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Ask HN: MacBook Pro M1 16GB vs. 32GB

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Ask HN: MacBook Pro M1 16GB vs. 32GB

#1

Post by kujin88 »

Hi all I am an engineer/part-time photographer that works a lot with photo/video editing, and at the same time, have a couple of active Mobile Apps as side projects going on. My previous Mac from 2015 is showing sings of slow death and I wanted to jump onto Apple Silicon.

Wanted to see if 16GB is enough for me or would it be better to get a 32GB RAM instead. My idea is to keep it for at least 3-4 years from now. My use case is: Photoshop, some photo editing, video processing, and then, Mobile game development (Android mainly), maybe some work with Docker (running 5-6 containers simultaneously) while having other tools like Android Studio, Zoom, Brave and Edge Browsers with 20 tabs each, etc. open

Thanks a lot for the help!

Re: Ask HN: MacBook Pro M1 16GB vs. 32GB

#4

Post by alexfromapex »

redwoolf wrote: post #3

Considering that RAM in the Macbook Pro is not upgradeable, buy as much RAM as you can afford now.

Yeah 16GB will likely sustain you for a while unless you’re doing something pretty hardcore but if you’ll always wonder what if then go ahead and get the 32 and have no regrets.

Re: Ask HN: MacBook Pro M1 16GB vs. 32GB

#7

Post by ikeserbestian »

latchkey wrote: post #2

Can you afford 32? Get 32... or 64... more ram is always better.

Plus one.

If you can afford 64G is a good investment for longevity. But 32G isn’t a bad option for next years.

Android Studio and Docker sufficient reasons for at least 32G memory but nothing less.

Re: Ask HN: MacBook Pro M1 16GB vs. 32GB

#8

Post by michelb »

I'm coming from a hackintosh with 64GB of RAM. My workloads vary, from compiling apps, 4K video editing/rendering, gaming, etc. I keep loads of tabs open (safari though), and rarely reboot and don't close apps for days.

I bought a Mac Studio with 64GB, but I really feel I could have gotten 32GB and it would have been fine.

That said, reading your workload and apps you use, I would get 32GB. Keep in mind that the capacity of your SSD also determines the speed which helps in the event the OS needs to swap, so maybe don't go for the smallest SSD.

Re: Ask HN: MacBook Pro M1 16GB vs. 32GB

#9

Post by catnip09 »

5-6 containers simultaneously with other applications?

64gb if you don't want to end up with swap. 32gb is the bare minimum.

Ram on m1 is split between gpu and cpu. 16gb is more like 10gb available to the actual application.

Don't believe in all the hype and misinformation surrounding ram efficiency on m1.

Swap is fast enough for most casual users to not notice the impact but as a developer or creator, you will definitely notice it.

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