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Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it

macworld.com

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Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it

#211

Post by ianai »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #201
ianai wrote: post #181

I think the best reaction would be shame. Just a big round of shame for a trillion dollar company being so greedy to cripple their top equipment. Tech’s stagnated for over a decade and largely because of greed and at the expense of innovation. Prove me wrong? Do something genuinely new, like a mass produced cpu on germanium. Make a modern OS that’s a successor to unix-and plan9. Edit-Or at least a moddable iphone tha…

I’m in the market for a new Macbook. Should I get the M2 instead of the M3? The base M2 had 16GB RAM

Honestly hold off until next year if you can or when they announce the M4. Otherwise probably get whatever you can afford to upgrade the RAM.

Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it

#212

Post by crazygringo »

_ea1k wrote: post #190
aurareturn wrote: post #8

8GB is still good enough for office workers and students. Heck, I used an M1 8GB Air for 1 year as a dev. Although I wish I had more RAM, it still served me well. For $899 (on sale sometimes), the 8GB M2 Air is absolutely a steal. The screen quality, thinness, battery life, build quality, SoC, quietness, coolness, metal enclosure, touchpad, and speakers are simply unmatched by anything in the PC world at that price -…

I don't really have a problem with 8GB for the base model. There are plenty of people buying Macs, including Pro versions, that won't need more than that. My issue is the heavy price increase for higher RAM amounts. A $2500 machine should come with at least 64GB.

Exactly. They wouldn't be selling it if people weren't buying it.

The fact is, 8 GB delivers perfectly speedy performance for many Pro workloads.

It's not enough if you're a dev running VM's, but Pro doesn't mean it's for developers only. There are a lot of other types of professionals out there, where their needs are e.g around CPU not memory.

Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it

#213

Post by satvikpendem »

As long as people keep buying, companies will keep selling. That is how it is, according to the laws of supply and demand. If you want Apple to stop selling 8 GB machines for that much, convince a large enough contingent of consumers to stop buying. Indeed, Mac sales have been down the past few years.

Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it

#214

Post by whywhywhywhy »

Absurd behavior from a company who spent a fortune on an ad for their environmental initiatives to essentially ship e-waste to force your hand to the higher price.

Yes it's e-waste, it can't be upgraded, it can't be amended later those machines are under performing for life for essentially saving a few dollars just to give the false idea the machine is cheaper than they actually want to sell it at.

Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it

#215

Post by satvikpendem »

ianai wrote: post #211
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m in the market for a new Macbook. Should I get the M2 instead of the M3? The base M2 had 16GB RAM

Honestly hold off until next year if you can or when they announce the M4. Otherwise probably get whatever you can afford to upgrade the RAM.

Or just wait until the year after for the M5.

Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it

#216

Post by ToucanLoucan »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #201
ianai wrote: post #181

I think the best reaction would be shame. Just a big round of shame for a trillion dollar company being so greedy to cripple their top equipment. Tech’s stagnated for over a decade and largely because of greed and at the expense of innovation. Prove me wrong? Do something genuinely new, like a mass produced cpu on germanium. Make a modern OS that’s a successor to unix-and plan9. Edit-Or at least a moddable iphone tha…

I’m in the market for a new Macbook. Should I get the M2 instead of the M3? The base M2 had 16GB RAM

I replaced an M1 Pro with an M2 Air and have had nothing but improvements in my daily computing. Juggling Xcode, terminal tools, web browsers, Slack, Discord, music/podcasts, video streaming, video CALLS, all the background sync, email, VS Code, occasionally photoshop for flavor. It just doesn't slow down, at all, at any point.

The M series SOCs are just fucking absurd. In every space besides gaming and graphics, they utterly lap PC's. I don't even remember the last time my Macbook wasn't charged enough to use, and I use it away from my desk quite a lot. Moving from my office PC to a Macbook has felt like being flung 6 years into the future.

Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it

#217

Post by ianai »

ianai wrote: post #197
runjake wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tech’s stagnated for over a decade I don’t know where to begin with this, but on topic, the M1 came out in 2020 and was a big tech leap in how PCs are done. Sure, all the individual technologies within existed elsewhere first. But Apple executed and delivered great products.

Sure. Running an OS that is carrying a lot of legacy OS X with introduced bugs and cruft. I love *nix and hope to keep using it for a long time more. But if you plunked 2002 me into modern day, apple’s offerings would be pretty cool but not what I’d expect after 2 decades. You could buy a desktop with 4 gigs of ram in 2010.

They could get me to shut up for probably 4 years if they cemented a deal to produce the next Nintendo console with Nintendo in a way Nintendo would be fully onboard with delivering. Think steam deck or mac mini level of hardware/cost.

Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it

#219

Post by CharlesW »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #201
ianai wrote: post #181

I think the best reaction would be shame. Just a big round of shame for a trillion dollar company being so greedy to cripple their top equipment. Tech’s stagnated for over a decade and largely because of greed and at the expense of innovation. Prove me wrong? Do something genuinely new, like a mass produced cpu on germanium. Make a modern OS that’s a successor to unix-and plan9. Edit-Or at least a moddable iphone tha…

I’m in the market for a new Macbook. Should I get the M2 instead of the M3? The base M2 had 16GB RAM

> I’m in the market for a new Macbook. Should I get the M2 instead of the M3?

Yes, especially if you were considering a low-end M3 model. Also consider a MacBook Air, which are great.

Re: Apple has a memory problem and we're all paying for it

#220

Post by crazygringo »

Osiris wrote: post #11

When I started my current job they gave me an M1 Mac with 8GB because it’s what they had on hand. I could barely run my IDE and a web browser. At least 1GB was for video memory, and it was swapping constantly. I couldn’t run docker containers because of how much input lag I would get. 8GB is barely usable and shouldn’t even be an option for a Pro machine. I used it for a week before switching to a personal desktop wi…

I don't think memory was the main issue. It sounds like there was some software installed that was using up the CPU -- some background utility run amok.

I've got an 8 GB M1 MBA and run Chrome and an IDE effortlessly, even when connected to a 4K monitor, and with tons of tabs open.

I'm not saying 8 GB is enough for everybody, but it's perfectly fine for an IDE and web browser. I'm pretty sure your issue was something else.

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