The 8GB M1 Mac performed as well as a 16GB Intel Mac, while the 16GB M1 Mac performed as well as a 32GB Intel Mac, as per the YouTuber. However, it took a lot more apps to slow down the 8GB M1 Mac, compared to an Intel Mac which would start slowing down much earlier, which was attributed to the unified memory architecture in Apple Silicon. It addressed the questions that are in every Apple Silicon M1 Mac buyer’s mind: do you need 8GB RAM or 16GB RAM? As per the testing performed in this video with apps like Chrome, Final Cut Pro, Xcode, Photoshop beta for Apple Silicon, Logic Pro, and Lightroom, the YouTuber was able to slow down the 8GB M1 Mac. The first video is by Max Tech, and is the most comprehensive of the two that we cover in this post.
With the new M1-based Macs, Apple has debuted a new unified memory architecture for RAM which works in a different manner compared to Intel-based Macs.Apple enlists eight Macs (2015-2016) as vintage products including 27-inch iMac, MacBook Pro and others There’s a lot of confusion among potential MacBook Pro and Air buyers as to whether they should buy the 8GB RAM variant of the machine or bump the RAM to 16GB. It is important that one gets the M1-based Mac with the right amount of RAM since it is not user upgradeable.
Apple also charges $200 for the RAM upgrade which might tempt many people to save money and get the 8GB RAM model. A comparison video from YouTuber MaxTech now clearly shows the difference in performance between the 8GB and 16GB RAM variant of the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
Right off the bat, the 8GB 13-inch MacBook Pro has notably less free RAM than the 16GB RAM variant when running benchmarks and other apps.
In real-life use scenarios like compiling code in Xcode, exporting RAW photos from Lightroom Classic, the 16GB M1 MacBook Pro was faster than the 8GB RAM variant by 20-30%. While exporting 8K RED RAW footage, the 16GB M1 MacBook Pro was over 2x faster than the 8GB RAM model. The 8GB RAM variant never felt slow or sluggish due to the lack of free RAM though, but the tests in the video make it clear that the machine’s performance is being affected by the limited RAM. Many today recommend 8GB for the minimum RAM to run the modern macOS. What’s impressive is that despite the limited RAM, the 8GB 13-inch MacBook Pro managed to come close or beat the 27-inch iMac and 16-inch MacBook Pro with 32GB and 64GB RAM in many tests. The price of RAM is a bout a third of what was when your 2012 was new. RAM Memory Upgrades for MacBook Pro 2012 - 2015. Overall, the video makes it clear that if you are a power user, you should get the 16GB MacBook Pro as the additional RAM does have an impact on performance.With Apple’s new M1 Mac computers, users can choose between 8GB or 16GB of RAM. This seemed to be the overwhelming consensus on RAM from reviewers that 8GB is absolutely more than enough for most people. Now obviously RAM plays a role in determining the performance of a computer, but the question is, is it worth spending that extra $200 to upgrade from 8GB to 16GB? In a video uploaded by Max Tech, he shows the difference between the two RAM configurations on the 13-inch MacBook Pro. I started running a new 8GB Macbook Air base spec I got on a deal- because the difference in upgrading the RAM to 16GB was 380 more. My previous machine was 16GB Retina 15 Macbook Pro Mid 2014. This will hopefully answer questions that potential customers will have and help them decide if maybe paying that extra $200 is worth it. For those who don’t have the time to watch the entire video, basically there are obvious differences between the 8GB and 16GB models, but the differences aren’t exactly night and day to the point where it might be worth shelling out extra money for the extra RAM. In their XCode benchmarks, the 8GB model took about 136 seconds to compile code, while the 16GB model took 122 seconds. Sure, there is a difference of 14 seconds, but is it enough for you to spend extra money? There are also benchmarks for exporting 8K RAW R3D to 4K which the 8GB model took 13.57 seconds, while the 16GB model took 5.59 seconds, and in this instance, the differences are bigger.Ī Lightroom Classic 50 42MP RAW export also saw the 8GB model take 3 minutes to complete, while the 16GB model took 2.43 minutes to complete. Like we said, there are going to be differences between the two models, but unless you’re exporting video/photos or compiling code non-stop everyday, we imagine that 8GB should be more than sufficient, but if you want to squeeze the best performance out of your laptop, then maybe spending $200 for an additional 8GB of RAM could be worth it.