pro users is simple: You know your RAM usage, so the Rule of Common Sense applies: Buy what you need. And if you cheap out, you only have yourself to blame, as your PC is your livelihood.
Well said. I wish everyone was as logical and intelligent as you about this subject. I try and tell people this all the time when I hear whinging about the configurations. Heck, my Mum gets on fine with 4GB RAM!! lol
You guys are gonna laugh... i'm using a tiny,super cheap samsung a7 lite tablet... 3GB ram, 32GB memory..(it has a 256GB micro SD card)... i've 8 tabs open, its an old mediatek Helio G processor... I gave my ipad pro 11" to my daughter cos her MacAir crashed, she's a final yr student, and needs a decent tablet..that A12 z processor is 11x times more powerful than the A7 lite mediatek processor, with 6GB ram, 256 GB memory, but that A7 lite is surprisingly good
Hello
16 gb isn’t future proofing. It’s literally current proofing.
I'm Professional Food Photographer. Right now at this moment i have base model Macbook Pro M3 Pro 14 inch with 18GB Ram and 512GB storage. Short answer will be no it is not enough for Professional use.
It goes like this.
1. For normal non professional use base model is more than enough
2. If you are normal level professional photographer or videographer forget about base model upgrade to 36GB Ram and 1TB storage. After that if you wish to have super monster powerfull laptop than it is you wish, spend money and add more Ram and Storage but i think it will be unnecessary move. Only one scenario it will be necessary if you are super heavy production level photographer or videographer than YES upgrade your laptop to more Ram and storage
If I’m an amateur photographer/hobbyist who does basic Lightroom editing but would like to use the new AI features, will 16 gb & ssd 1 tb be enough? I just ordered that a couple days ago, and now I’m wondering if that will be insufficient.
@@marcilk7534 no if you have time cancel that order and make your Ram 36GB, later you will understand that you made a good choice, yes adding 200$ more not easy choice, maybe right now you do not have that much money but do something and upgrade your Ram. 36GB it willbe sweet spot, see i do not tell you make 48 or 64 GB noooo it will be too much but 36 absolutely must. Right now you are amateur but later you will become more experienced professional
I enjoy so much much apple fans. The discussion for the RAM is insane. Once upon a time one person sad “ Who need more than 640kb of RAM” - Tim Gates ? 🤣
If you are working in Adobe Cc every day i would say that 32 Ram is the minimum.
I came here to tell you that that much ram is for local machine learning, but people already pointe that out.
no one needs that much ram at Apple prices.
Lenovo Ideapad Pro 5 Costs Lower
than M2 MacBook Air and Comes
with 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD. 😅
Err there's a reason it's cheaper. Have you seen the comparisons between windows laptops and the M3 Air. Have you taken into account all the nuances and quality of life features etc. of each machine? If I went from MacBook Air to a Lenovo windows laptop it would be like going back in time. Have you seen the webcam comparisons for instance? or quality of mics? or keyboard quality, or battery life?
Battery life alone is a reason pay more for an Air!
I wish I saw your vids earlier bro😢. Everyone please listen to this Man & buy at least 16GB ram. I bought the base m3 air and I just use it to compose my newsletter, I use chrome with (7-8 News websites+ Gamil+ Google earth+ My newsletter+ 2 RUclips tab) just these chorme tabs use 1-1.8 GB swap on my mac. 😢
Apple designs Macs to use swap, so I would be okay with using up to 3GB of swap on an 8GB model. Even my MB Pro 14 M1 uses swap when 5-6GB of RAM is still available. Remember that the swap initially goes to the disk RAM and will only start using the slower flash storage when the swap is >3GB.
@@andyH_England No problem with the swap, but when I switch between the tabs after 10-15 mins then it needs to reload it. And that's my friend where I have the problem.
Because the reloading breaks my work rhythm & frustrates me.
@@nigarrot rather than having multiple tabs, have multiple browser windows, then you will avoid the reload, as Apple assumes that is a foreground process. I rarely use tabs unless they are for occasional use. I have multiple browser windows instead.
@@andyH_England Dyamm that's something I did not know before. Thanks for the tip big bro 💯❤️
Oh yes I certainly have a use case for uber amounts of RAM… sure people doing data science and for me specifically I’m serving up very large language models for my development efforts. Combine that with spinning up other docker containers for the system that I’m developing and yea I’m starting to push the limits of my 64gb M2 Ultra Mac Studio. Yes I’m probably a unicorn but we do exist lol!
Neural networks need all your unified memory, that you have.
36Gb? Ok.
128? Still need.
192? We will consume all of it!
Yeah with Apple getting serious about this sort of thing, their M4 chips look to be geared towards it and I bet the Ultra supports way more memory
Everyone please listen to this Man & buy at least 16GB ram. I bought the base m3 air and I just use it to compose my newsletter, I use chrome with (7-8 News websites+ Gamil+ Google earth+ My newsletter+ 2 RUclips tab) just these chorme tabs use 1-1.8 GB swap on my mac. I wish I saw your vid earlier 😢
Sell it and buy a new one
Minimum 16 should be.
I get that 8GB of memory is decent for a MacBook. But it costs next to nothing for Apple to start at 16GB memory and 512GB storage. It's a dick move to expand their margins.
Are you making that statement based on how cheap and easy it is to upgrade removable storage? Are you failing to take into account that the memory on M chips is unified so how do you know the cost difference for Apple between producing 8 or 16 GB RAM on the chip?
@@leebeeskee it’s not hard/expensive for apple to put 16gb memory and 512 gb storage at the factory. There’s no way in hell putting extra memory modules in the factory cost $200 or even half of that at the volume apple is making.
Simple : you need as much RAM as possible. You can’t have too much RAM. But you can be too poor.
8GB RAM for simple use
16 GB of RAM for more complex use
32 GB of RAM is enough for all types of professional use
64GB or 128GB of RAM only for a specific need, less than 2% of people will need this amount of RAM
128 gb for people who wandering what to buy? the car or macbook pro