8GB vs 16GB M1 MacBook Pro - How much RAM do you NEED?!

Came across your video today and it was pretty informative. I am stuck with the same question as I am planning to buy my first macbook.
Macbook air m1 8gb and 256 gigs is what is available in the stores nearby my place.
My use cases are -
1. Ms office and apples office suite
2. Spreadsheets
3. Research
4. Articles
5. Browsing
6. Content consumption
7. Music creation as a hobby
8. Occasional video and photo editing - nothing big time. But I do do it sometimes

Have been doing all of these in my phones from the last few years and now I am planning to get my first macbook.
What would you suggest-
To get an M1 or M2.
And will 8gb suffice or do I need to jump and go for 16gb Ram

If I purchase it now
I will be using it for the next 5-6 years.

What would be the best bet???

Great vid on 8G vs 16G - so much FUD out there. Thanks for sorting it out!

trash review. no multitasking.

200 USD difference in USA between 8gb and 16gb. +1.200 USD diiference in Brazil. Sad.

Lol what happened to 16gb overload but the 8gb didn't?😮

If you have ssd failure and dead Mac. Please comment if you had it with 8gb machine or 16gb machine. Id like to collect metrics on failure rates as I believe one fails more than the other.

What is the application you use to have the use of ram at the top?

test RAM with multi tasking, this is a promotional video for the MacBook in general

8 gb is enough for now or couple of years bt we know that people hold macbook for years... And for future 8 gb might not perform as it is performing right now, however 16 gb model is a more prudent option to go with..

Just using OneDrive on my 8 Go MBP with lightweight multitasking is too tight... Pick 16 Go instead

Thanks a lot bro

This is such a good video. Thank you very much for making it!

M1 chips completely poop on the 7 years old idea of.. get 16bg to "future proof" your computer 😂

I’ve been using 16G Ram of MacBook Pro 2012 and MacBook Pro 2018, it’s difficult for me to buy another new MacBook still with 16G ram again, but Apple charges ridiculously price for ram upgrade, literarily it’s almost same price as higher model.

A game dev need more ram because we open unity, visual studio community, blender, photoshop, at the same time...

100 degrees celcius?!? that can't be safe

So close to 1 Mil!!!

Why doña you bitter open and run a blender project i think there you now hoy thetas perform

Thank you! Thank you! & Thank you! Finally the video I was looking for. I now won't be selling my 8gig iMac. Cheers!

Hello, great informative video. Please help me decide whic one to buy. I am a college professor, I work mostly with MatLab and Mathematica for science research (physics). I have a 2014 Air with 8Gb RAM and 512 GB Drive, no video editing, plus common stuff. My options are: Air M1 16Gb RAM + 512 SSD, Pro M1 8GB RAM + 512 SSD, Pro 16GB RAM + 512 SSD. My main concern is about the (probable) reduction in performance due to high intensity computing temperature, the Air M1 doesn't have fans, the Pro does.

Would have liked to see the multi tasking performance to really compare the RAM usage. Suggestion to have multiple Chrome tabs open, Spotify, some work applications, Office applications, and maybe a Twitch stream and see if the 16gb really performs better (or not). This seemed more of an M1 stress test vs. a RAM stress test since it's a 1v1 application test.

Very useful thank you

I am late to this video but it would seem to me that because the 14 inch M1 starts at 16 GB that it would likely be only marginally faster than the Mac book air M1 with 8GB? Or am I comparing apples to oranges?

1 point missed: During the renders/exports/etc you will be able to use other apps on a 16GB model when 8GM model will struggle to load anything else with it's 300mb leftovers.

glad to see the scishow guy branch off into his own passions

Parabéns, muito bom

13 inch 16gb or 14 inch base model what do you think?

The SSD in the 8gb model will not last as long as the SSD in the 16gb. What do you think the computer is doing (8gb model) during that first test ? Its using the HD to store data because its out of ram. This means your using the SSD to read and write much more than the 16gb version. Most people will never push the CPU enough to make this an issue, but people who really push there computers with video editing etc will def be pushing their 8gb models SSD very hard with all the write and reads. The HD not being replaceable = shorter laptop life with the 8gb model. Save up and buy the 16gb version, in this day and age and moving forward youll be happy you spent the extra and got more ram.

My only one question
Will it matter in the future ?
8vs16gb ram
Performance and wich lasts longer 6 years or over

getting a mac with more ram is not always easy or reasonable in every country unfortunately.. In US yeah it’s only a 200 unit difference but in Turkey for example between 8gb and 16gb there’s a 3400 unit difference in currency, i would’ve liked getting a 16gb model but sometimes you have to go with what you can 🤷🏼‍♂️

NOOB test
Try virtualization

Very useful

I think the double 8 cores of the midrange model and 8 of ram may be ideal for a bit of photo editing and writing my novels . Don’t need internet , films or anything else from the iMac M1 chip . I had thought 16 of ram , but this video made it clear that would be pointless . With external storage and APS designed for the iMac and things will be even smoother. The twin fans and heat subs seem to matter more than ram and ssd space .

Good video but you missed a key feature for video editors … the actual preview / sample smoothness when editing.. I have a MacBook not the m1 and I can’t preview my editing smoothly. Wish you showed that !!

8gb of RAM for me it's useless in the near future...

Для теста Xcode, если взять реалистичное использование, что у тебя параллельно с Xcode, открыт iOS симулятор, Chrome пускай даже не более 10 вкладок, но с более 10 расширениями, Safari с несколькими вкладками, Jira, Source Tree, Skype, Microsoft Teams, Sketch or Figma or Zeplin, Sublime Text, Postman и немного обязательных фоновых типа ClipMenu, Dropbox, Magnet, Punto Switcher, Monitor Control, любой VPN Клиент.

И это исключая не редких случаев когда насыщенный рабочий день и используются всякие корпоративные приложения типа Java клиента админки какого либо ресурса, корпоративного Git клиента. А также иногда приходится использовать симулятор андроида.
А также иногда подключается второй монитор, на котором ещё одно окно Chrome/Opera где ещё несколько вкладок развлекательного контента, мессенджеров.

В таком реалистичном случаи iMac i5 2017 года сжирает в среднем до 30 гб ОЗУ под конец дня.
Я бы посмотрел результат тестов при таком случаи в сравнении 8 против 16 гб.

16 gb is a limitation if you plan to play emulators with all the constant compiling.

I would get a 16gb model so the gpu can use more memory because it uses shared memory and 8gb is not enough for games which uses a lot of ram and the gpu won’t have much to use

I wonder the long turn efficiency. More ram should relax the processor.

It’s not all about exporting. Tell me how fast it is and how it prevents stalls on regular iMovie work.

These benchmarks are a bit generic and do not address certain use cases. In the real world, people(like me) use computers for specific tasks( data analysis, video editing) that load a lot of data onto memory. I found my legion gaming 3 with 8gb was struggling on certain data wrangling tasks and since I upgraded to 24gb, it has become easier to work on multiple tasks. In the near future, everything will be on the cloud, so we will probably need enough ram to just run chrome, so 32gb should be enough.

10% for each project adds up quickly. 16gb is def worth if you're running big applications like after effects and photoshop. Especially running multiple apps at the same time. Definitely going to buy the 16gb

Thanks for this. Writing from my Macbook Air M1 8GB.

You should rename to Mac's Tech

Hi I use architectural programs like archicad and rendering like twinmotion, would you recommend 8 gb or 16 gb? Thank you

more memory != more speed… unless ur comparing swap vs ram

I have 8gb memory using 20 chrome tabs, need a 16gb lol this video doesn't cover regular folks