Consider me clueless
I’ve been asked to put together a complete Mac Mini setup by an elderly relative and I need to set up something that always work (yeah, yeah, I know), among other things, with Zoom … but I assume that there will be some older non-Apple Silicon apps that he wants to run also.
My question is: how much memory should the machine have 8/16GB? From what I’ve read 8GB work pretty well but I haven’t been paying attention to details (it’s not time for me buying something new for the next 4-5 years).
What are your recommendations? 8? 16? Is there something else I should be aware of?
8 GB are not bad. 16 GB are better.
Useful topics:
I know there’s been a rush of feedback on the question of RAM in the new M1 Macs, but I am looking for some feedback after a few weeks of regular use.
The clear answer in most cases is “get as much RAM as you can afford,” but this is a completely new architecture and it sounds like many are finding 8GB to be the new 16GB.
Does anyone have any feedback after using both an 8GB M1 and a 16GB M1? Is it worth the cost and the wait time (currently about a month out for a 16GB M1 Mac Mini).
In that topic particularly:
Caveat: I have not used the 8GB M1, but I have a 16GB version. Here are my thoughts.
No, 8GB is not the new 16GB. 16GB is still 16GB, and 8GB is still 8GB.
8GB now might be better than 8GB then, but it’s not 16GB.
When I log in and check Activity Monitor, it shows that I have 9GB used before I have done anything except launch my login apps (which aren’t excessive).
I rebooted less than a day ago and I have almost 6 GB of swap used. The good news is that the M1 doesn’t feel like it has been s…
There are also opinions that mention that 8 GB are good enough:
This set of articles makes an intriguing case for high performance with “only” 8Gb RAM in an M1 Mac.
While it is compelling, I wonder why Apple limits the number of supported external displays. And I wonder if more RAM will be needed particularly for those with 3 or more monitors.
That said, it is impressive performance data.
Long story short: the new M1 SoC seem to be that fast that a shortage of memory is not as problematic as it has been before. But then again:
Caveat: I have not used the 8GB M1, but I have a 16GB version. Here are my thoughts.
No, 8GB is not the new 16GB. 16GB is still 16GB, and 8GB is still 8GB.
8GB now might be better than 8GB then, but it’s not 16GB.
When I log in and check Activity Monitor, it shows that I have 9GB used before I have done anything except launch my login apps (which aren’t excessive).
I rebooted less than a day ago and I have almost 6 GB of swap used. The good news is that the M1 doesn’t feel like it has been s…
8gb is fine for most folks’ regular usage. I got 16gb for my Mini because I use VMs and do some video editing.
Unless your “client” is going to go heavily into video/audio/image editing, 8GB will be fine.
That said, no one ever complained that they had too much memory …
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Thanks, if it had been mine I would order the 16GB but it’s not … and the intended user is 89+ so I doubt that any serious gaming or video editing will be done
Never underestimate the elderly… But you should be fine with 8 GB.
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