Even Apple finally admits that 8GB RAM isn't enough ( www.xda-developers.com )

There were a number of exciting announcements from Apple at WWDC 2024, from macOS Sequoia to Apple Intelligence. However, a subtle addition to Xcode 16 — the development environment for Apple platforms, like iOS and macOS — is a feature called Predictive Code Completion. Unfortunately, if you bought into Apple's claim that 8GB of unified memory was enough for base-model Apple silicon Macs, you won't be able to use it. There's a memory requirement for Predictive Code Completion in Xcode 16, and it's the closest thing we'll get from Apple to an admission that 8GB of memory isn't really enough for a new Mac in 2024.

helenslunch ,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

I don't consider that an "admission" at all...

Hux ,

This isn’t a big deal.

If you’re developing in Xcode, you did not buy an 8GB Mac in the last 10-years.

If you are just using your Mac for Facebook and email, I don’t think you know what RAM is.

If you know what RAM is, and you bought an 8GB Mac in the last 10-years, then you are likely self-aware of your limited demands and/or made an informed compromise.

filister ,

If you know what RAM is, and you bought an 8GB Mac in the last 10-years, then you are likely self-aware of your limited demands and/or made an informed compromise.

Or you simply refuse to pay $200+ to get a proper machine. Like seriously, 8GB Mac's should have disappeared long ago, but nope, Apple stick to them with their planned obsolescence tactics on their hardware, and stubbornly refusing to admit that in 2023 releasing a MacBook with soldered 8Gb of RAM is wholy inadequate.

Specal ,

I get around this by simply not buying a Mac. Free's up so much money for ram.

sverit OP ,

Yeah, the 8GB model's purpose is to make an "starting at $xxxx" price tag possible.

DJDarren ,
@DJDarren@thelemmy.club avatar

I’m not gonna stand up and declare that 8gb is absolutely fine, because in very short order it won’t be. But yeah, currently for an average use case, it is.

My work Mac mini has 8gb. It’s a 2014 so can’t be upgraded, but for the tasks I ask of it it’s ok. Sure, it gets sluggish if I’m using the Win11 VM I sometimes need, but generally I don’t really have any issues doing regular office tasks.

That said, I sometimes gets a bee in my bonnet about it, so open Activity Monitor to see what’s it’s doing, and am shocked by how much RAM some websites consume in open tabs in Safari.

8gb is generally ok on low end gear, but devs are working very hard to ensure that it’s not.

stoly ,

Funny: knowing that you only get one shot, I bought 32GB of RAM for my Mac Mini like 1.5 years ago. I figured that it gave me the best shot of keeping it usable past 5 years.

ryannathans ,

Wake me up when phones have enough ram to run good voice to text engines on the phone itself

sunzu ,

12 aint enough?

ryannathans ,

Think you need 16

can ,

How much do you need?

ryannathans ,

Last check about 10GB for the model. Anything less doesn't translate my voice to text accurately

can ,

What app are you using?

Aatube ,
@Aatube@kbin.melroy.org avatar

We already have that since iOS 15 if you have a phone that released after the iPhone X. It's time to become woke, sheeple.

can ,

So 8gb?

Aatube ,
@Aatube@kbin.melroy.org avatar

3GB, actually. That was on iPhone XR, which is basically the only budge iPhone Apple has made.

SpeedLimit55 ,

8GB is definitely not enough for coding, gaming, or most creative work but it’s fine for basic office/school work or entertainment. Heck my M1 Macbook Air is even good with basic Photoshop/Illustrator work and light AV editing. I certainly prefer my PC laptop with 32GB and a dedicated GPU but its power adapter weighs more than a Macbook Air.

cmnybo ,

8GB would be fine for basic use if it was upgradable. With soldered RAM the laptop becomes e-waste when 8GB is no longer enough.

slaacaa ,

Yeah, the soldering is outrageous. I miss the time when Apple was a (more) customer friendly company. I could open my Mac mini 2009 and just add more RAM, which I did.

DJDarren ,
@DJDarren@thelemmy.club avatar

When I bought my first MacBook in ‘07 I asked the guy in the store about upgrading the RAM. He told me that what Apple charged was outrageous and pointed me to a website where I’d get what I needed for much less.

I feel that if Apple could have soldered the RAM back then, they would have.

boonhet ,

I feel that if Apple could have soldered the RAM back then, they would have.

Apple used to ship repair and upgrade kits with guides on how to apply them. Not sure they were as anti-repair then as they are now.

barsquid ,

Embrace, extend, extinguish is an attitude for more than one company I guess.

cheddar ,
@cheddar@programming.dev avatar

8GB is definitely not enough for coding, gaming, or most creative work but it’s fine for basic office/school work or entertainment.

The thing is, basic office/school/work tasks can be done on any laptop that costs twice less than an 8GB MacBook.

SpeedLimit55 ,

This is true for part time or casual use but for all day work use including travel you get better build quality and far less problems with a pro grade machine. We spend the same on a macbook, thinkpad, surface or probook for our basic full time users.

While it may be a bit overkill for someone who spends their day in word, excel, chrome and zoom we save money in the long term due to reliability. There is far less downtime and IT time spent on each user over the life of the system (3-4 years). The same is true about higher quality computer accessories.

Specal ,

I mean I develop software on an 8GB laptop. Most of the time it's fine, when I need more I have a desktop with 128GB ram available.

Really depends what type of software you're making. If you're using python a few TB might be required.

poorlytunedAstring ,

For the record, on Windows 10, I'm using 9GB (rounded up from 8.something) to run Firefox and look at this website, can't forget Discord inviting itself to my party in the background, and the OS. I had to close tabs to get down here. Streams really eat the RAM up.

Throw a game in there, with FF open for advice and Discord running for all the usual gaming reasons, and yeah, way over.

Notice I haven't even touched any productivity stuff that demands more.

8? Eat a penis, Apple. Fuckin clown hardware.

howlingecko ,

Also for the record, I have experienced an 8GB Mac Mini run Firefox with at least 20 tabs, Jetbrains Rider with code open and editable, Jetbrains DataGrip with queries, somehow Microsoft Teams, MS Outlook and didn’t seem to have a problem. Was also able to share the screen on a Teams call and switch between the applications without lag.

Windows OS couldn’t handle your application load? Eat a penis, Microsoft. Fucking clown memory management.

Telodzrum ,

MacOS’s memory scheduler is leaps and bounds better than what Windows uses. It’s more apt to compare the RAM on a machine running MacOS to one running a common Linux distro. Windows needs more RAM than the other two by two to three times because it’s fuckterrible at using it.

small44 , (edited )

For who? My mother who only use facebook, youtube and googling don't need 8gb

ABCDE ,

I don't know what Xcode is so yeah, I haven't been found wanting with my 8GB M2. Videos, downloading, web browsing, writing, chat applications, some photo editing, games (what I can actually play on a Mac, anyway), all good here.

16GB+ is obviously going to be necessary though, and not exactly that expensive to put into their base models so it should be put in soon.

Glowstick ,

Sounds like all she needs is a dirt cheap chromebook then

small44 ,

That's what she has

Glowstick ,

Then her situation isn't applicable to this topic

cybersandwich ,

This comment chain made me chuckle. It's such an "internet comment section" ..trope? I don't know the right word.

QuarterSwede ,
@QuarterSwede@lemmy.world avatar

It’s a straw man argument that doesn’t address the main point the comment or was making.

disguy_ovahea ,

That all depends on how much work they want to put into troubleshooting it for her. I got my mom a Mac Mini when her PC needed to be replaced. It’s way less responsibility on my part. I mostly just answer the occasional how-to.

Glowstick ,

Mac is easier than Windows, sure, but not easier than a chromebook. Nothing is simpler than a Chromebook. You can do much more with a Mac, but a chromebook is much easier.

iopq ,

I had a laptop with 8GB. Doing one of those things was fine, but when you open up another program it takes forever to switch to the browser

Petter1 ,

And then you have to activate linux app support for a thing she needs and can not do with chromebook and suddenly it is more complicated than macOS?

superb ,
@superb@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

My daily driver is an 8gb MacBook Air, I’m living pretty comfortably lol

JeeBaiChow ,

They should do 4Gb. I hear M3 mac's make it seem like 8Gb.

disguy_ovahea ,

I think you mean gigabytes, not gigabits.

8 Gb = 1 GB

Aatube ,
@Aatube@kbin.melroy.org avatar

Darn you broadband

disguy_ovahea ,

That’s true. Data transmission is usually measured in bits, not bytes. Gigabit Ethernet can only transmit a maximum of ~128 MB/s.

JeeBaiChow ,

You mean they can even make 0.5GB appear as 8GB?! That's 16x! That apple silicon is just something else!

Petter1 ,

8Gb from 4Gb is 1GB from 0.5GB 😉

rockSlayer , (edited )

If you allocate it right, you can add 200GB of swap space and then that 4GB of RAM will feel like 408GB!

0x0 ,

The Voyager space probes disagree.

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