Comment on Apple argues in favor of selling Macs with only 8GB of RAM

mariusafa@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• dan1101@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  That doesn’t help with memory hungry apps though.

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  • iopq@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    There are people who never touch anything but the browser and email. For them the SSD keeping some page files is good enough

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    • aleph@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      That’s no justification for selling a >$1,000 MacBook Pro with only 8GB of RAM, though. It’s specifically marketed as a professional-class machine.

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      • Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Yeah clearly the PRO part with just 8Gb of RAM is the problem.

        Come on that’s what I have on my Surface Go 1 from 2019. It runs Linux perfectly and is okay for my needs, but I wouldn’t put such specs on a PRO thing😅

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• Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  OSX is waaaay more memory efficient than windows…

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  • mariusafa@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Yeah my blueprint of efficient os it isn’t Windows also.

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  • morrowind@lemmy.ml ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The recent stats I’ve seen indicate macOS usually uses more ram

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  • uis@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Anything is way more efficient than windows. That’s very low(or high, but you need to go under it) bar.

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• disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  And it’s not RAM, it’s UM. The usage of memory changed with the introduction of Apple Silicon.

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  • billiam0202@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    “Unified” only means there’s not a discrete block for the CPU and a discrete block for the GPU to use. But it’s still RAM- specifically, LPDDR4x (for M1), LPDDR5 (for M2), or LPDDR5X (for M3).

    Besides, low-end PCs with integrated graphics have been using unified memory for decades.

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    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yes, that’s true, but it’s still an indicator of an uninformed reporter.

      Apple Silicon chips pass data from one dedicated cores directly to another without the need of passing through memory, hence the smaller processor cache. There are between 18 and 58 cores in the M4 (model dependent). The architecture works very differently than the conventional CPU/GPU/RAM model.

      I can run FCP and Logic Pro and have memory to spare with 16GB of UM. The only thing that pushes me into swap is Chrome. lol

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      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        It’s a pointless distinction.

        And in this case, it makes 8gig look even worse.

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      • billiam0202@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        it’s still an indicator of an uninformed reporter.

        My dude, you’re literally in here arguing that because Apple has a blob for both CPU memory and GPU memory that somehow makes that blob “not RAM.” Apple’s design might give fantastic performance, but that’s irrelevant to the fact that the memory on the chip is RAM of known and established standards.

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  • n3m37h@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Dude it is just GDDR#, the same stuff consoles use PC’s have had this ability for over a decade there mate apple is just good at marketing.
    What’s next? When VRAM overflows it gets dumped into regular ram? Oh wait PC’s can do that too…

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    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      With independent CPU and GPU, sure. There’s no SoC that performs anywhere near Apple Silicon.

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      • n3m37h@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        According to benchmarks the 8700G vs M3 is on average 22% slower single core, and is 31% faster multicore, FP32 is 41% higher than the M3 and AI is 54% slower 8700G also uses 54% more energy

        What about those stats says AMD can’t compete? 8700G is a APU just as is the M3

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  • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Like has been done on laptops with on-board video cards since, well, forever?

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    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It’s different. The GPU is broken into several parts and integrated into the SoC along with the CPU’s dedicated processes. Data is passed within the SoC without entering UM. It’s exclusively used as a storage liaison.

      You should check out Apple Silicon M-Series. Specs don’t translate to performance in the way conventional PC architecture does. I guarantee you’ll see PC manufacturers going to 2nm SoC configurations soon enough. The performance is undeniable.

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      • uis@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Soooo Integrated Graphics?

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• Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Have you used an 8 gig ARM Mac?

  I pretty brutal on my machines, and if my 8 gig m1 really only starts to beach ball when multiple accounts are open, and those accounts all have bloated multimedia software running.

  My 16 gig machines can handle that use case fine, but the 8 gig machine will occasionally beach ball.

  Personally, I won’t buy an 8 gig config again. But I’m a fucking monster that leaves a million bloated things open across multiple active user sessions.

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