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Apple to upgrade base Macs to 16GB RAM, starting from Apple M4 models

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41–50 of 105 posts

Re: Apple to upgrade base Macs to 16GB RAM, starting from Apple M4 models

#41

Should upgrade ssd to at least 1TB

I doubt that's needed. 1TB is great and all, but unless you're downloading games or handling a lot of media, you're unlikely to use it all. I don't think most people need that much, and will get by just fine with 512GB or even less (my current work laptop for software dev has a 256GB SSD, and while I could use more if I wanted to, I don't need to think about disk usage, even with a small Windows 11 VM on the same disk)

Re: Apple to upgrade base Macs to 16GB RAM, starting from Apple M4 models

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has to be, even a small model is 4gb of RAM. Open up any O365 based product in Chrome and kiss another 2gb goodbye if you only have 8gb you're left with very little after the OS...

So no actual increase in available RAM and no improvement in performance then. That'll be an extra £999, sir.

For anyone who skipped subtraction in school, 16 GB minus 4 GB for AI still leaves you with 12 GB usable. And AI won't be running all the time.

Re: Apple to upgrade base Macs to 16GB RAM, starting from Apple M4 models

#43
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew I'd get downvoted, but there are known SSD / T2 chip issues with 2016+ macs. Still present in Mx mac laptops. 2012 Macbook Air was my favourite laptop ever. See Louis Rossman etc... if you get lucky you get lucky, but I don't like the odds, so Apple hardware for me is a subscription model...

okay I'll bite... Which hardware are you using that has more longevity than a typical Mac laptop? I've become increasingly annoyed by the software deterioration, with my laptop losing gobs of power while "sleeping". The only thing stopping me from changing back to windows for my next laptop is (my perception of) the terrible hardware choices on that side. My mental model for typical windows laptops is that they are w…

Old ThinkPads wear like iron. Even some of the newer Lenovo ones with the crappy keyboards. I have one such from 2014, it was some guy's DJ machine before I bought it and it still works great.

Re: Apple to upgrade base Macs to 16GB RAM, starting from Apple M4 models

#44

I’d love to see an Air with an M4 chip and 64GB RAM.

The non-integer scaling on the Airs puts me off. I want perfect text rendering at a great resolution as that's well over 50% of the reason to get a MacBook. So it's the Pro for me

Can't you set the resolution to whatever you want?

Re: Apple to upgrade base Macs to 16GB RAM, starting from Apple M4 models

#45
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew I'd get downvoted, but there are known SSD / T2 chip issues with 2016+ macs. Still present in Mx mac laptops. 2012 Macbook Air was my favourite laptop ever. See Louis Rossman etc... if you get lucky you get lucky, but I don't like the odds, so Apple hardware for me is a subscription model...

I have not heard anything about SSD issues from my friends in the IT department who service hundreds of laptops… Personally I’m still running an M1 MacBook Air which has been bulletproof for almost 4 years now. Before that I ran a 12” MacBook for 5 years. My last problem with a Mac laptop was in the 17” PowerBook days, circa 2010 (I suspect the case flexed and damaged the logic board)

I figure in an enterprise setting, machines get replaced within a few years?

I simply don't trust these latest machines to last without a particular issue happening. There's a fair amount online from the repair shops guys who are repeatedly encountering this issue. It seems like some kind of buck converter fails earlier than expected due to being run closer to its limits, and when it goes it dumps 13v into the SSD chips, destroying them, and bricking the machine, requiring SSD desoldering and component replacement, which isn't cheap or easy to fix. What % risk is unknown, but if the failure appears to be MTTF being reached early, then the longer I hold onto the machine the more likely I will encounter the issue and I don't fancy the risk...

My 2012 11" MBA is still absolutely fine, its the machines after 2016 to now that have the same issue.

Re: Apple to upgrade base Macs to 16GB RAM, starting from Apple M4 models

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All modern operating systems compress inactive pages.

My understanding is that the performance is based around Apple silicon being optimized for the NeXT/ObjC model of retain/release, which they got down from 30 nanoseconds on Intel to 6.5ns on M1 (14ns on emulated Intel). https://singhkays.com/blog/apple-silicon-m1-black-magic/#is-... IMO 8gb is still barely acceptable for most consumers in 2024, but not for any laptop that you'd expect to get more than say two years o…

That increases performance but it doesn't save any RAM.

Re: Apple to upgrade base Macs to 16GB RAM, starting from Apple M4 models

#47
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they are saying it from the perspective rather than two separate banks which are rarely both full it's one bank which is only ever full when 100% of the hardware is full. That said I think many miss that's how integrated graphics memory management had been working on x86 systems for many many years already. I.e. the "dedicated RAM" slider in the boot firmware is a legacy holdover that should be set to a minim…

They are saying it from the perspective of the RAM being on the same die as the CPU. This is one of the innovations of the Apple Silicon architecture as it SIGNIFICANTLY reduces memory access latency. It's not just TSMC's 3nm process. It's also Apple engineering.

No, it doesn't reduce latency.

Re: Apple to upgrade base Macs to 16GB RAM, starting from Apple M4 models

#48
As an Apple fan, what Apple charges for RAM is insulting. Pre 2012 it was standard practice to buy your MacBook Pro with the minimum RAM, and you could upgrade the RAM yourself buying from Crucial and the like for WAY CHEAPER than what Apple sold the RAM for. To stop that Apple started soldering the RAM to the logic board. I’d have no problem buying RAM from Apple if they charged a fair market price. Sadly Apple seem hell bent on ripping us off.

Re: Apple to upgrade base Macs to 16GB RAM, starting from Apple M4 models

#50
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew I'd get downvoted, but there are known SSD / T2 chip issues with 2016+ macs. Still present in Mx mac laptops. 2012 Macbook Air was my favourite laptop ever. See Louis Rossman etc... if you get lucky you get lucky, but I don't like the odds, so Apple hardware for me is a subscription model...

okay I'll bite... Which hardware are you using that has more longevity than a typical Mac laptop? I've become increasingly annoyed by the software deterioration, with my laptop losing gobs of power while "sleeping". The only thing stopping me from changing back to windows for my next laptop is (my perception of) the terrible hardware choices on that side. My mental model for typical windows laptops is that they are w…

It's about a specific issue known in the 2016+ laptops, I just don't want to carry the risk of this known issue bricking my laptop out of warranty. And still exists in the current ones.

I have a 2012 i7 Thinkpad T530, that is still useful. My whole life desktop machines are usually useful for about a decade. Cheap laptops don't seem to last more than 4-5 years at most, but the top end laptops built really well can last a long time. It's nice to hand useful technology down to family members also.

Low power sleep states seem to have been broken for many years in most laptops. Apple machines do not have this issue it appears.

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