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32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

pcworld.com

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Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#41
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can never quite figure out what the use case is - as I sit here with 2 brave tabs open, my 10.13 mac is using up 13.58gb of ram. These conversations usually usually end up at "my 8gb ram machine actually swaps constantly, but it's fine because otherwise I'd have to face the cognitive dissonance of justifying this purchase, so I'd rather repeat the apple marketing line they came up with to BS around their poor silic…

I’m not sure that usage means anything. If it needed more it would be more aggressive in clearing stuff out as far as I can tell.

Clearing out means swapping to disk, right?

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#42
post #9

More RAM is becoming the standard because software developed with more RAM is less efficient. And developers tend to have powerful computers "because it's their job", which encourages them to write inefficient code. > 16GB RAM is also a practical capacity for general tasks such as web browsing, office work 16GB RAM to read and write text and see images... I think it just says it all.

>16GB RAM to read and write text and see images... I think it just says it all. More could be said about the bloatware, telemetry, surveillance, and adtech built into Windows. Hard to imagine that 1GB was "a big deal" in my lifetime.

I bought a 16GB MacBook Pro in 2013, which I still use. Why the F 32GB isn’t standard by now is ridiculous. Screw all the “sloppy code” bullshit talk. I’ve been buying computers since they had 64K. People have been having the same “sloppy code” talk for decades.

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#43
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

apple silicone doesn't need any memory tho edit: ha I guess people didn't see the /s in the above

Silicon, silicone is fake boob plastic. And that’s a blatant lie from Apple, if anything, the GPU shares memory with the CPU therefore Apple Silicon needs MORE memory, not less.

And yet the machines are more performant with less memory than their Intel equivalents were (comparing Mac to Mac).

Somehow an efficiency has been made.

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#44
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's always amusing to see how M x Mac fanbois always forget to add "in my use case".

I can never quite figure out what the use case is - as I sit here with 2 brave tabs open, my 10.13 mac is using up 13.58gb of ram. These conversations usually usually end up at "my 8gb ram machine actually swaps constantly, but it's fine because otherwise I'd have to face the cognitive dissonance of justifying this purchase, so I'd rather repeat the apple marketing line they came up with to BS around their poor silic…

The SWE colleague sitting next to me has a M1 Air with 8 GB RAM and runs VS Code, multiple browsers with many tabs, Slack and Webpack with the TS/React app he works on just fine. Dual display setup too.

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#45
post #9

More RAM is becoming the standard because software developed with more RAM is less efficient. And developers tend to have powerful computers "because it's their job", which encourages them to write inefficient code. > 16GB RAM is also a practical capacity for general tasks such as web browsing, office work 16GB RAM to read and write text and see images... I think it just says it all.

It's not the developer hardware, its that every last available CPU cycle & KB of ram gets consumed by ad/tracking bullshit on every website we visit.

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#46
Why wouldn't you spend as much on RAM as you would on your CPU? It seems kind of silly to skimp on RAM or SSD space these days.

There will always be some application that comes along and can use the hardware that you didn't imagine. I remember a friend saying that the 48k in his Apple ][ was enough ram for any program... as long as you didn't go filling it up with graphics and that kind of nonsense.

It's amazing how small code is compared to the data it operates upon.

You need all that RAM to virtualize operating systems, because running native code is dangerous.

The observant may wonder why running native code is dangerous. Why doesn't the operating system defend itself?

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#47
post #7

Meanwhile your Mac still ships with a shitty 8gb by default

They handle memory management quite differently and the usage patterns on those devices is significantly different. You can get higher memory Apple kit if you need it…

To be fair my windows laptop also had 8 gigs and it runs just fine for most things. But a bit more ram wouldn’t hurt and a speed machine it’s not

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#48
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's always amusing to see how M x Mac fanbois always forget to add "in my use case".

I can never quite figure out what the use case is - as I sit here with 2 brave tabs open, my 10.13 mac is using up 13.58gb of ram. These conversations usually usually end up at "my 8gb ram machine actually swaps constantly, but it's fine because otherwise I'd have to face the cognitive dissonance of justifying this purchase, so I'd rather repeat the apple marketing line they came up with to BS around their poor silic…

That's so high I suspect measurement error. How did you come up with that number?

(It does look like my machine is using some swap space, but I don't notice any lag, so I'm not sure there's anything wrong with that.)

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#49
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure that usage means anything. If it needed more it would be more aggressive in clearing stuff out as far as I can tell.

Clearing out means swapping to disk, right?

Perhaps?

Maybe it’s the speed of the SSD that prevents me noticing it, but it sure feels fast and I don’t have a ton of memory

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#50

>computers with little RAM have to swap this data to the hard drive The hard drive? What machine is sold with a hard drive as swap in 2024?

Go to Walmart.com, desktop computer category, sort by low price. Many have HDDs. My parents do the analog version of this for appliances, and if I gave them the task of buying a desktop computer, they would probably buy one like this with a HDD. The surprising thing is that you can buy a desktop computer (but no monitor) for less than a day of minimum wage in California. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Restored-Dell-Optip…

It is not that surprising when the computer is actually over decade old... i5-2400 released in Q1 2011.

What I find more surprising is that there is any margins in selling those sort of computers. Enough to actually reliably profit.

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