Apple argues in favor of selling Macs with only 8GB of RAM : hardware

[-] DestroyerOfWorlds@sh.itjust.works 35 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Please, we need to charge 3x retail for 1/2 the normal amount of usable RAM because of reasons. Also, our cutting edge products are as upgradable as a styrofoam cup.

sent from iPhone

[-] tempest@lemmy.ca 8 points 6 months ago

They like it because it's an easy product differentiation. If they removed that option they would need to bump up every level so the top end would need to get better.

[-] hackerwacker@lemmy.ml 33 points 6 months ago

It's disgusting how we allow companies to sell essentially e-waste just so they can enrich shareholders a bit more.

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 15 points 6 months ago

According to Buyze, the 8GB of RAM in entry-level Macs is enough for most of the tasks that most users do with these computers.

While this is true, it also applies to the rest of the hardware like the processor. Most users don't need an M3 chip and would be fine with something built 10 years ago. Not a great argument if you're trying to sell your latest and greatest tech (at least to anyone who takes these argument on anything more than a surface level).

[-] Ptsf@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Not disagreeing with the sentiment, but that's a poor argument. The m3 has far better power efficiency than anything built 10 years ago and the battery life that allows is one of the leading drivers in selling anyone new technology.

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 0 points 6 months ago

I'd argue that they don't really take advantage of efficiency though. Instead of longer SOT, they opt for smaller batteries with similar SOT to the older models in order to make the devices thinner.

[-] Ptsf@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Your argument is provably wrong. Compare the battery life of any modern M series mac to it's windows equivalent and you'd find that the Mac is significantly better. The MacBook pro 16 even fits the maximum allowable battery size at 99wh.

[-] ReakDuck@lemmy.ml 14 points 6 months ago

Apple is good at selling literal shit to customers and make them feel like they are premium.

What a joke we live in

[-] ReakDuck@lemmy.ml 6 points 6 months ago

Another thought I have is, they are doing this to then argue that their new future 32GB Mac is needed for a normal experience and everyone should buy the new one because of more RAM

[-] billgamesh@lemmy.ml 9 points 6 months ago

Me reading this and the comments, wondering if I'll ever use all 4G ram on my Linux X201...

[-] Septimaeus@infosec.pub 6 points 6 months ago

8GB is too much! Offer a 4GB option then we’ll talk.

[-] forgotmylastusername@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 months ago

What are they doing that makes software in the Mac universe that much more memory efficient?

I went from 8GB to 32GB on my laptop. It was second only to going from HDD to SSD. The difference was nowhere near as apparent though. My usage experience went from being able to tell when the kernel was hitting swap space to not having to care at all anymore about the how the kernel is doing with memory management.

[-] AmazingAwesomator@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

apple may make software that doesnt require more than 8GB of memory, but a lot of developers that arent apple dont take that into consideration.

"memory is infinite" is a modern day slogan when building simple cross-platform apps because there is so much to use on normal computers.

there is even a joke for electron apps in this regard: how much memory does an electron app need to run? more.

[-] taanegl@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Hey, look who's no longer pushing the envelope... come on irrelevancy..

[+] BolexForSoup@kbin.social -10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

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[-] Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 6 months ago

I love Apple for enterprise environments tbh. They're braindead easy to manage vs Windows or Linux.

[+] XiozTzu@lemmy.world -12 points 6 months ago

For Christ’s sake it’s an option in a configuration for an eff’n laptop. Don’t buy that option if you don’t like it. And if you don’t like paying for Apple stuff go buy a PC. But please let this go, it’s been months!!

[-] bleistift2@feddit.de 17 points 6 months ago

Not everyone has a level of tech literacy you might wish for. People assume that Apple has good-quality products (which they do, I’m told) and buy them without doing research. Since you cannot expect everyone to be an expert in every product they buy, it’s reasonable to expect – well, at least wish for – Apple to not sell products that will be dated in 3 years.

[-] CameronDev@programming.dev 10 points 6 months ago

They are dated now. 8gb is just not enough.

[-] bleistift2@feddit.de 6 points 6 months ago

I knew this comment would be coming. I’d say that someone who doesn’t know what RAM is casually browses the web or uses office apps. These use cases don’t require 8GB, even on Windows.

[-] CameronDev@programming.dev 4 points 6 months ago

You did invite it by putting a timeline :D

I can almost buy the logic that a macbook air with 8gb is sufficient, but anything with Pro in the name really deserves more.

I have a m1 air with 16gb, and its fantastic for development, but start a few android emulators and docker containers and I can easily run out of RAM. If i can do it with 16gb, it must be trivial to hit with only 8gb.

In my area, I see heaps of 8gb macbooks being resold with only 1-2 battery cycles, my assumption is that people are buying the bottom spec only to discover that it is not adequate (I could be wrong though)

[-] bleistift2@feddit.de 3 points 6 months ago

its fantastic for development, but start a few android emulators and docker containers and I can easily run out of RAM

As I said, that’s not the regular use case for most people.

[-] billgamesh@lemmy.ml 0 points 6 months ago

I feel like RAM is rarely the bottleneck for a lot of use cases. Often on old computers what I see is slow WAN or slow I/O on hard drives.

[-] cybersandwich@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I've been using a Macair with 8GB of ram since they came out. It was on sale at Costco and I had a gift card. I think I paid $500 out of pocket.

I was worried that 8GB would limit me but it was the one on sale so I rolled with it. I can say that after several years, the only time it's limited me was when I tried to run an AI model that was 8GB. Obviously, that becomes an issue at that point.

But for all I do with my air, including creating a 1GB ramdisk for a script/automation ml job I run, I have never felt limited by the ram.

I open a bagillion ff tabs. Never close windows etc. it's an air after all, not a workstation substitute, so my use ases arent overly taxing in the grand scheme of things. I'm not editing my 4k video or doing rendering with it. But ram hasn't been an issue outside of the AI workload with the 8GB model--and tbh that's only an issue because of the ML cores. They absolutely scream vs my 1080ti that's in my server. My m1 with 8GB of ram runs circles around my 24 core 128GB ram server that has a 1080ti.

I did just get a MacBook pro for work that I requested 128GB of ram. But that's because I wanted it for bigger AI models(and work is paying not me).

[-] CameronDev@programming.dev 2 points 6 months ago

I have an m1 16gb, and i can easily hit the ram limit. Few android emulators and docker containers and im there. It may be an Air, but the CPU is perfectly capable of all of that and more, but the RAM is definitely holding it back.

Cant upgrade it without buying a whole new laptop, so Im stuck with it.

[-] cybersandwich@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

I totally believe you can hit the ram limit on these. I was just saying Ive surprisingly managed to be fine with 8GB.

Android emulators are notoriously memory hungry and there are certain tasks that just flat out require more ram regardless of how well it's managed.

The advice I heard about these a while back is: if you know 8GB isn't enough for you, then you aren't the market segment they are targeting with the basic models.

That said, no "pro" model should come with just 8GB. It just waters down what "pro" means.

Hardware