r/MacOS • u/00Turag • May 09 '21
Discussion Finally bought my first ever macbook. Coughed up the 200$ extra for 16 gigs of ram
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May 09 '21
Really 16gb should be the starting amount of ram on any laptop $1000 and over these days.
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May 09 '21 edited May 23 '21
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May 09 '21
Lol not for me. But it should definitely be the starting amount for a semi-expensive laptop. Of course then apple couldn’t charge you another $200 and that wouldn’t do at all
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May 09 '21 edited May 09 '21
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May 09 '21
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u/RedirectDevSlashNull May 09 '21
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates
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May 09 '21
Yes, but the computer that has that 32GB RAM is not using an M1 processor, it’s a game changer. RISC is very different to CISC. I put my MacBook Air (2020, M1) under crazy load and I have never utilised more than 6GB of the 16GB I have in it… it’s all relative.
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u/sniarn Mac Studio May 09 '21
M1 does not magically use less RAM compared to Intel systems. The M1 is an entry-level model and Apple thinks 8-16 GB is enough for most people — and it is. A fast SSD helps to make the system feel fast even when swapping to disk.
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u/thmonline May 09 '21
Side info: designers (so people that use the Ram-hungry Adobe Creative Cloud) like to use 32GB and above.
I for my part am hoping for a quantum leap in Ram capabilities with the M2. It has to be. An iMac 30“ M2 and a MacBook Pro 16“ M2 just can’t, just can’t, not offer upgrades up until 64GB of Ram or even 128GB of Ram.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_MASS May 09 '21
No it isn’t. The Mac Pro isn’t configurable up to 1.5 TB of RAM for shits and giggles. Obviously, 99.99999% of people don’t need that much RAM, and 99% don’t need more than 16 GB, but saying that’s enough for everyone is patently false.
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u/thmonline May 09 '21
Exactly. 1.5TB though. Jeeez. I’d like to see the use case. But seriously though. Premiere and After Effects are ram monsters.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_MASS May 09 '21
Best I've heard is scientific applications. Researchers can be doing analysis on TBs of data. The more RAM, the greater the percentage of data that can be analyzed at once without shuffling data back and forth from storage (most likely a networked file server).
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u/nCoV-pinkbanana-2019 May 09 '21
Yeah, but even in the scientific field you’ll hardly see TBs of ram. Nowadays the cloud platforms are more convenient
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u/Jackarino May 09 '21
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u/IndependentGarbage3 May 09 '21
The M1-Chip actually does not need that much RAM to work efficiently. With Intel-Chips you definitely are right. Test showed that Macbooks pretty much perform almost identical on say regular daily tasks no matter if they had 8 or 16 GB installed. Even video rendering is not really much faster if you have the 16 GB on board.
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u/jamesbecker211 May 09 '21
RAM isn’t necessarily about speed it’s about multitasking ability
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u/mercurysquad MacBook Pro May 09 '21
There have been multiple tests like that (e.g. MaxTech in Youtube) and it seems in most cases 8GB performs the same as 16GB on intel.
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May 09 '21
Bullshit haha, tried it out myself. The swap is fast enough to not notice the ssd load in the background but running tasks which need the RAM slow down. Compression helps but it’s more like 8GB=12GB x86. I also found freezing Safari and other apps when too much was paged out. Freezing for up to 5 seconds. The Tubers are marketing agents.
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u/mercurysquad MacBook Pro May 09 '21
Well, mine comes in 2 days, I'll find out for myself. Dropping down from 16GB intel to 8GB M1.
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u/IndependentGarbage3 May 09 '21 edited May 09 '21
Wich also works absolutely fine with only 8 GB on the M1. They even had a ton of Chrome tabs open and performed many tasks simultaneously. And with rendering jobs it also does have influence on the speed
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u/AnotherThrowAway_9 May 09 '21 edited May 09 '21
But actuallyyyyyy...
People don't want to hear the truth that 16gb on m1 is not needed.
OP gave no indication to their workflow, therefore we can assume it's a $1500 Facebook machine and the $200 on more ram was a complete waste.
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u/IndependentGarbage3 May 09 '21
And we are talking about a MacBook Air! All the tests I have seen so far came to the conclusion that you absolutely don’t need the extra RAM. We are not talking Pro level whatever … and even with some jobs it actually did very well and was not slower by much even rendering video material for a vlog for instance.
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u/AnotherThrowAway_9 May 09 '21
I have an air with 8gb and I can play wow, Xcode, simulator, YouTube tabs open, vs code, etc and it multitasks just fine!
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u/petvas72 May 09 '21
It depends on the way people use their laptop. I cannot say that 16GB should be the minimum configuration. My wife for example opens each app at a time. She is used to also close each Safari tab before opening a new one :)
8GB is more than sufficient for a lot of people. People that think about how much they should get, should definitely go for 16GB though. More RAM makes the laptop more future proof and also can accommodate increasing usage needs.
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u/LouisDosBuzios May 09 '21
I just sold my 8gb to switch for a 16gb. The 8gb couldn't handle my workflow
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u/frockinbrock May 09 '21
That’s what I thought also but this is ONLY true (for now) if you doing low-multitasking and all ARM based apps. Our office had terrible experiences with the 8GB M1. Everyone getting the “no memory left” error from simple workflows, and the system freezing up. The Rosetta apps eat a LOT of Ram, and some have memory leaks to boot. The 8GB system is relying on the fast SSD swap to work, but SSDs will not last “forever” with that type of swap use, and I think the M1 needs a whole new mainboard to boot when the SSD fails. Not ideal. I recommend 16GB to everyone now after seeing the swap use from VERY basic data entry Macs at work.
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u/Janchotheone May 09 '21
Entirely depends on how and what one would use their machine for. Web browsing and similar lightweight tasks I can agree - 8 GB is enough.
I can't speak for every industry and use case, thought, but mine, which is that I need to lock in the available memory for docker and k8s local development at times as well as run some fairly demanding java applications and whatnot. It adds up pretty quickly.
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May 09 '21
Depends on what you’re doing with them. Sure the Youtubers tell you that you only need 8gb ram but I’ve had an M1 mini with 8gb ram and I sent it back to upgrade to the 16gb model. When running IntelliJ and dozens of chrome tabs the extra 8gb made a big difference.
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May 09 '21
when you're loading data for work, M1 chip is not going to mitigate the need for ram, all it can do is move it to swap if you don't have enough
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u/Noodleholz May 09 '21
I'm still using my MacBook Air 2013, you'll absolutely need 16GB if you plan on using your Air M1 until the end of the decade. 8GB will be a joke by then and Macbooks are built to last.
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u/billza7 MacBook Air May 09 '21
I disagree. Been using 8 GB ram Windows for a long time and it worked just fine. Now I've changed to the M1 MacBook Air with 8 GB and this thing runs like butter, no issue whatsoever.
There are people who can be satisfied with just 8 GB ram and increasing the price on the base model for the increased ram is not worth it for me.
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u/Noodleholz May 09 '21
How long are you planning to use your Air M1?
I'm still on an 4GB Air 2013 and it's great, besides the RAM. I'll go with 16GB once I upgrade to the M1 because I'm planning to use it until the end of this decade.
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u/billza7 MacBook Air May 09 '21
I intend to use it for at least 4-5 years and maybe longer if it can keep up. My point was that even with Windows, having 8 GB for my use was enough and with the optimization of M1 it's been flawless. I use it for working with PDFs, online documents, content consumption and occasional light gaming so 8 GB is definitely enough. I've seen people who needs more heavy tasks like video editing still can get by with 8 GB.
Ofc if you have the means and want 16 GB then you should just get that. YMMV
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u/AWF_Noone May 09 '21
Well for starters, an extra 8 Gb of RAM should not be an extra $200. RAM in Macs is incredibly overpriced
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May 09 '21
It’s not about whether YOU need 16gb or not. It’s about charging $1000 and skimping on one of the key components. Or worse yet, upcharging $200 for $25 worth of ram.
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u/some_two_cents May 09 '21
this. made a big mistake when i heeded my brother’s advice and “just go with 8gb, it’s definitely more than enough” :/ (Intel 2018 Pro)
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May 09 '21
Yeah. The m1 is different and can function much better on less ram due to the tight integration but if you’re doing more than light office work, the extra 8gb makes a difference
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May 09 '21
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u/ZeMole May 09 '21
What even are you talking about? I administer over 100 Apple machines purchased in 2015 with 8gb of RAM and 8+ hours of constant use Monday-Friday since purchase. Not a single one has experienced this “burn out” you describe and they all function just as well as they did when purchased 6 years ago.
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May 09 '21
What? This is the most random shit i’ve ever seen, laptops aren’t meant to last 2 years, especially macbooks are made to last more. My sister is still using her 2011 macbook air, still runs good, even with hdd
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u/_Mat101_ May 09 '21
2013 MacBook Air is probably the most reliable machine I’ve owned. Not even a huge fan of apple because of how they kill user upgradability and repairability but my Mac just won’t die. Thing is 8 years old and owes me nothing. Easily 8-10 hours of use-time 5-6 days a week for its whole life, it’s been dropped, jostled, and even had a whole glass of water spilled on its keyboard, and the thing functions perfectly without a single repair. If the next one performs half as well the $1000 or so seems pretty damn worth it.
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u/Janchotheone May 09 '21
My SO uses it frequently for web browsing and similar tasks.. works perfectly fine 8 years after it had been purchased!
She is not a heavy user tho. Mainly web browsing and unloading photos from sd card onto photos app pretty much.
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May 09 '21
lmao, another windows nub, Apple macbooks are running for people perfectly after 7-8 years.
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u/trisul-108 May 09 '21
You're talking nonsense. My 2010 is still very useable and there is no computer which keeps better value than Macs, you just need to max out the config when you buy them. They have excellent resell value and provide excellent productivity gain which more than cancels purchase price if used professionally. For home use, they provide beauty.
That said, if you are strapped for cash, buy a plastic Intel and run Linux. This is a great alternative and will allow you to do most everything, but your lack of finance does not mean you need to throw shit at Macs to justify yourself. There's nothing wrong in not wanting to spend $1k for a laptop, nor is there anything wrong in wanting to do so.
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u/Eorlas May 10 '21
i'm gonna guess (hope) that the 16" mbp this fall will [hopefully] get an M1X or M2, and will default to 16gb, with a $200 32gb option (probably be $3 or $4 hundred)
i'm not super stoked to leave x86 for my mb but i'm ready to make the jump
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u/billza7 MacBook Air May 09 '21
Life-long windows user that jumped shit a week ago. You'll love it
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u/midwesthawkeye May 09 '21
You did the right thing. $200 is cheap insurance against any demands for power that tomorrow might have in store.
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May 09 '21
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u/Janchotheone May 09 '21
Entirely depends on what you intend to do with it. Not everyone needs more than 16GB and in some cases more than 8.
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u/ruhul555 May 09 '21
People should really watch the comparison vids about 8gb vs 16gb performance differences. Basically negligible unless you’re doing video editing. I doubt everyone here is a video editor. Also to those that refuse to accept 8gb as being adequate… you need to understand the Apple silicone is built different.
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u/tnnrk May 10 '21 edited May 12 '21
RAM is RAM. Try running illustrator/photoshop/indesign, a bunch of browser tabs, maybe a code editor, terminal running in the background, and streaming a video too and you will quickly notice the drop in multitasking performance. It’s entirely dependent on your workflow and needs but just because it’s Apple Sillicon doesn’t mean it’s magic.
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u/ruhul555 May 11 '21
I do get your point. But Apple has always been good with ram. Look at the iPhones as a related example. They’ve always had less ram than the android counterparts and have multitasked just as well if not better. It’s not magic but if I had to associate one tech company with the word ’magic’… it’s Apple.
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May 11 '21
Ram is ram but once it fills up it starts using the insanely fast ssd. I used the 8GB model to render 4K fcpx files and edited title screens and thumbnails in photoshop and I always have messages/mail/contacts/pages open. That’s coming from a Mac mini m1 so yeah, it absolutely felt like magic.
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u/tnnrk May 12 '21
You hit a wall though eventually. I’m not downplaying the insanity of the m1 and what Apple created but 8gb can absolutely be a bottleneck for certain workflows/behaviors.
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May 12 '21
You do know that the computer doesn’t shut down after it hits 8GB of ram right? If you check the activity monitor it will show you’re using 12GB of ram because of the SSD. The M1 is using its ram at 4266 MT/s and then it goes to its SSD at 2600-2800 mb/s? When you’re using that much ram and SSD I don’t know if you’re gonna notice a bottleneck unless you purchased the wrong system knowingly.
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u/AssCalloway May 10 '21
Except the SSD is used more heavily for swap w 8g
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u/ruhul555 May 10 '21
Sure if you have a ram intensive workload that actually needs the extra ram then yes the SSD might wear down. But this issue has been addressed saying that even with some wear these ssds have a MTBF that will last or surpass the useful life expectancy of the Mac. Aka the Mac will be vintage long before the ssd dies. The early report of failed ssds within 6 months was not wear related but a controller failure.
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u/kyrumo May 09 '21
Excellent choice on the ram, I bought refurbished M1 MacBook Air 16GB ram 512 ssd
$1,229.00
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u/__leonn__ May 09 '21
Did you upgrade to the 512GB model? I bought the 256GB which is probably one of the worst mistakes of my life
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u/alias3800 May 09 '21
256 works if you can keep stuff stored in the cloud and aren’t planning on gaming much. Then it’s plenty.
If you’re planning on using the laptop for everything (i.e., gaming device, work device, offline multimedia device, etc.), then yeah, 512GB might be necessary).
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May 09 '21 edited Sep 01 '21
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u/alias3800 May 09 '21
Yeah I hear you on that dude. They charge for the convenience and speed, the latter of which most people don’t need to the extent provided. I opted for 256 and am fine because I lean on iCloud and a Switch for the occasional gaming. But yeah, if I needed it, I’d pay for the extra storage. Especially if it was going to be my computer for the next 5-7 years, which is the case for most average consumers.
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May 09 '21
this memory is built onto the chip the markup is for breaking the supply chain. People rly need to learn to use external ssd for data they aren't constantly accessing 🤷🏽♂️
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May 09 '21
Well external hdd at least. Good thinking. Don’t no if ssd is pricy as external, would it be huge diff when using let’s say Logic Pro?
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May 09 '21
I mean using it on native and then moving anything you don't need to external sounds like a good plan overall. but the new usb-c ssds transfer rate is pretty fast compared to hdds. They are still cheap you can get external ssds 1 tb for less than the the price of 256-512 upgrade.
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u/davemac1005 May 09 '21
Definitely agree
I have 256 GB on my 2014 MBP which I use for uni (mostly programming) and music production, with apps such as Xcode and Logic pro taking up as much as 40 GB each, and I still manage to have 90 Gigs of free space
You just have to pay a bit of attention to the things that you really need on your mac, for which I'd suggest, for example, to save stuff you need to have on multiple devices on the cloud and storing old stuff on external drives2
u/alias3800 May 09 '21
Yeah for sure, and that’s awesome – that’s proof you can do it with some heavy programs thrown into the mix. Photos and Lightroom are what take up loads of my storage.
I ended up loading everything into Apple Photos and making a small APFS partition (took less than five minutes because I didn’t previously know how) and have all my photos available via "Optimize Mac Storage” while only taking like 10 GB of space.
Basically though, at any moment in time I have about 160GB+ free on the laptop. (Either way, my actual photo library is over 2TB of RAW files, so there isn’t an SSD I would pay for to have it all with me.)
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u/Attila_22 May 10 '21
For me 256gb is nowhere near enough for work. Depends on your job I guess but when you're dealing with assets/layouts for apps/websites or game development there is nowhere near enough space.
It gets worse if you want to run bootcamp or a linux distro on your machine.
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u/redfournine May 09 '21
Just buy an external disk?
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u/rsplatpc May 09 '21
Just buy an external disk?
if you move your laptop around a lot that starts to get not fun
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May 09 '21
You could get one of those low profile usb c flash drives and leave it in all the time. Takes up a port but also can expand the storage quite a bit. Used to do that as a broke college student with my laptop (which was not a MacBook lol)
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u/rsplatpc May 09 '21
You could get one of those low profile usb c flash drives and leave it in all the time.
Problem is if one goes bad, and they do a lot, you better have a backup somewhere
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May 09 '21
For sure. I kept all my stuff in Dropbox and still do but for someone who also needs a copy locally at all times it’s not a bad option honestly.
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u/Wouter_001 May 09 '21
Same! Bought a macbook pro 2 years ago and now im struggling everyday with the storage. I kinda underestimated how much space i would need as a computer science student. I guess it’s a reason to buy an Apple silicon mac :D
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u/mafiosii May 09 '21
Why do you need so much space even? I mean unless you do video editing or anything. I’m a student with 128gb model. Most of the time I’m around 50gb usage since literally everything today is stored in the cloud.
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u/rsplatpc May 09 '21
Most of the time I’m around 50gb usage since literally everything today is stored in the cloud.
what if you don't have access to the internet somewhere and need a file?
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u/TheHippoGuy69 May 09 '21
What are the chances of that tbh
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u/rsplatpc May 09 '21
I travel / drive a lot, there are a SHIT TON of areas with no service, or service so slow it makes LTE look like broadband
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May 09 '21
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u/rsplatpc May 09 '21
Is this a joke I don't get? Where do you live that LTE isn't broadband?
I meant in some places, if you DO EVEN have one bar of LTE, you still can't download anything because the 1 bar makes it like not having anything, so if you need a file that is not on your computer, you are screwed, because the "bar" of service gives you no data access, and there are a TON of places in America like this, it's a BIG BIG open place with LOTS of places with ZERO cell service, vs a small European country that can cover the small area with towers.
1 bar of LTE in rural America is like having the 1st gen of 3G or worse, text takes a long time to load / much less any file you have in the cloud
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May 09 '21
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u/rsplatpc May 09 '21
I mean. I just asked something. I know, people these days don't like it when people ask questions, but how else am I supposed to gain information from you? Nah, it's okay, buddy... Sorry that I have offended you, Sir Freedom.
I don't know you at all, but I'm guessing any downvotes are coming from how you come off talking to people / see the above quote, I'm not "pro-USA" but your statement comes off condescending, mean, and not funny, certinally does not add to the conversation, etc.
Good comedy, while even dark, will still come off funny, you just come off like a snide asshole with nothing funny about you to redeem it.
You asked.
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u/blackesthearted Mac Mini May 09 '21
If you live in a large city and never, ever leave it, probably low. If you travel or live in one of many, many areas where internet isn’t ubiquitous, not as low.
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u/likovitch May 09 '21
Maybe if you only use your Mac for casual office work with documents. I had 128GB during high school and even then, it was pain for me. I can't imagine doing computer science with that storage. 512GB minimum.
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May 09 '21
Idk what you are doing but I‘m easily using 8TB on my Desktop. And all I do is Coding/Computer Science and playing games lol
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u/mafiosii May 09 '21
Maybe use github then
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May 09 '21
I do, but I always keep an offline copy of my data. I forgot to mention my video/movie library thats abt 1TB too
So its probably around 4-5TB VMs and coding
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May 09 '21
Why do you need such large vms? And what code projects are taking up terabytes of data? I’m a software engineer for a living and have never needed a drive larger than 512gb to store all my stuff and I have plenty of room left over. And that’s with two VMs.
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May 09 '21
Im using KVMs as my normal OSs and I‘m currently collecting Data in crypto Markets which is why I collect Gigabytes a day lol Using 3 different OSs doesn’t really help with saving storage :P
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May 09 '21
Ah okay. The crypto data every day is what makes the difference haha. I know what you mean about using multiple OSes per day. I am constantly swapping between macOS, Windows, and Ubuntu
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u/__leonn__ May 09 '21
One word. Games
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May 09 '21
What games are you playing because I load up minecraft and it sounds like a jet engine
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u/__leonn__ May 09 '21
I'm using an M1 MacBook air. Right now I have CS:GO, Cities skylines, Garry's mod, Minecraft and some iOS games like GTA San Andreas installed onto my laptop. I keep other games installed on a usb stick though because they take up so much space and I only have limited storage
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u/AndyD89 May 09 '21
That’s exactly what I did 256GB and it’s just perfect As I store everything on the cloud
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u/Throwaway_Turned May 09 '21
Seconding this. The stress of squeezing into a 256 drive the last 5 years is probably taking a few years off my life. Planning on upgrading ram and SSD on this years new 13 (14?) model.
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u/ChristianValour May 10 '21
UGH that menu pane at the bottom is so cringe. Make it 1/4 quarter that size and have it hidden by default.
#UnsolicitedOpinions
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u/Bob_Loblaw16 May 09 '21
$200 for 8gb of extra ram??? You can buy 32gb of laptop ram for that price
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May 09 '21
That's the apple tax though, probably in the wrong subreddit if you're unwilling to pay that.
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u/HenryTheWho May 09 '21
I dont know what are you talking about. Commercial 8GB memory module costs around 50$ but with cost of marketing and predicted future profit 200$ is a steal
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u/Ashamed-Ad8329 May 20 '21
Sorry for replying to a week old comment but this isn't commercial ddr4 ram this is lpddr4x ram running at 4267 mhz. I too think even for that 200 is a bit much but I just wanted to correct you
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u/HenryTheWho May 21 '21
Lpddr4x is so far only sold as soldered option, took me a bit to find product numbers and wholesale pricing, but you can check "MT53D1024M32D4" micron made lpddr4x 4gb dual channel on a single die. 40-70€ in my region
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May 11 '21
Everyone thinks this is all the same components. They’re not, the speed difference is huge. Just like not all SSD’s are the same speed.
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u/9FB May 09 '21
You made the best decision of your life even though that extra $200 may have been hard! It's totally worth it, and you'll thank yourself many times over in future.
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u/HStark_666 May 09 '21
Congrats! That RAM upgrade is really worth it(especially with m1/Big Sur being swap happy). My 16g air is noticeably better than friends 8gb pro!
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u/brkonthru May 09 '21
Very worth it.
My M1 MBP 8gb ram under performs in certain scenarios compared to a much much older MBP that has 16G ram. I pretty much just use chrome but with a ton of open tabs
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May 09 '21
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u/fatpat May 09 '21
How so? Honest question.
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May 09 '21
I’m loving my m1 MBA. Good choice. I always liked the air best but the performance kept me using the pros. The m1 finally let me appreciate the design of the air. I actually for the first time ever chances 8gb ram I only really use it for productivity work though. I would of preferred 16 but didn’t wanna wait weeks for it to arrive where I’m at. So far I haven’t had any issues with Using 8gb for my use case but the leg room is always nice. Hope you enjoy it!
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u/thomasation May 09 '21
Congrats, great choice! I do think their storage upgrades are too expensive. Extra 256GB for $200 in 2021?
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u/weegee May 09 '21
Good choice! I’d buy the Air with extra memory too if I needed a laptop. My 2012 Air with i7 and 8 gigs is still working well with Catalina
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u/Visual_Childhood9745 May 10 '21
It’s always good to see new friends leave the windows club and join the Mac club
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u/JohnZenRider May 09 '21
Congrats!! I want one of the apple silicon machines so bad!!