Apple says M3 Macs only need 8GB of RAM, unlike inefficient Windows PCs

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

Apple just called out Windows.

M3 iMac
(Image credit: Apple)

For a while now Apple's entry-level Macs have had just 8GB of RAM unless the buyer chooses to upgrade that at the point of purchase. The same goes for the latest M3 iMac and M3 MacBook Pro, too. And that's once again raised the question of whether or not it's time Apple moved on, giving buyers at least 16GB of RAM.

That's especially the case when you look at Apple's Pro machines, with the M3 14-inch MacBook Pro shipping with just 8GB as mentioned. While you could easily argue that 8GB is enough in the iMac, some would say that anything with the word Pro in the name should come with more. And it would be hard to argue.

Except, that's exactly what Apple is doing. According to Apple's VP of worldwide product marketing Bob Borchers, 8GB is plenty and we should probably stop comparing Macs to Windows PCs as well.

It's all about efficiency

Borchers was speaking with ML engineer and content creator Lin YilYi in a video spotted by MacRumors when he said that 8GB of RAM in the MacBook Pro "is probably analogous to 16GB on other systems." Why? Because Macs "just happen to be able to use it much more efficiently." The inference is that Windows PCs need more RAM because they are less efficient than macOS.

The comment came after YilYi said that he had concerns about the MacBook Pro's 8GB of RAM, but Borchers believes that people should go to an Apple Store and try to do what they need to do on these new Macs — and that he thinks they'll "see incredible performance" when they do.

For those who absolutely do need more RAM, it can of course be added for a cost. But those upgrade costs can be prohibitive.  Apple's latest Macs have on-board shared RAM which means that it can't be upgraded after purchase, so the decision has to be made when placing the initial order — a fact that makes choosing the right amount of RAM even more important.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.

11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Bla1ze
    I agree that Apple most certainly does use that 8GB more efficiently but it's still a load of BS to be charging that much and only getting 8GB. Additionally, I took his advice of going to the store and testing out 8GB vs. 16GB when I bought my M1 Mac Mini and I concluded that 8GB wasn't going to be enough.

    If you do next to nothing on your Mac but browse the web and diligently close every single tab when done, sure. 8GB might be enough but if your daily life is running Chrome, Slack, Discord, some Adobe software, Signal, some music apps, etc. You're going to hit that swap hard and then you run into SSD lifespan issues.

    I'm not saying it's the cause or fix by any means since there's countless other factors at play, but Mac revenue is down 34% year-over-year. Maybe ripping off your customers on RAM pricing isn't helping.
    Reply
  • FFR
    Apparently 8gb of unified memory is enough for most users according to this YouTuber.

    Video comparison posted below.



    IzVoQDrIrAE
    Reply
  • Just_Me_D
    Bla1ze said:
    I agree that Apple most certainly does use that 8GB more efficiently but it's still a load of BS to be charging that much and only getting 8GB. Additionally, I took his advice of going to the store and testing out 8GB vs. 16GB when I bought my M1 Mac Mini and I concluded that 8GB wasn't going to be enough.

    If you do next to nothing on your Mac but browse the web and diligently close every single tab when done, sure. 8GB might be enough but if your daily life is running Chrome, Slack, Discord, some Adobe software, Signal, some music apps, etc. You're going to hit that swap hard and then you run into SSD lifespan issues.

    I'm not saying it's the cause or fix by any means since there's countless other factors at play, but Mac revenue is down 34% year-over-year. Maybe ripping off your customers on RAM pricing isn't helping.

    I can agree with your comments. My job initially gave me a MacBook Air with 8 GBs of RAM. The machine performed admirably for a long time. My responsibilities and browser tabs grew and then the 8 GBs of RAM wasn’t enough. My beloved MBA started struggling and so I was given an M1 MBP w/16 GBs of RAM.

    Nowadays I have approximately 45 Chrome tabs open, 16 Safari tabs open, Zoom, Slack, Excel, Shottr, Esper, and a VPN all running simultaneously. The 16 GBs of RAM handles it with ease.
    Reply
  • Bla1ze
    FFR said:
    Apparently 8gb of unified memory is enough for most users according to this YouTuber.
    "Most users" is a broad sweeping statement. Is my Mom who only browses Facebook and Netflix most users? To me, his video says the opposite of what his post claims.. running at over 2GB of Swap is a red flag that it wouldn't handle my typical usage.

    We've been down this road before anyway with M1, and M2 and YouTube is littered with the same sort of testing and videos of people saying they moved on from the base models and no doubt in a few months history will repeat itself again.
    Reply
  • EdwinG
    Bla1ze said:
    "Most users" is a broad sweeping statement. Is my Mom who only browses Facebook and Netflix most users? To me, his video says the opposite of what his post claims.. running at over 2GB of Swap is a red flag that it wouldn't handle my typical usage.
    To answer the mom question, no.

    Even my mom, who isn’t a big Mac user, uses 12GB of RAM between Apple Mail, Apple Photos, Safari (Facebook, CBC/RC, Outlook on the Web), Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

    There’s not many ways to cut it, 8GB of RAM is still 8GB of RAM. Swap can only do so much, and it will add wear on the embedded NAND chips by writing to them.
    Reply
  • FFR
    Bla1ze said:
    "Most users" is a broad sweeping statement. Is my Mom who only browses Facebook and Netflix most users? To me, his video says the opposite of what his post claims.. running at over 2GB of Swap is a red flag that it wouldn't handle my typical usage.

    We've been down this road before anyway with M1, and M2 and YouTube is littered with the same sort of testing and videos of people saying they moved on from the base models and no doubt in a few months history will repeat itself again.

    Of course, I wouldn’t categorize your usage as “typical” nor would I assert that your usage is “typical for most or a majority of users. Having said that 8gb of unified seems to be enough for those users that just want to browse the web, email, Netflix, FaceTime, word processing etc.

    Personally I need more than 32 gb of unified ram, but that’s why Apple offers different tiers. Those that only need 8gb of unified memory might feel the same way about having to pay more for 16 gb.

    Sure those YouTubers would probably move on from the base model, make a video, then move back to the base model make another video on why. They need to keep making content that’s their business model. But that video did show that 8gb of unified memory on the m3 was decent compared to the 16 gb of unified memory on the m3 pro.
    Reply
  • FFR
    EdwinG said:
    To answer the mom question, no.

    Even my mom, who isn’t a big Mac user, uses 12GB of RAM between Apple Mail, Apple Photos, Safari (Facebook, CBC/RC, Outlook on the Web), Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

    There’s not many ways to cut it, 8GB of RAM is still 8GB of RAM. Swap can only do so much, and it will add wear on the embedded NAND chips by writing to them.

    8gb of unified memory or standard memory?
    Reply
  • EdwinG
    FFR said:
    8gb of unified memory or standard memory?
    Neither.

    8GB of DRAM chips, the actual physical space.
    Reply
  • FFR
    EdwinG said:
    Neither.

    8GB of DRAM chips, the actual physical space.

    I meant on your mother’s computer, is she using unified memory or std.
    Reply
  • EdwinG
    FFR said:
    I meant on your mother’s computer, is she using unified memory or std.
    16GB of standard memory.
    Reply