Mac's 8GB RAM is 'completely useless'

The lowest-priced model of the 'MacBook Pro' equipped with the 'M3' chip announced by Apple on October 31, 2023, only has 8GB of RAM. At the time of the announcement, there were voices saying that '8GB is not enough,' but Apple's representatives tried to suppress the criticism by explaining that 'our memory is efficient, so it is equivalent to other companies' 16GB.' Nevertheless, enthusiasts have voiced their opinion that 8GB is 8GB and completely useless.

Apple keeps flogging 8GB of RAM for its Mac computers but it's still a dead horse | PC Gamer

When Apple announced the M3-equipped MacBook Pro, it claimed that even 8GB would be suitable for many tasks, including browsing, video streaming, light video editing and casual gaming, and said, 'If you try it for yourself, you'll be amazed at the performance.'

Apple claims that the 8GB unified memory of the 'M3 MacBook Pro' is equivalent to 16GB of RAM in other products - GIGAZINE

PC Gamer's Jeremy Laird said, 'It's hard to say what exactly light or casual gaming means, but in any case, 8GB just isn't enough.'

According to Laird, Chrome, which is particularly memory-hungry, consumes about 1.5GB with just three tabs, and when you add the memory consumption of macOS to this, the limit is quickly reached. Laird often has about 50 tabs open, and at the time of writing, just having Chrome open was consuming 12.5GB of memory. Laird said that he used to use an 8GB MacBook Air, and noted that '8GB was a nightmare, to be honest.'

Apple uses 8GB for many of its entry-level Macs, which is nearly 30,000 yen more expensive than the 16GB version. However, memory can only be selected at the time of purchase and cannot be expanded, so those who buy 8GB may end up regretting their decision because they don't have enough memory.

'The conventional wisdom is that 8GB is not enough for serious professional tasks, in fact it's not even enough for browsing the web,' Laird said. 'I have a history of evangelizing the Mac for basic everyday tasks, and even as a Mac fan, I think it's complete nonsense to say 8GB is enough for light work.'

◆ Forum is currently open
A forum related to this article has been set up on the official GIGAZINE Discord server . Anyone can post freely, so please feel free to comment! If you do not have a Discord account, please refer to the account creation procedure explanation article to create an account!

• Discord | 'How many GB of memory does your PC or Mac currently have? Is it enough? Do you need more?' | GIGAZINE
https://discord.com/channels/1037961069903216680/1230448140772048966