When is time to up the amount of RAM you use?

Hardware
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I’m considering updating my M1 Max MacBook Pro to an M4 Max machine, mostly for nano texture. My current specs are:

  • 64gb of RAM
  • 4TB storage

I’d share more specs, but those two alone lock me into the most powerful CPU and GPU options, so who cares.

This is my primary machine to run my design and development business. I work on multiple projects and clients at a time, including maintenance to my own business. Right now is a pretty normal day, and I’ve got 3 VS Code projects open, 3 Figma windows open with about 2 dozen tabs between them, three Chrome browser windows with tons of tabs each for development, Safari open for my personal browsing, etc. I’ve also got Photoshop running, Codekit running for code compilation, Eagle running for grabbing screenshots of cooll browsers, Apple Music, Omnifocus, Slack, Notion, Terminal, and the usual assortment of utilities running for backups, screenshots, etc.

I often also have Rotato (animation software for mockup videos) and Davinci Resolve running for little video bits and bobs too.

For fun, I occasionally make music in Logic. I just open it in addition to these windows in the evenings, because every time I close out windows with active projects in them, it takes too much time and mental energy to restart those projects. (I minimize a lot of windows.)

I am plugged in to two Studio Displays.

I say all that for context:

  • Right now, I am using 54GB of my 64GB of RAM. I have 8GB of swap going. Memory pressure at 1. My forefront windows are currently Terminal, Safari, Finder, Mail, Omnifocus, Notion, Slack, and Messages, so kind of light right now.
  • I am often using about 20GB of RAM and my Memory Pressure is often at 2, or in the yellow zone.

Is it time for me to upgrade to 128gb of RAM? Or will 64gb be enough for me for a couple more years at least? After nearly two decades of Mac usage, I am still unsure what memory pressure is and whether or not I need to care much about it or swap in day to day use.

TL;DR: I have 64gb of RAM and often use 8-20gb of swap. Should I upgrade to 128?

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I think that if you can afford it and plan to keep the machine for a while that would be a wise move.

But if you’re happy where you are, aren’t going to keep the machine for 3 or 4 years, or the speed doesn’t bother you/use of swap shouldn’t slow you down a significant amount. I’d stick with 64. The jump to 128gb is significant and you won’t get a lot of money back for it next time you upgrade.

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I think @geoffaire has given you great advice.

If you are in the “upgrade every 2-3 years” mode (I suspect you keep your machines a bit longer given that you are currently on an M1 going to M4), I tend to think you should NOT pay the premium for memory upgrades as you probably won’t hit more memory pressure in that time frame, and as noted, you certainly don’t get the money spent back on the trade in or resale.

If you hold your machines for 5 years or more, I tend to favor getting as much memory (and as much storage) as you can afford to hedge against future needs. For me, the decision on memory vs storage as the primary factor depends on how you use your machine.

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Personally I’'m holding off on upgrading my machine simply because I suspect that AI is about to raise the floor on what we consider an acceptable amount of RAM.

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This information is familiar to me, but it’s the phrasing of “your computer might need more ram” if memory pressure is yellow that is bizarre to me. Might how?

Anyway, I think the advice here is probably good. My plan is to rock this machine until cellular Macs come alone (late 2026?), then buy the first refurb cellular model I can (early 2027), so it’ll be two years of life for this.

@nlippman I currently upgrade every 2 to 3 years, but mostly because my business justifies it every time computers double in processing power.

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I’ve always used “swap used”, on Windows pcs & servers, as well as Mac as an indicator of how much ram might be needed. And I never had a “standard” office worker that needed more than provided by an entry level Mac. I’ve always purchased entry level Macs for my personal use.

In your case I’d probably add more, when you start having problems.

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I like the 2026/2027 plan. Just to add: low amounts of swap (5-15GB or whatever) isn’t necessarily a sign you don’t have enough memory. macOS will swap unused memory to minimize pressure in the event you decide to open something large. Even on 128GB with 40+ free, it might swap something, especially if you have daytime/nighttime programs that sit unused for hours. If you’re consistently in green pressure territory, you’re probably doing okay with 64GB.

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That’s entirely possible, but I have no idea what people will run on-device since that would require downloading company data. And that is frowned on in many companies.

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I am in yellow occasionally — a bit every day.

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A bit of yellow every day probably wouldn’t tip me towards upgrading sooner, unless it was coinciding with things slowing down/adding friction.

That said, this thread giving me thoughts as I look at the Mac Studio configurator I’ve been mulling over…

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The ability to run an LLM on your work machine will be a big draw for businesses concerned with privacy, such as mine, which is in healthcare. Hence why I think ram requirements might just shoot up. The more tasks you can run locally, the better.

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How long do you intend to stay on M1 for? I’d suggest that you may also want to consider the single core improvements. Maybe pick up a refurbed M4 max? Or jump on M5 as soon as it’s here? Not because it’s compulsory to upgrade this soon, but because the single core performance will probably speed up your day a bit.

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Great piece of advice.

I’d also add that swap usage is not as terrible in terms of performance as we got used in the 90s.

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Mac memory management is phenomenal in my opinion and performance these days is very good as you say. But the unknown for me, and the reason why I doubled memory for my new Mac to 32GB, is the effect on the internal SSD.

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I have a 64GB M3Max same SSD specs.

I bought it to run local LLM models. In the past few months this has really opened up.

I think that 64GB will be a limit only for larger models and big context windows. I can comfortably run the current Qwen3 32B Q4 and have 10000 token conversations with it.

If you want to test something specific, I will download a model and run an experiment for you.

Email me mark at agilepainrelief com

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Just to be clear, I’m not running LLMs. Just Figma, Chrome, some web apps, Docker containers, etc.

Memory pressure was at 2 for the entire workday yesterday. Been keeping a closer eye on it now.

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  1. Demonstrates reading and responding from my phone in a coffee shop after a red eye flight is bad idea.
  2. Everyone will running local LLMs in a few years (only half a joke).

Before pushing the upgrade button I would consider playing with local models to get a sense of how useful they’re.