When you know the software you will be using determining your processor and ram needs isn’t difficult if you can test the package. The major of our users were what I would consider typical office workers. And except for our graphic artists all of our Macs were 8gb entry level models.
I worked I.T. but I used the same software as everyone else on an 8gb MacBook. Our hardware requirements actually decreased over the years.
So you’re saying if I hold out a couple more years I can get one as a sweet $5K server rig? 
Absolutely. The statement of mine that you’re responding to is more about “free” RAM: Under most circumstances there should be very little of that, as anything that isn’t being used by applications or the OS directly should be used by the OS for things like buffering drive reads. Activity Monitor shouldn’t ever show much free RAM on a Mac that’s been running for a bit.
With so many workloads moving from the endpoint computers into cloud servers, I’m not surprised.
I suspect that if you need more than 32GB in your Mac Mini, then Apple wants you to buy a Mac Studio.
It seems so. But what a pity. I don’t like the Mac Studio form factor.
To me it just looks like a product line distinction between the M2/M2 Pro and the M2 Max/M2 Ultra. Mac Mini gets the first, Studio gets the second. And I’m about 99% sure that the reason has to do with heat dissipation and the extra cooling available in the larger form factor.
Just a followup to anyone is following along. To jump to 64GB of RAM and therefore also up from M2Pro to the M2Max is a $C600 difference. That is a bit more than, I spent it on a whim.
Although it’s interesting that the Mac Mini built with the Pro to the same RAM and SSD specs as the Studio, costs exactly the same. The difference is that the Max loses two CPU cores and gains some GPU cores.
So if 32 GB is your cap, you can get either the Mini or the Studio for $1999 USD - depending on whether you want a couple more CPU cores or a few more GPU cores.
I’m not the one talking about desktop computers. It will be a 14" MBP all the way. The question is - do I have a compelling reason to spend an extra $600 (Canadian) for an extra 32GB of RAM. (And therefore more GPU cores).
The only people who have mentioned 64GB talk about VMs eating RAM. Fair play. I promise that I won’t run any VMs in the next 5-6 yrs. I might might train an AI - very slight chance.
Studio has twice the memory bandwidth than mini with m2 pro, 400GB/s memory bandwidth vs 200GB/s memory bandwidth.
Most of the time I could probably get by on 32 GB of RAM for photo retouching. There are times when I appreciate having more, though.
Reality is that for almost all users, 16GB should be the minimum at this point in time. Unless you are living only in the default Apple apps 8GB of RAM is not going to cut the mustard for long.
The moment you add VMs / Docker / Photo+Video / etc, you need 32GB (or more). Then it’s a case of understanding your memory pressure in the real world as you scale up.
However given this is a decision you need to live with for your lifetime with the machine, I always approach with “what I actually need, then click the next option up”.
Yes, I checked and asked around. When I do upgrade, I have similar use to yours probably even lighter and I don’t use Mathlab now really, it will be a MacBook Air probably 16GB just because. It is for sure all I will need. I got some good advice from Jim at DEVONthink 3. If I can keep that open all the time along with the few other things I use I will be fine and Jim assures me that is possible. I can’t remember if he specified 8 or 16 GB though. I think he has a few machines.
For the first time too I don’t feel any pressure to upgrade, even from the ‘shiny new thing’ reason.
There’s always so much skew in these surveys towards running VMs. Those opinions are totally valid, but not directly related to what most people do. Knowing that some users need more is really helpful, however.
I am a hobbyist coder, Music producer and videographer. I use Apple apps largely, but LPX and FCP do an awful lot.
16GB on Intel was absolutely fine for me.
16GB on Apple Silicon is more than enough for me.
32GB would be a luxury splurge in my opinion. I’m a splurge!
For most users I recommend getting 8GB. For people here, 16GB unless you KNOW you need more, or like having more.
As for Apple’s limitations, my opinion is they have designed things to give s balanced system. They think that a system with 64GB is unbalanced unless you have a processor (that comes with increased bandwidth) to keep up. It’s opinionated and so doesn’t work for edge cases, but probably does work for the majority of users.
Agreed! I know this is the Mac Power Users forum but I suspect most users are not power users. I know of six Macs in use in my extended family, and one of those being used in a small business, and the most frequently used apps are things like Safari, Mail, Calendar, Reminders, Pages, Notes, Messages and Photos. In other words, all stock apps. No video editing with FCP, no graphics work, etc. I think one of the biggest mistakes made by power users in discussions of technology is forgetting that most users are not power users.
Also agreed! I use my Mac daily for research (including Logos - a robust and cross-referenced Bible research application), authoring, some spreadsheets plus the usual productivity applications. I occasionally do audio editing, basic image editing for websites, and I have done video editing in iMovie. On my Intel Mac I have 8Gb RAM and have not experienced any problems with running out of memory, such is Apple’s memory management.
If I edited videos full time or was a digital artist, of course that would be different - I’d almost certainly gain speed by having more RAM. But just because my 64Gb Mac is using 50+ Gb it doesn’t necessarily mean to say it need to use it or that there’s a noticeable performance difference. It’s hard to tell in advance, but if you’re doing fine with an 8Gb Mac, you probably don’t need a 64Gb Mac next time round, however tempting Apple make it.
One thing that I’ll add: if you work on Adobe’s apps (not PS or LR, but more INDD or AI), RAM is not a luxury. It’s a necessity. But that’s mostly Adobe’s fault for making poorly optimized apps.
The obvious caveat here would be if they’re a tab hoarder. Tabs burn RAM like you wouldn’t believe. But if they generally open a few apps, do some work, and then close them out again, agree - 8 GB is probably okay.
I recently moved from a 13” M1 MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM to a 14” with the M1 Pro and 32GB. I run Windows 11 through Parallels just for one web based app and a VPN I need for work. I used to temper Parallels down to 4GB of RAM but it was anemic at best. I also keep Spark, Safari (5-10 tabs), Messages, Drafts, TickTick, Preview, and Pages with multiple documents open through out the day. Of course there are also little background apps running such as Carrot Weather, TextExpander, Dropbox, etc. Several months ago I started getting RAM warnings throughout the day. 16GB + swap just wasn’t getting it done anymore. I considered a M2 Air but caught a deal on this 14” Pro and am very happy with it.
My Safari App currently uses around 40GB of RAM.
This Website (MPU) alone bills in for 1,75GB right now.
It might be a mistake to think, that a “stock app” could not use a lot of RAM, if you let it!
The only Reason Apple is still offering 8GB on its systems, is to lower the starting prices, other than that, there is no real reason to buy a system with only 8GB of RAM, and I would never ever recommend this to anybody I know and like!