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32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

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Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#51
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.

I'm starting to think that no one in our industry have any actual pride in their work. Just slapping layers and layers of stuff together until it barely works and then shipping it... And somehow they should be paid lot of money for this...

And most of this stuff isn't even doing anything that special or demanding, which is the sad part.

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#52
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's because they're off-lease trash that they hobble back together with used HDDs and used RAM. They target low-income; budget conscious/frugal; elderly and those otherwise ignorant of the scam. Backed by a 30-day return policy!

I get these types of machines (actually somewhat newer i5/i7 11th gen+) from an Amazon returns auction house for $5-$20/ea and they invariably have mismatched ram in them and HDDs with 50-70K hours on them already. They also typically won't boot because of a faulty ram stick 9r failed HDD.

That being said, I also have 4 kids and those machines have served well as 'starter' systems. They get to upgrade the PSU, HDD-->SSD, GPU and max out the ram on a shoestring budget.

Between a local MicroCtr and /r/homelabsales ... They get to build out performant systems for $300-$600 total. I also consider this to be a much greater investment than just throwing a console at them.

Profits or not for them; we found some profit in their waste stream.

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#53
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm starting to think that no one in our industry have any actual pride in their work. Just slapping layers and layers of stuff together until it barely works and then shipping it... And somehow they should be paid lot of money for this... And most of this stuff isn't even doing anything that special or demanding, which is the sad part.

Lot of CRUD apps and Glue together python imports Just Google it Ask ChatGPT

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#54
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.

This is exactly why I purchased a base model 8GB RAM M1 Mac Mini to develop on. If it runs well on that (with Xcode in the background no less), it’s likely to run well on users computers.

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was about to say that both my M2 Macs (laptop and mini) run fine with 8gb. Haven't noticed any problems. I don't play high-end games, though.

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

Of course it’s for their use case, what else would it be? Every use case?

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#56
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.

I remember the days when having 16 MB of memory was plenty to do that.

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#57
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Yet, when I'm browsing Facebook, I frequently encouter an issue where the brower tab process starts allocating 5% or more of resident memory (on a 16 GB memory machine). On the other hand, my usenet client worked just fine on my computer with 16 MB of memory at the time without slowing the compter to a crawl due to excessive memory usage.

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#58
my lenovo has soldered ram, and i went for the maximum which is 64 gb 32 gb would have been more than enough, but since it's soldered, i had to go for the maximum so in 10 years from now, the laptop can still work well. it comes with lddr5 ram which is much, much faster than what so-dimm slots would have gave me. added bonus : ldd5 soldered uses much less power...

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#59

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

you cannot compare an apple with 8 gb to a windows/linux machine running x86-64. you have two very different CPUs and architectures, and their use of memory is totally different.. those 8 Gb are the equivalent of 16 Gb on the x86-side. and 16 gb is decent for browsing, office work and even programing if you're not playing with kubernetes or some software.

Re: 32GB of RAM is becoming the standard

#60

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

you cannot compare an apple with 8 gb to a windows/linux machine running x86-64. you have two very different CPUs and architectures, and their use of memory is totally different.. those 8 Gb are the equivalent of 16 Gb on the x86-side. and 16 gb is decent for browsing, office work and even programing if you're not playing with kubernetes or some software.

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